First Time Home Buyer

[USUC]

We are looking to buy our first home this fall/early winter (when our apartment lease ends). Kind of an overwhelming/intimidating proposition to get started on. We have been talking about what we think we need, what we would like, and what we can realistically afford in a house. So far we have come up with the following preferences:

-Prefer to live in an area with young families in Salt Lake County (our current ward is fairly old and children/adolescents are few are far between).
- A decent elementary school (no kids now but will soon enough).
-Prefer 3 bedrooms, 2 baths.
- Affordable but not in a ghetto neighborhood (or the Utah equivalent to ghetto). At this point in our lives we don’t have a lot of money. Not destitute, but not a lot of disposable income.
-Preferably within close proximity to freeway access. I work by the U of U campus and the wife works in Murray.

We are at the beginning stages of this and have a lot of research ahead of us. I still need to find a real estate agent (rightly or wrongly I have this impression most are shysters). I know a few of you have recently bought their first house and others are pretty knowledgeable about these things. Any advice/input/ $.02 about the process is very much welcome.

[The_Tick]

Handle your loan through CougJunkie.

He can come off here abrasive at times, but he is a 100% rockstar when it comes to a loan. Completely professional.

Here is my input... (we bought our first house 11 years ago and are still living in it)

1. Look at a bunch of houses. We looked at 1. At the time...it met all of our needs and it was what we were looking for. 2 years into living in the house, it wasn't meeting our needs.

2. Look to the future. Bigger is better. House...yard. In the current market, you should be able to get a good house for a good price.

3. Neighbors. I would ask around. We have some crazy ass neighbors.

4. Cars in the street. The rule is this...if they own, they park in the garage or driveway. If they rent...cars in the street.

Our neighborhood always had folks in the garage the first few years. Then the driveways.

It is now almost all rentals...and there are 3-4 cars at each house.

5. Don't buy a fixer upper. Unless you are Bob Villa or related to him.

I am not...so I needed something that was pretty much done.


Good luck. I am excited about buying our next house...but we are a few years down the road from that.

[Shaka]

I had a very good experience with my realtor. His name is Bob Hoffman and his office is in Sandy.

CougJunkie is the guy to see about the financing.

[USUC]

Thank you for the recommendations. I had no idea CougJunkie was that big of a financial asset. Neighbors can be a nightmare I imagine. Good suggestion. I'll check out your recommendation for a realtor Shaka. Thank you.

[risicam]

I'm a Realtor and love what I do. I work mostly in Utah & Salt Lake counties, but have done things further out, as well!

[Eddie]

You mention a decent school. I think that this changes from time to time and can be driven not only by the teachers, but also by the principal.

That said, I believe you can go either on the state education website or the school district websites and get testing data for individual schools. I know this is something my wife wanted to do when we were looking at a place to live - once we'd found homes we liked she did a comparison of schools to see which were best.

If you've really got time on your hands, you could probably identify the best schools and then limit your housing search to schools in that area. But that starts to be a LOT of elementary schools to look at.

[USUC]

You mention a decent school. I think that this changes from time to time and can be driven not only by the teachers, but also by the principal.

That said, I believe you can go either on the state education website or the school district websites and get testing data for individual schools. I know this is something my wife wanted to do when we were looking at a place to live - once we'd found homes we liked she did a comparison of schools to see which were best.

If you've really got time on your hands, you could probably identify the best schools and then limit your housing search to schools in that area. But that starts to be a LOT of elementary schools to look at.

Not a bad strategy.

[Tim]

Why not continue to rent? Are you committed to staying in Salt Lake long-term? What do you hope to gain by owning at this point (as opposed to waiting)?

[risicam]

Why not continue to rent? Are you committed to staying in Salt Lake long-term? What do you hope to gain by owning at this point (as opposed to waiting)?

Now is an incredible time to buy. There has never been a time in history when both mortgages & home prices are both "on sale." If you are worried about a down payment, my company is putting together Utah's Amazing Home Race and someone will get $10k for a down. (Just let me know you are going to do it!!) http://utahsamazinghomerace.com/

Even if you don't plan on being here incredibly long term, a good property could be used as a rental if you need to move away. Real estate will ALWAYS be a good long term investment!

[byu71]

I don't know a thing about real estate, at least not enough to help you.

However, when you become a millionaire, call me. I am proud to say I have turned many a millionaire into hundredaires.

[Sullyute]

Even if you don't plan on being here incredibly long term, a good property could be used as a rental if you need to move away. Real estate will ALWAYS be a good long term investment!

signed Love Canal, NY; Lower 9th Ward, New Orleans; Las Vegas home buyers circa 2006; anyone in Cheyenne, WY; etc...

[Jacob]

Now is an incredible time to buy. There has never been a time in history when both mortgages & home prices are both "on sale." If you are worried about a down payment, my company is putting together Utah's Amazing Home Race and someone will get $10k for a down. (Just let me know you are going to do it!!) http://utahsamazinghomerace.com/

Even if you don't plan on being here incredibly long term, a good property could be used as a rental if you need to move away. Real estate will ALWAYS be a good long term investment!

I hope this was not a serious post. Sounds like an advertisement. Like that Tax lawyer who is always on TV, but is now broke and owes TV networks $5m dollars.

[old_gregg]

I hope this was not a serious post. Sounds like an advertisement. Like that Tax lawyer who is always on TV, but is now broke and owes TV networks $5m dollars.

you're a wang

[Tim]

I hope this was not a serious post. Sounds like an advertisement. Like that Tax lawyer who is always on TV, but is now broke and owes TV networks $5m dollars.

I'm with Jacob on this. This is no place for advertisement. At the very least the realtor on the board should be honest with some kind of disclaimer reminding readers that his view is incredibly biased toward encouraging actions that will put food on his table. The last person you should EVER ask about real estate is a real estate agent.

Homes aren't investments, they're places to live. Rent, buy, whatever. Find a place you love and live in it. It's true that interest rates are low and home prices are lower than they've been. But owning a home is NOT cheap, and in very rare cases is the TCO of a home (taxes, insurance, and maintenance costs added) lower than that of a rental. Sure, you'll get a few bucks back at the end of the year, but why spend $10 just to get $2 back if you can find a rental for $7? It'll be yours in 30 years, but if you move for work between now and then you'll likely start the clock all over. So unless you're confident that you'll have this same job 10 years from now, and there's no chance you'll move between now and then, why not consider continuing to rent?

I own a home and love it. But I don't treat it like an investment. It's where we live. We couldn't find a place the kind of place we wanted to live in available for rent so we bought, but we did so knowing that the real estate market is fraught with uncertainty and we'd have to be willing to take a loss on the house if the market went sour.

[risicam]

I hope this was not a serious post. Sounds like an advertisement. Like that Tax lawyer who is always on TV, but is now broke and owes TV networks $5m dollars.

I'm totally serious. It's true.