WhipperSnaPR

I hate my apartment; my apartment sucks. I moved there because I could cut my rent in half and, at the time, I was more than just a little strapped for cash. The savings, though they were much appreciated, did not make up for the fact that I was living in what I liked to call “the crack house.”

Yes… I said WAS. No longer will I ever have to live in fear of being shot down while walking home from work! No longer will I be stirred from a restful slumber by a faulty fire alarm that went off for no reason whatsoever! I will never more have to call the police on drunk and unruly neighbors! At least, I hope.

That’s right… Josh and I have moved. But we didn’t just relocate, we went all out on this one and actually bought a place of our very own! We spent the past several days painting and moving furniture and, now that we are living this new reality, I thought this would be a good time to reflect on the process.

Josh has written about several steps in the process already:

• moving from renting to owning
• all-star home buying team
• house shopping
• negotiations
• home inspection

Now, to put my own spin on the process:

1. The first step is to start browsing; learn which neighborhoods will work for you and get to know the market. Josh and I started online with the Hammond website (by far the best in the Boston area). We would make lists of favorite properties and from that we could glean the most important features of our “ideal” home: 2+ bedrooms, 1.5+ bathrooms, outdoor space, at least 1,000 square feet, plenty of storage and a fairly modern kitchen.
2. Do your homework! I went out and bought “The 106 Common Mistakes Home Buyers Make (and How to Avoid Them)” by Gary W. Eldred and, like the good little student that I am, read every page, highlighted, earmarked and took notes in the margins. I also began studying the Rosenoff Report. This report is very unique to the Cambridge/Somerville area and is available at several local realtor’s offices every Saturday. It is an approximately 30 page spreadsheet that reports all real estate activity for the past week: properties that are new to the market, properties taken off market, changes to representation and price changes. It also provides all of the major “vitals” of each property: square footage, price per square foot, number of rooms, special features, etc. The Rosenoff Report became my guide to the market, I spent at least an hour a week studying the numbers, comparing properties and learning the market. Learning the numbers, history and trends would help us later on as we began to visit the properties; we would have a sound understanding of what something should be worth according to the market.
3. Although our search began online and on paper, this will only get you so far in the process. You really need to get out there and see what is available. So we did. We initially kept it very simple. We would take very long walks around the neighborhoods we were interested in (basically, anything close to a Red Line T stop). We learned the street names and paid attention to the areas that looked “homey” and that caught our eye. When you feel like your ready to “take the plunge” and get serious about buying; you should get an Agent. In some markets, you don’t really need one (good friends of mine recently bought a for-sale-by-owner property in Rockford, IL without and agent, which is quite common for that area), but in Boston I think it is necessary.
4. ALL STAR TEAM: I think this is the most important step. Josh and I were very lucky; we were able to put together a very strong team of people to help us in the home buying process. We couldn’t be happier with their work and service:
• Buyer’s Agent: Anne Munson, REMAX/Destiny: We spoke to several agents over the phone and met with a couple to talk about our home buying “needs.” We eventually went with Anne Munson from REMAX/Destiny because we felt most comfortable with her and felt like she understood us best. Not only is Anne extremely knowledgeable in the Cambridge/Somerville market, but She flexible enough to let us operate on our own terms. With Anne, this daunting task became incredibly fun!
• Mortgage broker: Chris Smith, Capstone Mortgage: Josh pretty much sums it all up for me: “Chris Smith, of Capstone Mortgage, was recommended to us by a friend who works in real estate in the area. After telling her our financial situation she was able to pre-approve us for a mortgage that was in exactly the range we were looking for. Again, just to be sure, we also went to someone else to see what they would say. In this case we went to Cambridge Savings Bank. They weren’t quite as good. For some reason they said that, unless we got someone to co-sign our mortgage they would only approve us for around $15,000, significantly less even than the down-payment we already had. So we went with Chris. … When we were first starting the process we were told that applying for a mortgage was like getting a root canal. I’ve never had a root canal, but, if that’s what it’s like, sign me up! I think the mortgage has seriously been one of the easiest parts of this whole process, which is saying a lot considering every other person we’ve worked with on this has been really good and really helpful. I think we must have had one of the best possible house shopping experiences, and I almost can’t wait to do it again (Cape house, anyone? Maybe in a few years…)“
• Attorney: Katherine Kurtz, Belsi & Conroy: We dealt with Katherine the least of all of the members of our “team,” but she did her job and she did it well so we can make no complaints. A good friend of mine, Martin Himmelfarb, gave me some great advice: “ASK YOUR MORTGAGE BROKER TO LET YOU KNOW WHICH ATTY IS DOING THE CLOSING, THEN YOU CALL THAT ATTY AND ASK HOW MUCH HE’LL CHARGE TO REVIEW THE P&S. If it’s less than about 500-600 have him or her do it for you. You definitely do not need a separate lawyer in addition to the bank’s lawyer at closing. No need to pay twice for the same service.” Marty’s advice not only saved us money, but also helped to stream line the process. Thanks Marty!
• Home Inspector: Mark George, Home Inspection Associates, inc.: What fantastic service! Our home inspection gave us valuable insight into our home’s history and condition. And when I say value, I mean it! Because Mark insisted on doing his job and inspecting every aspect of the building and because was prepared to do so even in very inconvenient conditions, he was able to discover that our roof needed to be re-sealed. Something we were able to use when re-negotiating our price. See Josh’s post on the home inspection for more info.
• Support System: Aside from the official members of this all-star team, I have to point out that buying a home would have been much more painful if it weren’t for the help of our friends and family. Many Thanks go out to: The entire Himmelfarb family, Zach (our old roommate) My mom and sisters, Josh’s mom and dad and the entire Ourisman family and, last but not least, Pigpen who’s was right by our side ready to give an encouraging purr when it was most needed!
5. Finding the perfect place: As Josh wrote, “We’re moving from renting to owning, a big enough step in its own right, but more importantly we’re moving from a temporary residence in the area to a commitment to stay here.” So, we wanted to find a place to grow into. As I mentioned above, our initial criteria was: 2+ bedrooms, 1.5+ bathrooms, outdoor space, at least 1,000 square feet, plenty of storage and a fairly modern kitchen. What did we end up going with? 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, 980 square feet, old kitchen, outdoor space and basement storage. Lesson learned: BE FLEXIBLE! As we started looking at properties (we saw no less than 30 places), we were able to imagine ourselves outside of our set criteria. We saw 1000+ square feet units that felt tiny and learned that it is more about layout than actual area. We saw beautiful old homes that needed plenty of work and realized an older kitchen could be more of a blank slate than a burden.
6. Be prepared for speed bumps. About 75% through the process, we thought we found the perfect condo… It was truly beautiful; a quality, high-end gut renovation with a layout over 3 floors, townhouse style. We were out bid in negotiations, though. Total bummer, but we pressed on and learned valuable lessons in the process. Lesson #1: Know what you are paying for. We held hard to our offer price because we knew (given the market at the time) that it wasn’t worth any more, somebody else was willing to overpay. That’s ok, because we knew there were other places out there. Lesson #2: Build a list of backups. After we lost the first place, we had a list of 5 backup properties that we revisited. We didn’t end up with any of these, but that isn’t the point, out backup list got us off our feet back out in the market. Lesson #3: Keep a thick skin. Josh did a much better job at this than I did. My biggest weakness in this process was my tendency for getting emotionally attached. I’ll admit, I cried a few times out of frustration. Don’t let your emotions manage the process…. bad idea.

So, that brings us to today… living out of boxes, eating meals on a picnic blanket in the dining room, learning how to use all of the new appliances… all of which will have to be in a separate post.

From the perspective of young whippersnaPR trying to make her way through the big kid world, this is a major step up! I can’t help be be very proud of Josh and myself for taking such a huge leap

This entry was posted on Monday, January 22nd, 2007 at 12:13 pm and is filed under personal, Josh, whippersnapper, condo, Somerville. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.