My wife and I grew up with parents who all did real estate, either as realtors (her mom) or investment properties (all of our parents) for decades. We have watched our parents buy, rent, and sell and have rented, bought, and sold dozens of homes over our lives. I moved a lot as a DoD dependent, active duty serviceman, and ping-pong ball all over the US and the world.
We’ve never seen a price point environment like this, where base home prices have surpassed the capacity of most families to buy a home, so you’re in a great position just being able to qualify. This is a sad commentary on the market, but just the way it is.
First thing I look at is 2A friendliness and crime rates in the area, as a father/male protector/provider. That’s our first role. I also look at the crime rate trends. I used to do a lot of surveillance and electronic/internet pre-surveillance work-ups, so I apply those skills before looking at the MLS.
Biggest contributor to crime is demographics, no other way around it. School districts are just who sucks the least, which is not satisfactory to us, so we have home-schooled the 3 younger kids. My 2 older ones are adults, who went to private and study-abroad programs. One is married already. Home-schooling saves you big time in gas and outside-of-home fees, while also costing you in things you have to pay twice for. It’s worth it for the sanity of your offspring and family, especially given the lack of academic rigor that has been trending in schools for the past 120 years.
Next look at traffic. Traffic trends can go from quiet and free to congested in a matter of 2 years, which is what happened with our last move/area. For the Northeast, you probably are already well-aware of the deep freeze, icy roads, and ice storm conditions that can affect rural roads if you find a nice secluded location.
If you’re looking at more suburban neighborhoods, traffic and access to grocery shopping, auto services/repair, dentists, hospitals, fire stations, restaurants, and recreation are huge considerations. For example, shooting ranges are a big deal for me due to how much I shoot, and I pretty much shoot outdoors exclusively.
The House and Land
The parcel needs to be well-graded, which is the first thing most inspectors and appraisers look at. If the driveway grades down from the road into the garage, that’s not a good start. If the parcel is near high-power wires or towers with RF antennae, you don’t want to live near there due to EMF and its effects on tissue, aberrant cellular replication, and resulting cancers. I also don’t like the power boxes on the park strip if I can help it.
I don’t like narrow streets with no room to park for guests, and I like wide driveways with room for our vehicles to get in and out or park.
Make sure the parcel doesn’t have
easements or trails in-use through it if you don’t want a headache to deal with.
I like the house to be far enough from the road, not right up on it like a lot of these new greedy developer cookie-cutter lots and plans that have been built over the past few years.
Check the geological engineering in your area to see that there isn’t bad soil with lots of erosion and major foundation settling. Some lots have creeks that ran through them that aren’t disclosed to all the buyers, for example. Also check that you don’t live in a chemical run-off zone from prior industrial plants. We came across homes that were affected by all of the above reasons, none of which were even known to the realtors or inspectors.
House
Biggest thing about the physical house itself is the foundation, after the land and grading is squared-away. Builders nowadays only care about quick-fixes, so they want in and out ASAP due to time value of money and labor. (Money going down, labor going up)
Foundations need to be poured on good footings and compacted earth, otherwise you get a lot of cracks and settling. There is always going to be settling, but you don’t want cracks that grow beyond 1/4”-1/2" in height for your foundation. The path to our porch has sunk about 2” so far, huge crack between it and the steps, for example. It will need to be lifted with foamcrete services.
Next is the framework or brickwork. Brick is probably out unless you find an existing structure, which are common in PA. For your framing on existing homes, you don’t want termites or black mold. For new builds, framers are cutting corners like I’ve never seen before nowadays. Terrible work is the norm, sadly. I’ve probably walked through 150-200 new-builds over the past 4 years just looking at the construction “quality” as they go up in areas around me. A lot of craftsmanship was lost post-2008 with the crash caused by Congress, putting a lot of legacy builders and contractors out of the market who never came back.
One thing I do like about the more modern floor plans though are large walk-in closets and kitchen pantries. For your kitchen, make sure it accommodates traffic well, otherwise you’ll be squeezing past each other between the fridge and island countertop, which can cause a lot of points of conflict and frustration in one of the most important rooms of the house.
A top-quality inspector will go through the house thoroughly and write-up a deficiency list. The last inspector we used had thermal imaging cameras to assess insulation efficiency in the attic, took HD photos of everything and plugged it into his report, was very thorough and really nothing like I had seen before dealing with inspectors.
Pay for the best, don’t skimp on your inspector.
One of the main things you’ll have in mind as a buyer are the number of bedrooms and bathrooms you want. Don’t bite off more than you can chew, and get what fits your planned family. Another thing common with some of the newer SFR builds is 3-car garages with the main and a smaller attached side garage. Those are big selling points to consider.
IF YOU GO WITH A BUILDER
GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING!!!
SOME OF THEM WILL SCREW YOU OVER FOR SPORT
