Buying a house ...

[thetygerlily]

+ a zillion to hiring a qualified inspector. If you have parents, friends, or family that you trust bring them along as well. The fact that my dad was wowed the construction of our latest home (from 1961) over his 1987 home spoke volumes.

Think about how long you are going to stay there, and what is negotiable in terms of location, layout, lot size, amount of light, updates required, etc. After being in our house for a year and a half now I've realized that having a bathroom off the bedroom is no longer negotiable. We have always had that, both in our condo (still own as a rental) and previous apartment... I didn't know how necessary it was until now. The other item I've realized is that I don't like the bedrooms split between floors- we have 2 up and 2 down, and now that we are getting closer to having kids I am suddenly worried about where kids' bedrooms would be. We're thinking of various remodeling options to give me what I want while staying in the same house, because I'm not willing to budge on location and we love our lot size & position. When we were looking, I had been focused on entertaining space (living/kitchen/dining) because that was lacking in our condo, but our bedroom situation there was fine so I didn't even think to consider it. Whoops!

Oh, and that huge yard that is so nice? Remember that someone has to mow the lawn, weed, etc. Some people love that and some don't.

ETA- if you are looking in an area that has many of the same floorplans over and over again (most neighborhoods, really)- if you find one you like, check out others with the same floorplan. Chances are they will have slight differences that may help you figure out how you can best utilize the space. In ours, we saw extra bedrooms, custom storage, mother-in-law suites, the works. None are in the one we chose- but it was nice to see the possibilities & creativity out there.