Live in OR, buying up north in WA.
Chose rural WA because housing price is low enough (~450k) that down payment+mortgage won't hit me hard even if the property is a mistake and worst case goes to 0. Want to use this as a test-drive for a real home later when I have kids.
Some first-time home buyer questions -
1. How to find a local buyer side agent if I am new to that area? Go with reviews or can I chat with them first and then commit?
2. Can the lender be in OR or I need mortgage pre-approval in WA itself?
3. Some rural places come with large lots of land (ranging from .25 acres for a big house to one house I liked at 500k with accompany 5 acres of land). What are the pros and cons of this and is there a headache to having extra land attached (e.g. protect against encroachment, tree and vegetation management)
4. Any quick reads for first time home buyers and/or out-of-state home buying?
5. I can do a max of 4-5 trips up north before buying there and can't rent in the area beforehand (unusual personal circumstances, have to move fast). How should I structure those trips? Planning to do 1-2 for lender + buy-side agent, 1 for visiting properties, 1 for home inspection after contingent.
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2. Do it in WA. They will be able to line up appraisers etc quickly. You only need to talk to your lender on the phone, everything else is via DocuSign / online
3. Never seen such large swaths of land, I’m in the Bay Area :)
4.
5. Buyer agent (one trip, meet everyone in a couple of days) , 2-3 trips for visiting properties, 1 more for inspection + misc.
200k-400k gets the family an awesomely large place to work/study from home now and vacation 3 months a year later (if remote doesn't become a thing) - that's value for money enough