Buying a home

[Tonkaman]

I'm finally ready to get a mortguage and get settled. With interest rates the way they are I can afford a great place for the same as I pay in rent.
Please give me your recommendation for the location you prefer and why. Ill need to be in the Salt Lake valley for the wife's commute

 

[jeeper]

No where with an HOA. Smaller house, bigger lot. Non thorough-fare street.

 

[Greg]

Congrats!! I've always heard that you should buy the cheapest house in the best neighborhood. Land is always nice, if you can afford it.

In this economy there are a lot of foreclosures out there for cheap. Best thing you guys can do is find a good RE agent and start looking. It won't be long before you start narrowing down what you want. House hunting is fun... sometimes frustrating, always exciting. We've been looking for a few years now and are finally getting into something good!

 

[Johnny Quest]

good luck finding a house right now. we're also looking, and its impossible. for example, looked at a house tonight. came on the market friday, wanted to put in an offer after looking at it tonight. so we called the selling agent. this morning there were no offers; as of tonight there are 3, and 2 more expected tomorrow morning. its such a sellers market right now, so just be patient, and expect pretty much any house to go for more than asking price right now.

edit: as for neighrhoods- drive around neighborhoods your way to and from places. you'll quickly be able to eliminate certain neighborhoods. also, utahrealestate.com has been the best website we've found so far

 

[mbryson]

We're almost ready to sell ours. I'm not sure if it would appraise for what we need it to yet but it's getting close. We've really liked Woods Cross and will be staying quite close to where we are.

 

[Caleb]

What's your budget? It doesn't matter where we suggest if you can't afford the areas. I really like where I'm at (Riverton/Herriman area) except for the wind in the summer and lack of mature trees. That's the name of the game in any newer area though. Up off Wasatch Dr. is quite nice but quite expensive as well. Draper has some decent areas too. South Jordan is nice but the police there are a bunch of dorks, enough so that it would convince me not to ever live there again (grew up all through high school there).

 

[JL Rockies]

Draper... the high rent districts keep the riff raff out.

 

[blznnp]

We like west jordan, course we are a little further away than a lot of people seem to like, but coming from seattle the commute isn't bad at all. I would like to start building a house right now with the rates they are but I doubt I could get approved since I already have a house in Washington and I am a full time student, but if we were to build, it would be out here off hwy 111 and 7800s in the neighborhood we live in now, or probably over in riverton/herriman area, or find a place in draper.

 

[Tonkaman]

Thanks for all the replies guys, keep them coming. I totally agree about the HOA crap since I don't always play well with others ha ha. Anyone else had problems with the police in certain areas? Caleb what made them so hard to deal with in South Jordan? I forgot to mention my budget cap is approx. $300K.

 

[Samersen]

Use websites like Zilliow and Trulia they are awesome. We are under contract for a house up in Heber and one thing that I have found is that you need to be scouring the websites like you do KSL for used Jeep parts. The listings pop up and are gone in no time!! Good luck with the hunt.

 

[jeep-N-montero]

We bought a "smaller" house in a fairly affluent neighborhood and our home has appreciated quite a bit in less than 2 years. Although we like our safe and quiet neighborhood on the upper east bench of Bountiful, part of our 5 year plan is to buy 2-4 acres in the Morgan area in 2014 and have my brother build our dream home the following spring. The inversions have been really affecting my breathing here in the valley, so it would be nice to live with cleaner air and summer nights are cooler out there, plus I would be minutes from hunting and fishing. We would rather be paying a mortgage on a home we are completely happy with that has the features we really want in it and located where we want to live, instead of settling for something "close to ideal". Plus I would like to be living in our dream home in my 30's rather than waiting until my 60's.

 

[Maverick]

^^ this

For $300k you have a decent selection along the Wasatch front (or back).

We like Draper, especially for the schools. Love where our cabin is near Wanship though.

 

[JL Rockies]

HOA isn't all bad. They mow my lawn, paint the house and re-black top the driveway of my Ft Lauderdale home. Since I only get there once a year these days, it's perfect. When I lived there "full time" I was on the road 3 weeks out of a month and it was still mad cool.

Personally, if I spend big dollars on a home, I wouldn't want neighbors who park 5th wheel campers in the side yard or weld on their buggies in the driveway.

 

[Maverick]

Why not? They're the best kind of neighbors!

Actually, we have neighbors with 5ers and they are great.

I wish there were more folks welding on buggies.

 

[jeep-N-montero]

HOA isn't all bad. They mow my lawn, paint the house and re-black top the driveway of my Ft Lauderdale home. Since I only get there once a year these days, it's perfect. When I lived there "full time" I was on the road 3 weeks out of a month and it was still mad cool.

Personally, if I spend big dollars on a home, I wouldn't want neighbors who park 5th wheel campers in the side yard or weld on their buggies in the driveway.

Our garage is going to be large enough to park my tow rig in it with the trailer attached, no need to park it on the grass, that's where a pig and cow will be grazing for slaughter each year.

 

[clfrnacwby]

I would use this site to eliminate certain areas that have a high density of sex offenders:

http://www.familywatchdog.us

 

[Maverick]

One of those sites makes Draper look pretty bad since the prison is in the same zip code.

 

[blznnp]

One of those sites makes Draper look pretty bad since the prison is in the same zip code.

When I was looking for a house before we moved out here, all of utah looked back practically, only a couple areas that looked good to me were where my brother lives in draper (up on the mountain near the temple) and where we ended up living as far west as you could get in west jordan.

black_ZJ, does your brother own his own company or just know how to build houses?

 

[JL Rockies]

Why not? They're the best kind of neighbors!

Actually, we have neighbors with 5ers and they are great.

I wish there were more folks welding on buggies.


The best neighbors are ones you never hear from and occasionally wave to if you happen to catch their glance.

 

[JL Rockies]

Our garage is going to be large enough to park my tow rig in it with the trailer attached, no need to park it on the grass, that's where a pig and cow will be grazing for slaughter each year.


If my neighbor was raising livestock and butchering their dinner, I'd feel I've made poor choices. Lived in the Ironbound section of Newark and the Portuguese peeps were always hacking away at some animal that would become dinner... never again... it was so 3rd world.