Starting the house offer process again

[stellarose]

I was finally ready to stop obsessing about new listings and then we went to see some today. I found a great house. I found it a week ago but wrote it off because it has baseboard heating and also farther out than I wanted to be from my job and downtown access.

But now that we've gone to the house it is more than we were even hoping for in the pictures. It's really great. I think I can overlook the baseboard heating. I am still struggling with the location and I know location is everything. I do have coworkers that live close by. I could even carpool with them and the commuter train is .5 miles away which I could ride to work and DH currently rides downtown.

The area is a little hit and miss, good pockets of neighborhoods and bad pockets, but this is in a good pocket. I would say that about most places in this metropolitan area though.

Again, I know location is key. This isn't a horrible location, would you consider moving a little farther out for the right house?? Does anyone have experience with baseboard heaters? There is a fire place and they are newer baseboard heaters too. Hoping they are somewhat more efficient than what original ones would have been.

Ugh, decisions, decisions. We'll have to put an offer in tomorrow if we want a shot at it. A hot sellers market out here. Our realtor put an offer on a house the other day and it had 18 offers!!!!

[stellarose]

You live in South Dakota and have no heater???

I should add that I'm highly spoiled where I live now. Less than 15 min from my house to desk at work. Grocery & bank within .5 miles and in the edge of a very rich neighborhood, on three sides really.

[heygrey]

I guess the importance of location is relative to me. Is this a job you plan to be at forever? Are there other work opportunities close to this house? Are other conviniences close? Family and/or friends close by?

I've only really known baseboard and forced air heating. Of the two I refer baseboard. I felt like it kept the rooms at a more even temp.

[jenjen]

We have baseboard heating (through a boiler) and I don't mind it at all. You do not hear the heat all all which is nice. One thing I've read is that, unlike a furnace, it's not recommended to turn it back while you are gone/turn it up while you are home because it takes a while to heat up the house. We do have 2 additional furnaces that we can use if we're cold.

Location is important but if you can't find what you want in a specific area, you'll need to sacrifice something. Good luck on your decision.

[stellarose]

Right now there is such little inventory on the market in the area we live now. There is almost a little bubble happening in that area too where over the past month demand shot up, reflective in the prices as well. We don't have to buy right now, but are a little concerned over what the prices will be in the spring, etc.

There is an Albertsons and Walgreens near by. My coworker mentioned some farmers markets within walking distance during season of course. There are not many restaurants that I know of. There is a Target/shopping plaza about 3 miles away. It's further from our good friends, about 40 min verses 20 min, but we don't get together every weekend. I have friends/coworkers close by. No family, we live out of state.

My job will be long term at least until we move back home. DH is in school but could potentially work very close.

Thanks for the info on baseboard heaters, very good to know.

[stellarose]

Oct 29, 2012 1:43:09 GMT -5 Stan said:

San Diego.

Oh! LOL, I thought you were uber hardcore living in South Dakota with no heat and walking year round.

[juliahenry]

I would wait. Keep looking.

We bought a great house 15 mo ago. Everything is perfect except the location- it's about 7.5 miles away from where we really want to be (work commute, shopping, schools, friends, life). Traffic here isn't bad, but it's not great and we keep thinking about buying somewhere closer to our ideal location and renting this place out.

Location is really important. Compromise on other stuff, not where the house is.

[stellarose]

Tough call. I think if we wait we could easily be priced out of the market, just since July the houses we were looking at to now (comparable houses) have jumped 50k. If it goes too much higher in the spring our buying power could be greatly diminished.

I called for utilities too, $190 avg on 1800 sq ft. $350 was the highest. But this is a family of four possibly sahm.

My mom of course thinks if Obama is re-elected that he will encourage electric prices to go through the roof. She did say it might be a scare tactic but I also know she's been discussing it for the last four years and works in the energy sector. ?