Lisa Johnson's House and Home - Articles on Home, Family, and Living

Lisa Johnson on Buying a New Home or House

Chapter 2: Choosing the Housing Development

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October 1, 2003

For us, deciding which housing development to buy was based on many factors including:

• Affordability
• Floor Plans
• Distance from workplace
• Overall look of the house

The development we chose was actually one of the first developments we looked at. When we first visited it, it had opened up for sales that day. And we liked what we saw, but being that it was one of the first developments we looked at, we wanted to look elsewhere. If you recall from the previous chapter, we started browsing model homes just for fun, it wasn't until later on we made the decision to become prospective buyers.

But once we made the decision to become buyers, price was our first factor. At the time, we were currently living in a condo in Orange County. We knew what requirements we wanted in a house, and after looking at several developments in Orange County, we realized we could not afford what we wanted. Thus, we set our sights in Southwest Riverside County, where homes were much cheaper, and the communities were brand new. And even though it meant Steve would have a 60 mile commute each way, to and from work, he would endure it long enough until he could find income much more closer to home.

Now it was just a matter of finding which homes had the square footage we wanted, and had floor plans that appealed to us. That narrowed the field down quite a bit. Finally, it was the overall look of the house, that is, the exterior design, the colors, the placement of the front doors, etc, that narrowed our choices down to a few.

At that point, the decision was tough. Steve finally broke the ice, and chose the development in Menifee, one of the first that we looked at. That development was actually a just a little bit closer to his work than the other developments. The fact that it had just opened not too long ago, actually played out to be a very fortunate thing, because it gave us the opportunity to customize a lot of amenities.

As it we learn later on, if you plan to buy a new construction tract home, the best advantage you can obtain for yourself is to buy a home on the day the development opens up for sales. This offers you the most advantages.

And I'll talk about those advantages in Chapter 3.

Next:   Chapter 3 - The Advantage of Buying Early into the First Phase

Suggested Links

·  Tips on Buying a Home

·  HUD Homebuying Guide

·  Homebuying Consumer Info Center

·  Real Estate ABC

·  Home Buying Guide.com