San Antonio property virgins ! (lender, broker, buying a home)

[naxxan]

so many good points here. i just wanted to give my experience. when i bought my home it cost me a total of $500.00 at closing. we used neighborhood gold and rolled the closing costs into our loan. in the long run it didnt add very much to the payments and saved us having to come up with a large lump sum up front.

as far as quality goes our house was built in 1946 and all we had to do was repaint to suit our taste and pull up the carpet in one room to expose the free hardwoods below.

whichever route you take get yourself a competent inspector, and a realtor that understands what you want and works for it.

[TexasRedneck]

Originally Posted by sawatchdog

I didnt say it was BS....from the sounds of it its seems you are gung-ho on older homes must be because you live in one....is there something you have against new construction?

I firmly believe and stand by...that a first time buyer should def look into buying new...since most if not all builders WILL help with closing cost meaning they dont have to beg a seller for it and we all know most first time buyers need help since the days of 100% Financing are gone....since now they have to come up with Down Payment and Closing which is a big chunk of $$$ for a first time buyer.

For your edification, the first time we saw our current house, it was an empty lot in a new subdivision. We had a fairly good amount to put down on it, and ended up with 3 pages of changes in the initial contract - and no changes thereafter. So we not only knew what we wanted, we knew how we wanted it. I'm on the road every day, so made it a point to come by while under construction at least every other day. Usually just walked around, looked at things.....and left. IF I saw something out of place, I'd go find the foreman (my neighbor was well-known for walking into his place, screaming STOP EVERYTHING - and then finding out he was looking at the wrong part of the house.

But....that's the thing. This was our 8th house (and, hopefully, our LAST one!) We've bought existing AND new, and frankly the existing is a lot less headache and hassle. If it's been standing for 10 years or more, chances are it was built pretty well.

The days of 100% financing and such should NEVER have happened in the first place. When someone doesn't have any blood in the game, they don't care about walking away - and all that does is hurt the rest of us that DO pay our bills. Does it make it harder? Yeah - and so what?? It wasn't THAT many years ago that you couldn't finance a house unless you were VERY wealthy. Hmmm....funny....homes as a percentage of income were a lot less back then - wonder why......maybe because you had to PAY for what you got???

Don't get me wrong - I've not only lived the American Nightmare, I've got the t-shirts in every color you could want. I've literally been 30 minutes away from a foreclosure sale back in the 80's during THAT banking debacle - and I NEVER wanna go there again. Jump into the early 90's, mix in a layoff with a nasty divorce - and you don't want any more to do with it. Youngest son and his wife are in the midst of buying their first house - preowned/used/whatever euphanism they're using nowadays - at $58 sq ft. Some sweat equity and a couple of years, the place'll easily return $80/sq ft. Very few (if any) new homes are going to do that. Heck - the ONLY reason our place has appreciated any amount is that we bought just before the huge building materials price jump back in late '03 - so the "package" for our place had been bought like a day or two before a 20k jump!

Anyway....long story short - there's no "one best way" on new vs. used. The one thing I DO want folks to understand is the various permutations of "good deal" that will apply to each situation differently. Personally, I suggest that folks find an older home in good repair for their first home, a mild fixer-upper for their second - and a nigh-on "money pit" for the third. Done right, they'll end up with a LOT more appreciated value/sweat equity, and by the time they're ready for their 4th on, they're in great shape financially. Does it work for everyone? Oh, he** no! Some folks shouldn't even be allowed to OWN tools! For others, it can be rewarding as the dickens!

[scuba steve]

Originally Posted by sawatchdog

I didnt say it was BS....from the sounds of it its seems you are gung-ho on older homes must be because you live in one....is there something you have against new construction?

I firmly believe and stand by...that a first time buyer should def look into buying new...since most if not all builders WILL help with closing cost meaning they dont have to beg a seller for it and we all know most first time buyers need help since the days of 100% Financing are gone....since now they have to come up with Down Payment and Closing which is a big chunk of $$$ for a first time buyer.

Dunno if my current place is older or not. It's 18, but it's impossible to tell unless you're in the kitchen or master bathroom which haven't been renovated yet. The last house I owned was 2 when I bought it so it was essentially new. The construction defects I remember were a leaky spot where two angles intersected on a roof and a brick facade on the front that wasn't put up with very good workmanship (bowed outward at the top/corner).

I call it like I see it. Some newer neighborhoods I've helped people move into I can see sinkholes and all types of defects from the street, and I hear the complaints about dealing with warranty work. Others, not so much. Although virtually all tract builders seem to do a bit too much moonscaping, that's hardly something new. Where I am now in the land of existing houses that may or may not be "old" I hear of repairs about equal to new construction maintenance from neighbors. Trim that needs paint, a garage door spring gives out, hail takes out a few roofs, or a pool pump finally leaks.

The only real advantage you get with time by itself is that it brings to light anything that was done in a substandard way, weeding out or shedding light on things with defects. That's why on page 1 I suggested what was the overall best value to the OP. It can be new or existing, whichever as a whole represents the best long term solution to their search for a place to live.

[skeet09]

Originally Posted by scuba steve

Although virtually all tract builders seem to do a bit too much moonscaping, that's hardly something new.

What's moonscaping? I'm in the process of buying my first home too so it helps to learn all the lingo I can!

[LindaGrace]

I personally would never consider new construction. I personally think most new construction is ugly, what with the garage all butted out the front, no trees, and narrow streets with your neighbors an arm's length away. I just pretty much hate all brand new houses unless they're of the million dollar variety and that's out of our price range. We also wanted an established neighborhood in the medical center area (I don't believe in commuting more than 15 minutes one way).

So as first time buyers my husband and I bought a home built in 1958. We only have to bring $4000 to the table and the sellers are paying closing costs. The sellers threw in a one-year home warranty, and our inspector gave us a coupon for an alarm service (no set up fee and whatever percent off per month). Our Realtor is fabulous and walked us clear through the process start to finish. Our mortgage person is the same way - step by step.

Don't discount older homes. Ours is move-in ready; we won't even need to paint because the sellers painted the whole house in neutral tones. Our only concern is buying a butt-load of furniture because this hizzy is TWICE THE SIZE OF OUR APARTMENT! Yippee!!

I DMed you earlier today with our Realtor's name. Best of luck in your home search!

[scuba steve]

Originally Posted by skeet09

What's moonscaping? I'm in the process of buying my first home too so it helps to learn all the lingo I can!

It's somewhere where there used to be trees, but then the developer bulldozes all of them because it's easier to construct roads, utilities and a lot of houses where there's nothing n the way. Looks like the surface of the moon when they're done. They'll go in and put a couple of miniature $50 trees in the front yard but it's nothing to compare with what was there before.

[skeet09]

Originally Posted by scuba steve

It's somewhere where there used to be trees, but then the developer bulldozes all of them because it's easier to construct roads, utilities and a lot of houses where there's nothing n the way. Looks like the surface of the moon when they're done. They'll go in and put a couple of miniature $50 trees in the front yard but it's nothing to compare with what was there before.

Aww.

[annken]

Texas Redneck & LindaGrace, thanks for your input regarding your experiences.

Many of the "older" homes here would easily go for 2-3x the price and are much younger than many homes in western NYS. I can't believe the abundance of different style (especially brick/stone) homes around here. This will be our third and (hopefully) last home. We want a home that's affordable like our previous home, in a decent location, low-maintenance and younger than we are this time. No foundation issues either.

**We have noticed many homes don't have gutters--is that not required here?

[kevcrawford]

Originally Posted by annken

Texas Redneck & LindaGrace, thanks for your input regarding your experiences.

Many of the "older" homes here would easily go for 2-3x the price and are much younger than many homes in western NYS. I can't believe the abundance of different style (especially brick/stone) homes around here. This will be our third and (hopefully) last home. We want a home that's affordable like our previous home, in a decent location, low-maintenance and younger than we are this time. No foundation issues either.

**We have noticed many homes don't have gutters--is that not required here?

You've gotten a lot of good advice. I'm a Realtor and I bought a 28 year old house because the builder had a stellar reputation and they were built to last back then. New homes have their advantages too, but newer doesn't always mean better. The rule to take from all this is get what's best for YOU. Period. What works for your budget, what floorplan works for your family, etc. DON'T over-extend yourself and you'll be fine. Get a good Realtor and go from there. Don't look too many places for advice on this, because you'll just get more and more confused.

For gutters, they're not required. We don't have enough rain here to really necessitate them. Gutters are good in places with a lot of rain, but here, they can do just as much damage by to your soffits by making them shot wood rot faster.

[westsideteacher]

Originally Posted by TexasRedneck

"Cheaper" is relative. A new home can be neat - fresh walls, paint, yard....oh, you wanted grass??? Different personalities will find different preferences - for myself, I like determining the look of the yard, rather than either trying to deal with what someone had done. That's not always as easy (or fun) as you might think - and there's definitely value in established landscaping, which is often overlooked.
Personally, anything built by Ray Ellison, Rayco, KB, Kaufman and Broad, or any of their offshoots, I'd avoid like the plague.

Now, wait a hot minute. I have a Rayco house, built before they were bought out/taken over by KB. When I bought it, the home inspector told me that when it comes to structural integrity over the years, it has less to do with the homebuilder and a lot more to do with the materials the house was originally built with (wood or aluminum siding? or brick? stucco?) and how it has been maintained and protected.