LOL, I know what you mean because I did that too with mine, I saw 3 flats alike and I loved it, for different reasons we never managed to get any of those, so on the 4th I told immediately that I wanted it... No discount of course, but I am still living there ahah.
Good to hear, Gelsemium! Sometimes it's just not worth the stress of waiting and watching someone snatch it from under us, is it?! This house, even in a bad market is now worth 40% more than it was 9 or 10 years ago. I'm glad it's our profit and not for those other people who were eying it up at the same time. Congrats on that perfect flat!
I know what you guys mean, if it's The house, what are we waiting for just because we want to save some money? It's the place we want to live in, so we should go for it. If we can save while doing it better though.
I know that there are many people who would never even dream of buying real estate without trying to get the seller down as low as possible. My way of thinking is that I have an amount in mind that I'm willing to spend. If I get it for less, great! That feels like saving, too. I just don't like the back and forth... don't have the nerves for it when it's about *my* home. If it's an investment property, though, totally other story and if I wouldn't get a low enough price on it, I'd just move on to something else.
Consider how much your property taxes would be. Surprisingly, a lot of people miss out on this one and they think that as soon as they bought their home, all of the monthly expenses will stop. Another thing would be homeowner's association fees. That could be a lot as well, depending on the value of your property.
I'm not familiar with homeowner's association fees... but I just paid the property taxes earlier today. They're actually less now than what we were told ten years ago they'd be. That sure doesn't happen often! If I'm not mistaken, I think that while we had the mortgage, though, that we didn't need to pay the property taxes directly. I *think* it came out of the escrow, but I may be wrong. I know it was like that for the insurance, and I'm thinking for the taxes as well.
I think this depends a lot from country to country, when I bought my house in the first 10 years I never paid taxes, but now I pay a considerable sum...
I bought my home a few years before everything dropped. It was my fourth home. I have a hobby I guess of buying them and fixing them up and selling them for a profit. Flipping as it is called in the business is not as easy as it used to be but, it can be done. So, first time buyers take your time while looking and, like Kate and JR said please spend the extra money and get an inspection. They truly are the only way to know what your getting into when your considering a home.
My advice for people are buying a house for the first time is generally this. Don't buy something just because it's cheap. Usually first-time buyers are looking at how much they can afford and making sure that they can get a property within their budget range. And so is something jumps out that is really cheap and affordable to them that is the first thing they go to without considering the challenges that this product will present. Usually cheap houses are that price because they are heading to maintain and will usually drain you money as opposed to put money into your pocket. So my advice is get more information and do your best bet when making a decision you're not necessarily influenced by how cheap the product is
I will try to help a little. Buying a house may be a tricky job. So it is important to be careful and listen advice of more experienced people. There are many criteria that someone needs to follow if want to buy a good house. First is location as very important for the price of the house. Better location, higher price. Second is condition, year of construction, size, number of bathrooms and rooms. Be sure to check the documentation of the house. Who is the owner? Is documentation complete? These are some things that need to be checked.
