Buying A House: Must Haves & Deal Breakers?
 

My husband are making repairs to our home and hoping to put it up for sale in about a year. We have already remodeled the kitchen, updated one of the bathrooms, replaced nearly all the light fixtures, put a new roof on the house and garage, and installed new entry and storm doors.

We have a few more things to do (ie: new siding on the garage, fresh paint, update the landscaping, and remodel the master bath), but I was starting to wonder what other potential home buyers think.

What kinds of things would make you really want to purchase a particular home, or what things are the major turn-offs?

If I was purchasing a new house, I would be looking for a good kitchen, decent bath and that the flooring is in good condition.

I can look past funny paint schemes, but a lot of people can't. So, make sure to pick neutral paint colors. :)


.....Kelly :)

When we were house hunting, we looked at kitchen (especially appliances), bathrooms, floors, windows, heat pump, and yard. I liked houses that looked homey, but some were just so cluttered that all I could think about was the amount of stuff people had in them. We have a ton of stuff in our house now, but when we go to sell, we're taking a lot and putting it in storage to make the house clutter-free. I also remember liking the houses that smelled like baked goods (definitely not a deal-maker or breaker, but it made it seem homier to have the scent of apple pie or cookies).

If you're painting, go for neutrals, but I wouldn't make a special effort to paint unless you have bold colors or bad walls.

When we look for a house in the future, I know we're definitely looking at storage space. Our little 1918 house didn't originally have closets, so our closets are teeny additions on the rooms. I need a much bigger closet!

I look for the obvious stuff. I also know a great home inspection. If selling, get one done by a REPUTABLE home inspector. Keep this on file. He can tell you what you should fix to bring it to code, to make it look better, and/or simply improve things. Your realtor should make note of it in the listing.

Floor plan and good bones are keys for me. A good coat of paint and a bit of elbow grease can fix about anything if the price is right.

If I am going for a house at market price or near it, I want little to no maintanance work. I want to see that the home has been well cared for. I want to see that the homeowners have a lifestyle of cleanliness. Is there a good smell?

I look at the plugs. Are the squarely set? Did the contractor just hurry through the job as fast as they could throw the house up at the time.

Are the light switches dirty? That's a turn-off.

Are the windowsills clean?

Is the paint PROFESSIONALLY done?

Did the homeowners do the little things? If they did, it's a good chance they have taken good care of the house.

Thing is, you need to remember your top-out. That is, what is the maximum asking price for your property. If your potential profit is going to be seriously eaten up in the remodeling, you'd be better off to do some mild repairs. OFFER A DECORATING/PAINTING/CARPET ALLOWANCE IN THE LISTING.

I've bought two houses and sold one.

When buying each house, we got home inspections done, and we got credits at closing for some necessary repairs.

If you are preparing a home for showing:
- Be sure all major repairs are done
- Be sure to declutter your house, and remove all personal effects like photos; make it look like a model, not a lived-in home
- Keep your driveway and front walk clear of snow (winter is coming)
- Don't be there when your house is shown

We just went through the home search process (we ended up building), but the things we were looking for included a lot of what others have said. We took particular interest in flooring.

Also if I were selling, I'd spend the $300 or so, and have the home inspected-- just so you know what's wrong with it, and fix any little (or big!) problems. That way you don't get an offer contingent on inspection that falls through because you have issues you weren't aware of.

One of the houses we put an offer on looked GREAT, until we got the home inspection. It was the worst our realtor had ever seen (including electricution risk in the pool.)

Just an idea to throw out there.

Good luck!

I'll state up front that I don't particularly care for the newer-built homes. The houses I've liked and/or bought were all built in the early 60's or older. So, some of the things that I've learned to look for are usually already corrected in the newer houses.

Must Haves:
-Plaster Walls! Not that garbage drywall stuff that falls apart when you try to hang something on it, or *horrors* try to remove nasty wallpaper. Obviously not something you can change, but this is my fantasy house.
-Updated electricity. Is there a circuit breaker or a fuse box? Can the electricity handle computers, televisions, microwave, air conditioning, washer, dryer, etc, etc?
-Energy savers: water heater, furnace, air conditioner, newer roof all good.
-Good structure, good flow to the floor plan.
-Built-ins, such as bookcases, office, and/or kitchen really thrill me, to the point where I've learned how to do some of this myself (thanks, Daddy!).
-CLOSET SPACE!!!! Can't state this strongly enough.
-Enough bathrooms/powder rooms. You can never have too many. And if one is in the basement or mudroom, take extra care that it's sparkling clean!


Deal Breakers:
-Trampoline in the yard. Someone who looks that hard for a lawsuit isn't someone who takes good care of his/her home. Same with too many toys, leaves, or snow in the driveway.
-Mildew smell! Won't even bother taking another step. The scent of cookies or such really doesn't mask it, but if you don't have a mildew problem, that smell really does work on the senses.
-So many trees that the place looks like a freaking forest! My current house has this, and no matter what I've done (as in removing most of them), I can't get the lawn to look right. Never again!
-Small thing, but burnt out light bulbs indicate a lack of home maintainance.


As was stated, a good home inspector will let you know what's good and what needs to be fixed (that's on both sides of the purchase). If something major such as a roof or carpeting needs to be replaced, an allowance should be made for it. Also, know ahead of times which appliances you're willing to sell with the house, and which you're not. That caught me off guard on my first house sale and probably cost me a higher offer.

If this helps, I once asked my cleaning service how they got my stainless sinks sparkle, and found out that they put baby oil in the cleaner (as in, pour about a tablespoon of baby oil in a bottle of 409 or Fantastic). And, it's great on the goop that's on faucets.

Good luck!

And for those white ceramic sinks, bleach and then turtle wax.

Be careful how much money you put into it because (I'm sure you know) the market in Michigan is dismal. Watch the "sell this house" type shows. They give a lot of good tips. Basically, they say you will get your money back plus out of bathroom and kitchen remodels. Of course, you want to make sure the major stuff works. Have the furnace inspected. I agree with the electrical system comments too.. if you have fuses now, have a circuit breaker system installed instead.

speaking of winter...how energy efficent is the house?

Insulation can go a looooong way to keeping electricity and heating bills down.

nothing worse than living in a house where central air and heating is out the roof because nothing is on the roof....hehe

In the same boat
 

I have a couple coming in from California to see my house. It was built in 1990, so it's not that old but I have:
- put on a new roof (thanks, tornado!)
-installed new carpeting upstairs
-replaced pink (PINK) kitchen countertops
-painted everything that doesn't move
-replaced all faucets - they were dated.
-decluttered - everything is in the barn.

and of course, most importantly - buried St. Joseph under the For Sale sign. Hey, you never know . . . :)

^^^
Yep, did that (bury St. Joseph), and within a month, sold the house. It had been on the market nearly a year before that. :)

I'm in real estate and I can tell you the two things that add value to a house are the kitchen and the master bed/bath. People tend to be able to look past some other stuff, but those tend to be dealbreakers if they aren't up to par for the buyer. Of course you want to make sure the house is structurally sound (roof, floor, etc) and make sure stuff works (AC/heat, plumbing, etc.) but those two areas I mentioned add a lot of value and are the two things people tend to focus on. When showing the house, it's helpful to not only have it be clean, but clutterfree - meaning, not a lot of personal knick knacks everywhere, etc. and neutral colors are great - that way, the buyer can see the house as a blank canvas so that they start thinking of their stuff in the house, hard to do if it's full to the rafters with your stuff.

I've never heard of burying St. Joseph under the For Sale sign - what is he the saint of? (I'm not Catholic, don't know my saints except for St. Francis since I'm in vet med).

He is Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus and a carpenter by trade. Info about supplicating to him to intervene in real estate endeavors can be found here.

Vet med and real estate? Do you also go to law school at Houston and DePaul? :confused:

My boyfriend and I have been looking for a house in his town forever and it's starting to intensify since I graduate in May and we have to get two apartments full of furniture and clothes in one place. Here's important things to us:

1) Closet space - and if there isn't a ton of space, at least make them well-designed. The house he rents where we lived this summer had California closets, but they weren't designed for a woman because there was nowhere to hang a dress, so all my dresses went into our coat closet. :rolleyes:
2) Updated kitchen - we want an older house, but at least make sure your cabinets and countertops and floors are younger than we are. I'd also rather have a dishwasher than extra cabinet space
3) Bathrooms with storage - those pedestal sinks are really cute and good for a guest room - not so much the master bath
4) New windows
5) Newer furnace, roof, water heater
6) A yard that's either blank, really traditional landscaping, and preferably lots of trees - we keep looking at houses that have really expensive landscaping that we think is really really ugly
7) No wallpaper!
8) A garage with storage space - even if it's just a one car, make it look like we could easily store a lot there
9) Try and get neutral colors whenever possible - there's a house we love with a perfect home office for us but that was used a nursery last and is electric blue with a truck border. We keep looking at the house and then thinking of home many times we'd have to paint that room before it'd be useable.

I just bought a townhouse in April, and here are some of the important things for me:

What is going to need replaced in the next couple of years? i.e. how old is the roof, the furnace, AC, etc. I went for a house with an ugly master bath, but had a new roof, new AC, new furnace and newer appliances.

Neutral colors. One house I looked at had painted everything (including vents) various colors that were not at all neutral. The master bedroom was a dark salmon, including the ceiling.

If there's anything that would be a major pain in the butt to fix - there was Venetian plaster in both bathrooms that was on THICK, and, had various nautical themed knicknacks drilled into it. It would cost a fortune in time and/or money to make it decent.

Landscaping- keep it simple. I have a townhouse, so there's not much yard, but I didn't want anything too frou-frou for upkeep.

Trees are good -both for keeping it cool in the summer and in giving some privacy.

Little things can make a big different- replacing light fixtures, for example. Not a big cost, but they keep the buyer from focusing on something that's potentially really ugly.

If you have any sort of "collections" - put them away. The woman I bought my townhouse from had various frog items everywhere. It was ridiculous and turned into a joke as to how many frogs we could find in the house.

Thanks everyone for the comments (keep them coming!).

Most of the items mentioned we have taken into consideration, but a few people brought up quick fixes and/or cleaning suggestions that I probably would not have come up with on my own!

AGDee - Yes, the market in MI is terrible right now which is why we are hoping to sell in a year or so and capitalize on a good deal when we buy. We've already seen many houses that would probably be out of our price range if not for the fact that their prices are reduced, too. We are trying to only put money into things that may help us get a better profit (ie - kitchen and baths), but my husband is doing most of the work on his own so we are saving a lot of money there!

My absolute dealbreaker is a smoker house, and I know I'm not alone. My grandma had smoked in her house for 20+ years. Before we could sell it, we had to re-paint and re-carpet the ENTIRE house so that it didn't reek of cigarettes. There are a few houses my husband and I have looked at in the area that on paper were perfect, but we took one step into them and I got a horrible headache. By the time we left, our clothes stank.

Oooh, this reminds me -- Cat houses! (No, not cathouses, simply houses with stinky cats.)

We looked at one house. The lady had two cats. It stunk like nothing else. We finished looking at it since it was a very common floorplan and we wanted to just see what it looked like. But, I knew in 15 seconds of being in the house that we wouldn't touch it.

Some people can keep their houses smelling fine. This woman had 2 tomcats that marked their scent thoughout the house. No amount of paint, etc. was gonna get rid of that.

Man, my deal breaker is when there is only one tree or (on acreage) sparsely treed. Shade is good for cooling in the summer and wind breaks in winter.

One thing that I always look at over and above the house. Check out the neighbors and the neighborhood. Houses can be repainted, rewired, recarpeted, added on to, etc. You can change your house, but, you can't change your neighbors.

Eighteen trees on 1/3 of a half-acre = lotsa mold/mildew. I kept the 100-year-old rhodedendron, the holly & the ivy - but the back of the house was looking like something out of a horror movie!

I know, I wear many hats ;) I'm new in real estate and I do vet med and petsitting on the side to make extra money. I also had a stint in radio advertising, lol.

Mainly the kitchen and baths are so important to anyone buying a house. I know i havent had expierience in buying a house yet since im still renting while im in school, but i love to see other houses and watching shows about design and remodeling, and after seeing so many things, i know personally what i would want in a house.

like most other people have said, make sure the kitchen and baths are clean and updated, make sure the carpet isnt full of stains (get a steam cleaner in there and really work out any stains you might have) and also make sure the walls arent painted crazy colors.

as far as decorations and stuff, dont have too much clutter, and make sure all storage areas/closets/garage is neatly organized to show off the full potential of the areas and what they can hold.

try not to have too many personal items around the house so potential buyers can see their own things in the house.

GOOD LUCK!

Must Haves:
- Semi-modern Kitchen and Master Bath (or at least updated within the last dozen years or so)
- Storm/Energy efficient windows
- Up to date Electrical
- Storage

Deal Breakers:
- Out-dated or bad electrical
- Out-dated or bad plumbing
- Structural issues (foundation, roof, etc.)
- Mold
- Electric heating only

Now all that being said one thing I'd always consider is potential, if there are some issues and such but they are something I can deal with in the 5 years after purchase then those things aren't as bad - basically being able to look at the "bare bones" of the house and evaluate it's current "amenities" (afterall some crappy houses can be dressed up and full of luxuries).

So basics for increasing "purchasablity" while being inexpensive?
- Neutral tone pait jobs in primary areas
- New electrical covers and switches
- A really good cleaning of any tile work
- A really good cleaning of any rugs
- "Clearing" the house out, which basically means reducing the clutter and/or junk stored in the house (pack'em up and toss'em in storage somewhere)
- Any other cheap cosmetic changes to 'hardware'

Basically you want to give both the impression of a well cared for and maintained house, while creating an enviroment that makes it easier for the buyers to invisage themselves there (some people lack imagination so distracting colours and personal knick-knacks can be off-setting).

My fiance and I bought a house two months ago. my mom is a realtor so I got to use her MLS to search for potential homes.

My must haves originally were:
3 bedrooms (but wanted 4). I work from home and one bedroom was going to be an office
2 baths
Prefer hardwood floors but not complete deal breaker
2 car garage
Brick exterior (maintenance free!! and great for heating/cooling!)
Closet space....

The house we purchased was on hte market for over a year. There were some minor issues, we even had a structual engineer out to look at the house to make sure they weren't huge, and the house was empty when we looked at it.
The thing about the house we bought is it had great potential but horrid choices made for it.

For example-
The family room has paneling that had been painted. At some point we will replace it, but honestly it was painted a creamy color which emphasized it was paneling. There is one wall of windows in that room, so I painted it a chocolate color and it de-emphasized the paneling and made the room much more cozy and intimate.
The kitchen was blood red. Hideous!! The knobs on the drawers and cabinets were tomatoes, carrots, peas and peppers... as were the light switch plates. Even though that isn't a huge thing, we had to spend over $140 to replace them because they were so ugly. The cabinets were painted white so we went with plain chrome ones, they were the cheapest and it still cost that much!!
The closets had the bifold doors and at some point she had removed all the doors- (I hate bifold anyway) but now our closets are all wide open. We are making curtains to use until after the wedding at which time we are getting sliding closets doors.

Little things, like updated doors (6 panel doors look much better than flat ones) and knobs (brass looks old). Little touches would have made the difference in this house. Instead of getting the additional 10k they were asking for it we got the house for a steal and are doing work on our own. So long as the bones are there you can make the house work for you.

That being said, we are a young couple- know your market in your area. If it is going to be a couple with a few kids they won't want to do the work we have to make the house how they like it.

And keep the yard minimized if you aren't going to upkeep elaborate plant and landscape designs. Our yard was overrun and we had to basically pull everything up.

Not sure if that helps, but I am still working on getting our house to be home. It's going faster than I thought but very time consuming!

eta- Also as for neighbors/neighborhood- when we bought the house, next door the house was only mostly taken care of, but there was chipped paint and a gutter falling down. It looked awful. Within two weeks of us working on our house the guy living there gixed both issues!!! And his son moved out which menat fewer cars next door!

Me and my boyfriend just bought a house together, it's one of those one story townhomes. Built in 2002, so there's not much that needs to be done as far as updating stuff goes. I do plan on pulling up all the pine straw in the little backyard we have and putting rocks in instead, maybe some potted plants and a fountain. They already put in ceiling fans, an electric fireplace, and a storm door on the front. Paint color is a pretty nice choice too, and there is already crown molding and floor molding (I guess you'd call it). It's in great shape and the HOA takes care of front yard maintenance. Now for a UGA garden flag in front, and we'll be done! Well, that, and a nice big yellow ribbon on the front porch light for him since he'll be deploying here soon... Supposed to close mid-Dec. Wish us luck!

Resurrecting this thread for more up to date ideas.

I looked at more than 50 apartments before our last move. There are a gazillion apartments here that range from cooler than you can imagine (as below)
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...87306945_n.jpg to just bizarrely bad, but they're all either great location, good price and CRAP, seriously the most bizarre floor plans you can imagine, or they're awesome and too much. Or they're too much AND they're crap. We ended up surrendering location for price. Our deal breakers? balcony (hubs isn't allowed to smoke inside), dishwasher, square or rectangular bedroom, minimal exterior noise, reasonably large square footage and at least one electrical outlet in the bathroom. We had to buy extra kitchen cabinets and a couple closets from IKEA, and medicine cabinets and towel racks because the brand new apartment was a little shy on the finishes, but the place is big and cheap, by Dubai standards anyway.

I have a couple of friends looking now, but when we bought our last house the kitchen was a big deal every time. A lot of the new houses in our area had galley style kitchens - no good for people who like to cook. A couple had beautiful gourmet kitchens with a couple odd things - like a giant beautiful six burner gas range in the corner with no adjacent counterspace behind where the traffic pattern from the door outside? It looked nice, but it wasn't very practical, and would have cost big bucks to change it.

Bad wallpaper or repainting on the other had is a relatively easy fix.

The deal breaker for us was traffic patterns. Be sure you check out the area and zoning nearby. We looked at one house that was nice, but backed onto the state highway, which was not a big deal just 4 years ago, but is now.

At our last house in the US, we had to tear out all the cabinets because the corner unit was one of those where you had to have Stretch Armstrong arms to get into the back of the very deep base cabinet. In any case, the sink wasn't aligned with the window above it, so they had to come out regardless. I could not live with the window and sink being off by 3 inches. I also replaced the oddly small cabinets with the up to the ceiling kind and got loads more space. I will never understand why people choose anything but the most cabinet space available. You can't really be that cheap to save something like $20 per cabinet in a kitchen that small. And it was TEENSY but man, by the time we sold it we had that sucker efficient. I ended up installing a dishwasher (bought from Habitat ReStores), replaced garbage disposal, new full size gas stove (replacing dorm size), new fridge (Sears outlet), new cabinets, ceiling fans, counter tops (bright blue - very cute in such a small kitchen) and paint and all of it done DIY, thank you very much. The only thing I didn't replace was the vinyl flooring. It really needed it but it would have needed to be done at the time of the cabinet replacement and I didn't think of it until a year later. I decided it was an homage to the 70's and chose to live with it.

Real Estate
 

It surprised me that not one of the comments has hammered the classic three - location, location, location. Only the owner knows if he/she is selling the classic three. However; whereever your home is located, look for what the location has to offer and include that in your sales plan. With gas again escalating in price - nearness to mass transporation, airports, and downtown business districts may trump modernization on the interior of the house. At the very least it could give you a valuation to support a move to a less mass "location" appeal area.

Just checked back to see the origination date of this thread. Hope your home - listed in 2007 - sold long before the last "crash". I enjoyed reading this thread.

Beta: I read this thread with interest. While we're not selling.....its location that counts the most...everything else can be changed.