With a heavy heart it appears that good friend Lissa is moving to Florida
As sad as that is, I’m happy for her and Mike, and I suspect they’ll like the gun laws down there (Tho make sure to pay attention to the carry laws at your class, they have some really dumb shit down there that you’ll need to be mindful of, and maybe work to repeal!)
One question she asked was: “Who’s got tips on how to buy a house?”
I shared a few, and I told her I’d Send Vector her way as he had a similar move in terms of distance and going from apartment to house in what can be described as “Flying Distance”.
Best of Luck guys! Maybe we can grab dinner sometime soon!
Sure, send her my way. The missus and I might have some insights to help out.
First and foremost is to find a good realtor that you get along with and really gets what you want. I think that was one of the big keys to our success.
Thanks, Weer’d, we’ll certainly miss you too!!! I keep saying it, but it’s true — teleportation is WAY overdue. *hmph*
Vector, we actually did connect with a realtor during our first quick trip down. We Google’d her and couldn’t find any bad stuff, she made top 100 Florida realtors in 2007, etc. Oh, and I didn’t feel the need to scrub my hands after dealing with her, so the used-car-salesman factor was negligible. 🙂
Oh, good!
What we found surprising is how many realtors just would be slow in responding to us, if they responded at all. Seriously, how do they expect to get any business when they won’t return calls?
The real estate market is seriously slow down in Florida right now. I can tell because the realtor and her partner have promised to “clear their schedule” for our three-day visit later this month, and we’ve already emailed back and forth twice today. 😉 Hooray for buyer’s markets!
Good news! Also Interest rates are VERY bitchen right now. Its a good time to get land!
Also if you see a house you like, make sure you figure out what you like about it and how much you like it, as stuff will come up during the sale that might jerk you around a bit.
As Kenny Rodgers said, you need to know when to hold them, and when to fold them. And if you walk away, be prepared to totally walk away unless the sellers 100% cave.
Something a LOT of people do not think about when buying a house.
Hang out near the house like a stalker at various hours of the day to see what the neighborhood is like and what kind of traffic is around.
I live at the end of a dead end road off a lot of dead end roads in the middle of nowhere on purpose, and I knew a person a half mile away and had hung out there a lot so I knew the neighbors.
First house my sister bought, she bought in a reasonably nice area in town…NEXT TO A CRACK HOUSE. No joke. All the times she went by daytime with realtors she never saw that activity. Honestly, my sister didn’t come around at various hours of the day to explore what the neighbors were like and bought a really nice house next to a crack house…
Just saying, interest rates can be good or bad, but it’s good to get a feel for the neighbors, because it’s hard to re-sell a house next to a crack house (or a speed lab, as I knew a dude that accidentally moved in next door to a speed lab too!).
Ahem. It’s crack _HOME_!
*BRISTLE* What dumb shit; Sir? Let’s not compare gun laws, shall we?