Buying a home - Random Thoughts

Ok, first off, just to get this out of the way, here's a few thoughts about buying a home. Guess I'm going to try some bullets here -

• Location, Location, Location? Actually, I know everyone goes on about this, but IMHO, it's waaaaay overhyped. It's always expressed from the point of view of reselling the property, and, sure, that's important, but what's more important is that you be happy there! So, think carefully about what you want from life, before you think about what you want from your home. Are you still single? Or attached and thinking you'd like to get more serious? Or newly hitched and thinking about a family? Or deep into it and thinking about the looooong term? All of those situations may affect what you think is a good location to buy a home.
  
  
• Fixer Upper or Just Like New? Again, I think this has more to do with what you have going on in your life than in the specific home. For example, if you have a very demanding job that takes a lot of hours, don't try and buy a fixer upper, it takes a LOT more time than you think, and a lot more energy. On the other hand, if you are not fully focused on your job 100% of your day, then a fixer upper can be nice, and very satisfying to make it 'fixed up' over a period of time. Oh, and if people tell you that you can't do it, or the work is too complicated - ignore them - if you have a modicum of common sense and the will and patience to give it a go, you CAN do it!
  
  
• How much to spend? Short answer - more than you think you can afford but not more than you can really afford. Houses are a great investment and they always seem like a lot of money, especially when it's your first or second, but honestly, you will very seldom regret buying a house 10 years down the road. If you don't know how much you can really afford, try doing a budget on a spreadsheet. If you don't know how to do that (which I've found to my horror that many people do not!) then that'll be something I tackle here, very shortly.
  
  
• Hidden Value? Since this is a home blog site, one thing you should look for is hidden value. I went to a friends house yesterday and she had converted her attic. It was a small house, but the attic conversion added maybe 500 square feet of really great, warm, play space, and incidentally about $100k onto the value of the house! So why didn't the people she bought the house from convert it themselves? Well, mostly people get into a routine of where they live, look at the space in a certain way, and don't see the possibilities. You aren't hampered by that, so go ahead and look! Every space is an opportunity to find hidden value, whether unfinished, or just configured badly. Think expansively about those spaces, and what you want from a home, and you can mine that hidden value after you move in!

Ok, that's enough for now - I'm sure I'll do more but for now that's enough to think about...