Once you had about 10% down, for how long did you research about houses and visit open houses before actually buying? Someone who has a house told me it could generally take a year to find a perfect one and I should not hurry. Is it common?
Until you have 20% down. Once you are ready a few days to more than a year.
1 day from when we saw it online to making an offer. Saw the place in Redfin, didn’t even have to go see it in person. Had my agent see it in person though to make sure it was like it showed online. They also reached out to other party to get all disclosures and inspection reports that had been already done by sellers. Docusign, loan, closing etc took a week.
Depends a lot on the market. I'm assuming you are in Seattle based on "Amazon". It's cooled off a lot this summer. Prices are still high but the bidding wars that defined the market in 2017 and 2018 have mostly gone away. Research is really more of just defining your parameters (price, beds, baths, sq ft, school district, etc) then setting it all in Redfin. Watch the alerts come in and go see houses that look promising. See enough houses and you'll know it when one feels right.
Thanks for your suggestion. I'm in the Bay Area.
Ah, well ignore the Seattle part, but the second still holds true
I looked for almost nine months before I found the right place. Three years ago. I only put 10% down, you get hosed by either a bad rate or pmi so if you do this look to get to 20% and refinance asap If you're so shy about the market that your reason for not putting 20% down is not wanting to lose it, you shouldn't be buying in this market at all. Look at the boonies, or rent and look at a rental property somewhere else, or don't enter the market right now.
In Bay Area, people hold to on the house during recession. And the percentage that looses it due to job loss is close to nil. So, if you wait for the price to come down, you may not get the house you want.
Everyone is different
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