Why is a big lot necessary for having kids?
I understand Feng Shui. And the sellers are two men living together. Looks like couple.

6/22/2012 2:01:28 PM

Quote :

"It doesn't take feng shui or anything to know most people want homes with a lot of natural light "

wise ass.....i'm just saying that's one small part of feng shui that i know about
you'd be surprised, tons of people still buy homes without knowing this.....i had a friend who's family room got no bright light b/c of the window placement and direction it faced, so they always had the lamp lights on even in the middle of the day

^^ larger lots = i think it's pretty obvious......more play area of kids, playground, veggie/herb gardens, cookouts, etc etc

[Edited on June 22, 2012 at 2:05 PM. Reason : k]

6/22/2012 2:02:35 PM

Quote :

"Why is a big lot necessary for having kids? "

Kids are like puppies. They like to run and play outside.

6/22/2012 2:03:22 PM

Quote :

"Why is a big lot necessary for having kids? "

It's not, its a luxury. But kids do love to run around outside. I think growing up without a yard would have sucked.

6/22/2012 2:04:18 PM

Well, there's public area nearby, even swimming pool.

6/22/2012 2:05:35 PM

We got a 0.5 acre lot for the house we bought two years ago and honestly it's the biggest lot I'd ever really care to own for awhile. Even with kids possibly in the future, I'd gladly take a smaller, semi-private lot in a house closer to downtown if we had a park or public open area nearby I think. Definitely a change in my mindset from 2 years ago when we were looking for a house.

[Edited on June 22, 2012 at 2:07 PM. Reason : ]

6/22/2012 2:07:39 PM

yeah semi private lot is key here

with a .16 lot, it's not going to be private...you'll have awkward moments in the back yard exchanging glances with your neighbor literally right next door.......unless you put up a fence or plant some bushes, which then it's going to seem like a .10 lot

kids need space to run around and play
i miss the days when i can play baseball or football with my neighbors in the back yard

6/22/2012 2:10:10 PM

What do you mean? Is small lot OK?

6/22/2012 2:11:26 PM

do you have a real estate buyers agent helping you? if not you should. these are common questions that your agent should be able to answer for you.

i think i've expressed my opinions enough here. it seems you're set on this house. good luck.

6/22/2012 2:12:53 PM

I have an agent.
I'd like to listen to different voices. And I still have time to make decision.
^ Are you asian? Seems so from your real name.

[Edited on June 22, 2012 at 2:17 PM. Reason : add another note]

6/22/2012 2:14:30 PM

Yeah, 0.16 is a little small. I could easily do with 0.25 acres if it was laid out well and had mature privacy landscaping and a fence. HOWEVER, this is also assuming I am going with a small lot to get an existing home in a dense area (like a downtown) where location is prime. Giving up a little real estate to gain a lot somewhere else.

If I'm living out in the suburbs with cookie-cutter houses, 0.16 acres doesn't really cut it imo.

6/22/2012 2:26:09 PM

The seller is sticking there with 282k. My agent tell me their agent is confident as they receive other offers. I did see other buyers at the house last week.
I may need to compromise this time.

6/27/2012 10:11:33 AM

Quote :

"$250K for that 2500 sq foot = in this market, I would not pay more than $100/sq ft...the larger the house, the even cheaper the $/sq ft USED = too much competition from competitive priced newer homes that you can get for the same price. Unless the house is really unique in terms of lot/location/floorplan. This one IS NOT. Pulte = one of the worst tract builders in terms of quality. I've seen many Pulte homes deteriorate much faster than other builders. Tiny Lot = why even bother with a lot then. get a townhouse. if you plan to have kids, lot size is very important. House also looks dark inside (based on pictures) = i don't know what direction it faces but dark houses are depressing......you want bright airy homes....take it from me, i know a bit about feng shui Also, watch out for that sloped hill in the backyard. It could lead to water flowing down into the yard in case of rain. Unless there's a little drainage where the water collects. Most recent comp showed $268K back in 12/2011. Should be even cheaper now. "

I agree with all of this. You are a fool if you buy this house, shoot.

6/27/2012 10:14:46 AM

Well, I doubt my agent's ability now. She spent half a year introducing me houses.


[Edited on June 27, 2012 at 10:28 AM. Reason : add another note]

6/27/2012 10:26:10 AM

I, too, doubt your agent's ability You should hire Str8BacardiL as your next agent

6/27/2012 10:53:19 AM

If you have spent half a year looking at houses and still don't know if that's a good deal then you are doing something wrong.

6/27/2012 10:55:39 AM

To be fair if he has a shitty agent she may be just doing a terrible job of helping him find a good deal. It's probably good he started this thread to get more than her opinion

6/27/2012 10:56:41 AM

I may need to PM Str8BacardiL to get some advice.

6/27/2012 11:05:36 AM

shoot, did you sign any paperwork with your agent restricting you to only working with her? In my experience, buyers agents are not "locked-in" until you make an offer to purchase. And if that offer is rejected, your deal with them is through.

6/27/2012 11:08:44 AM

No, I didn't.

6/27/2012 11:10:57 AM

just remember your buyer's agent may not really be working for you if your agent is bad....at the end of the day, your agent wants you to buy as soon as possible so he/she can get paid

and your agents wants you to buy at the highest price possible, so your agent can get paid the most commission !!

6/27/2012 11:11:37 AM

That's no excuse for being lazy. My agent doesn't do much looking for me, I've got a saved search for new and reduced stuff in the area we want to buy in, and when I see something I like I send him the MLS# and address to get the agent only details. If it looks good then we set up an appointment to see the place.

Trulia and Zillow have moved most of the duties that were expected of an agent to the buyer. I like it because we're very specific in what we need so between that and having an agent that has lots of experience with short sales/investment property it's been long but relatively painless. If we had to deal with a couple of the agents we've met I'd probably have run them over with my car by now.

Str8BacardiL is not one of the agents we have tried, mostly because we're trying to buy in Durham and I didn't think he'd want to be driving up there all the time to poke around foreclosures in various states of disrepair.

6/27/2012 11:12:15 AM

Right. It's possible.

6/27/2012 11:13:11 AM

Quote :

"i would never buy a double garage door house. not only is the middle beam distracting, but i would always have to pull perfectly into the garage "

this is a problem for women and asians.

6/27/2012 11:25:51 AM

Why asian? Nonsense.

6/27/2012 11:31:14 AM

^^I don't think the problem is with pulling into the garage, it's that some situations would benefit from not having to pull directly in.

6/27/2012 11:33:26 AM

Quote :

"That's no excuse for being lazy. My agent doesn't do much looking for me, I've got a saved search for new and reduced stuff in the area we want to buy in, and when I see something I like I send him the MLS# and address to get the agent only details. If it looks good then we set up an appointment to see the place. "

This is a big cultural difference though. Americans are all about doing their own research on things like real estate. But I know from what my friends in East Asia tell me when you buy real estate you basically just hire an agent, they show you a few properties based on some questions they ask you at your initial meeting, and you choose from that. You don't really have stuff like Trulia, the websites out there tend to be very bare bones. You can't really fault shoot if that is the system he is expecting here as well.

House hunting is tough, shoot, so don't give up hope! It's common to put offers on a couple of houses before you finally close on one. Just take this one as your practice round

6/27/2012 11:39:55 AM

Thanks for your nice advice. Actually I suppose this will be a done deal. My current lease ends in July. Then I can move in to this one.

6/27/2012 11:43:08 AM

Honestly it would be better to go month-to-month in your apartment until you find the right house than to just buy a house because your lease is running out. I know many people who bought a house for that reason and ended up regretting it later because they either paid too much or the house didn't have the things they really wanted.

6/27/2012 11:45:45 AM

Very true. And I may need to contact other agents.

6/27/2012 11:46:50 AM

^^ I agree. A house is probably the largest purchase one will ever make, and it is usually the largest contributor to one's net worth.

You need to find the best deal you can and be extremely happy with your purchase.

[Edited on June 27, 2012 at 11:48 AM. Reason : ^]

6/27/2012 11:48:20 AM

Right. I need to pay it for 30 years.

6/27/2012 11:49:52 AM

My budget is about 270-300k. In this range, it's hard to find a deal with a large lot and an excellent builder. Dunno if there are any other deals.

6/27/2012 8:21:01 PM

That is very easy to do in your price range. Hell, my house was $165,000 and has a bigger lot than the house your bidding on and was a custom build. Your agent is doing a terrible job if she's telling you you can't get a house with a decent sized lot for your price range.

6/28/2012 7:26:23 AM

Right, she never tells me about it. If I don't ask something, she won't say anything.

[Edited on June 28, 2012 at 9:16 AM. Reason : add another note]

6/28/2012 9:15:52 AM

^^location? You won't find that in directly around Raleigh/Cary, at least from what I've seen. Gotta move somewhat away from the populated areas (comparing shoot's 300k house to finding a similar house for 165k in comparable location)

FWIW, a house similar to the one I'm building was 250k just outside the beltline. I selected further away and it's <180k, with a bigger lot.

I really liked my agent and he was willing to show me anything anytime he could. I was honest about my budget and preferences from the start and he didn't try to push me above my budget (well, he did show me more expensive houses, but that's because I said I liked them, and he was, shit, let's just check them out so you know what the money is getting you). I told him I'll want to look at a lot of houses and that I'm picky - probably looked at 15-20 houses total and he didn't seem to care, even though I wasn't going to be buying an expensive home. He just likes his job.

He set me up on his MLS search and I also used various websites to search as well. I'd just send him the MLS from either search and we'd go look at it.

I can give you contact information, if you wish.

[Edited on June 28, 2012 at 9:31 AM. Reason : .]

[Edited on June 28, 2012 at 9:32 AM. Reason : .]

6/28/2012 9:28:05 AM

Thanks. Plese PM me.

6/28/2012 9:39:57 AM

^^ I'm in Cary near Trader Joe's.

6/28/2012 9:43:17 AM

You live in a one-floor house, right?
I want my house to be close to RTP. In that range, the selection pool is almost all second-floored ones.

6/28/2012 9:52:05 AM

Yes I have a one-story ranch. I could have gone with either a one-story or two-story and been happy. What sold us on this house was the location and the oversized two-car garage.

It only takes about 15 minutes to get to RTP from here as long as there isn't a crazy accident like there was today. Once they open up the southern portion of 540 that will make traffic much better and give more options for getting to RTP, too.

[Edited on June 28, 2012 at 10:01 AM. Reason : a]

6/28/2012 10:00:28 AM

Shoot, I thought you were unemployed. Why are you buying a new house?

6/28/2012 10:03:30 AM

^My wife is working now.
^^ Do you think about the school district issue for your kids? It seems that Morrisville has best schools in the great Raleigh area.

6/28/2012 10:05:38 AM

In my opinion almost all of the schools in Wake County are good schools, especially in the Morrisville/Cary/Apex area. I would be happy sending my kids to any of the schools in my "choice zone" or whatever the school board is calling it. I live walking distance to Farmington Woods Elementary, which is a very highly rated IB magnet program. Briercliff Elementary is also walking distance from my house and is considered a very good school, too.

6/28/2012 10:08:03 AM

I like your location. It's easier to get to those malls and asian stores. The house I give offer takes me double time to drive to the places.

6/28/2012 10:15:39 AM

Yes that's why we bought on this side of Cary. It's so easy to get to shopping and entertainment. And it's really fast to get to downtown Raleigh. My commute to Durham is longer than it would be if we had bought on the west side of Cary but I'm okay with that.

I guess for me I'd be looking at something like this: http://www.trulia.com/property/1039977139-308-Coorsdale-Dr-Cary-NC-27511 before I would buy that house in Morrisville.

[Edited on June 28, 2012 at 10:21 AM. Reason : a]

6/28/2012 10:17:24 AM

I agree with you. However, as you know, we'll have a baby soon. Moving twice costs lots of effort for us, unless we hire some workers.

6/28/2012 10:55:04 AM

You can hire TROSA to move you for pretty cheap. That's what we did when moving from our apartment to our house.

6/28/2012 11:03:16 AM

How come we keep rehashing the same things in this thread?

Two things are very apparent:
1) Your agent sucks. Get another agent.
2) If you are set on Morrisville, there are plenty of subdivisions in your price range with larger lots.
(Breckenridge, Town Hall, Downing, Kitts Creek, Providence Place, Carpenter Village, Twin Lakes, Preston)

As a real estate agent on the side, I'm very selective and only help a few friends out a year. Because I truly care and want my friends to get the best deal. And I don't want them to find the numerous crappy agents out there who are trying to give you bad advice and pumping up how great the market is and how you should overpay.

Remember, real estate agents are salespeople.

6/28/2012 11:30:56 AM

Yes. I feel like the agent is playing trick on me. After I raised to a certain amount(275k), the price always sticks there(282k) and forces me to add more money to it. It has been a week. I'm very like a fish attracting by her bait.

[Edited on June 28, 2012 at 11:44 AM. Reason : grammar]

6/28/2012 11:44:00 AM

Well, your agent can't do much about the seller's price, if they're sticking to it...

6/28/2012 11:49:34 AM