Aack, I just bought a house... today. Pretty please don't scare the pants off me!

You can't know everything there is to know. I think the best thing you can do is make sure you don't overextend yourself financially and/or have significant reserves to handle the unexpected.

I bought my first condo in Chicago back in 1996. I didn't need parking and specifically bought a place that didn't have any. Less than two months after I moved in, the condo association announced that it was buying the a nearby parking lot, but there weren't enough available spaces for every unit owner to get one. But I was going to have to pony up $20K in a special assessment anyway and get on the waitlist...and I didn't even have a car!

Long story short, I ended up selling that unit about 6 months later (before the special assessment was due) at a loss.

My best advice is to research issues you are concerned about yourself. Don't believe everything your Realtor tells you. Read those condo or home association bylaws carefully and make sure you can live with them.

my advice is to not count on making any major changes to your property without consulting with professionals. Seek out an architect who can do a feasibility check for you. Some will accept to doing zone checks, look into building codes, and give you approx. time line for the project for a lower fee than doing actual preliminary drawings. It's better to find an architect who has done similar work for someone else in your neighborhood. They can give you the most accurate information.

Don't be scared, Audrey. You probably bought near the bottom of the market (of course, depending on the circumstances in your area).

Monika, your friends could sell, but probably wouldn't recoup all of their costs thus far. Perhaps they can just get a roommate to help share expenses. It may not bring as much income as a new rental unit, but it may buy them some time to develop a better plan.

Luckily, no one I know is in this particular situation. The down market is delaying some moves and is throwing a wrench in my plan to make home improvements and straighten out my ugly credit card situation, but no one I know thankfully has to foreclose or short sell. Everyone is just kind of waiting it out.

Best advice I can give is buy something close to what you want, unless you are prepared to spend a lot of money renovating and maybe getting told off and having to put it all back the way it was.

Also the house reminds me of the Brady Bunch house.

Everything's a trade-off. I got a great location and our house has absolutely no curb appeal whatsoever, can't do anything about it, we bought a townhouse in a complex. Curb appeal has turned out to mean more to me than I'd originally thought it might.

And I wish I'd hired a structural engineer to get a second opinion. Trust yourself, and be as annoying as you need to be before you buy anything.

I had a house built in a suburban development about 5 and a half years ago. At the time, we were just so happy that someone was going to let us have a house, we didn't think about its investment potential. We assumed we would stay in it about 5 years and then take our nest egg and move on. Our neighborhood is riddled with foreclosures, so even though we have had realtors come over and tell us it is beautiful and even gave me some home staging referrals, we are stuck.

On the up side, they offered us an ARM when we were doing the financing and we turned them down. We are in a house that is well within our means. It is a good amount of space and hopefully we will be smarter the next time to sell this one and buy the next one at a better time.

I bought the first apt I checked and I do not regret.. It was love at first sight and the more time I spent more I am in love not only wt the apt but wt the neighbors and surrounding as well...

But the reason I bought the apt was a bad neighbor in my rental apt in UES.. as they say sometimes bad things turn into a good one, because of her I became a homeowner sooner than I originally planned (I was not financially ready).

I feel like it is like gambling.. You might fell in love wt the location but something unexpected happens or you do not get along wt ppl... I did a lot of online searching, read every website offers free advice, printed out lists to check...but then again, when it was time to buy something or researching in real life, I bought the first apt. Maybe it is luck (my friends thought I was crazy at the time)... but hey I am still happiest gal who owns the prettiest apt in the world :-))

Unfortunately I hear about people getting in over their head all the time. I work for a city and hear a lot of sad stories - people are often clueless or naive. If you are looking to buy a home, take home buying seminars. Get a referal on who to pick as an agent and loan officer. They are important! A good agent is supposed to educate you - they are supposed to be your advocates in the transaction. Part of the mess we're in is because agents, loan officers and many others were thinking about their pocket books instead of their customer's best interests. Educate yourself as much as possible before buying a home. Learn about the neighborhood - meet the neighbors before you sign papers! Have an inspecter and engineer look at the house. Make sure you understand how your loan works. Talk to a lawyer. Talk to a financial planner. Spend the extra time and money up front to save you a lot of time, money and heartache in the long run.

I am in the process of trying to buy my first co-op this month. (Well, I tried a few months ago, and the inane co-op board denied my application for spurious reasons; pretty sure it was housing discrimination but can't be positive and it would cost too much money to try to challenge it legally.)

In any case, the reason I'm trying to buy is because I have had to move *eight* times since 1996, because I have not been able to keep up with the rapid pace of gentrification in Brooklyn. I was born here, I'm not a transplant - so I remember pre-Giuliani New York, where Manhattan was expensive but Brooklyn was livable. Ah, but things changed with Rudy. Now we've only get the dregs of rent control left, and it's finally breaking me. I spend at least 70 - 80% of my income just on rent and utilities every years, and I can't do it anymore - I just can't. So, I'm investing every single dollar I have to buy an apartment and finally get out of the rent race.

I'm nervous about it, because I am not going to have any money in savings left -- at all -- in the biggest recession I've ever seen in my lifetime, and with an income that isn't stable (I'm self-employed) in a tenuous economy, I'm scared that I might be making the wrong decision. But all I've dreamed about for the last five years is being able to finally buy an apartment and finally be able to go to sleep every night not worrying that I'm going to wake up the next day and find out that I have to move *yet again* based on landlords raising rent overnight again.

Wish me luck -- I hope I don't end up regretting it.

Although I'm really happy with my place and I was very cautious when I bought it...I do feel like there was quite a bit of (good) luck involved. I think my major pieces of advice would be: 1) if you're buying a place as a home, you should be more focused on whether it will work for you as a place to live than its "investment potential"; yeah, it'll be nice if you make a lot of money but, ultimately, that has a lot more to do with the market--over which you have little control--than anything else. If it turns out that the market goes sour and the value of your property flattens...or, worse, decreases then at least you have a place that you like. 2) Pick a real estate agent whom you like (you will be spending a LOT of time with him/her) and trust and who doesn't intimidate you. If s/he is pushy or doesn't explain things well...turn tail and LEAVE.

@jplee , your comment is worrisome. I wish you luck, but hope that you reconsider buying with what you've outlined. You shouldn't have to spend everything you have and not have any savings...what if something breaks? What if you have an emergency medical situation and cannot work for a few weeks?

I just bought my first condo and I love it ... I lucked out with a lot, including the location. Living here, I have noticed that even in my lovely downtown neighborhood there are good streets and bad streets. I just happened to have ended up on of the good streets ... tree lined, not too much traffic or cut throughs. Anyway, I say that to say that you really need to try to spend time in the neighborhood and make sure that everything gels.

On a more technical note, you MUST check with the city (or county or other governing entity) to see what you can and can't do with a property, especially if there are things that you want to change right away. I'm Planner at a local city and I can't tell you how many people that I've talked to that say the phrase "...but I bought it that way" or "the realtor told me I could do x, y, and z". Check for yourself. Setbacks, parking requirements, backup distances, WHATEVER, could have changed since your house was built and you need to know the rules and regulations placed on legal (meaning it was permitted to be built originally) non-conforming (meaning it doesn't meet the code as its written today) buildings. There is a bunch that most cities do for these types of buildings but there are also rules ... like how much you can expand, how much you are allowed to demo, etc. So PLEASE take the time to check and you won't regret it! <3

I bought in 2000. Even though I live in Phoenix, one of the cities with highest foreclosure rate, we can get by with a tiny profit if we must sell.

I didn't do research as I should have, but I had a great agent who guided me through. I just knew that a smaller house is easier to sell and he guided me to one that is near a fantastic park and great school. I didn't get my dream house, but it was more important for me that the house will have good resale value.

A house is not just a place to live, but can possibly be an investment...but investments are not guaranteed. When I bought I thought of what could be the worst case and if I can work around it, not the best case to see how much I can get. I even got roommates (not for everyone, but worked for me) to pay my mortgage for a while.

@jplee...it doesn't sound like you are ready to buy. Please don't overextend. The stress is not worth it. Moving is a pain, but out of money is even worse!

Friends of mine live on a street where horrible illnesses have occurred. As far as I know, there is no investigation going on. The creek runs through the neighborhood but I don't know if this is the problem. There have been four incidences of brain cancer, one person with breast cancer and a person with almost no immune system left.
I have been in the real estate market but would have no knowledge of this except for the fact that I know people on this street. I have been asking questions about pests, foundation, structural and other standard things when I look at homes, but how do you find out about something like this?

My best advice to people is to truly consider the complete cost of home ownership. The mortgage is just one part. Utilities, maintenance, insurance, furnishing, etc. are all generally a lot more expensive than apartment living. If you can swing it, it's a wonderful feeling to own your own home. But it's not worth the anxiety if to get there you are living beyond your means.

In Australia most suburbs are divided into Councils or Shires and if you're looking at a particular suburb you can usually go to the council and ask to see any planned building, roadworks or submissions for that area/street etc. They will also provide you with planning permissions required and also advise if your block can be subdivided or not.

I also agree with previous comments, if you're looking to purcase a property for renovations, do a feasibility study first.

Personnally, I purchased my little apartment because I fell in love with it. The suburb is beautiful, the apartment building is 70% owner occupier and the buildng residents are a nice mix of young and old and nationalities (I discovered this by knocking on doors and talking to residents when I first viewed the property). I did however make sure I had a copy of the strata by-laws, minutes from previous meetings, annual reports and budgets for planned building works before I finalised the purchase. Hidden costs, particularly for apartments can cause serious financial hardship.

Well, obviously, if your place is small and someday you want to expand, find out what the restrictions are.

Please stop looking at a house exclusively as an investment. Look at it as a home, a place to put down your roots.

Check local property values through time, check comps. Do all the homework you can.

That IS the Brady Bunch house......cool!

Visit your desired house at several different times of day to get a feel for how the lighting is inside and the noise outside.

I bought my first house after viewing it twice mid-day only to move-in and learn about the schools buses (dozens of them) that roared by early in the morning and again in the afternoon.

Also, do a really good walk around the blocks that surround your home to get a feel for likely comps when someone comes to buy your house down the road. Do some additional research if your block of great homes ends up feeling like an oasis in the middle of less desirable housing.

I think the best plan is usually to buy a place that costs less than you can actually afford. Don't put special conditions on it like, "We'll be able to make the payments as long as we can build an adjacent property to rent out." I have plenty of friends who bought houses they can only afford as long as they have roommates or whose ability to make their mortgage payments depends on getting overtime and raises at work (which, for most people, aren't coming at the moment). I feel just awful that my friend with permanent roommates can't have a baby because there is no space and that she will have to share her kitchen with complete strangers forever but the other option - downsize to a place that would fit just her little family - is difficult for her ego to accept.

We bought last year and it was oh so stressful. It was the house I wanted, and we raked the owners over the coals to fix everything that the inspection called for, even down to repainting the exterior. In looking back I probably would have gone a tad bit smaller, but the price and neighborhood were great, cant complain on that.
Honestly, when are we going to get out of the "buy it and build/renovate phase"? I can understand doing your kitchen, bath, the floors, but sheesh if your gonna add a whole other level.....IT WASNT THE HOUSE YOU REALLY WANTED!

my husband and i have lived in the same apartment for years and have seen the house next to us sold 2xs. the problem? the neighbors! not us but the people who own our apartment and the people on the other side of the troubled house. these people are crazy!! we are talking loud music and fireworks kind of crazy. we call the police on them all the time. hubby and i feel like we want a neighborhood full-disclosure meeting when we buy a house. imagine spending everything on a place to be stuck between nutcases... makes me fearful of EVER owning a place!

Off topic but..can someone tell me where the house in the picture is located?

I second bigwavejen's motion: buy a little less house than the bank's willing to lend you money for. Then you have some flexiblity. Cash is king! Or so the saying goes.

You have to do all the research you possibly can, but you have to accept that there will always be surprises. I recently bought my first house and my surprises were (1) I needed an expensive new boiler that I hadn't budgeted for, and (2) my neighbours are the nicest, most welcoming, friendly people I could have wished for. And money can buy you a new boiler, but it can't buy you good neighbours. I suppose ultimately you just have to be a little bit lucky (and that's also hard to research).

I second the "don't trust relater's comments" about the changes they say you can make. Ever watch HGTV? They say it about every house. Rule of thumb is: don't count on moving or adding any plumbing, electrical or mechanical without incurring large costs. These are generally things you can't do yourself. Especially if you are buying a unit in a condo....you can't just move pipes around without affecting other unit owners.

Some things are just learned through experience. You could only be so prepared to buy your first place. I bought on the first floor between the lobby, elevator & stair. I thought, how convenient, more like how noisy!

That Brady Bunch house is my dream house.

We partially lucked out and partially benefited from my extensive house searching. In Canada there is mls.ca which now allows you to see all the properties in your neighbourhood of choice and what each of them are selling for. Even though we bought at the height (!) of the market, we actually ended up buying the absolute cheapest home on the market. It was not my dream house but post-partial renovation I love it (the kitchen/LR is done). A couple of things: I couldn't afford the house on my own, so my brother and I bought together (this is not an option for everyone). I bought in a neighbourhood I was very familiar with, close to a very happening street. Even though development has curbed off b/c of the recession prices in the 'hood have remained stable. Then we discovered they were knocking down a housing co-op and putting in a 1 acre park next door! I'm not sure how we would have found out about that. We did try to find out if rumours that the local strip bar being converted into a boutique hotel were true...and they were not. We bought anyway. Anyhow, we're young (mid-20s) and can hold on until the market recovers and/or the neighbourhood comes completely into its own.

I guess my advice would be that you have to make some compromises for your budget and be realistic about what you can afford, esp. if you are renovating. Also- could you live in the place if you couldn't renovate? Also- renovating is very, very stressful and takes basically twice as long as you think it will take. If you can't make the compromise then hold on on buying cause it's hard to get out of something bad.

Originally we were looking for a duplex but none were in our price range. We ended up with a 3 bd, 2 den, 3 bath townhouse with a deplorable layout...but good enough for us to have our own space and to have a roommate! Which we enjoy...for the extra cash and the company.

Excel Spreadsheet.

Pick some things that are important emotionally as well as the practical things like number of beds/baths, price, location, and sq. footage. Put them all into that excel spreadsheet. A friend told me to figure out the Price Per Square Footage, which I originally poo-poo'd. I finally did, just to shut her up, and it brought new light to my search.

A house that could "sound" good, when I looked at it strictly on ppsf for comparison- it was amazing. Helps to bring you back to ground zero.

I love my house and was very fortunate to purchase it eleven years ago when prices were still reasonable. The only issue I wish I had thought more about is location. My house is about 10 miles from downtown, and while there is transportation, I wish I was a little closer to grocery stores and my employer, especially on snowy days. As previously stated, there is more to purchasing a house than just the price - there are repairs, neighbors, and taxes. Don't overextend yourself, it isn't worth the stress.

when i was buying last year (also in Canada) my mortgage broker told me how much i would be approved for and i laughed at her. there was no way i was ruining myself financially for a house.

i bought a completely renovated bungalow with a finished basement at the top of my price range. but it is great on utilities and i can walk to work in 25 minutes (don't own a car).

best advice i can give anyone is to stay within your means. i remember seeing a show on HGTV where a young woman in Las Vegas who made about $20,000 k per annum (in Cdn dollars) was approved for a mortgage $20,000 more than what i was approved for (also in Cdn dollars). no matter how you look at it, that's insane!

Find a realtor you trust. But don't let them decide things for you! They show and advise, YOU decide. Ask them what town offices or whatever can answer other questions -- they are contractually obliged to tell you, if they are a selling agent and you are their customer.

Get a professional inspection. Try to be with the inspector when they work and pump them for info about the cost of repairs and what the ramifications are. (Try to get the sellers to fix anything you can get them to do, and don't buy a home that has serious problems you can't afford to deal with.)

Don't buy a fixer-upper that will make you unhappy until it gets fixed -- you won't have much time or money at first after closing costs and mortgage payments, especially if you buy at the high end of your price range. (If DIY makes you happy as a hobby, though, this may not be an obstacle.)

Shop around -- lots of porperties out there. Don't fall in love with the first thing you see and stop looking too soon.

Make a written check list of the things that matter to you, both wants and avoids. Look at the list while viewing every property. It's easy to be swayed by really good matches to 75% of the list forgetting the crucial issues that will make you sorry about a decision later. (Some things can be corrected later, but some can't.)

Remember that you probably will have to compromise. Just choose what compromises will be most tolerable. (I am living in a colonial style new construction home -- I am a contemporary style home lover. But I live in New England and contemporary is hard to find. The development we chose to build in is all colonial, we were kind of required to accept that if we wanted to live there (homeowner's association). My interior, though, is more or less casual contemporary and my backyard landscape will be kind of zen garden. So I can live with the colonial facade, even though it's not really what I prefer. If I had a true hatred for the style, though, maybe that compromise would have been intolerable.)

Do your research and THINK about it! Home buying should not be an impulse decision! (And seriously, if you don't have a solid, dependable income, face the reality that you should wait even though it may be your big dream. Having to move is a nuisance, declaring bankrupcy is a bigger one.)

jplee --

If you're already spending 70-80% of your income on rent - owning certainly won't be any cheaper.

You'd be better off moving to another part of the country where your income potential is equal or better and your housing costs will be far lower.

Whatever you do, don't get lured into an ARM or interest-only mortgage hoping that your home value goes up - that's a proven sure-fire road to disaster.

How do we know where to go within a city to find out about permits, laws, etc.
And what is the best way to really find a real estate agent or loan officer, when you have nobody who can refer one to you.

I started looking at houses a few months ago and the help along the process, I took the Excel spreadsheet idea to the next level: I made a map. I included all the basics like square footage, beds/baths, price, but I also added in the crime stats for the area (from the city's website), and walk score. This way, I can mix and match the different values and come up with any number of maps like this: http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/173/housemap.png where the size of the house is the walk score and the color is the price per square foot (red highest, green lowest). And then by taking the walk score of intersections around the city (since they don't have my city all mapped out like this), I can make a nice overlay to find the most walkable areas in town and focus my house search on those area: http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/1561/walkscore.png

I've been in the market for a house about 3 times over the last several years without buying. Each time I eventually withdrew because I felt the market was tremendously overpriced and didn't appreaciate being rushed into a very expensive purchase by the agents.

I think the key to a successful real estate purchase is patience. You must have enough patience to wait for the right house, to do the research on the neighborhood and municipality, experience the commute to and from work, and to carefully examine the condition of the house you want to buy. Though I would never buy a house without a home inspection, you can scout out a lot of dealbreaking house problems yourself by carefully examining the house during your visit.

Nothing pays like a surprise revisit. Park your car a block or two away, wear excercise clothes, and go on a nice, long walk through the area on a weekend afternoon. I once turned down a townhouse after I discovered that the next door neighbors parked a loud monster pickup truck outside the garage which the sellers hid by scheduling visits when the neighbor's husband was at work. The weekend morning garage band practice at the home across the street also didn't enhance things.

I live in a great city and a great housing market--surprising to hear right now, I know, but it is true. I plan to buy this summer/fall.

QUESTION: how did you approach neighbors to figure out if they were weren't crazy?

I have two places that i like with similar potential...the one i like a wee bit more has a neighboring house that is rather unkempt (unusual in the neighborhood)::peeling paint, unkept yard, etc. The other is a row house but the neighbors seem nice. I'm torn.

ltboatshow's idea of making a map is a great one. I've never bought a house before, but I did this for my last apartment search and it was really helpful. There's an even easier way to make a map, though: use Google maps. If you have a google account (Gmail, etc.) just go to http://maps.google.com while you're logged in, click on My Maps, then click on Create New Map and go from there. It's pretty self explanatory. You can draw points (using different graphics), areas, and paths. I drew a bunch of areas that I would be willing to live in, then added a bunch of important landmarks (grocery stores, schools, etc.) then put all the apartments I was looking at on the map with prices, descriptions, etc. It was especially helpful to my boyfriend, who didn't know the area as well as I did.

i just bought (2 bedrooms, an garage studio, 900 sq backyard in north oakland) with the guidance of my very, very real estate saavy parents (thank god!) my tips:

- don't caught up in the frenzy. there's no use in entering a bidding war for your first house. i asked my realtor to show me properties that had been sitting for atleast a month - in this market, that's easy. i was so much saner.

- your first house is always nicer than your last apartment. keep perspective of how much "nice" you really need it. do you really need a crazy McLoft?

- hire a contractor to go to open houses with you. the upfront costs will save you money and delusions. on many occassions, i was directly told " no one can fix that" before ideas of dyi grandeur crashed into my brain.

- schools don't matter if you don't have kids. as a single person, nightlife, train and safe bike routes was essential. research what matters to you.

- don't buy if you need other people to pay your mortgage
(bf/gf, roommates, renters). recipe for disaster.

- my mom told me: "settle and sell" of course she didn't mean on major things but being a neighborhood over and not having cherry floors are too minor to be dealbreakers. i didn't look at it like a lifelong investment but one that will get me closer to my dream house.

- budget 20,000g over. any house will need about 20,000g to personalize it when you're done. trust me - between furniture, appliances, paint, baby tweaks...

- know the basics: concrete trumps brick foundation, redwood is better than t9, drywall over plaster, etc...

- on the subject of neighbors...ehh! no one's more annoying than paying someone's mortgage. however, i did go to city hall and find out the listed information on my prospective neighbors and pull up their property records. i also gated in my driveway and front garden so i kind of live in an bubbled oasis.

I went from 4500 sq. ft. to 950 sq. ft. Both experiences have taught me a lot: patience, volume of space I really need (not much), really enjoy (far prefer smaller to larger), and how much DIY work I want to do (will try everything except working on a gas line and roofing because a) ain't dumb and b) have balance problems and don't care to break a hip). In the end, I see myself downsizing into something even smaller than 950 sq. ft. because I only really use half the footprint here. My stuff became a burden, a burden I'm still divesting myself from by using Craiglist, Freecycle, local library and charities, etc.

Lessons learned:
* buy based on your gut, not emotion, coupled keenly with your comfort with the mortgage payment. What happens if you lose your job? How do you make the mortgage payment? If you don't know, come up with a plan before you take on the massive commitment of a mortgage.
* be willing to have a roommate or two in order to live within your means... (I hate to say it, because I don't want a roommate, but in this economy I'm thinking about it).
* decide how much DIY/Pay you're willing to do to have a home. If the idea of DIY, or Paying someone to do the work, is not for you then consider renting or a condo (where many repair issues are covered through the HOA fees).
* ask the bank what property they're holding and want to offload... that's how I found my first cottage, tried to rehab but it turned out to be too far gone, I stepped back, took my time paying off the note on the land while I designed a house, then I built a house, that house is now leased out to a lovely family who has no interest in being "homeowners". I love having the house enjoyed, lived in, paid for, and it's a great retirement account for me (I bought low and built wise).
* investigate your prospective neighbors. I'm in a situation now where I'm next to someone who's afraid of their off-balance often-arrested son... I'm doing everything I can to resolve the situation using the police (they're on speed dial), mediation (that failed), chief of police, mayor, city attorney. Turns out I could have learned all I needed to know by checking their property tax records, the police station for the number of calls to that address, simple DMV search to see how many vehicles were registered to that address (I often can't get parking in front of my own home), etc. It is actually possible to do a little research beforehand and save yourself that homeowner-neighbor hassle down the line. If you're considering buying in a neighborhood, go back on a Friday night, a Saturday night, mid-day on the weekend, see how much loud music you hear. It may be more than you want to deal with. Me, I've tried all I can try, now it's down to the city attorney to begin charging them for all the police calls that neighbors collectively make.
* patience, patience, patience. If you bring impatience into the process of searching for a home, into negotiating a deal, into home renovation, you always seem to pay for that impatience in the end. A Zen sort of patience is probably THE greatest lesson I've learned.

caiti, I'd just knock on the door of the prospective new neighbors and say you are looking at the house next door, and ask them innocuous things like "I wonder if you could tell me what it's like to live in this neighborhood", "are there any good restaurants/dry cleaners/mechanics/markets/whatever around here?", etc... When you listen to their answers, you can also assess THEM.

Clues to a bad neighbor - look at houses around them and see if curtains are open or closed. I lived in a neighborhood with two bad neighbor side by side. All curtains towards them were closed. Windows away from them were open.

Walk your dog ( or borrowed dog) around to check.

Good or bad neighborhood - neatness of yards, is there any outdoor furniture or yard ornaments. Distance of these items from the buildings. A safe neighborhood will have this and that all the way out to the curb. A bad neighborhood will have things on the porch. A terrible neighborhood will have nothing outside (except trash).

To find out about health concerns - in a smaller community go to the oldest local doctor and ask. They will at least have a theory.

There are areas that had very high levels of illnesses, and rumor is that the gov't dropped poisons there in the past. No way to verify, but that tells you it is a past concern not a current concern. The poisons have dissipated. If the doctor says - everyone along that creek is sick, then you know it is the creek. You can always get samples of the water, send it to the state board of health and tell them it is your tap water and see what they say.

There just are not likely to be any paperwork telling you the answer, especially with varied illnesses. It is the same illness clusters that attract attention. You may have to be a bit of a detective.

Home viewing - go right after or during a big storm and see how bad it floods. Check the basement. I checked on my (former) house all hours of the day before buying it. Mostly out of excitement, but it was still helpful. I asked the previous owner about the neighbors, but he was evasive. He "never had any problems with them" but he worked long hours and was inside when he was home. When I was home during the day, their teen pressed his face against the window to catch a peek at me. I was terrified. (I was young then) Every time I went outside, they took turns staring at me.

Apartments- I would stalk the halls at all hours of the day to see about noises and such. Especially if buying.

After having bought my first home on 03/31/2008 I find that I do regret buying it. People are so focused on being able to afford the mortgage payment that you forget about all the other financial obligations and other issues that go along with buying/owning a home.

Our first few months here we had to buy a $3000 furnace (the old furnace worked during the inspection for some reason) and while installing the furnace the tech told us we need a liner for the water heater chimney which will cost $800-$1200.

I just paid $500 to renew our warrantee which did not cover the issue with the kitchen sink so we had to come out of pocket with that too.

Not to mention getting some tax increases which I have to come out of my pocket for yet again.

Now I'm dealing with a crazy neighbor who seems to think she can go around telling everyone how and when to pull weeds and cut grass and how to properly pack your trash. She also blamed me for pulling the curb out from the sidewalk with my car. I drive a Chevy, not a semi or eighteen wheeler. The curb was broken long before I moved to the neighborhood.

My idea of owning a home is having a home sweet home where you can come home after a hard day's work and relax, but you cannot do that when you never know what your neighbors are going to pull and you never know what is going to break down.

You can have crazy neighbors renting as well. I understand that, but renters don't have the same stake in the neighborhood as buyers do. Buyers worry that if my home isn't properly maintained it decreases their home value, but "properly maintained" is relative, or if I have a hoopty parked out front it makes potential buyers worry about what the neighborhood is becoming or if my sidewalk is cracked it somehow is my neighbor's business.

I remember when I lived in an apt and the hall roof caved in. You know what? Not my problem. I called the landlord and it was fixed within the week. If my roof caved in my home I don't know what I'd do. I'm already strapped for cash.

When I lived in an apt and my neighbor was banging on my door when my husband was in the shower b/c water was leaking into her bathroom downstairs, you know what? Not my problem. My words to her were "call Bob and let him know (Bob was the apt mgr)."

I so miss those days. My buyers remorse is not going to go away until I sell this money trap and move back into an apt or rent a home.

I did a ton of research. We bought in 2008 and I had been researching since 2005, so it isn't like I didn't do my homework. I'm not interested in equity or building that kind of wealth. All the money I put into this home I could be putting into a savings to build my wealth in an interest bearing account or investments or bonds. I cannot wait to get out from under this house.

People mislead one another by saying that a home is a great investment. No, it isn't. When I was a kid you bought a home when you had a family, not to build wealth or to watch its value increase. When I was a kid you didn't raise a family in an apt and that is why you bought a home. I would rather stack my money (that is, save my money) and have liquidity rather than build some kind of perceived wealth through home ownership. A home is only a great investment if the market is right, but money always spends. Yeah, take it from this first home owner...hindsight is 20/20.

jplee - don't buy! We just bought in Brooklyn and here are my two cents
1. There are many many more expenses than just the mortgage. Even if you don't need the nice new furniture or renovations there will still be a million things that add up. Cheaper housing will require more fixing unless you want to live in the worse environment than where you rented.
2. Did you calculate the closing costs? Those will carry a punch, especially if it is new construction.
3. You are unlikely to secure a mortgage in the current environment if you don't have savings/retirement account left after you buy. Banks won't lend to a risky buyer.
4. You will not be better off buying anywhere in Brooklyn, unless you qualify for income restricted housing (which is much cheaper). Use this calculator and adjust ALL the parameters honestly, i.e., don't estimate the annual home price change to be more than 1-2% if even, don't overestimate inflation.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html
You will most likely see that you will break even at best in 5-10 years. Is it worth it?
Unless your mortgage is offset by the tax payback it is very unlikely to be worth it to buy in NYC. Most NYC coops can't increase the rent more than 3-5% annually, get it spelled out in your lease and live happily in a rental and save yourself the money, the headache and the disappointment.

Caiti - bake/buy cookies and go knocking on the neighbors doors in the evenings after dinner. Ask for 2 minutes of their time, say you are considering buying next door and would love to hear their opinion and that you have cookies to compensate for their time. We did this to poll neighbors about the problems they had with the building and the developer so we could guide the inspection better, but you get a pretty good read on people that way too, so you get to know your neighbors before you move in.

Always, always buy into the best neighborhood you can afford without overextending yourself. Also, don't buy the nicest house on the block or neighborhood. The nicest house dictates the ceiling on real estate prices in the area. Why buy high? Buy in the middle of the price range for the neighborhood and look for houses with improvement (aka ROI) potential.

A home is not an investment in a traditional sense. Make sure you are buying the home because you love it and not because it merely meets all the checkboxes. That way regardless of how the market goes, you're happy in the house and can afford it.

I know a few people who got into homes they aren't emotionally invested in because they HAD to have a 3 bdrm home when they got pregnant or after they got married. Now that they've moved in they realized it doesn't reflect their lifestyle or the rooms are too cramped or they don't really like the neighborhood.