Home buying what are some of the main factors you look for?

What exactly are you trying to say? That a realtor made you buy a property in a bad area?

Well maintained lawns in the neighborhood.

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Be nice and courteous but always remember they are snakes and they will bite you without warning

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Realtor's are artsy people and usually extremely stupid

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The further you bend over, the more they'll put in.

Sounds like you grabbed dem ankles..

I've only bought one house and don't intend on buying another for a few years at least. We bought a foreclosed home at the front end of the housing crisis and didn't go through a realtor and the attorney with the bank handled the closing. I didn't even go to the closing, just signed the paperwork the next day.

Looking back, it was more house than we needed, and really more house than we need now, and probably should have flipped it after a few years. We just started some major upgrades and we will probably talk about downsizing once they're complete. We really like the location though, but there are some more modest homes a block away we'd probably look at.

My priority list :

1. Location
2. Backyard - must have room for kids and dog and a deck/patio for grilling and entertaining.
3. Gas stove
4. Some type of bonus room for either a playroom or office/den.

That's about it.

If I had it to do over I would find the least expensive home I could live with in a good, clean neighborhood. The keeping up with the Jones's mentality of needing bigger, better and more is foolish in retrospect. I could retire much sooner if I had some of those house payments back. And I have realized that granite counters don't make my life measurably better.

So price and location are tied for number 1.

As for realtors, be clear up front that you will not allow duel agency - what a joke.

Zombie defense.

my personal priority list:

1. high vaulted ceilings (higher the better): I despise low ceilings on a house. it feels stuffy and I feel like I'm trapped in an pos apartment.

2. large living room. I don't really care about the size of bedroom because I'll only sleep in it.

3. brick at least on the front side of the house

4. location and demographics. upper middle class white people preferred.

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I bought my first house last year. I felt like realtor didn't put much hours into it at all and I thought it was an easy 3% cut he made.

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Buyer's agents don't get a cut, do they? I thought they only did that in hopes you would use them when you're ready to sell.

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We were also screwed because we were stupid and didn't get something in writing when we purchased the lot for our current house. The drainage ditch for the neighborhood runs along our property line, and were told it would that culverts would be put in and everything would be covered. That never happened.

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Sounds like we have some common ground our second home had a small portion on the far corner of our yard that fell into a zoned 100 year flood plane and it was supposed to be omitted out.

Overlooked and was forced to purchase FEMA flood insurance for $550.00 a year.

I look to make sure that the Sheetrock is square, that corners and angles are straight, that floors aren't buckling in places, that bricks aren't cracking. I look to see if the warranty is still valid. I make sure the contractor wasn't D.R. Horton. I check zoning regarding co-habitation in case I decide to move and use that home as a rental property in the future. I also check for wetlands designations, flood zones, and requirements for corps permits.

Some features I look for:

Large shade trees in the yard. If I have kids, it will be much tougher to convince them to play outside if there's no shade.

Proximity to work. I don't want to have to commute more than 30 minutes one way in traffic to work every day.

Good School districts. While this may become less of an issue as I grow older and advance in my career to the point that I can pay for private schooling, if I had a kid today, there's no way I could afford to send it to private schools.

Sidewalks/safe streets. If I live on a busy street that's not in a rural area, there should be a sidewalk. If it's a safe street to walk on, a sidewalk is a plus, but not required.

Shady (not sketchy) neighborhood. For my future kids, I want them to be able to have friends in their neighborhood growing up, like I had with my cousin who live next door when I was young. Kids don't play outside in track-home neighborhoods because there's no shade. It's too damn hot! However, kids do still play outside in shady neighborhoods. So, if I want my kids to have other kids to play with outside, the neighborhood should have plenty of shade.

Large Backyard. This is important since if it's not already fenced in, I would be fencing it in so I can have a dog. I'd like there to be plenty of room to run back there. Eventually, I'd probably be adding a porch, outdoor kitchen, maybe a gazebo with a fire pit, and possibly a swimming pool. If my backyard's the size of a postage stamp, I can't do any of that.

A huge bonus would be water frontage. If I can launch a boat from my backyard (even a small rowboat like on the LSU lakes), it's a huge plus. Someday, I will at least have a camp on the water. If my home can serve that purpose, then I kill two birds with one stone.