Which would most likely deter you from purchasing ...

flhome1
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Cookie cutter neighborhoods, anything outdated that is part of the house in or out, dirty house, cigarette smoke smell, bad carpet, etc.

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July 12 2007

RFengya
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No garage. Usually, it is hard to add a garage to a home if there isn't sufficient land. The bathrooms and closets could always be made bigger by knocking down some walls. However, if on a low budget, small bathrooms would be the worst! Bad carpets can always be replaced. Usually, when someone moves into a home, they replace the carpets for something their taste if they are older (this is usual).

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July 13 2007

greg1231
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It depends what you want in a house. You can't change the look of a cookie cutter neighborhood, but you can renovate your own home. Some people are slobs, but elbow grease or a cleaning service can make the house sparkle.

Everyone's taste is different. Retro is a fad now and some home owners are paying big $ to return their houses to the original appearance. If you dislike something, as an owner you can change it.

House odors and carpets can be remedied by cleaning, opening the windows to air out the house, and replacing the carpets to match your decorating style.

As a buyer, your first concern should be the integrity of the building and the use of the lot not the owners taste in decorating. Cosmetic changes are relatively inexpensive compared to structural defects. Look at the bones of the house and have an inspector check out all of the systems.

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July 13 2007

Clarence Hall, "darnell2000"
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Clarence Hall, "darnell2000"

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I agree with stgreg11. My wife and I are looking for a vintage house but we want to restore it and give it a ne look on the inside. If major plumbing work along with electrical- and if there were flooding problems, that would deter us from purchasing

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July 13 2007

CORONA NICK
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The neighborhood..

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July 13 2007

flhome1
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True to all...but if I am going to consider buying a home that needs a ton of clean up and $ put into it to make it nice then I am going to expect the price to be lower than a comparable house already cleaned and updated.

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July 13 2007

mikolajevo
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Neighborhood safety, termites termite/damage. Most other things I can deal with.

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July 13 2007

Charles Owen, "Home Inspections"
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Before you sign, be sure there is an inspection clause in the sales contract, making the final purchase obligation contingent upon the findings of a professional home inspection. This clause should specify the terms to which both the buyer and seller are obligated.

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July 14 2007

Rbarber
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environmental contamination, especially if it has impacted drinking water

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July 16 2007

Kevin Lake, "AZ Homes"
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Kevin Lake, "AZ Homes"

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LOCATION, Will make or break a deal

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July 16 2007

kdankiewicz
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Location is number 1. You can always update or clean up a house needing repair, but you can't change the neighborhood.

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July 16 2007

GotHawaiiHome
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Location, location, location.
Even within the same condo building, there are preferred side or unit stack.
Here in Hawaii, your future value/appreciation will be depend on the view.
You can upgrade/update anything within unit, but cannot move an inch to be closer to the Ocean.

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July 16 2007

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I agree with the old adage...location location location. And if you didn't get it the first time, it's all about location.

Otherwise, it would be the school district, easy access to major routes and finally modern infrastructure i.e. town water and sewer. I've owned homes with septic, wells and propane. I would prefer modern conveniences and not have to worry about being isolated from basic town services.

~JL

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July 16 2007

spikers
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Price! However location is the main deterent. Safe neighborhood is part of the location consideration. Traffic noise and busy streets is not good.

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July 18 2007

Ann2
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1.bad location
3. Local county property tax percent.
2.house that require major remodeling/fixing (wires, plumbing, support walls and base...) or will consider it as demolition job.

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July 24 2007

Aldreth
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A NEGATIVE return should be all of your answers.

http://housing-watch.com/home.aspx

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July 25 2007

Kary L. Krismer, "Krismer"
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Almay wrote: "but Aldreth... not everyone is purchasing their home as a short-term investment. Many are purchasing as a place to live for years and years, and real estate has proven to be a pretty good "forced-savings-account" for long-term ownership."

Exactly. We're planning on increasing our investment in real estate by buying a better home to live in. It may or may not be a good time to buy, but we'll most likely be holding it a while (my wife has lived here over 20 years and I lived in my place before that about 15 years).

To answer the OP, a lot of things turn us off. Smells, lack of parking, the neighborhood, layout of the house. There is no one thing. We found a perfect place, but it was too near power lines for my preferences.

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July 26 2007

Aldreth
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Too bad the standard run of the mill homeowner thinks the appreciation levels of the past few years are "standard"

"for long term ownership"
If you can stay in one place for at least 15 years sure. I foresee millions of chapter 13's.

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July 26 2007

Kary L. Krismer, "Krismer"
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You see that all the time (people thinking recent history will continue). It's probably the reason we're seeing so many ARMs adjust now. Why would anyone have gotten an ARM 3 years ago? Interest rates were low--fixed was the obvious way to go, unless you were certain you were going to move before it could adjust. I think my mom got a fixed rate under 5% about then on a Jumbo loan. People getting ARMs back then obviously didn't remember the late 70s.

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July 26 2007

Carrie R
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Carrie R

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Well...you figure at my age 33 the late seventies were all about birthday parties and kindergarten.

Yeah...I know my house was a stepping stone, but no matter what type of loan product your in...it's tough to sell in my market.

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July 26 2007

Carrie R
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Hmmm...I am not saying that at all. I am not selling for break even I am selling at a substantial loss. I don't think I have a risky loan product. I wish I could sell to break even....I wish I could sell at all. SOMEONE BUY MY HOUSE PLEASE.

Look, I know agents are still busy, people will still sell and buy, but there has been significant depreciation in my market and that is all there is to it. I am not predicting global catastrophes or dust storms, just reporting local conditions. OVER and OUT.

Oh yeah and of course I think home ownership is a GREAT investment. Never said it wasnt, if I didnt think so I WOULDNT BE A REAL ESTATE AGENT.

be a little honest and suddenly become Eyeor.

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July 26 2007

Aldreth
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Dear Almay,

EXTRA EXTRA!!!
READ ALL ABOUT IT!!!
HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!

Home ownership is not an investment.

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July 26 2007

Kary L. Krismer, "Krismer"
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That's quite a claim aldreth.

It's actually one of the best investments because generally your gains are not taxed (unless over $250,000 if single or $500,000 if married). You can't deduct your losses, but you can't generally deduct any personal expenses. The main exceptions again pertain to home ownership (interest and real estate taxes).

You're only right to the extent that people always need a home to live in, so appreciation might not help them. But it can help when they eventually downsize or move to a different area.

Also, I'd agree if you live there and it doesn't go up, that's not a good investment as Almay was trying to argue.

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July 26 2007

Aldreth
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Since 1890 houses have appreciated with inflation. Period.

Food for thought:

? If you bought a house in Los Angeles in 1990, just as the real-estate market turned downward, you would have had to wait a decade for your home's value to return to what you paid.

? If you bought in Rochester, N.Y., in 1980, you would have seen only a mediocre 4% annual growth for the next 25 years.

? If you bought in Dallas in 1986, as the oil boom went bust, your home wouldn't have appreciated at all before 1998.

* If a house were an investment, it would earn money for you, not require that you spend lavishly on it. While home prices do trend upwards in the long run, so does the cost of health care, higher education, taxes and the overall cost of living.
* If a house were an investment, it would serve you, not enslave you. Either we spend many weekends painting, raking leaves, etc., or we pay vast sums of money for others to do our work.
* If a house were an investment, people wouldn?t add over-improvements. We all have a neighbor who doesn?t seem to be able to stop themselves.
* If a house were an investment, they would all be ?well? maintained. Conversely, we also have neighbors who haven?t done anything since the day they moved in and nothing will be done until the day they move out.
* If a house were an investment, it would never be the biggest on the block. We all accept the fact that the best house on the block is rarely the one that does the best in the market place (in terms of rate of return).
* If a house were an investment, it wouldn?t need to be personalized. It would serve a function and the rate of return would be in direct proportion to its functionality, not personality.

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July 26 2007

Kary L. Krismer, "Krismer"
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You're ignoring leverage. And also the fact that real estate is a hedge against inflation.

Your spin is just the opposite of the mortgage broker spin, which tries to convince everyone to get a 100% loan.

Neither extreme argument is correct, IMHO.

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July 26 2007

Aldreth
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Q: So how much does a house really cost?

A: You can easily end up spending three times the purchase price of a house. Today's buyer of a typical $300,000 single-family home who takes out a 30-year loan will end up paying the price of the house again just in interest. Add 30 years of property taxes, homeowner's insurance, regular maintenance and a couple of big-ticket repairs or improvements, and the total cost of buying the home could easily top out at well over $1 million.

Q: That's still money that I wouldn't see otherwise. Even getting just some of my money back is better than getting none.

A: But there's another kicker. You haven't gotten any money back yet. All you have is a house that's 30 years older than when you moved in. In order to realize your windfall, you'll have to borrow against it or sell it.

If you borrow against a house you've paid off, then you will start mortgage payments all over again.

If you sell it, what are you going to do with that big check in your pocket after you've walked around for a couple of hours feeling richer than you've ever been? You'll probably spend most of it in just a day or so buying another house.

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July 26 2007

Aldreth
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Q: So I'll downsize, find a smaller, cheaper house, buy it and then invest the rest of the money.

A: Prices tend to rise or fall across an entire market. So if you want to stay in the same metropolitan region and save a big chunk of your rebated nest egg, you should be prepared to go significantly downscale -- move to a much less desirable neighborhood.

Consider a hypothetical Washington-area couple who bought their home for $55,000 in 1977.

With improvements and market appreciation they appear to have done quite well. If they sell their house today, they could expect to get something in the neighborhood of $860,000. And they would walk out of the closing meeting with a rebate check of about $550,000, of which about $175,000 would be profit.

But they're facing a tough market where the median price of a condo is two-thirds the cost of a single-family home. They don't have enough money to make the most obvious move down -- from their house to a comparable apartment that would cost around $575,000.

Q: Then I'll move to someplace cheaper, like Houston.

A: You still face borrowing or spending all or most of your cash on your new house -- and you will still have maintenance, property taxes, insurance and other "I have to pay something" costs.

If our Washington couple chooses to leave and move to a cheaper housing market, they will still have costs greater than they think. Popular retirement communities are usually cheaper than big metropolitan areas, but they are not so cheap that sale proceeds will plant them on a country-club fairway and pay for the lifestyle that goes with it.

According to Coldwell Banker's often-cited home-comparison calculator, a house comparable to the place in Washington would cost $439,000 in Fort Myers, Fla., or $407,000 in Orlando. The couple would do a little better moving to Tucson, Ariz., where the comparable house costs $281,000 -- leaving the sellers with less than half of their rebate windfall.

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July 26 2007

Kary L. Krismer, "Krismer"
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Aldreth,

Now you're ignoring the cost of renting, and that renting places you more at risk in the event of inflation.

If you want to see some numbers going up, look at rents in King County.

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July 26 2007

Tuckerton
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Aldreth, check your blood pressure. What is it you expect anyone here to do about this "problem"? Do you know how many people have only a house as their golden parachute? Can you fix it? How about our manufacturing and agriculture along with our national debt? Lighten up! It's not a perfect world. Teach us to be smart like you. Show us the way. Has anything been done correctly in the past twenty five years? About our schools - do you have stats for them also? Come on, Sing the Billy Joel song with me, "we didn't start the fire".......................................................

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July 26 2007

Kary L. Krismer, "Krismer"
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Tuckerton, I think Adreth has been reasonably respectful. He just has a different opinion. I don't agree with his opinon any more than I agree with the opinion of those who have recently been advising me to put all my money into real estate. But he has the right to that opinion, and in the near term, he may very well be right.

If this were a car forum, I'd be expressing opinions very similar to his.

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July 26 2007

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Which would most likely deter you from purchasing a home?

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