Amidst Vero and I being sick all weekend long (Vero sicker than I), we headed to see our first house a couple of people looking to buy a house together. It was out in Navan and looked decent from the pictures on the Internet.
All in all, our first house hunting expedition was mainly used so that we can figure out what we both want in a house. It’s one thing to sit and discuss what we want, it’s another to go into a house and analyze what we do/do not like. Vero really did like the first house we checked out…it had a great kitchen which linked to a living room so she could chat to people while preparing stuff, it had a great basement coupled with some good rooms for a recording area (which I would like to set up). However, the stoppping point was the fact that upstairs contained a bathroom with a tub, and if guests wanted to have a shower, they would have to go downstairs, through the kitchen, to the shower on the main level.
Considering this was our first house we looked at, I say thee nay. So we thanked the real estate agent who opened up the house for us and went on our way…one block over where there just happened to be an open house going on! Not knowing what to expect, we walked in and I glanced at the price of the house…a mere $500K! I choked and made a comment that there was no way we could afford the place so to tip off the real estate agent that she need not give us the tour. We were fine on our own. It was a decent place…I really enjoyed the storage area in the basement with shelves of library books! But in the end, nothing was remotely screaming out ‘You need to find that $500K to buy this house!’ so we went on our way.
House hunting will be…interesting? I predict a few things happening in the next while…
1) With the coming of Harmonized Sales Tax on July 1, 2010, I predict that an onslaught of houses for sale will show up before the mid-year point. Moreso than usual for the springtime.
2) Buying your second house is a lot tougher than your first house. When I bought my first house, I wanted something that I could call my own. That’s it, that’s all. Now we have to think of the future…all the grand parties in the backyard, in-laws staying over, having a bigger garage. It will be a lot harder to find something that both agrees with us. Luckily all I need in a new house is a place to hang my hat when I come home and a microwave oven.