When searching for a home, what do you look for?

[Guest GUTTERbOY]

Suppose you're looking for a new house, rental home, apartment, whatever. What information is important to you when you're deciding between places?

Obviously there are the basics: number of bedrooms & baths, square footage, lot size (if relevant), general appearance... basically the literal physical characteristics of the place.

But what about location? Is location extremely important to you? By which I mean, do you pick neighborhoods you think are nice, and then look for homes there? Are you concerned about school districts? For that matter, if you're a parent, what different factors enter in that maybe you didn't care about when you were single or childless?

This is not to teach me how to find a home for myself; rather, it's some research into a project/service I've been planning for a couple years now, and I'm really wanting to get going with. I know what I look for in a home, but I want to know about the rest of the world as well.

Thanks.

[poak]

For me, I would say the location has most to do w/ convenience, but if I had kids, I would sacrifice some convenience for more safety.

[TripleDigitRide]

Hire a well-regarded inspector

Ask to see utility bills

Consider how the house sits on its plot (not in a hole)

Ask about maintenance

School System

Property Value

It's always best to make sure your home is not the most or least expensive in the immediate neighborhood.

Number of similar families in the area

Timing - It could be everything

I'm sure there are more, but that's all I can think of at the moment.

[The Average Joe]

I bought my house in the hometown I grew up in and have lived all my life, so I feel safe where I am.

My advice for anyone starting out looking for an appartment as well as a house in a neighborhood/subdivision is to look at the dwelling's surroundings.

For instance, look at your potential neighbors' yards....what's the condition? dead/live grass, junk, etc.

Are the yards kept?

Also look at what's parked in everybody's driveways....If you see alot of junk cars or trashed out "low riders" and "hot rods", you may have, shall I say, undesirable neighbors.

If a guy doesn't care if he's living in a sty, he sure doesn't care if his mess overflows on to your place. Whether it be his trash, his noise pollution, or his lack of domestic civilization.

*Always check where the children will be zoned to go to school... and visit that school(s).

Meet with the principal and ask for a tour. Make sure you know what and where you're sending your kids everyday.

Check out the local stores in the community. Parking lots and the condition of the stores are somewhat of a give away. If the local gas station/stop'n'rob has bars on the doors and windows as well as McDonald's and Food Lion, you may not wan to buy/rent in that area.

Are dogs running loose in the nieghborhood? Most cities/communities have a leash/pen law. My city does. Dogs are to be confined to a yard and on a leash when let out at all times. Hey, nobody wants to be bit/mauled in his own yard by a stray dog. If neighbors don't care about their pets, they don't care about what they do or what happens to them while out of sight.....the same goes for their kids.

Basically, just pay attention to the world around where you plan to settle in....pretty simple.

Edited December 8, 2008 by The Average Joe

[Fadex]

All of the above plus the most recent FEMA FIRM Maps.

[Guest GUTTERbOY]

Allow me to frame this discussion a little better: What I'm envisioning is a Web service. A lot of the stuff that TAJ and TDR mentioned are things you'll see or deduce when you check the place out in person. Let's step back from that- say you're in the early stages of your search. Speaking personally, whether I'm looking for a place across town or across the country, I'm going to narrow my choices down substantially before I go drive out and check the place out in person.

So imagine you're at that stage. You're sitting in front of your computer, hoping to get a short list of properties you'd like to see in person. I'm the creator of the site. What information can I give you to make your life easier? What information will help you eliminate a property from the comfort of your own home, instead of after driving across town, only to find out it's a dump?

[Mark@Sea]

Privacy

Acreage

Build date

Available utilities

Current taxes

photos - exterior as well as interior, showing the area around the house.

Took us 18 months to find our current home. Many listings that claimed to be 'private' were within a hundred feet of the road and/or a neighbor.

This is the view from my living room. I never did get a realtor to understand what I was looking for; they kept showing me what they wanted to sell, not what I wanted to buy. I eventually found it myself.

Edited December 8, 2008 by Mark@Sea

[Guest hustle]

I've found several houses that I loved, and that I thought were awesome deals. We were narrowing down our list of houses to go look at, and my final step was to do the TBI sex offender search. Everyone of the houses we thought were great deals were next to sex offenders. The nicest house was next door to a man that was charged with procuring a minor for prostitution. Now the sex offender search is the first thing that I check on in our house hunt.

[BrasilNuts]

Link that goes to google earth to show the location and the surroundings.

Distances to schools, food, gas, shopping, rifle range, interstate, airport, etc.

Property taxes city/county/state?

Area zoning laws and how properties close by are zoned.

[Guest bkelm18]

Maybe a link to the local crime stats or perhaps if the local paper has crime reports post a link to those?

[Fallguy]

I have just done this twice in the last few months.

Other than the "Basics" some things I checked that have not been mentioned were

Availabilty of High-Speed internet

Which school district a certain house was in.

[Guest GT_Rat]

Link to the city/county planning commission so you can make sure a highway/prison/industrial business/etc. isn't about to be built next door.

[molonlabetn]

1. If I can urinate in privacy off my back porch.

2. If storage and garage space equals or exceeds living space

3. Number of zombies would the local population produce when SHTF

4. How far do I have to drive to get beer

5. Can I get pizza delivered

6. Likelihood of having to hand out candy on Halloween or buy Girl Scout cookies

[Fallguy]

1. If I can urinate in privacy off my back porch.

2. If storage and garage space equals or exceeds living space

3. Number of zombies would the local population produce when SHTF

4. How far do I have to drive to get beer

5. Can I get pizza delivered

6. Likelihood of having to hand out candy on Halloween or buy Girl Scout cookies

Very good stuff...not sure how many you meant as a joke, but to me all except 3 are real considerations to me.

Wait a minute...after thinking about it a bit closer.....3 is too.

Edited December 8, 2008 by Fallguy

[Guest nraforlife]

1. If I can urinate in privacy off my back porch.

2. If storage and garage space equals or exceeds living space

3. Number of zombies would the local population produce when SHTF

4. How far do I have to drive to get beer

5. Can I get pizza delivered

6. Likelihood of having to hand out candy on Halloween or buy Girl Scout cookies

Proximity to Hooters

[Guest eyebedam]

Look for the best location for the brass pole.

[molonlabetn]

Proximity to Hooters

I think that I might just open my own...

btw... dead serious on all counts.

[Guest abailey362]

my biggest when looking is census data, mainly avg median incomes, avg individual/household incomes, family size and ages.

I also check to see where the nearest section 8 housing is. If it is within a few miles I won't look at it.

A nice place isn't a nice place anymore if it's adjacent to the ghetto

[Guest abailey362]

also utilities needed.

Having gas heat/water heater sucks if that's all that uses gas. It adds an extra bill every month and more setup hassle when moving in.

Buddy if mine that moved to chatt when we did wasn't aware his house had gas heat when he rented it (mostly phone transactions) and when he got to town in mid january, it was cold and there was no heat.

[Guest Rem_700]

For me it would all about the hunting and if i could fire my weapons off on the property without having to worry about the nieghbors!But then again I have no kids YET!.....

[tbuford]

Property Value Trends (3 mo, 6 mo, 9 mo & 12mo), schools, avg $ sq ft of pending and current active listings, neighborhood demos, shopping, hospital, medical services, age of home, when was it sold and for how much, how long occupied / unoccupied, how long on the market, tax record search for existing mortgage info (helps with leveraging an offer), future development plans for surrounding area, area turnover, condition of surrounding homes / areas, plat plan to determine encroachments / easements of property.....and finally, the thing I look for when buying a home....a great agent...like myself!