Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home (15 page)

 

CD-ROM

 

Use the “Financial Information for Lenders” checklist in the Homebuyer’s Toolkit on the CD-ROM.
It will help you keep track of everything you’ll need for loan preapproval (and later, final loan approval).

What’s Next?

 

Confident that you’re not going to break your personal bank or end up without a home loan, you can now start checking out the housing market. We’ll show you how in Chapter 4.

 

Meet Your Adviser

 

Bert Sperling
, a city and neighborhood expert based in Portland, Oregon. Heʹs the founder of
www.bestplaces.net
and author of
Cities Ranked & Rated
(Wiley) and
The Best Places to Raise Your Family
(Wiley).

What he does

For over 20 years, Bert has been helping people find their own best place to live, work, play, and retire. As the foremost creator of best-places studies, heʹs in constant contact with the national media and regularly publishes his latest findings. His creative yet useful research topics cover everything from the best cities for dating to the worst ones for migraine headaches.

 

First house

ʺIt was a 1920s Craftsman bungalow in Portland, Oregon. My wife found the house and said, ʹWeʹre buying itʹ—and she was absolutely right, it turned out to be a great place to raise our two sons. Affording it was a stretch, especially because interest rates were high. But we were tired of renting and were able to assume the sellerʹs mortgage. We loved the neighborhood—only five minutes from downtown and close to shops, restaurants, and bus lines. Still, it had that neighborhood feeling—Iʹm a big fan of urban neighborhoods.ʺ

 

Fantasy house

ʺWeʹve already found it! Itʹs a cedar-shingled, Northwest coastal style place we bought in Depot Bay, Oregon. The house is right on the rocks overlooking the ocean—a wonderful getaway, though ocean living is a bigger challenge than many people realize. Weʹre under assault by the weather, with winds up to 100 miles per hour. One of our requirements was high-speed Internet service so we can stay at the beach house for extended time periods and I can keep up on my work.ʺ

 

Likes best about his work

ʺI tell people Iʹve got the best job in the world. Itʹs wonderful to see all the differences in where people live and establish homes, and to be able to share their stories with others. I really believe thereʹs no worst place to live. Every place is someoneʹs home and has things that mean a lot to them, even though other aspects of living there might be challenging.ʺ

 

Top tip for first-time homebuyers

ʺStart by figuring out what type of homebuyer you are. For example, are you a ʹmoney is no object, because Iʹll live here foreverʹ; an ʹI donʹt care about resale, I just want to find a good fit for my familyʹ; or an ʹIʹve got to find a fixer-upper if this is going to workʹ type? Most of us have to watch how much we spend, so think about the long term, donʹt get in over your head, and donʹt buy the best place on the block.ʺ

 

 

TIP

 

Eager to skip all this and just start shopping?
It’s possible to check out the market and keep your eye out for your dream house simultaneously—but it’s harder. Without a sense of the market, you may waste your time, for example rushing to turn in a too-low bid in a hot market. Or you might waste your money, for example by bidding too high in a cool market. Give yourself time to explore.

 

TIP

 

What about your neighbor’s beliefs?
Adviser Bert Sperling notes, “Perhaps the two biggest definers of local feel are things we’ve been told to avoid in polite conversation—religion and politics. Variety may be the spice of life, but you’re going to find it very difficult to feel comfortable in your new town or neighborhood if you’re the only person with a particular point of view. Do some research to find out which way a place is leaning.”

Community character is one of the hardest issues to research (especially if you’re completely new to the area), but these resources will get you started:

•
www.streetadvisor.com
.
Enter a street address and see how the locals describe their area, whether it’s seeing racoons at night or getting heckled by crackheads.

•
www.neighborhoodscout.com
.
All you need is a zip code, and this gives you demographic data plus descriptions of neighborhood character and residents’ age, ethnicity, and lifestyle.

•
Sperling’s Best Places.
This website, at
www.bestplaces.net
, is known for its “best of ” lists. Its studies will tell you the best and worst towns for everything from affordable housing to getting a good night’s sleep. The site also gives statistical information, searchable by zip code. You can find out the percentage of your neighbors who vote Democrat or Republican or are affiliated with a particular religion, the cost of living, climate, local home characteristics, and more.

•
www.epodunk.com
.
For smaller towns and communities—ones that could be described as “podunk”—try this site, which will link you to everthing from population demographics to where you’ll find local businesses, museums, and cemeteries.

•
www.rottenneighbor.com
.
A zip code search brings up an aerial view of everyone listed as a rotten neighbor or a sex offender. It’s subjective and no doubt prone to inaccuracy, but you’ll at least find out which streets have a lot of neighbor disputes.

•
your own, custom search.
www.google.com
.
Try plugging the name of your prospective neighborhood (if it has a name) into Google or your favorite search engine. Sites may come up for community associations, parents’ associations, and more.