Buying a house

spykosshow

spykosshow

New Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2005
Location
Raleigh, NC
Not me, but my parents.

They currently live in North Raleigh and are looking to get into another house here soon. My sister's family lives in Knightdale, so they are wanting to keep it somewhat close due to the new addition to our family last week.

They're looking for
-2000+ sq ft
-at least an acre or so of land
-a 2 car garage (or a house on the cheaper side without that they could erect one in the backyard for my jeeps).
-3 beds at least 2.5 baths
-a fixer-upper is okay, but as long as it isn't work like reinstalling plumbing or something

They've started looking in north Raleigh but it seems that you can get at least .5 acres and 500 more square feet by looking in the more rural areas. They're looking in the Knightdale/Raleigh/Zebulon/Wake Forest/Youngsville areas.


Where else do you guys suggest to look? We've done the websites like Realtor.com and the like and have found several that will work (plus one that's 1.1 acres, 2800 sqft and has a 32x32 detached garage in youngsville - we're going to look at that one tomorrow).
 
I suggest you find a good Realtor and not waste your time looking your self. A Realtor can save you time and alot of agrivation. If your looking at FSBO homes to save money your probably mistaken.FSBO usually ask the same amount a realtor would ask for a property including the commision.
 
lockedup5 said:
I suggest you find a good Realtor and not waste your time looking your self. A Realtor can save you time and alot of agrivation. If your looking at FSBO homes to save money your probably mistaken.FSBO usually ask the same amount a realtor would ask for a property including the commision.
Click to expand...

X 1000....We looked a lot on our own but when it came down to it our realtor was the way to go. Saved a lot of time and money.
 
Realtors for buyers don't cost the buyer anything. Get a good realtor and have them do the work! Don't waste your time. Although its good to search some listings yourself, use the realtor to do the homework on the properties and set up viewings.

you can also look into foreclosures and short sales
 
I agree w/ the realtor as a buyer - however i think what Charlie is asking is more about our ideas of general locations... often realtors are driven by a particular market or knowing one area well, and others not so much... and of course you can't ignore the fact that the amount of $$ they make is directly tied to the price of the house.

But more importantly (and i think this is what he's suggesting) nowadays you can do 90% of the pre-legwork yourself online, all of the MLS info is wide open and integrated with Google maps with several good sites (e.g. Realtor.com).
When we were shopping a few months ago, we basically used onlne sites (Trulia.com FTW!) to search and narrow down a list, and would send that to the realtor. She then (knowing our desires) nixxed some or suggested others we may have missed.
but the coolest thing about Trulia 9and several otehr sites) is that you can specify criteria (# bedroom,s land size, cost range) and it will plot all matching places (inlcuding short sales, forclosures, or even recent sales if wanted) on a Google map. Then just move the map around and it re-plots the listings.
Very very convenient for narrowing down an area - plus gives a great visual of what areas have tons (.g.... too many) sales vs lower turnover.
 
Thanks for the reply, Dave. You're exactly right as to what I was hoping to get from some people.

We're looking for insight into general geographic locations that people recommend as well websites and the like. By the way, that Trulia.com website is AMAZING. That's been by far the best site I've looked at, and I've been not seriously searching websites for a while for them.

We've got a couple leads out towards Youngsville. And actually for the house above it turns out that my brother went to high school with the realtor, so we'll see.
 
I can give you a referral: http://www.carolynwolf.com/

she is who we used to buy our house.. she has been doing it for a long time and will help in whatever way you need.. Tell her Ken Carter referred you and she will go out her way to help.
 
BTW, this may not be an issue here (being your parents), but anotehr neat trick is that in Trulia you can limit the search area by zip code and even (more importantly) school districts. (although I must warrn that the info they have on districts can be a bit spotty).
In our case this was a key factor, as teh schools here are very spotty and we knew exactly which high schoo lwe wanted to feed in to (even though that's 7 years away).. that dictates the middle school which dictates elem, schools...
 
just remember when going with a realtor that they work for you. they don't tell you what you want, you tell them. Of course, you'll want their opinion on some issues but you drive the car. We got into a fiasco with my realtor towards the end. Also, look for houses too. Most realtors want to sell you what they have their name on. That means they get the full 6-7%. If you find another house with another realtors name on it they have to split that pot. Regardless, you need to get what you want. I may be preaching to the choir but this has been my experience.
 
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