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House Buying Technique Question

Just curious while I'm watching "House Hunters" on HGTV... ever notice that no one takes notes about the homes while viewing them? The read question... did you take notes or not while home hunting? Thx

Reply to
Jane
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I being a bit of a nerd created a spreadsheet form that listed all the stuff like room sizes condition garage etc.. size in small narrow large etc not

10x 13'. I also took digital pictures of the houses and posted them on my website that way family and friends could help me choose I could also go back and compare 2 bedrooms etc side by side with pictures. You do need a wide angle lens for most pictures.

Wayne

Reply to
wayne

Durn tootin' I did! Some of the RE people didn't like it, esp if the owners were around, but a house is a big purchase; let it bother them, i figured.

Reply to
Pop

No, looked at many houses before we bought the one we got. It was simple! We did not like any we saw 'till we saw this one! Don't need to take notes for that! Greg

Reply to
Greg O

Keep in mind that the home tours you see on "House Hunters" are staged. It is obvious from the comments the homeowners make and the way they "look" at the rooms that it is not the first time they have been in the homes (they never look in closets, open a window, walk all the way into a bathroom, walk all the way around the perimeter of the room, etc). They have surely already seen the home and figured out what comments they will make for the camera, and probably took notes at that time.

When we recently purchased a home, the real estate agent suggested we bring our digital camera to take pictures. I had considered that before she mentioned it, but thought I shouldn't because it felt like an invasion of the homeowners property to me. In the end we did bring our camera, but only photographed the interior of the house we knew we were going to bid on.

Reply to
Tracey

Hi, Why don't you design and have one built? I have done it 4 times B4 we got it right, LOL. It's learning experience. You should take notes of course, and if needed go back to the house of your interest and double check and also don't forget house inspection. Few hundred bucks well spent for the service. Most important when house hunting is location. Tony

Reply to
Tony Hwang

"Jane" wrote in news:ck4ork$ snipped-for-privacy@news.icubed.com:

I think it depends on the person doing the walkthrough. My wife needs to take notes, but I manage to get by without.

My suggestion -- take a digital camera if the owners allow it, and be sure to sketch out the basic floor plan on a notepad. Final decisions require the detailed examination of a professional house inspector -- and be sure to follow them around as they do the inspection. When doing a final inspection be sure to look under (or move) the furniture -- many times they are strategically placed to cover flooring damage. Also, any bath mats in shower enclosures or tubs should be lifted out to see if tub damage is being hidden underneath (personal experience here).

One other thing I have learned -- look at the "details" of the house, not the paint colour or furnishings. The decorating style of the current owners is unimportant, but you *really* need to know if the house has been well or poorly maintained for the last decade. Just walking into a room and looking in the closets won't really tell you much of anything. Get down on your hands and knees to look under and behind things. Look at the ceilings in every room, look under the deck, look underneath every sink, look behind every toilet, look behind every door, look behind every window blind. It's amazing what you can find.

Reply to
Murray Peterson

Hi Jane,

About 2 years ago I spent some 2 months searching for a house in my area. I did take some notes, but I also took TONS of digital pictures. I hesitated at first, because it's kind of weird taking pictures of someone else's house with their stuff in it, but my real estate agent said it's very common.

So.. after several months of hunting I had a nice collection of photos to help me remember which houses were which. Granted many I looked at early on had already sold, but this helped me pickout what I liked about each house and gave my agent a better idea of what house I was looking for.

The house I bought wasn't exactly what I had invisioned, but I still have those pictures I took... and I'm getting some awesome ideas from them to get my house the way I want.

Hope this helps,

Sam

Reply to
Alex

Nope. I walked into one (1) building with the Real Estate agent, and bought that one.

Ok, granted it was a decommissioned Masonic Temple (Charity Hall #42), with a 40' throne-room with 12' ceilings and a dias..... :-)

--Goedjn.

Reply to
default

Nope. I'm too busy observing and inspecting for flaws. No sense taking notes if there are water issues or lots of things in disrepair. If it looks like a house that meets my standards I'll return with a more thorough house inspection (termite damage, attic leaks, foundation problems, drainage, appliance checks, insulation, rot, neighborhood issues, radon test, landscaping, etc,etc.) I found I can do a house inspection at one tenth the cost of paying an inspector, and I do just as good a job if not better. Sorry about the stereotype, but many women who house hunt focus on the kitchen, bath, and style.

Reply to
Phisherman

Well, I'm a woman who didn't get too hung up on kitchen, bath, and style :-)

Honestly, I think HGTV "House Hunters" features a lot of "sport" house hunters - people who just like poking around under a pretense of house hunting. I also suspect that these programs are a vehicle to boost home decorating and paint businesses. I mean, even as a naiive home buyer ten years ago I knew that I'd put in the flooring and colors I liked. I didn't expect desperate job-hunters and retiring folks in their '70s to have already done my fixing up. Jees.

I didn't take notes - a looked at a lot of houses in a week in a very down market right after the local big firm had had massive layoffs. Of all some-dozens of the houses I looked at came down to only three choices due to pretty much three things: location specifics, layout specifics (I wasn't in for big renovations), overall condition. And that's even after my agent did a decent job of only choosing houses with my overall requirements (price range, certain aspects of location, bedroom number, attached garage, no pool, lot size range, a few other things) to show me.

Banty

Reply to
Banty

AND did you ever notice that there is always a camera in the room when they enter it. If not we wouldn't be able to see them. :-) Seriously, the thing that always amazes me is they supposedly buy the house without ever getting an inspection. Not a smart move. The same channel also has a show with a home inspector, why don't they get him?

*-------------------------------* NEVER FORGET!!!
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Reply to
jtees4

What great responses!!!! Thanks.

I was just wondering since I'm quite anal retentive and took lots of notes both times. Yes, I realized how stiff the show was, was just wondering what real people did. Here's the summary:

7 took notes (includes the picture takers) 5 didn't take notes.
Reply to
Jane

Taking a poll? I did both on my last house hunt. We looked at lots of houses. In many cases I walked through the door and though NO. In that case, no notes needed. For the few houses we did consider, we took notes. Digital cameras were not invented yet but we did take a photo or two of a couple of the houses high on the list.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

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