House hunting tips for a millennial who's never owned one

Millennial/Zoomer cusper who recently bought a house here. Here’s my tips:

• Get as much of your financing stuff squared away before you put in an offer as possible. There’s a lot to deal with in a short amount of time once an offer is accepted. Our mortgage company required lots of approvals and letters which was annoying, but expected.
• Check carefully under surfaces, in cabinets, in closets, etc from smells, insects, rodent droppings and other oddities.
• If you can, you might ask about getting a professional cleaning in the contract. Our sellers left the house rather filthy.
• Look for hot/cold spots. We are finding areas of the house that seem to be lacking insulation, which costs money and decreases comfort.
• Don’t be afraid to just walk away. Don’t rush yourself into a bad housing situation.
• If you can, do renovations prior to moving furniture in. A lot easier to get work done beforehand rather than having to move stuff in, then take it out, then bring it back in again.
• New builds may be easier to make accessible due to the open floor plan, but don’t expect them to be problem-free, don’t expect the highest quality, and don’t expect the builder to honor the warranty.

1. Don't skip the building inspection
2. Don't skip the building inspection
3. If the building has major structural problems and you don't find out before you commit then you're fucked to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, so don't skip the building inspection
4. Skimming the building inspection is skipping the building inspection
5. Sometimes the building inspector is lazy and/or hesitant to say things. Don't be afraid to ask followup questions and/or get a second opinion. You're sure as hell paying for it.
6. Don't skip the building inspection

If an inspector finds rotten siding, or mentions anything about water getting into anything, freaking RUN. I bought a house where the inspector found a single piece of rotten siding that didn't seem like a big deal and it turned out that my walls were so rotten from water ingress that you could scoop the remains of the studs out in places with your bare hands like it was pulp. I ended up having to spend nearly a hundred thousand dollars getting the exterior walls opened up and having the structure repaired / replaced. Water damage is no joke and can be is almost as bad as fire damage.

I’m far from an expert but purchased for the first time as a US resident back in 2021. A few things based on my experience:

• Don’t bother with properties where the owner requires inspections to be waived before they’ll consider your bid. This is mostly an issue with hotter markets and should be less common now with increased mortgage interest rates, but was definitely something that was happening back when I was still looking.
• It’s not a perfect rule, but bias towards newer construction can preclude or mitigate several types of problems
  • The newer a house is, the more likely it’s up to code (particularly when it comes to wiring)
  • Old houses can be harder to heat/cool, lacking insulation and often having single-pane windows
  • Very old houses (70+ years) can have odd issues like not having a foundation (a family member encountered this)
  • Construction predating the mid-70s is likely to be built with asbestos and lead, which can make additions, renovations, or demolition expensive and involved (asbestos, etc is required to be hauled to toxic waste dumps) in addition to being an ambient health hazard
  • Reduced age means reduced opportunities for bodged/dangerous DIY work by former owners
• Always check out properties in person even if that requires flights and hotel stays
• Realtors will use every trick in the book to make photos of the property to look more spacious than they are

There are caveats to newer builds being less problematic, obviously. Construction quality may not be as high for instance, and very old houses that were built by master craftsmen and have been well maintained can be more problem-free than brand new houses. The inverse is also true, though; those iconic victorians seen in San Francisco photos for example are generally built very cheaply, meaning buying one gets you both the problems of a cheap house and those of an old house.

What's the market like in your area? A lot of house-hunting is dictated by the available market. I've owned two houses in my life so far, a townhouse in one city and a house in another. The markets were very different. The first, a townhouse, was in Houston in 2012. The market still hadn't nearly recovered from the crash, and I was able to take my time touring properties. Properties stayed on the market for months with no offers. I was able to really drill on on what I wanted, what was available, etc.

The second was a house in a small west coast city in 2018. The market was white hot. Houses were on the market for just a few days. In this market, it wasn't about finding the "perfect" house. It was about thinking carefully about what are minimum requirements are were on a home, having a realistic assessment of price and the state of the market, and being in the head space to make a quick offer while not having much time to think about it. We still had time to get an inspector through, so it's not like we were buying sight unseen. But it was a much more rushed experience than when I bought my townhouse.

So the first thing I was suggest is just get a good feel for the market. Know how long properties are staying on the market. Know if they're going for asking price, above, or below. Then, tour enough houses that you really get a feel for the market. Even in the second house we owned, we didn't make an offer on the first place we saw. We went through many properties before making an offer. We also had some of our earlier offers beat, as we weren't really in tune with the market yet.

So even in a hot market, don't feel that if you don't make an offer on something immediately, you'll lose out forever. Yes, in a hot market, if you don't make a quick offer, you might lose a particular house. But there are always new ones coming on the market. And the simple truth is that very few homes are unique custom-built architectural masterpieces. New homes are always coming on the market, and if you miss one you like, another one like it will likely be on the market soon enough. Hell, since most neighborhoods are tract-built, you can often find exact duplicates of homes, sometimes on the same street.

So the best advice I can give? I would suggest touring through a bunch of homes, as many as you can practically do so to really get a feel for the state of the market. Figure out what your approximate budget is and needs are. Tour homes above and below this range. So if you think your budget is $300k-400k, tour homes in the $200k-$500k range. Know what you can actually get for your budget in the area, and know what you could get for a bit more or a bit less. You may find you're perfectly happy going with something cheaper. Or, you may find an extra $50k will really make a marked difference in the quality of home you can buy. In some cases, going higher can be worth it. If going a bit higher, even if a bit painful budget-wise, can be worth it if it really makes a meaningful difference in terms of home quality, state of repair, expected appreciation, resaleability, etc.

So I recommend touring through as many homes as possible. If you're in a slow market, and you can wait months (doubtful from what I hear of today's market), well then you can take weeks mulling over whether to make an offer or not. If you're in a white-hot market, the only way you can get a home may be to make an offer after a property has only been on the market for a day or two. But, if you've toured enough homes to have a good understanding of the state of play, making such a rapid decision isn't such a leap of faith. You know what the market is like. You know if the price they're asking is fair for the condition of the property. You may have a feel for certain neighborhoods, etc.

In short, just don't be afraid to take your time, even in a white-hot market. This is a big decision. While in theory, with enough money, you can customize an existing home into whatever you want, in practice, you're unlikely to ever make radical renovations or additions to your home that completely change its character. Buying and selling a home is an expensive, time-consuming process. So it's important to get it right. And taking your time is the best way to do this. In a hot market, this might mean touring homes and letting them go, even if you feel they might be a good fit. Until you've really done enough research though, you simply aren't in the position to determine what is a good fit or value. Knowledge is power in this process, and that simply takes time.

And as an addendum, if I were to give advise on the house selection process itself, it would be to not be distracted by surface-level detail. Getting new paint or carpets put in is, relatively speaking, not very expensive. Hell, you can do the painting yourself if you want to save some cash. Carpets and paint are wear items. A house with stained carpet is just one whose carpet has reached the end of its lifecycle. Rejecting a house for bad paint or carpet is like throwing out a printer because it's out of ink. Hell, many times, I might actually prefer a house with worn interiors. Why? Because it means a flipper hasn't bought it. A flipper will buy an old house, rip out everything that gives a home character, install the cheapest builder-grade crap that still manages to look like an Instragram photo, and throw the home back on the market for a 50% price premium. A flipper's entire business model is to resell a house for $200k more in price by putting in $20k worth of upgrades. A flipper would buy up a home with beautiful, (if though in need of some maintenance), had made wooden solid hardwood cabinets, then rip them out to replace them with cheap ikea particleboard that's defect-free.

And you as the buyer are the one paying their profit margin. I would rather buy a house that needs some work, pay to put in nicer upgrades that I actually want and will actually hold up, and skip the huge markup. If you want to look out for a flipper house, I would be on the lookout for homes where everything is new and everything is a boring shade of gray, that seems to be the fad right now.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet - depending on which state you're house-hunting in, you should be able to hire a buyer's agent. For a first-time home buyer, this is absolutely essential.

A realtor's interest is in getting the sale commission. A buyer's agent has a fiduciary responsibility to make sure you see homes that meet your requirements, that the price negotiation is for a fair market value, all of the necessary paperwork is in order, and that other parties involved are reliable. They're usually knowledgeable about the marketplace you're shopping in and can provide a reality check (sometimes for the better!) on what you should expect for a given budget.

We found buyer's agent services invaluable on both of our home purchases over the years.

Also, don't assume you can make a not-so-great house into a perfect one. We went down that route on our current house, spent a fair amount on renovations, couldn't occupy the place for eight months - and we're still dealing with the fact that it's a not-great house under the cosmetics. It's perfectly located on a fantastic piece of land, though.

Think about what direction you want the backyard to face. West facing more light and can use the backyard more. If youre into that. Accessibility to services , parks, etc.

Buying a house can be an emotional process, but you need to remain objective as well. Don't offer or accept a contract that waives inspections. Don't use an inspector provided by your realtor, bring your own: whole house inspection, radon, pest, and septic/well if the property has it. All of those inspections add up to be over $1k, but can save you a ton of money and heartache. Be reasonable about what you'll require the seller to fix. I usually make them fix anything structural or mechanical (electrical, plumbing, HVAC) but not something that I feel like I can fix myself, or if it's just cosmetic. I will refuse to buy a house with foundation problems - that's where I draw the line. Don't make a dumb financial decision because you or your partner are in love with certain aspects of the house.

If you're in a state with disclosures, I factor the age of major systems into the price. Dual HVAC units that are 15+ years old? You're looking at a potential for a $25k repair bill within the next few years. Roof is 20+ years old? Hot water heater 12+ years old? Well pump/septic system 20+ years old? These are all ticking clocks that are part of home ownership, and it's helpful for your own planning and value assessment to know what those clocks are showing.

Keep an open mind about the things you can change. You might not like a property because of decor or colors that don't jive with you, but that can all be remediated if the house's bones are good. Even some things like interior doors can usually be widened. I've found that embracing stuff like that results in lower competition and better leverage for the purchase, since many shoppers will just dislike and move on.

If the immediate surrounding area is important to you (as in the adjacent parcels), look up the property on your local GIS. Does the property back up to a farm or other undeveloped land that is or could be sold to be turned to a housing development? What is the zoning like? Will your backyard someday be a WalMart or loud warehouse? If you're surrounded by existing homes, that's probably not a factor. But it often is a factor in my area due to rapid development, and something I've looked out for.

There's other solid advice in this thread that I won't bother repeating as well.

Overall, the process of buying a home is complex - it's fun, stressful, exciting and scary all at the same time. We spent 2 years looking for our last property, and were rewarded for our patience.

inspectors are good -- but if you have a friend in HVAC, bribe them to also check the place out. Inspectors often don't know anything about duct work or how air moves.

The advice I would give to myself is avoid buying a home that is in an HOA if at all possible. This can be hard to do in some places, particularly with newer construction.
HOAs levy fees and can even put a lien on your house if you become delinquent. The fees could be anything from near nothing to several hundred to thousands of dollars per month, depending on what type of upkeep/services the HOA provides. Beyond the fees, the HOA will require you to have their permission to do pretty much anything on the exterior of their home, and can cite/fine you for violating their rules.

We bought a house about five years ago, kept the old house to run as an AirBnB, then decided to sell it a few years later. Between the buying and selling, it became much more common for the buyer to request a sewer inspection. Our buyer's inspection found something, and we had to remediate some issues. We had not requested one on the house we bought, and issues found later cost us around $18k (including the new driveway we had to pour after the work was done.

Especially since you're probably going to have to do some remodel for your partner, try to get as much overlap between closing and having to move in as you can afford. You can also get on the tradesmen's schedule work to start as early as the day of closing.

Try to get pre-approved for the exact amount of your offer -- if you send the buyer a letter saying you're preapproved for $50k more, they know they have room to push your offer up.

Since you have a lot of specific needs for clearances and such, you may want to invest in a laser measuring tool. I have one that's no longer made, but it's similar to this one. You definitely want laser and not ultrasonic -- the latter is much less accurate. You can get by with a long tape measure, but the laser measure is super fast if you don't have someone to hold the other end.

During the home inspection, you can use an app like MagicPlan to create a floorplan of the house. Pair this with your laser distance finder, and you can quickly get a very accurate floor plan. Since you can't easily get back into the house until closing, it is super useful for knowing if furniture would fit somewhere, to give area estimates for flooring and other information to contractors, to buy curtains, etc. I've done this for the last two houses we bought, and even years later I will pull the plans up to reference things if we are out at the hardware store thinking about a project.

Couple of things to make sure you include in your measurements:

• size of the rooms, including any insets or corners
• heights and widths of door openings, including closet doors
  • be consistent in measuring to the inside of the door opening (not the casement) and make note of the casement widths if you want
• make note of the closet door type (sliding vs folding) for clearances
• location of windows on the wall plus height from the floor and height of the window
  • if you are measuring for curtains or on-top shades, you want the outside measurement of the casement and height from the floor
  • if you are measuring for blinds or inside shades, you measure the width inside the window at the top, middle, and bottom and take the smallest of the three measurements
• height of ceilings
• location and size of bathroom and kitchen fixtures, appliances, etc.

Plan to replace the locks on the day of closing (or schedule a locksmith to do so). My last two houses, I have replaced all the locks with Kwikset Smartkey locks -- you can re-keyed these yourself using only the old and new key. So keep the keys from all the sets you buy, key them all the same, and keep the extra keys for re-keying later. If you have contractors in your house, you can use one key until they are done then change the locks and throw those keys away.

In addition to rekeying or replacing the locks, we have put keypad locks on our last two houses and I would highly recommend it. You can't lock yourself out, you can give out different codes to different people and change them later (much harder to revoke a physical key, although with the Kwikset Smartkey I mentioned above, you can do so more easily).

I have used the Kwikset 914 for years because it has Z-wave for home automation, but if you don't like that, the Kwikset 264 looks good too. Both have a key backup, and they use the Kwikset smartkey for the keyway so you can key it the same as the rest of the house. The main thing you want is to make sure it has a master code that you can set. You don't want one that can be reprogrammed just by taking the cover off and pressing the button. I know there are also ones that you can open with your phone or with an rfid token, but the keypad ones have worked great for me.

I don't have any experience with them in my own house, but Schlage makes smart locks as well. The major difference is that there is a servo that turns the deadbolt in the Kwikset locks. In the Schlage locks, putting the code in just engages the handle with the deadbolt and you turn it yourself. I don't think either is particularly better, but the kwikset ones seemed to be more advanced years ago when we started, and we have just stuck with them since.

Once you determine what you can afford, make sure your realtor knows and respects it. If they show you a home outside of your stated budget without telling you beforehand and verifying you want to see the house, it's time to fire them.

For the mortgage portion, the main factors are the rate they can get you, and their reliability during the buying process. I went with a local mortgage company because they were recommended by my realtor and stayed on top of everything with no delays. Online ones may look attractive in some ways, but this is something to keep in mind when buying. If you decide to refinance, there's no time crunch (once you lock a rate), so feel free to explore online options and such then. And also fully expect for your mortgage to be sold to another mortgage company within the first year (if not the first two months) of your mortgage. They can't change any of the terms when they do this, but it's good to know that letter you get in the mail about it isn't a scam.

And it's already been said, but inspections are important.

Ask around in your area to find out if there are common problems to watch out for. For example, in the Puget Sound it’s a must to get a sewer line inspection before buying. Most of the lines are around the same age and are beginning to fail, which can be a 5 figure repair that involves ripping out part of the yard. We also checked lahar zones because I’m paranoid.

I didn't see anyone else mention this. See if your city *has publicly available crime records. My city does and you can look it up by city, zip code, neighborhood, street, and address. Also search by time period. It helped me avoid good houses in not so good neighborhoods.

Make your coffee and avocado toast yourself at home. /sarcasm

Sorry, couldn't resist.