First Time Home Buyers: Searching for that Perfect Home

I am excited to say that I purchased my first home last month! Oh, and I'm also excited about receiving that $8,000 tax credit next year! Buying a home was definitely a new experience for me-an experience that I didn't think would pan out at times, but in the end, I got the house that I wanted. Hopefully, there are plenty of other first-timers out there looking to take advantage of the good deals in this market. NOW is definitely the time to buy! If you are a virgin to house hunting, there are many things you will come to learn, one of which is "ONLINE DECEPTION!"

During your first couple of days of looking at houses online on sites like Trulia and Realtor.com, you're going to find SEVERAL homes that look outstanding. You're probably going to bookmark each one and email them to your newly attained realtor and you're going to want him/her to take you to every single one of these houses. If you make this request, the realtor will probably oblige, but they probably won't be too enthusiastic about it. You need to remember one vital thing when looking at houses online . . . even the ugly ones have at least ONE glamour pic! I remember the very first house listing I was excited about. It was a spacious 3/2 house with a garage and a fenced yard, and it was only 10 years old. There was only two photos for this listing. The first photo was a view of the exterior of the house, which looked to be in great shape. The second photo was of the living area, with a slight view of the kitchen/breakfast bar. Everything looked great . . . so far, so good. I HAD to see it, especially since it said it was in Winter Park, Florida. If you are not familiar with central Florida, Winter Park is known for being one of the nicer areas in this region.

After looking over this listing and already imagining living in that house, I requested to my realtor that this be the first house he drive me to.

The next day, he drove me over to this alleged "perfect" house. It was on this day that reality set in! First off, I quickly realized that it was BARELY in the Winter Park zip code. They say that even the nicest cities have at least one bad area . . . well, this was it. The development was absolutely filthy. There was garbage all over the roads. Upon arriving at the house, I noticed the house to the left. This neighboring house was in dire need of a paint job and the yard looked as if it had not been mowed in ages. There were 4 cars parked on this extremely tall grass, all of which appeared inoperable. One car had shattered windows. The other three were dirty, rusty junkers that were most likely never going to go anywhere. To top it all off, there was a shirtless male sitting on the hood of one of these cars, smoking a cigarette and drinking some sort of malt liquor (at 11AM, mind you). He looked over at me and chuckled to himself. He was probably thinking "Another sucker conned by a pretty online pic! What a fool!"

The unsightly neighborhood was more than enough to turn me off, but I wanted to check the inside of the house out, anyways. So we went inside and the horror continued. Just like the online photo, the living area looked very nice; HOWEVER, the rest of the house . . . not so much. Upon walking into the kitchen area, I noticed that the fridge and stove had been ripped out and there were three pieces of broken tile on the floor. I then entered the master bedroom and noticed that two of the windows were broken and the carpet was virtually covered in paint and crayon. I then peeked into the closet and saw a bloody T-shirt and a steak knife. What the heck??

To humor myself, I continued on with the inspection and wandered into one of the guest bedrooms, where I discovered a HOLE in the ceiling. And just the like the other bedroom, the carpet was covered in paint and stains. Moments later, I took a look at the common bathroom. SEVERAL shower tiles were missing . . . there was a hole in the wall . . . and the toilet was filled up with some sort of black gravel? Oh, and that "fenced yard?" Yeah, more like a fenced bush and block of concrete. There was barely enough room for a grill out there.

So . . . as you can probably guess, I didn't make an offer on this house. The point of this story is to do extensive research when you find something promising online. I highly recommend that you do drive-by's of the houses of interest before you drag your realtor out there.

In many cases, you can determine right off the bat if you want the house by driving through the neighborhood. Plus, not only can you check out the neighborhood during a drive-by, you can also park at the house and check out most of the interior, as they usually leave all of the shades open so potential buyers can peek inside. You should be able to view at least 70% of the house by simply playing the part of a "peeping Tom." Of course, you should only do this if the house is vacant, otherwise, somebody may call the cops on you! If there is somebody at the home, then simply ask if you can take a quick look. Chances are, they own the home and want to sell it ASAP, so they should have no problem letting you have a quick look.

So, go ahead and bookmark those 20 "nice" homes that you found on the Internet . . . then pick a day to "spot check" all of them. When that day is over, you will come to find out that only 5 or 6 of those places are really worth checking out. Brilliant! You just saved your realtor about 15 wasted trips! Not to mention, you saved yourself some time, too, as you didn't have to take any time off from work to view these ungodly homes.

Good luck in your search!!