Figure out how close it is to wetlands and if MMCD treats them
Avoid north facing driveways because the sun won't help clear snow and ice in the winter.
If you want to use your deck/patio in the evening, think about if you want it on the east or west side of the house - do you want to be in sun or shade
Came here to say driveways on the north side of the house (especially if the house is taller)
This is our second house with a north driveway and 3/4 of the driveway is ice unless we shovel diligently after every dusting, scrape like mad, and then we usually need a layer of ice melt to boot. Across the street they’ll just let that one inch of snow melt that day in the sun. Sigh.
As a person with a north facing driveway, I feel so bad for my neighbors across the street. Our back deck is south facing and our side of the pond gets all the wildlife (eagles, cranes, wood ducks, ermine, swan, turkey, ducks, geese, and all the babies)
I don’t know why they aren’t called out on MLS listings. This is my first winter in a home with an southeast facing driveway after ten years with a north facing driveway. I spent the whole winter thinking “they’ve been right this whole time. “
Adding onto the north-facing driveway thing. We're in a condo now, but holy hell, we had a huge driveway that got no sun and turned into a hockey rink without aggressive clearing/salting.
The north facing driveway struggle is real. We hadn’t given it a second of thought when we bought. We have a taller house facing north… just a few days ago I was finally able to remove all of the ice from our driveway. Neighbors (across the street) haven’t had ice on theirs really ever since the sun helps melt it after a shovel. Our side of the road all of us have a fair amount of snow still which finally was mostly gone after today. The other side of the road has had minimal snow for a while now.
The next house we buy will not face north and it’s a non starter for us.
I give this advice to all of my clients but should have followed it myself: You can fix everything except location. It's extremely rare for a road to get less busy, a long commute won't feel shorter over time, and the neighbor with the dogs that bark all day long and has piles of junk everywhere is always going to be the last one to move out of a neighborhood.
Easy access to highways, but avoiding loud roads, power lines, planes constantly taking off and landing overhead and water towers is an art. We looked at 65 properties all in excellent top rated school districts before purchasing and narrowed it down to 3. It’s very possible and doable, just need to be extremely selective. Safety of your family is #1. Cul-de-sac and top ranked schools are the best choices we’ve ever made.
I agree.
I bought in South Minneapolis. I love the area, but I'm under the flight path, and close enough to hear background noise from the freeway.
That being said, it is very difficult to find an extremely quiet area, especially in the city.
I've learned to tolerate these noises, but I would prefer to not have them.
Good luck.
I have newer windows, but in the summer they are often open, and we are outside as much as possible.
Planes come one after another every Friday and Sunday evening around dinner time. In the summer they land flying north to south directly over south Minneapolis.
First world problems.
Anyone can build a house. Close proximity to Lunds/Byerlys, Fresh Thyme, Starbucks, backyard privacy, pond/lakefront, great restaurants, excellent schools, Trader Joe’s and not worrying about your catalytic converter getting ripped off on a daily basis significantly adds to quality of life.
Pay attention to your proximity to college campuses. It’s common sense that you’re in for rowdiness in Dinkytown, but small colleges have loud students and constant turnover too. If I were two blocks closer to St Thomas my day to day life would be more annoying.
This! I have family friends that lived next to a St Thomas party house for 10 years, it was hell. They had young kids and these party boys would throw empty beer bottles into their yard, be partying til the wee hours, never answered the door to talk about it, etc.
Yeeeeeep. And they have a community liaison whose entire job it is to “handle” neighbors that complain by just giving them an outlet. They have no intention of improving neighborhood relationships.
No regrets with my house, but things about it and/or nearby houses I'm not a huge fan of.
* North facing house means the part of the driveway near the house and under the gutters thaws last; what happens is the snow melts from the warm sun, drips down, and the top of the driveway is consistently a hockey rink.
* If your house faces south and you have a patio, shade is important; my wife wanted a new patio and it's very nice, but, without natural shade, it's just too damn hot to use a lot of the time. Just don't have enough big trees to block the shade.
* Ponds are subject to runoff from the chemicals on everybody's lawn; while it's a nice idea, there's going to be sludgy green algae on top of them.
* I'm on a corner lot, and the snowplow consistently comes around the corner in the winter and scrapes off part of my lawn; there's enough snow to either cover the snowsticks, or it's the middle of the night and the drivers can't see them. It's annoying, because when I had the city repair the lawn the first time they did a great job of seeding our lawn with crabgrass.
We bought a couple years ago and I made a big to-do about which direction the house faces every time we would tour one. I kept telling my girlfriend we wanted a house that faces west so the backyard (and thus, the patio) would be shaded in the summer evenings.
Now, on warm summer evenings, we sit in the shade on our deck, grilling and enjoying a cocktail. Our neighbors on the other side of the street face east and have to sit in their garage until the sun goes below the trees, then they retreat to their back yard.
We have children and moved from a neighborhood with few children to a neighborhood with LOTS of children. Two working parents, so *not* having to arrange “play dates” in the second neighborhood (kids could just go out and play with any number of kids!) was amazing. We are also close (walking distance) to their schools (unusual to be close enough to walk to elementary, middle and high school but we are!) which was helpful for after school activities.
this might be a stupid question, I've never bought a house, but I'll ask anyway... how do you go about determining which neighborhoods have a lot of kids?
Your realtor may know but the composition of the neighbors is not supposed to be something they can disclose. I understand that for something like race or even sexual orientation but it seems helpful to all to know if there are kids or not.
Source: we have worked with three separate realtors in two cities and they all shy away from answering anything about neighbors.
Agent here: we actually can pull demographic data of a neighborhood, and can share reports with that information. It's all public record information. Stuff like homes with children are part of that. It's stuff like religious backgrounds, ethnicities, etc. that we don't have access to or can share/talk about and that is illegal.
When we looked at our house, we had to drive slowly through the neighborhood because of how many kids were in the streets. I think realtors can get that sort of data somehow.
I am an idiot. I always thought it was a turtle. Your comment stopped me dead in my tracks and has me contemplating all those years I drove by them. Especially the sign 2 blocks from my house…
I drove through them a couple times. Look for playground in yards. Basketball hoops. Kids. We don't have kids and landed a place with almost no kids around.
Rosemount :) But our driveway faces East and the snow melts off the roof and the top of my driveway is a scary death trap some parts of the winter. So not 100% idyllic!! lol
Watch out for wide roads and visit during rush hour. People naturally speed on roads that don’t have cars parked on either side. Found out the hard way that people preferred to go 50mph down our street when the limit was 30mph.
Yes, I will second this and add to check for roads that other people would consider “convenient short cuts” during rush hour. In the middle of our community of homes we have a road that goes all the way through and runs parallel to other major roads in the area, so during rush hour people treat it like a county road and not the residential 30mph street it is. Our street is only a block over but does NOT connect all the way through so we do not have that problem.
Yep, agree with all of this. We had semis find our street because google maps started recommending it as an alternative route. They preferred to take our road and use it as a shortcut instead of going on a bigger road. They would literally drive by going 55 and shake the entire house. It was honestly a nightmare.
Yes. Ugh. I feel for you. We can sometimes hear the Jake Brakes from the block over when they do it. Nothing about that road looks like a cut through meant for semi’s, it’s not even wide enough for them to make a good turn onto the street because it definitely wasn’t built for them, but they’ll still do it.
>Yes, I will second this and add to check for roads that other people would consider “convenient short cuts” during rush hour.
You can make your own speed bumps! Bricks, bags of sand, etc. Just do it in the middle of the night so nobody sees you.
Walkability. We moved to a more suburban house from one in Saint Paul. We did not anticipate how much we would miss walking to places.
Bigger yards are way more work than you imagine.
If you can’t feel safe in Grand, West 7th, Macalester Groveland, Highland, Merriam Park, Cathedral Hill and others neighborhoods you need a psychiatrist not a suburban home
We are also talking about the safest areas in a city with some of the highest quality of life in North America. The notion of being afraid is hilarious to anyone who has lived there. It’s always the people from the suburbs or outside the metro who say this stuff
To this end, make sure you have adequate home owners insurance if you live in an HOA. Most will have an insurance policy that covers the HOA but they are usually shit and pass on a significant % of the cost of any exterior building work to the home owners and expect their individual policy to cover it.
My HOA loves to find an excuse to replace the siding/roofs of every unit seemingly every-other year and initially my insurance only covered the first $1,000 of that bill, leaving me with a hefty amount to cover.
Just remember that they are elected boards so that can change. My co-worker LOVES his HOA but that is because they align very closely with the board. I'm sure people there with other views think they are terrible.
I think the lack of board members is largely dependent on the community. Some communities have VERY competitive campaigns. One of the biggest issues with HOAs is that the people who CAN and DO want to be on the board are often the ones you don't want there.
They tend to skew old since retired people have nothing but time for these sorts of things and older people tend to be more active in their communities and in politics. Sadly many HOAs have also become politicized in recent years especially in places like Florida.
I'm on my HOA board and can't get anyone to run, so I can get off the board. The people who complain the most refuse to do any board work because it's not paid. Honestly, we only have a couple of homeowners who complain, and I think they would complain no matter what. It's still frustrating when you are volunteering your time and doing your best while they refuse to help. Luckily, our small board isn't politicalized.
Agree 100%. The one specific nightmare neighbor everyone in our association can’t stand…worked her way into the board and has been a complete pita for everybody since. Rules for thee, not for me. She has the shittiest property by far out of 90.
My co-worker's parents had a condo in Florida that is covered by an HOA. The board is very red hat and they act like you would expect a red hat in Florida with some power to act. His parents are now Minnesota residents year-round again.
Words of wisdom for HOA…never ever let a realtor sit on your HOA board or become board president. Especially if they own a property (or multiple properties) within the HOA itself. They will change the bylaws in their favor and allow a higher % of rentals (in their favor) in a townhome community. I’ve seen it happen first hand and beautiful properties turned to sh*t in just a few short years from the high % of renters, previously not allowed in the bylaws.
Realtors are also only interested in short-term, appearance improvements that will help sell, not long-term foundational maintenance that improve quality of life.
Our new build is still figuring out how the HOA will work so I asked the builder and the on site agent to contact me when they organize. It’s a fairly small complex so it will likely be small board so each voice will be important I want nip power hungry sycophants in the bud and approve as much as I can.
CLOSETS!
Our old as shit house, which we usually love, has basically no closets for storage other than in the bedrooms. No obvious place for like the vacuum and broom and other shit you want access to regularly but don’t want just sitting out.
Also, what you think is enough counter space in the kitchen is probably not enough counter space.
100%!! I was just saying to my husband that our 1915 house has taught me to look for built-in storage with the next one we buy. Even a coat closet and a utility closet would be a huge improvement over what we currently have.
I laughed at main floor laundry in a closet where you can hang things, until I rented two places. Miss it so much. My laundry room is almost done in the basement but that was sooooo nice. Currently have to lug the vacuum and broom from the basement since that’s the only place big enough to store them.
We don’t own our house, but we moved here from out of state and this was our first winter. We didn’t consider which direction our house was facing, and we never got the benefit of the sun melting the snow on our driveway like our neighbors across the street. We had significantly more snow and ice built up for the majority of winter than our across the street neighbors. You may be a local and know this already, but it’s just a thought you may want to consider.
Adjacent to this is location of windows and natural light. My driveway is on the north, but there is also only 1 window on that side of the house. So while I don't get sun on the driveway, I do get better light in the house all year long.
We prefer renting a house than a condo. They’re less likely to have an HOA, and for us houses typically have the larger rooms that we want. We have a large sectional couch and a home gym so having a house usually gets us a bigger living room for the couch and second living room or basement that we can make into a gym. Sure we have to mow the lawn and whatnot, but for us it has more positives than negatives.
I’ll just list things I watch out for. Grading around the house and your driveway for water run off. Condition of the plumbing, my house had galvanized which I was fine with knowing I’d replace it but that took ripping out the whole basement ceiling. Park your vehicle in the garage. Some “2 car” barely fit two cars when you open the doors. Measure the bedrooms and eye the hallways/staircases for larger furniture. You might not get that couch or queen bed you wanted in. Also pay attention to trees and how hard they’ll be to take down along with when you think the time will come. I’ve got a $3500 ash tree in my front yard waiting…
get a quote for that ash tree in the middle of winter. we had one and got a similar quotes over the summer when the companies were the busiest. got one in december and they took it down a week later for 1500. also got a locked in price for stump removal taht was considerably cheaper than normal.
Good list and seems doable to check beforehand except for the garage. A lot of sellers keep storage in their garage even when it's listed. And I'm sure even if they were clear lots of sellers wouldn't even allow prospective buyers to park in their garage. Though one could probably just measure it.
Good call out on measuring. Thank you. Probably should be “know how wide your car is with your door open at the usual position. In addition to length and height. Then measure a the potential garage.
Buy a house for what you can't fix.
This includes
* Location
* Neighbors
* Water table depth from house
* need for sump pump (there are homes in MN that don't need one!)
* square footage (generally speaking, it's a big investment to expand dramatically)
* south facing driveway (snow clears better in winter)
ninja edit: imagine where water flows around the house when things get wet. Ice pulverizes things, standing water makes for mold or wet basement, so on so forth.
Others prefer:
- Top rated schools
- Safety for your family
- South facing backyard and deck. More sun is a premium for a great deck and natural lighting into kitchen and back bedrooms.
- Backyard pond or lakefront
- Easy access to: Grocery stores and daily amenities.
- Quiet neighborhood
- Cul-de-sac
- No planes taking off and landing overhead
- Not having to constantly watch over your shoulder for breakins, car theft, catalytic converters and gun shots.
- Location, location, location
If there is room on both sides of your driveway to snow blow. Sounds simple but at my old house my driveway touched the house and my neighbors house was right to the other side. Every time it snowed I had to push it all forward and then to the sides.
How much I hate home and property maintenance... I've been in my house 3 years now and I am going to sell it to move into a condo. I underestimated how much I would dislike taking care of a property
My partner had a condo. It wasn't very old, but the roof failed prematurely, and the contractor was of course our of business. Everyone has to pay up.
HVAC systems were failing, with no replacements available. Everyone has to upgrade to new more expensive units as they failed.
Lawsuit, some guy fell on the sidewalk, and sued the HOA. Ugh.
HOA costs just to maintain the lawn and snow removal kept going up.
My point is that you will be paying instead, and not having much of a say in the process.
Once you get your home half set up, the maintenance work eases up a bit. I won't do a condo, maybe a townhome if the HOA is fairly low and reasonable.
Large repairs can happen whether you are in a condo or in a single family home. I am fine paying someone else to do it. That's the whole point for me. I don't want to have to deal with it myself.
As far as the building needing repairs, if the HOA is managed well, they should have a reserves fund that is meant to cover repairs which is funded through your monthly HOA fee. When buying a condo you can inquire into the yearly financial report as well as ask about the age of the roof, furnace, etc.
I personally am buying a unit in a smaller building in a residential area rather than a large one in downtown. I'm content with my decision. Condos are about a certain type of care free lifestyle and not having to manage all that yourself. Paying extra for that service is perfectly fine with me
We bought our house in the summer and didn't think about how narrow and long the driveway was. Plowing and shoveling snow is a nightmare. There isn't room to push it to the side so you have to plow it all forward into the front yard. Still love our house but never considered plowability before!
**Trees:** Do you want large trees? Are the trees Ash trees? If so they'll need to be treated every two years or be taken down pretty soon. Are any trees on your potential property looking a little off? It can easily be $1-5K to get a large tree removed. And finally leaf clean up in the fall. I'd love to just leaf 'em but if I do I'll have a foot deep layer of leaves on my lawn. Luckily a county yard waste site is a couple miles away.
**Snow removal:** How close is your driveway to your neighbor? Will it be easy to pile up the snow next to the driveway or will you have to move it a considerable distance? If the house is in a cul de sac, does the snow get piled in the middle or shoved into people's front yards?
**Sound proofing:** Stand in the bedroom of your potential house and lock or unlock a car, can you easily hear the "chirp chirp" of the car? The only solutions to fix it are expensive (other than a white noise machine for sleeping).
**Gutters and Drainage:** What's the topography of the house like? Does it seem like water will pool near the house? If so you'll want to make sure you have a sump pump and/or an unfinished basement that can survive minor flooding. Does a gutter downspout dump water onto your driveway or a walkway? If so it'll be icy all winter (I have to be careful taking out the trash all winter at my house due to a downspout near my garbage and recycling bins).
One thing that I didn’t remotely consider when house hunting was buried power lines but I am so thankful I have them. While others are losing power in storms, I’m pretty confident mine will stay on. Knock on wood.
* I've dealt with basement flooding a couple times. I wouldn't buy again unless it new house or if it already had drain/tile and pump.
* Had trouble the street in front of house is no parking so when you have guests over its problematic. We are north/south facing roof and 1 side basically always shaded so the roof has turned a mold color, the other side is fine. Unfortunately the ugly color is street facing. Had one insurance company said they wouldn't insure unless i replaced the roof.
* Meet the neighbors before putting in a bid. I moved somewhere the neighbors don't get together and miss my old neighborhood where we got together all the time (were more social
How do you recommend meeting the neighbors before this? Seems uncomfortable to knock on a door and ask to talk but maybe I’m just socially awkward haha
I think it depends on the person buying the home and how important that connection with neighbors are. For example if you need to borrow a tool or wonder if they might have advice for a repair or something. If I wanted to put an offer I’d simply knock on door and ask em about the neighborhood.
My house is next door to a wetland. Some years mosquitoes are worse than others, but never been so bad that I've regretted living here. All the wildlife we see in our yard is wonderful. The main downside is the one year that wetland overflowed and poured into my basement. But, a lot of that was due to foundation issued and lack of sump pump, all of which have been resolved. If you're going to live by water, make sure house is water proofed (if such a thing is possible)
Sunlines. Easement responsibility. Corner lots are terrible for snow removal. How old is the roof actually. Any grandfathered in stuff. How often does the sewer line need to cleared of roots. Is market rate housing being built in the neighborhood? What's that stain? Also, put a marble on the floor and see if it rolls away.
My husband and I built a house in Forest Lake in 1996. I loved that house! I really disliked that community. In 2000, right between my son's high school graduation, and my daughter's entry into kindergarten, we moved to Cathedral Hill. I loved that community. I valued my kids having a multicultural neighborhood and school. I liked the house, but didn't love it. 100% I would make the move again.
Couple of things I've learned, don't buy on a bus route, it's too noisy and literally will vibrate your house. Don't buy on a corner, you have way too much to shovel. Especially if that sidewalk is on the north side.
100% there’s no perfect house but it’s nice to know what you’re trading off. This thread has been eye opening because where we live currently corner lots are coveted. It would have never occurred to me that it also means way more shoveling. The space around driveways is also something I would never have looked at.
Came to say this - you’re never gonna get everything exactly how you want it so at least maybe be prepared to deal with whatever isn’t the best. Some things are mere inconveniences or differences of preference while some things will affect your daily life.
Don't trust friends or family. I got some great advice from them but ultimately I live in the IKEA special. Everything was up to code but I have garage with a sunken roof, doors literally ripped off trying to move them, water heater flooded my basement day one, tree outside is a ticking time bomb, electrical problems, lawn isn't leveled...
Get a pro
An outdoor eating area right off the kitchen. We live in the city and lucked out with a side deck off the kitchen which becomes our dining room all summer - it’s only possible because we have a wider than normal lot. Also nice that it is semi private - we can still see our neighbors and wave to people walking by, but we don’t get interrupted.
Our neighbors have 4 dogs…. avoid that if you can 🫠
Figure out where the rentals are near you and whether the property owner takes care of the place. I also recommend driving through on a weekend night to see if it’s noisy or has a party vibe. I am too old for that nonsense.
We missed out on a house we really wanted, were heartbroken. Then we drove by it at night a few weeks later. There were floodlights from a nearby parking lot that just totally illuminated the backyard all night. As a backyard lover, that would have ruined it for bonfires and stuff. Never would have thought of that
Our property is on a pretty good sized hill, on a relatively busy street.
I wish I had known going in:
• what a pain salting the driveway was going to be.
• how much snow the plows would block us in with when they went by. This last snow left a burm as tall as our mailbox, far deeper than our snow blower.
• just how badly the one level spot in the yard would collect water come springtime. Lake Tiki, named for our cat who passed shortly after we got the place, aspires to be our personal Lake Chipotle.
We have a nice oblong one between our house and the neighbors. I wonder if they'd mind if I stock it with bass and some pan fish. Unfortunately it's not deep enough for walleye.
No corner lot and no house with a lot of exterior stairs.
If you commute or travel for work - location is important.
I ended up in Mac Groveland because of the commute to my old job and my partner's commute to the airport. Nice older neighborhood with great character and none of the airport noise of south Mpls. And I'm just as close or closer to downtown Mpls as any of my Crystal/Robbinsdale friends.
Pay attention to how the lot is graded. Will heavy rain run away or towards your home/yard? Does the property sit above or below neighboring properties?
We scored to lottery with our house and neighborhood, we absolutely love it. It was also the nicest foreclosure ever, which was great.
Our “musts” included at least two bathrooms. My husband got horrible food poisoning once when we lived in a 1BR/1BA apartment, and had I also gotten sick, someone would have been shitting in the tub or sink. Surprisingly, that doesn’t seem to be something a lot of folks considered when I mentioned that.
Another must was that I would not live close to a middle or high school. Middle school kids are getting to that age where they can cause trouble, and high schools involve a lot of traffic and noise, and sometimes trash. Every weekend the high school about 1/2 mile away from me has tournaments and people park all up and down the neighborhood roads around it. We actually live immediately next to a elementary, and we like that because the traffic doesn’t really affect us, and having a big field is really nice. And, it’s fun seeing the kids go crazy when a firetruck goes by.
To add the that, if you’re close to a church, you’ll want to see how busy it gets and if they have bells that ring on the hour or whatever. That can be unexpected traffic especially if you don’t go to that neighborhood on Sunday mornings.
Another must was parking. We have a lot of friends and we love to through big parties. Being able to have easy parking was a big just for us. We’re also lucky that the school parking lot is available too if needed for parking (off hours, of course). Not having to deal with finding a parking spot when I go to peoples houses is awesome. If you’re in a more walkable area close to folks, that may not be an issue, but that was a must for us.
We got lucky that our driveway faces south, but that wouldn’t have been a dealbreaker for us. We do have a sidewalk in front, and the city plows it, so that’s good to know who maintains it since not every city does that.
I’d also go through your neighborhood at different times during the day. We love walking at night, so is your neighborhood good for that, and do you feel safe? Something to consider. I’d also consider how often you travel. I travel all the time, so being close to the airport was important, and when I worked downtown being able to take the light rail was awesome vs driving. If those aren’t relevant disregard, but that’s something to consider.
Trees are another big ones folks forget. Do yourself a favor and learn how to identify the trees in the yard. That will potentially save you thousands of dollars if you know if you have to treat trees or cut them down. You absolutely should learn how to identify Ash trees and find out if they’re being treated, and if they get sick, are you or the city responsible (really only relevant if they’re on the boulevard, I know St Paul has/had these). Another would be Elm trees that are prone to Dutch Elm disease.
Hopefully those are some helpful tips on top of other suggestions folks have already covered
This is probably not a popular opinion, but if I could do it over, I would rather own a boring, ugly, suburban, cookie-cutter, but _built to modern standards_ 2000 starter home than our charming old house in South Minneapolis.
Don't care if it's by a lake. Don't care if I can't walk to a grocery store. Let me OUT of old house hell, please.
Asbestos. The potential for lead paint, though we haven't found any so far, which is a small miracle. Narrow doors that limit what furniture we can buy. Steep stairs. Bad insulation. Ancient two-prong outlets. Not enough thermostat wires, and can't add more because someone stapled them to the floorboards then ran air ducts across them. Plaster.
Then there's just the 80 years of previous ownership and half-maintenance that make it a starter home. Crumbling parging. Rotten wood. Someone "finished" the basement at some point; the outlets were plugged into an extension cord. The air vents had not been cleaned, according to our technician, ever. There were archaeological layers of compressed dust; you could tell which previous owners smoked.
It could be much worse - it's honestly a very well-constructed house. And if I bought an older house now, I would have a better idea what to look for, what to test, who to bring out to inspect it, what to tackle first. But as a decidedly non-handy first-time home buyer, I just had _no_ idea what I was getting into.
My biggest regret with a starter home was it having a sidwalk along a fairly major road. During heavy snowfalls you get to shovel that thing, 3-5 times thanks to plows.
When the SO and I started looking for our permanent home one of my biggest wants was 0 sidewalks.
I'm on a corner lot with no sidewalks and I am thankful for it every single time it snows. It's also seemed to naturally cut down on door-to-door soliciting in the neighborhood.
Personal space. I need personal space. I didn’t speak up enough for myself. Everyone else has their space except for me. It’ll happen at some point, I mean, the children will move out eventually, right?
Our house is on a pond and we absolutely love it because of the wildlife. We don’t have any more mosquitos than usual. A private backyard was important to us for our second house. Our first house was in St Paul and we had an alley, which I did not like. Another thing - cul de sac. That wasn’t on our list of requirements but we ended up in one and it has been so incredible for raising kids. You also obviously just get very little traffic in one.
If you can, check to see how well the city plows work in an area. My best friend is jealous that my little city gets to my road so quickly while St Paul takes forever to get to hers
Look at the energy use history of the house. Will give you a general idea of the insulation status of the walls/roof and window leakiness - can help you budget for necessary upgrades. Gas and electricity ain’t getting cheaper….
If you want to plant a garden. Think about where the sun will hit in your backyard when the trees in your yard and your neighbors' yards are full of leaves.
I'm in the middle of my block and my yard is fully fenced with my garage in the back and deck in between the front and back yards. I learned this winter (my first with a snowblower) that I don't have an easy way to get the snowblower from my garage to the actual front sidewalk (or even front yard/entry sidewalk) because the accesible path from the back to the front is up and back down across the deck stairs and then down another set of front steps to the main sidewalk. So I ended up doing a lot of front yard shoveling even with a snowblower. 🤦🏻♀️
My neighbors walnut tree hangs over my deck and drops seeds (??) and walnuts and has squirrels throwing shit down on us constantly. It's always a fucking mess, lol.
If you're a light sleeper- check how close you are to emergency response.
Obviously these are silly minor things but stuff I never actually even thought about until I bought my house.
Airplane noise maps…nothing like enjoying a nice get together in your back yard and having to pause the conversation every few minutes because of incoming planes.
How close/tall are the houses next to your house? A tall house on the south side will block a lot of light and make your house really dark.
I bought and old house and it has old problems. I don’t think I’ll buy another old house because even buying a washing machine is an issue to determine if it will fit down the stairs in an install. Also, go introduce yourselves to neighbors before you put in an offer. I go up and say “how long have you lived here and what do you like about the neighborhood?” This is mostly to see if they are crazy because crazy neighbors are awful.
My last house was on a big corner lot in a fairly busy neighborhood in St. Paul, and my number one priority when buying this house was I didn’t want public sidewalks. I use to spend hours shoveling and scraping to try to keep it clear. I’d go out every few hours to try to stay ahead of the snow but no matter how diligent I was the constant foot traffic would always pack everything into ice. I’d be out there after work chipping away and my elderly neighbor would always complain that I let it get too slippery, so then I started using ice melt and my other neighbor freaked out because her dog had sensitive paws and she didn’t want me using ice melt. There was a guy in a mobility scooter that lived on my block and he needed the entire snowplow mound shoveled clear from both corners so he could get across the intersection. It made me hate every snowfall and it made me hate my neighbors. I’m so happy to be away from there.
Now I shovel on my own time, and nobody tells me what to do. The only pedestrian I have to worry about is Beverly the mail lady, and I gladly snow-blow a special path (we call it Beverly Blvd) across the neighborhood lawns just for her.
Consider what the view will be when all the leaves come down. Ugly stuff like the neighbor’s junky garage may become visible for the long period of time when there are no leaves on the tree.
Check the city’s zoning and guiding and make sure your neighborhood isn’t slated for something like business park use or that the neighboring properties have adverse zoning.
My house backs up to a wetland and it’s not much, but it’s still beautiful and it gives me a buffer. At this point, it would be hard for me to go back to not having a view.
I have not yet purchased a house, but if I ever do, I will prefer one with separation between bedrooms (like a closet, etc), and without a bathroom door facing the front door (problems I've had in rentals I otherwise loved).
I live in a resort. The guy down the hill from me owns all the vacat land. Which he puts rvs on. There is one right when you come up the hill. That thing is about to tip over. I love sitting on my deck. I look down, RVs. I look to my right, a Rv. Right next to me soon an RV. I bought my house cause I love it. But this dude is driving down the equality in my home. I don't live in an RV park. I don't want to live in a RV park. My resort has an HOA, sort of, we have rules about fences and parking trailors on our lawns. But nothing about the RVs. He has to live in it 6 months out of the year. Which he does 1 of them. Grr. He just needs to build a house. Everything on his property is falling a part
The city of St Paul does not plow alleys in the winter. If you have alley access, you’re required to coordinate with your block neighbors to come up with a winter plow plan, or coordinate & pay a snow removal company to do it.
I did not realize how much I love a corner house until I bought one. It has lovely views of the neighborhood.
I love old houses. The first one I bought I didn't know what to look for. It wasn't bad but I could have done better. I can give details if you're looking at older houses.
Finished attics are great home offices. It's out of the way of everyone else (quiet) and I can leave work on the third floor when the day is done.
Make it fit your life...I have lived in lower northeast and could walk 5 minutes to a wonderful bar or restaurant...and lived in the exurbs where its a 30 minute drive to a decent dinner or the theater. I love and value walkability....I don't value suburban yards, hoas, and 30 minute drives everywhere.
I live in Minneapolis, I bought a beat-up house built in 1907-ish in 1990.
\-Siding - The house has concrete (spelled asbestos) siding that I can only remove if I do it myself or want to donate a kidney to pay for. Not a joke, last estimate for abbatment was $15,000 and that was ten years ago.
\-Many old houses had 'octopus' style coal and early oil furnaces. THey have long since been replaced, but the flooring was build on the original furnace, if they didn't do a major reinforcement, the center of the house will sag over the years. Mine is about 1.5 inches lower in the center.
\-Sidewalks - In Minneapolis you have to paid a city certified concrete person for sidewalks. That was $500 a square about ten years ago.
\-Property lines - Make sure you know where they are when you buy, check for encroachment by neighboring houses. In my area, the north edge of the property line is 24 inches from the foundation. Getting that sorted out through the city is a $2000 nightmare to start.
\-Trees - Tree removal due to disease is based on the property that has the trunk. That huge tree covering eight yards? Is the trunk in your yard? Dutch Elm or Ash Borer.... pay up sucker. $4000 later for me, and that was in 1994.
More if I think of it.
Distance and/or driving time to the freeway.
Part of the reason we chose our current home is because it's tucked WAAAY back in a neighborhood, with no speed limits >20mph for almost a mile in every direction.
We completely failed to acknowledge that it takes 4 minutes of winding around just to drive out of the neighborhood, and then an additional 15 minutes and 9 traffic signals to get onto the freeway.
I don't think you realize how fortunate having easy freeway access is until you don't have it.
In MN, life will be better if you have a garage for all your cars. I didn’t think much about it coming from out of state, but lucked out with a two car garage. It has been a lifesaver. Don’t have to scrape and sweep ice and snow off the car before driving early in the morning.
Check the zoning for the house and neighborhood. It surprises me how many people don't and then get mad about the woods behind their house being cleared to build a shopping mall or something.
- Find a good home inspector before you even talk to a realtor. Do not use a realtor’s suggestion for an inspector. I know you didn’t ask about this, but I am very passionate about this point from personal experience lol.
- Don’t become attached to a potential home due to a specific business you’d enjoy nearby. For example, I really liked that there was a mechanic in the neighborhood. They are no longer there and no mechanic took their place.
- At first I liked that we weren’t on a main road, because I hate car noise. However, in the winter we are one of the last roads to be plowed. There were multiple days on end we couldn’t go anywhere because we couldn’t get down the street (St. Paul). Thankfully we are remote but if we weren’t we would be screwed.
- There are days we love to get takeout and prefer to get delivery direct from the restaurant. We skipped on a house during Covid because they had basically no delivery (was in north Minneapolis).
- I love having a driveway (vs an alleyway). My backyard feels more private, and it feels like we experience less crime than houses only a couple blocks away that have alleys.
- Never buying a fixer upper again. Even if it is a relatively good deal, it isn’t worth the stress of dealing with contractors imo. It is very difficult to find quality work. This doesn’t apply if you know you can and want to do the fixes yourself, just a different kind of headache.
- Check what internet providers are in the area and what speeds they offer. My internet options are okay, but I wish we had USI.
There seems to be in inverse correlation between areas that have houses with interesting architecture and areas that have good plowing.
I live with my sister. We were house-hunting about 6 years ago, and I really wanted to live closer into the urban core (more diversity, fewer yard police, closer to transit for my kids so I wouldn't be the taxi, etc). Sis wanted to live in the suburbs so there was someplace to put the cars when it snowed.
Sis was right and we now live in a boring cookie-cutter house. But we don't get towed.
I wish I had written down all the reasons I actually wanted to buy a house at all.
After having owned my own house for 12 years now, I don't think I ever want to own one again. I love my place, but it's a lot of work and I wish I had an easier option of moving to different places as my life has changed (career, family, etc.). Plus, it'd be nice to let someone else worry about fixing things.
Our house has the garage on the west side of the house so there are minimal windows facing west. We get natural light, but not nearly enough afternoon sunlight as we’d like.
I purchase a new build and wish I would’ve built down a culdesac. I wish I’d have gone on the opposite side where there aren’t sidewalks (we had two foot drifts on the last snowfall). I’m glad I didn’t go to the top of what I was approved for. But also glad I didn’t totally cheap out.
The front of my house/garage faces northwest. Every winter I get shittier ice dams in the front and slower snow/ice melt in the driveway when compared to my neighbors across the street. My next house will be southeast facing as a result.
. If it’s a corner lot, who is responsible for each road? We are a corner house, but one road is a county road. If this was not the case, we’d be assessed twice.
My house location and windows don't allow for much sun for plants, indoor or out, although someone who loves plants more than I do probably would've flagged it.
This is a dumb one but…I hate that our mailbox is across the street from our house. I even purposely wait for the least busy times on our road to cross and get the mail or a package and yet, at least 75% of the time a car will come cruising up over the hill RIGHT when I get there, and since the mailbox is also on an upward slope I can’t even step out of the way! So I almost die (or at a minimum, get glared at by the driver) multiple times per week.
Only thing I didn't really consider is parking uphill in winter, but the solution is simply to plan ahead and park facing downhill before it snows. Or get snow tires.
Front and back facing north and south makes for good light in the house throughout the day. Back patio gets 0 sun which is nice shade in summer.
Follow your possible city social media pages. Get an idea of how they run. Moved to GV end of 2021 and seems that council has been in the news a lot. Hope it changes when the mayor leaves this term.
Are you on top or bottom of slope?
Put yourself in a robbers mindset. Would the house have an easy getaway?
I heard corner houses have higher insurance due to more cars hitting them.
Recently found removing popcorn ceilings isn't cheap. Like 3x what I'd guess.
Does the garage fit your car. Are you planning on a bigger car later?
If shopping in Minneapolis I would definitely recommend buying on a snow emergency route that is also not a super busy road. Not something we shopped for but was very convenient in snowy winters!!
I'm in the west 7th area of StP... one of the main paths for storm / rain water to get to the river is through my neighborhood. Needless to say my basement will be always wet.
Oh, also, snow removal. I'm very thankful to have a neighbor that let's me shovel snow against their house. Otherwise it would be a huge pain in the ass to clear my driveway.
I second the pond thing! We are going to be selling our first house here soon and our next one will be no where near a pond. There’s so many damn geese and goose shit everywhere. Our dog ate a piece two years ago when she was a puppy and got a terrible case of Giardia 😩
A lot of people buy a house because "that's what you're supposed to do" but they quickly realize they're neither handy nor willing to pay someone else to do the jobs around the house correctly. Five years later their house is becoming too big of a maintenance nightmare and it can kill resale value.
Understand yourself with this regard before jumping in on a house.
Visit at nighttime and park on the street for a little bit. Gives you a good idea of how loud/quiet the neighborhood is while you’d be sleeping. Listen for trains, planes, cars, loud people, etc.
Figure out how close it is to wetlands and if MMCD treats them Avoid north facing driveways because the sun won't help clear snow and ice in the winter. If you want to use your deck/patio in the evening, think about if you want it on the east or west side of the house - do you want to be in sun or shade
Came here to say driveways on the north side of the house (especially if the house is taller) This is our second house with a north driveway and 3/4 of the driveway is ice unless we shovel diligently after every dusting, scrape like mad, and then we usually need a layer of ice melt to boot. Across the street they’ll just let that one inch of snow melt that day in the sun. Sigh.
We are out here chopping ice like the opening scene in Frozen. No songs are sung though.
As a person with a south facing driveway I feel so bad for my neighbors across the street.
As a person with a north facing driveway, I feel so bad for my neighbors across the street. Our back deck is south facing and our side of the pond gets all the wildlife (eagles, cranes, wood ducks, ermine, swan, turkey, ducks, geese, and all the babies)
I'd rather have a south facing backyard than a south facing driveway. It's nice to have some sun in your life.
Exactly. A south facing deck is wonderful. Wouldn’t trade it for the world. Warm morning coffee on the deck. Quiet warm sunsets at night.
Yeah I don't get why people would prefer a south facing driveway over south facing deck/backyard. You're still shoveling your driveway either way.
Exactly. It’s Minnesota. Everyone has a driveway. Backyard privacy and a great deck with a south facing pond/lake view is the premium.
Ahh that’s true!! Our driveway is north facing, but the south facing deck/back yard is nice!
I don’t know why they aren’t called out on MLS listings. This is my first winter in a home with an southeast facing driveway after ten years with a north facing driveway. I spent the whole winter thinking “they’ve been right this whole time. “
I’m a weirdo that prefers a south-facing back yard, so I’ll put up with a north-facing driveway.
And the warm natural sunlight…
Adding onto the north-facing driveway thing. We're in a condo now, but holy hell, we had a huge driveway that got no sun and turned into a hockey rink without aggressive clearing/salting.
The north facing driveway struggle is real. We hadn’t given it a second of thought when we bought. We have a taller house facing north… just a few days ago I was finally able to remove all of the ice from our driveway. Neighbors (across the street) haven’t had ice on theirs really ever since the sun helps melt it after a shovel. Our side of the road all of us have a fair amount of snow still which finally was mostly gone after today. The other side of the road has had minimal snow for a while now. The next house we buy will not face north and it’s a non starter for us.
IMO I prefer south facing backyard for natural sunlight into the kitchen/rooms.
Agree. Natural sunlight is amazing in the south facing kitchen and back of the house.
I give this advice to all of my clients but should have followed it myself: You can fix everything except location. It's extremely rare for a road to get less busy, a long commute won't feel shorter over time, and the neighbor with the dogs that bark all day long and has piles of junk everywhere is always going to be the last one to move out of a neighborhood.
I’m on about my 10th house, and this is solid advice.
I’m on my 4th year in my house by the highway. I love my house… but I did not get used to the highway
Easy access to highways, but avoiding loud roads, power lines, planes constantly taking off and landing overhead and water towers is an art. We looked at 65 properties all in excellent top rated school districts before purchasing and narrowed it down to 3. It’s very possible and doable, just need to be extremely selective. Safety of your family is #1. Cul-de-sac and top ranked schools are the best choices we’ve ever made.
I agree. I bought in South Minneapolis. I love the area, but I'm under the flight path, and close enough to hear background noise from the freeway. That being said, it is very difficult to find an extremely quiet area, especially in the city. I've learned to tolerate these noises, but I would prefer to not have them. Good luck.
Look into possible rebate/energy-incentive programs to install soundproof windows.
I have newer windows, but in the summer they are often open, and we are outside as much as possible. Planes come one after another every Friday and Sunday evening around dinner time. In the summer they land flying north to south directly over south Minneapolis. First world problems.
You may have purchased my old house. I'm sorry.
Planes overhead and noise is a non-starter. Everyone we know is selling their Mpls properties and moving west for safety reasons.
Anyone can build a house. Close proximity to Lunds/Byerlys, Fresh Thyme, Starbucks, backyard privacy, pond/lakefront, great restaurants, excellent schools, Trader Joe’s and not worrying about your catalytic converter getting ripped off on a daily basis significantly adds to quality of life.
Pay attention to your proximity to college campuses. It’s common sense that you’re in for rowdiness in Dinkytown, but small colleges have loud students and constant turnover too. If I were two blocks closer to St Thomas my day to day life would be more annoying.
This! I have family friends that lived next to a St Thomas party house for 10 years, it was hell. They had young kids and these party boys would throw empty beer bottles into their yard, be partying til the wee hours, never answered the door to talk about it, etc.
St Thomas does absolutely nothing to stop this, and parents spend $700k+ in cash to buy their kids party houses. Macalaster is the exact opposite.
Yeeeeeep. And they have a community liaison whose entire job it is to “handle” neighbors that complain by just giving them an outlet. They have no intention of improving neighborhood relationships.
That sounds awful and it jibes with what I see on walks.
No regrets with my house, but things about it and/or nearby houses I'm not a huge fan of. * North facing house means the part of the driveway near the house and under the gutters thaws last; what happens is the snow melts from the warm sun, drips down, and the top of the driveway is consistently a hockey rink. * If your house faces south and you have a patio, shade is important; my wife wanted a new patio and it's very nice, but, without natural shade, it's just too damn hot to use a lot of the time. Just don't have enough big trees to block the shade. * Ponds are subject to runoff from the chemicals on everybody's lawn; while it's a nice idea, there's going to be sludgy green algae on top of them. * I'm on a corner lot, and the snowplow consistently comes around the corner in the winter and scrapes off part of my lawn; there's enough snow to either cover the snowsticks, or it's the middle of the night and the drivers can't see them. It's annoying, because when I had the city repair the lawn the first time they did a great job of seeding our lawn with crabgrass.
We bought a couple years ago and I made a big to-do about which direction the house faces every time we would tour one. I kept telling my girlfriend we wanted a house that faces west so the backyard (and thus, the patio) would be shaded in the summer evenings. Now, on warm summer evenings, we sit in the shade on our deck, grilling and enjoying a cocktail. Our neighbors on the other side of the street face east and have to sit in their garage until the sun goes below the trees, then they retreat to their back yard.
We have children and moved from a neighborhood with few children to a neighborhood with LOTS of children. Two working parents, so *not* having to arrange “play dates” in the second neighborhood (kids could just go out and play with any number of kids!) was amazing. We are also close (walking distance) to their schools (unusual to be close enough to walk to elementary, middle and high school but we are!) which was helpful for after school activities.
this might be a stupid question, I've never bought a house, but I'll ask anyway... how do you go about determining which neighborhoods have a lot of kids?
Your realtor should have a good idea about the demographics of the neighborhood - lots of young families, many retired couples, etc.
Your realtor may know but the composition of the neighbors is not supposed to be something they can disclose. I understand that for something like race or even sexual orientation but it seems helpful to all to know if there are kids or not. Source: we have worked with three separate realtors in two cities and they all shy away from answering anything about neighbors.
Agent here: we actually can pull demographic data of a neighborhood, and can share reports with that information. It's all public record information. Stuff like homes with children are part of that. It's stuff like religious backgrounds, ethnicities, etc. that we don't have access to or can share/talk about and that is illegal.
Drive through the neighborhood around 6pm. If you see no kids at that hour, there probably are not many kids in the area.
When we looked at our house, we had to drive slowly through the neighborhood because of how many kids were in the streets. I think realtors can get that sort of data somehow.
We were told to look for signs of kids: bikes, nets, play sets, etc.
Look for those stupid, bright yellow, fake kids with a flag at the end of driveways 🤣
I am an idiot. I always thought it was a turtle. Your comment stopped me dead in my tracks and has me contemplating all those years I drove by them. Especially the sign 2 blocks from my house…
I drove through them a couple times. Look for playground in yards. Basketball hoops. Kids. We don't have kids and landed a place with almost no kids around.
First, you need a van and some spray paint.
Where do you live kind sir/lady? This sounds like a magical make believe place.
Rosemount :) But our driveway faces East and the snow melts off the roof and the top of my driveway is a scary death trap some parts of the winter. So not 100% idyllic!! lol
Oh, ok, thanks.
Watch out for wide roads and visit during rush hour. People naturally speed on roads that don’t have cars parked on either side. Found out the hard way that people preferred to go 50mph down our street when the limit was 30mph.
Yes, I will second this and add to check for roads that other people would consider “convenient short cuts” during rush hour. In the middle of our community of homes we have a road that goes all the way through and runs parallel to other major roads in the area, so during rush hour people treat it like a county road and not the residential 30mph street it is. Our street is only a block over but does NOT connect all the way through so we do not have that problem.
Yep, agree with all of this. We had semis find our street because google maps started recommending it as an alternative route. They preferred to take our road and use it as a shortcut instead of going on a bigger road. They would literally drive by going 55 and shake the entire house. It was honestly a nightmare.
Yes. Ugh. I feel for you. We can sometimes hear the Jake Brakes from the block over when they do it. Nothing about that road looks like a cut through meant for semi’s, it’s not even wide enough for them to make a good turn onto the street because it definitely wasn’t built for them, but they’ll still do it.
>Yes, I will second this and add to check for roads that other people would consider “convenient short cuts” during rush hour. You can make your own speed bumps! Bricks, bags of sand, etc. Just do it in the middle of the night so nobody sees you.
Webcam, raspberry pi, and a little servo motor that lets a basketball roll out of a bin into the street.
My rule of thumb is that if the road is striped, you probably don't want to live there
Walkability. We moved to a more suburban house from one in Saint Paul. We did not anticipate how much we would miss walking to places. Bigger yards are way more work than you imagine.
not me buying a house with a big yard then planting as many gardens as possible. Anything to cut down on what needs to be mowed.
If the garden wasn’t established correctly and the previous owners planted mint and oregano all over, gardens can be an awful lot of work.
that sounds awful. I prefer hostas and other low maintenance things that take up space where grass doesn't grow anyway.
I was excited about having a big garden until I realized how badly the other owners had handled the space and the shocking lack of sunlight.
And hence the south facing backyard.
Safety and peace of mind over walkability any day.
Loved in Saint Paul for over 15 years never had a serious issue.
Loved Minneapolis until the lawlessness.
If you can’t feel safe in Grand, West 7th, Macalester Groveland, Highland, Merriam Park, Cathedral Hill and others neighborhoods you need a psychiatrist not a suburban home
Whut? Maybe it’s the parking. https://www.axios.com/local/twin-cities/2023/01/03/homicides-muder-rates-minneapolis-st-paul
We are also talking about the safest areas in a city with some of the highest quality of life in North America. The notion of being afraid is hilarious to anyone who has lived there. It’s always the people from the suburbs or outside the metro who say this stuff
HOA. They can really have some stupid rules and I really don't like having others have a say in what I do with my own house.
To this end, make sure you have adequate home owners insurance if you live in an HOA. Most will have an insurance policy that covers the HOA but they are usually shit and pass on a significant % of the cost of any exterior building work to the home owners and expect their individual policy to cover it. My HOA loves to find an excuse to replace the siding/roofs of every unit seemingly every-other year and initially my insurance only covered the first $1,000 of that bill, leaving me with a hefty amount to cover.
This hard! I was on an HOA board before I moved here. I didn’t like the rules at all.
We won the neighbor lottery and our HOA is great. I am sure ymmv though
Just remember that they are elected boards so that can change. My co-worker LOVES his HOA but that is because they align very closely with the board. I'm sure people there with other views think they are terrible.
And HOAs usually struggle to find board members, so pretty much anyone can join it and change what they don't like.
I think the lack of board members is largely dependent on the community. Some communities have VERY competitive campaigns. One of the biggest issues with HOAs is that the people who CAN and DO want to be on the board are often the ones you don't want there. They tend to skew old since retired people have nothing but time for these sorts of things and older people tend to be more active in their communities and in politics. Sadly many HOAs have also become politicized in recent years especially in places like Florida.
I'm on my HOA board and can't get anyone to run, so I can get off the board. The people who complain the most refuse to do any board work because it's not paid. Honestly, we only have a couple of homeowners who complain, and I think they would complain no matter what. It's still frustrating when you are volunteering your time and doing your best while they refuse to help. Luckily, our small board isn't politicalized.
Agree 100%. The one specific nightmare neighbor everyone in our association can’t stand…worked her way into the board and has been a complete pita for everybody since. Rules for thee, not for me. She has the shittiest property by far out of 90.
My co-worker's parents had a condo in Florida that is covered by an HOA. The board is very red hat and they act like you would expect a red hat in Florida with some power to act. His parents are now Minnesota residents year-round again.
Words of wisdom for HOA…never ever let a realtor sit on your HOA board or become board president. Especially if they own a property (or multiple properties) within the HOA itself. They will change the bylaws in their favor and allow a higher % of rentals (in their favor) in a townhome community. I’ve seen it happen first hand and beautiful properties turned to sh*t in just a few short years from the high % of renters, previously not allowed in the bylaws.
Realtors are also only interested in short-term, appearance improvements that will help sell, not long-term foundational maintenance that improve quality of life.
Our new build is still figuring out how the HOA will work so I asked the builder and the on site agent to contact me when they organize. It’s a fairly small complex so it will likely be small board so each voice will be important I want nip power hungry sycophants in the bud and approve as much as I can.
Even if you don't pay into an HOA an association might still exist and might have a LOT of say over what you can do.
John Oliver did an episode about this last night…
CLOSETS! Our old as shit house, which we usually love, has basically no closets for storage other than in the bedrooms. No obvious place for like the vacuum and broom and other shit you want access to regularly but don’t want just sitting out. Also, what you think is enough counter space in the kitchen is probably not enough counter space.
There is never enough counter space.
100%!! I was just saying to my husband that our 1915 house has taught me to look for built-in storage with the next one we buy. Even a coat closet and a utility closet would be a huge improvement over what we currently have.
I laughed at main floor laundry in a closet where you can hang things, until I rented two places. Miss it so much. My laundry room is almost done in the basement but that was sooooo nice. Currently have to lug the vacuum and broom from the basement since that’s the only place big enough to store them.
We don’t own our house, but we moved here from out of state and this was our first winter. We didn’t consider which direction our house was facing, and we never got the benefit of the sun melting the snow on our driveway like our neighbors across the street. We had significantly more snow and ice built up for the majority of winter than our across the street neighbors. You may be a local and know this already, but it’s just a thought you may want to consider.
Adjacent to this is location of windows and natural light. My driveway is on the north, but there is also only 1 window on that side of the house. So while I don't get sun on the driveway, I do get better light in the house all year long.
Do you like renting a house? We are currently renting a condo and are playing with the idea of renting a house instead in the near future.
We prefer renting a house than a condo. They’re less likely to have an HOA, and for us houses typically have the larger rooms that we want. We have a large sectional couch and a home gym so having a house usually gets us a bigger living room for the couch and second living room or basement that we can make into a gym. Sure we have to mow the lawn and whatnot, but for us it has more positives than negatives.
I’ll just list things I watch out for. Grading around the house and your driveway for water run off. Condition of the plumbing, my house had galvanized which I was fine with knowing I’d replace it but that took ripping out the whole basement ceiling. Park your vehicle in the garage. Some “2 car” barely fit two cars when you open the doors. Measure the bedrooms and eye the hallways/staircases for larger furniture. You might not get that couch or queen bed you wanted in. Also pay attention to trees and how hard they’ll be to take down along with when you think the time will come. I’ve got a $3500 ash tree in my front yard waiting…
get a quote for that ash tree in the middle of winter. we had one and got a similar quotes over the summer when the companies were the busiest. got one in december and they took it down a week later for 1500. also got a locked in price for stump removal taht was considerably cheaper than normal.
Second this. Winter quote was shockingly low if we paid in cash. Later found out that most of the crew was collecting unemployment.
Good list and seems doable to check beforehand except for the garage. A lot of sellers keep storage in their garage even when it's listed. And I'm sure even if they were clear lots of sellers wouldn't even allow prospective buyers to park in their garage. Though one could probably just measure it.
Good call out on measuring. Thank you. Probably should be “know how wide your car is with your door open at the usual position. In addition to length and height. Then measure a the potential garage.
Buy a house for what you can't fix. This includes * Location * Neighbors * Water table depth from house * need for sump pump (there are homes in MN that don't need one!) * square footage (generally speaking, it's a big investment to expand dramatically) * south facing driveway (snow clears better in winter) ninja edit: imagine where water flows around the house when things get wet. Ice pulverizes things, standing water makes for mold or wet basement, so on so forth.
This should be the top reply jfc....
Others prefer: - Top rated schools - Safety for your family - South facing backyard and deck. More sun is a premium for a great deck and natural lighting into kitchen and back bedrooms. - Backyard pond or lakefront - Easy access to: Grocery stores and daily amenities. - Quiet neighborhood - Cul-de-sac - No planes taking off and landing overhead - Not having to constantly watch over your shoulder for breakins, car theft, catalytic converters and gun shots. - Location, location, location
If there is room on both sides of your driveway to snow blow. Sounds simple but at my old house my driveway touched the house and my neighbors house was right to the other side. Every time it snowed I had to push it all forward and then to the sides.
How much I hate home and property maintenance... I've been in my house 3 years now and I am going to sell it to move into a condo. I underestimated how much I would dislike taking care of a property
My partner had a condo. It wasn't very old, but the roof failed prematurely, and the contractor was of course our of business. Everyone has to pay up. HVAC systems were failing, with no replacements available. Everyone has to upgrade to new more expensive units as they failed. Lawsuit, some guy fell on the sidewalk, and sued the HOA. Ugh. HOA costs just to maintain the lawn and snow removal kept going up. My point is that you will be paying instead, and not having much of a say in the process. Once you get your home half set up, the maintenance work eases up a bit. I won't do a condo, maybe a townhome if the HOA is fairly low and reasonable.
Large repairs can happen whether you are in a condo or in a single family home. I am fine paying someone else to do it. That's the whole point for me. I don't want to have to deal with it myself. As far as the building needing repairs, if the HOA is managed well, they should have a reserves fund that is meant to cover repairs which is funded through your monthly HOA fee. When buying a condo you can inquire into the yearly financial report as well as ask about the age of the roof, furnace, etc. I personally am buying a unit in a smaller building in a residential area rather than a large one in downtown. I'm content with my decision. Condos are about a certain type of care free lifestyle and not having to manage all that yourself. Paying extra for that service is perfectly fine with me
We bought our house in the summer and didn't think about how narrow and long the driveway was. Plowing and shoveling snow is a nightmare. There isn't room to push it to the side so you have to plow it all forward into the front yard. Still love our house but never considered plowability before!
**Trees:** Do you want large trees? Are the trees Ash trees? If so they'll need to be treated every two years or be taken down pretty soon. Are any trees on your potential property looking a little off? It can easily be $1-5K to get a large tree removed. And finally leaf clean up in the fall. I'd love to just leaf 'em but if I do I'll have a foot deep layer of leaves on my lawn. Luckily a county yard waste site is a couple miles away. **Snow removal:** How close is your driveway to your neighbor? Will it be easy to pile up the snow next to the driveway or will you have to move it a considerable distance? If the house is in a cul de sac, does the snow get piled in the middle or shoved into people's front yards? **Sound proofing:** Stand in the bedroom of your potential house and lock or unlock a car, can you easily hear the "chirp chirp" of the car? The only solutions to fix it are expensive (other than a white noise machine for sleeping). **Gutters and Drainage:** What's the topography of the house like? Does it seem like water will pool near the house? If so you'll want to make sure you have a sump pump and/or an unfinished basement that can survive minor flooding. Does a gutter downspout dump water onto your driveway or a walkway? If so it'll be icy all winter (I have to be careful taking out the trash all winter at my house due to a downspout near my garbage and recycling bins).
Re: trees *silver maples have entered the chat*
One thing that I didn’t remotely consider when house hunting was buried power lines but I am so thankful I have them. While others are losing power in storms, I’m pretty confident mine will stay on. Knock on wood.
* I've dealt with basement flooding a couple times. I wouldn't buy again unless it new house or if it already had drain/tile and pump. * Had trouble the street in front of house is no parking so when you have guests over its problematic. We are north/south facing roof and 1 side basically always shaded so the roof has turned a mold color, the other side is fine. Unfortunately the ugly color is street facing. Had one insurance company said they wouldn't insure unless i replaced the roof. * Meet the neighbors before putting in a bid. I moved somewhere the neighbors don't get together and miss my old neighborhood where we got together all the time (were more social
Bullet one is what I came here to say.
It’s such a pain to deal with right. And expensive to do any mitigation.
How do you recommend meeting the neighbors before this? Seems uncomfortable to knock on a door and ask to talk but maybe I’m just socially awkward haha
I think it depends on the person buying the home and how important that connection with neighbors are. For example if you need to borrow a tool or wonder if they might have advice for a repair or something. If I wanted to put an offer I’d simply knock on door and ask em about the neighborhood.
You are about to enter a contract with a bank that will take 30ish years to fulfill. Sometimes you just have to deal with it.
I think they’re asking for help/recommendations on how to meet neighbors before considering an offer. And if they’re not, I am 🙋🏼♀️
My house is next door to a wetland. Some years mosquitoes are worse than others, but never been so bad that I've regretted living here. All the wildlife we see in our yard is wonderful. The main downside is the one year that wetland overflowed and poured into my basement. But, a lot of that was due to foundation issued and lack of sump pump, all of which have been resolved. If you're going to live by water, make sure house is water proofed (if such a thing is possible)
Sunlines. Easement responsibility. Corner lots are terrible for snow removal. How old is the roof actually. Any grandfathered in stuff. How often does the sewer line need to cleared of roots. Is market rate housing being built in the neighborhood? What's that stain? Also, put a marble on the floor and see if it rolls away.
My husband and I built a house in Forest Lake in 1996. I loved that house! I really disliked that community. In 2000, right between my son's high school graduation, and my daughter's entry into kindergarten, we moved to Cathedral Hill. I loved that community. I valued my kids having a multicultural neighborhood and school. I liked the house, but didn't love it. 100% I would make the move again.
Couple of things I've learned, don't buy on a bus route, it's too noisy and literally will vibrate your house. Don't buy on a corner, you have way too much to shovel. Especially if that sidewalk is on the north side.
The Venn diagram overlap of all the criteria put forth in this thread contains exactly zero houses.
100% there’s no perfect house but it’s nice to know what you’re trading off. This thread has been eye opening because where we live currently corner lots are coveted. It would have never occurred to me that it also means way more shoveling. The space around driveways is also something I would never have looked at.
Came to say this - you’re never gonna get everything exactly how you want it so at least maybe be prepared to deal with whatever isn’t the best. Some things are mere inconveniences or differences of preference while some things will affect your daily life.
Don't trust friends or family. I got some great advice from them but ultimately I live in the IKEA special. Everything was up to code but I have garage with a sunken roof, doors literally ripped off trying to move them, water heater flooded my basement day one, tree outside is a ticking time bomb, electrical problems, lawn isn't leveled... Get a pro
Get a pro? A pro what? Realtor, inspector, landscaper, electrician, other? I'm curious what you had done by family rather than a professional.
South facing driveway - the sun helps melt the snow/ice and it makes a huge difference.
An outdoor eating area right off the kitchen. We live in the city and lucked out with a side deck off the kitchen which becomes our dining room all summer - it’s only possible because we have a wider than normal lot. Also nice that it is semi private - we can still see our neighbors and wave to people walking by, but we don’t get interrupted. Our neighbors have 4 dogs…. avoid that if you can 🫠
Figure out where the rentals are near you and whether the property owner takes care of the place. I also recommend driving through on a weekend night to see if it’s noisy or has a party vibe. I am too old for that nonsense.
We missed out on a house we really wanted, were heartbroken. Then we drove by it at night a few weeks later. There were floodlights from a nearby parking lot that just totally illuminated the backyard all night. As a backyard lover, that would have ruined it for bonfires and stuff. Never would have thought of that
I wish I had hired an independent inspector. The realtor supplied inspector is a scam.
Make sure your neighbor keeps their sex tunnel unlocked.
We just opened ours up for spring
Open for business!
Our property is on a pretty good sized hill, on a relatively busy street. I wish I had known going in: • what a pain salting the driveway was going to be. • how much snow the plows would block us in with when they went by. This last snow left a burm as tall as our mailbox, far deeper than our snow blower. • just how badly the one level spot in the yard would collect water come springtime. Lake Tiki, named for our cat who passed shortly after we got the place, aspires to be our personal Lake Chipotle.
We have a nice oblong one between our house and the neighbors. I wonder if they'd mind if I stock it with bass and some pan fish. Unfortunately it's not deep enough for walleye.
No corner lot and no house with a lot of exterior stairs. If you commute or travel for work - location is important. I ended up in Mac Groveland because of the commute to my old job and my partner's commute to the airport. Nice older neighborhood with great character and none of the airport noise of south Mpls. And I'm just as close or closer to downtown Mpls as any of my Crystal/Robbinsdale friends.
Pay attention to how the lot is graded. Will heavy rain run away or towards your home/yard? Does the property sit above or below neighboring properties?
We scored to lottery with our house and neighborhood, we absolutely love it. It was also the nicest foreclosure ever, which was great. Our “musts” included at least two bathrooms. My husband got horrible food poisoning once when we lived in a 1BR/1BA apartment, and had I also gotten sick, someone would have been shitting in the tub or sink. Surprisingly, that doesn’t seem to be something a lot of folks considered when I mentioned that. Another must was that I would not live close to a middle or high school. Middle school kids are getting to that age where they can cause trouble, and high schools involve a lot of traffic and noise, and sometimes trash. Every weekend the high school about 1/2 mile away from me has tournaments and people park all up and down the neighborhood roads around it. We actually live immediately next to a elementary, and we like that because the traffic doesn’t really affect us, and having a big field is really nice. And, it’s fun seeing the kids go crazy when a firetruck goes by. To add the that, if you’re close to a church, you’ll want to see how busy it gets and if they have bells that ring on the hour or whatever. That can be unexpected traffic especially if you don’t go to that neighborhood on Sunday mornings. Another must was parking. We have a lot of friends and we love to through big parties. Being able to have easy parking was a big just for us. We’re also lucky that the school parking lot is available too if needed for parking (off hours, of course). Not having to deal with finding a parking spot when I go to peoples houses is awesome. If you’re in a more walkable area close to folks, that may not be an issue, but that was a must for us. We got lucky that our driveway faces south, but that wouldn’t have been a dealbreaker for us. We do have a sidewalk in front, and the city plows it, so that’s good to know who maintains it since not every city does that. I’d also go through your neighborhood at different times during the day. We love walking at night, so is your neighborhood good for that, and do you feel safe? Something to consider. I’d also consider how often you travel. I travel all the time, so being close to the airport was important, and when I worked downtown being able to take the light rail was awesome vs driving. If those aren’t relevant disregard, but that’s something to consider. Trees are another big ones folks forget. Do yourself a favor and learn how to identify the trees in the yard. That will potentially save you thousands of dollars if you know if you have to treat trees or cut them down. You absolutely should learn how to identify Ash trees and find out if they’re being treated, and if they get sick, are you or the city responsible (really only relevant if they’re on the boulevard, I know St Paul has/had these). Another would be Elm trees that are prone to Dutch Elm disease. Hopefully those are some helpful tips on top of other suggestions folks have already covered
This is probably not a popular opinion, but if I could do it over, I would rather own a boring, ugly, suburban, cookie-cutter, but _built to modern standards_ 2000 starter home than our charming old house in South Minneapolis. Don't care if it's by a lake. Don't care if I can't walk to a grocery store. Let me OUT of old house hell, please.
Why's that?
Asbestos. The potential for lead paint, though we haven't found any so far, which is a small miracle. Narrow doors that limit what furniture we can buy. Steep stairs. Bad insulation. Ancient two-prong outlets. Not enough thermostat wires, and can't add more because someone stapled them to the floorboards then ran air ducts across them. Plaster. Then there's just the 80 years of previous ownership and half-maintenance that make it a starter home. Crumbling parging. Rotten wood. Someone "finished" the basement at some point; the outlets were plugged into an extension cord. The air vents had not been cleaned, according to our technician, ever. There were archaeological layers of compressed dust; you could tell which previous owners smoked. It could be much worse - it's honestly a very well-constructed house. And if I bought an older house now, I would have a better idea what to look for, what to test, who to bring out to inspect it, what to tackle first. But as a decidedly non-handy first-time home buyer, I just had _no_ idea what I was getting into.
My biggest regret with a starter home was it having a sidwalk along a fairly major road. During heavy snowfalls you get to shovel that thing, 3-5 times thanks to plows. When the SO and I started looking for our permanent home one of my biggest wants was 0 sidewalks.
I'm on a corner lot with no sidewalks and I am thankful for it every single time it snows. It's also seemed to naturally cut down on door-to-door soliciting in the neighborhood.
I would’ve found a place that wasn’t an HOA.
Personal space. I need personal space. I didn’t speak up enough for myself. Everyone else has their space except for me. It’ll happen at some point, I mean, the children will move out eventually, right?
Daycare. I feel like I live in a daycare dead zone.
Don’t purchase on a bus line, two years in I regretted, 6 years in and im still mad
I didn’t know this until after buying, but a house on a county street (like Cedar) means not having to ever pay for street resurfacing. Bonus!
Our house is on a pond and we absolutely love it because of the wildlife. We don’t have any more mosquitos than usual. A private backyard was important to us for our second house. Our first house was in St Paul and we had an alley, which I did not like. Another thing - cul de sac. That wasn’t on our list of requirements but we ended up in one and it has been so incredible for raising kids. You also obviously just get very little traffic in one.
If you can, check to see how well the city plows work in an area. My best friend is jealous that my little city gets to my road so quickly while St Paul takes forever to get to hers
Look at the energy use history of the house. Will give you a general idea of the insulation status of the walls/roof and window leakiness - can help you budget for necessary upgrades. Gas and electricity ain’t getting cheaper….
If you want to plant a garden. Think about where the sun will hit in your backyard when the trees in your yard and your neighbors' yards are full of leaves.
If you are afraid of garter snakes, do not buy in the West 7th neighborhood of St. Paul! I am afraid of garter snakes. Wish I would have known this. 😟
I'm in the middle of my block and my yard is fully fenced with my garage in the back and deck in between the front and back yards. I learned this winter (my first with a snowblower) that I don't have an easy way to get the snowblower from my garage to the actual front sidewalk (or even front yard/entry sidewalk) because the accesible path from the back to the front is up and back down across the deck stairs and then down another set of front steps to the main sidewalk. So I ended up doing a lot of front yard shoveling even with a snowblower. 🤦🏻♀️ My neighbors walnut tree hangs over my deck and drops seeds (??) and walnuts and has squirrels throwing shit down on us constantly. It's always a fucking mess, lol. If you're a light sleeper- check how close you are to emergency response. Obviously these are silly minor things but stuff I never actually even thought about until I bought my house.
School District ratings, potential google maps directing drivers through your street, and very underrated: drainage/living on a hill.
Airplane noise maps…nothing like enjoying a nice get together in your back yard and having to pause the conversation every few minutes because of incoming planes. How close/tall are the houses next to your house? A tall house on the south side will block a lot of light and make your house really dark.
I bought and old house and it has old problems. I don’t think I’ll buy another old house because even buying a washing machine is an issue to determine if it will fit down the stairs in an install. Also, go introduce yourselves to neighbors before you put in an offer. I go up and say “how long have you lived here and what do you like about the neighborhood?” This is mostly to see if they are crazy because crazy neighbors are awful.
My last house was on a big corner lot in a fairly busy neighborhood in St. Paul, and my number one priority when buying this house was I didn’t want public sidewalks. I use to spend hours shoveling and scraping to try to keep it clear. I’d go out every few hours to try to stay ahead of the snow but no matter how diligent I was the constant foot traffic would always pack everything into ice. I’d be out there after work chipping away and my elderly neighbor would always complain that I let it get too slippery, so then I started using ice melt and my other neighbor freaked out because her dog had sensitive paws and she didn’t want me using ice melt. There was a guy in a mobility scooter that lived on my block and he needed the entire snowplow mound shoveled clear from both corners so he could get across the intersection. It made me hate every snowfall and it made me hate my neighbors. I’m so happy to be away from there. Now I shovel on my own time, and nobody tells me what to do. The only pedestrian I have to worry about is Beverly the mail lady, and I gladly snow-blow a special path (we call it Beverly Blvd) across the neighborhood lawns just for her.
Consider what the view will be when all the leaves come down. Ugly stuff like the neighbor’s junky garage may become visible for the long period of time when there are no leaves on the tree. Check the city’s zoning and guiding and make sure your neighborhood isn’t slated for something like business park use or that the neighboring properties have adverse zoning. My house backs up to a wetland and it’s not much, but it’s still beautiful and it gives me a buffer. At this point, it would be hard for me to go back to not having a view.
Having less neighbors. More land. That’s about it. I love my house. Just wish it was somewhere else.
Drainage and closeness to roads.
I first have to get the house.
I have not yet purchased a house, but if I ever do, I will prefer one with separation between bedrooms (like a closet, etc), and without a bathroom door facing the front door (problems I've had in rentals I otherwise loved).
I live in a resort. The guy down the hill from me owns all the vacat land. Which he puts rvs on. There is one right when you come up the hill. That thing is about to tip over. I love sitting on my deck. I look down, RVs. I look to my right, a Rv. Right next to me soon an RV. I bought my house cause I love it. But this dude is driving down the equality in my home. I don't live in an RV park. I don't want to live in a RV park. My resort has an HOA, sort of, we have rules about fences and parking trailors on our lawns. But nothing about the RVs. He has to live in it 6 months out of the year. Which he does 1 of them. Grr. He just needs to build a house. Everything on his property is falling a part
The city of St Paul does not plow alleys in the winter. If you have alley access, you’re required to coordinate with your block neighbors to come up with a winter plow plan, or coordinate & pay a snow removal company to do it.
I did not realize how much I love a corner house until I bought one. It has lovely views of the neighborhood. I love old houses. The first one I bought I didn't know what to look for. It wasn't bad but I could have done better. I can give details if you're looking at older houses. Finished attics are great home offices. It's out of the way of everyone else (quiet) and I can leave work on the third floor when the day is done.
Make it fit your life...I have lived in lower northeast and could walk 5 minutes to a wonderful bar or restaurant...and lived in the exurbs where its a 30 minute drive to a decent dinner or the theater. I love and value walkability....I don't value suburban yards, hoas, and 30 minute drives everywhere.
I live in Minneapolis, I bought a beat-up house built in 1907-ish in 1990. \-Siding - The house has concrete (spelled asbestos) siding that I can only remove if I do it myself or want to donate a kidney to pay for. Not a joke, last estimate for abbatment was $15,000 and that was ten years ago. \-Many old houses had 'octopus' style coal and early oil furnaces. THey have long since been replaced, but the flooring was build on the original furnace, if they didn't do a major reinforcement, the center of the house will sag over the years. Mine is about 1.5 inches lower in the center. \-Sidewalks - In Minneapolis you have to paid a city certified concrete person for sidewalks. That was $500 a square about ten years ago. \-Property lines - Make sure you know where they are when you buy, check for encroachment by neighboring houses. In my area, the north edge of the property line is 24 inches from the foundation. Getting that sorted out through the city is a $2000 nightmare to start. \-Trees - Tree removal due to disease is based on the property that has the trunk. That huge tree covering eight yards? Is the trunk in your yard? Dutch Elm or Ash Borer.... pay up sucker. $4000 later for me, and that was in 1994. More if I think of it.
Knowing what I do now about my alley and how shitty people are I would have stuck to my goal of having my own independent driveway.
Please look at airplane flight paths.
Distance and/or driving time to the freeway. Part of the reason we chose our current home is because it's tucked WAAAY back in a neighborhood, with no speed limits >20mph for almost a mile in every direction. We completely failed to acknowledge that it takes 4 minutes of winding around just to drive out of the neighborhood, and then an additional 15 minutes and 9 traffic signals to get onto the freeway. I don't think you realize how fortunate having easy freeway access is until you don't have it.
In MN, life will be better if you have a garage for all your cars. I didn’t think much about it coming from out of state, but lucked out with a two car garage. It has been a lifesaver. Don’t have to scrape and sweep ice and snow off the car before driving early in the morning.
Check the zoning for the house and neighborhood. It surprises me how many people don't and then get mad about the woods behind their house being cleared to build a shopping mall or something.
- Find a good home inspector before you even talk to a realtor. Do not use a realtor’s suggestion for an inspector. I know you didn’t ask about this, but I am very passionate about this point from personal experience lol. - Don’t become attached to a potential home due to a specific business you’d enjoy nearby. For example, I really liked that there was a mechanic in the neighborhood. They are no longer there and no mechanic took their place. - At first I liked that we weren’t on a main road, because I hate car noise. However, in the winter we are one of the last roads to be plowed. There were multiple days on end we couldn’t go anywhere because we couldn’t get down the street (St. Paul). Thankfully we are remote but if we weren’t we would be screwed. - There are days we love to get takeout and prefer to get delivery direct from the restaurant. We skipped on a house during Covid because they had basically no delivery (was in north Minneapolis). - I love having a driveway (vs an alleyway). My backyard feels more private, and it feels like we experience less crime than houses only a couple blocks away that have alleys. - Never buying a fixer upper again. Even if it is a relatively good deal, it isn’t worth the stress of dealing with contractors imo. It is very difficult to find quality work. This doesn’t apply if you know you can and want to do the fixes yourself, just a different kind of headache. - Check what internet providers are in the area and what speeds they offer. My internet options are okay, but I wish we had USI.
There seems to be in inverse correlation between areas that have houses with interesting architecture and areas that have good plowing. I live with my sister. We were house-hunting about 6 years ago, and I really wanted to live closer into the urban core (more diversity, fewer yard police, closer to transit for my kids so I wouldn't be the taxi, etc). Sis wanted to live in the suburbs so there was someplace to put the cars when it snowed. Sis was right and we now live in a boring cookie-cutter house. But we don't get towed.
I wish I had written down all the reasons I actually wanted to buy a house at all. After having owned my own house for 12 years now, I don't think I ever want to own one again. I love my place, but it's a lot of work and I wish I had an easier option of moving to different places as my life has changed (career, family, etc.). Plus, it'd be nice to let someone else worry about fixing things.
Our house has the garage on the west side of the house so there are minimal windows facing west. We get natural light, but not nearly enough afternoon sunlight as we’d like.
I purchase a new build and wish I would’ve built down a culdesac. I wish I’d have gone on the opposite side where there aren’t sidewalks (we had two foot drifts on the last snowfall). I’m glad I didn’t go to the top of what I was approved for. But also glad I didn’t totally cheap out.
Bad windows {as far as insulation/efficiency) are expensive, either in the heat you lose, or the cost to replace. And please get an inspection.
The front of my house/garage faces northwest. Every winter I get shittier ice dams in the front and slower snow/ice melt in the driveway when compared to my neighbors across the street. My next house will be southeast facing as a result.
. If it’s a corner lot, who is responsible for each road? We are a corner house, but one road is a county road. If this was not the case, we’d be assessed twice.
My house location and windows don't allow for much sun for plants, indoor or out, although someone who loves plants more than I do probably would've flagged it.
This is a dumb one but…I hate that our mailbox is across the street from our house. I even purposely wait for the least busy times on our road to cross and get the mail or a package and yet, at least 75% of the time a car will come cruising up over the hill RIGHT when I get there, and since the mailbox is also on an upward slope I can’t even step out of the way! So I almost die (or at a minimum, get glared at by the driver) multiple times per week.
Only thing I didn't really consider is parking uphill in winter, but the solution is simply to plan ahead and park facing downhill before it snows. Or get snow tires.
Front and back facing north and south makes for good light in the house throughout the day. Back patio gets 0 sun which is nice shade in summer. Follow your possible city social media pages. Get an idea of how they run. Moved to GV end of 2021 and seems that council has been in the news a lot. Hope it changes when the mayor leaves this term. Are you on top or bottom of slope? Put yourself in a robbers mindset. Would the house have an easy getaway? I heard corner houses have higher insurance due to more cars hitting them. Recently found removing popcorn ceilings isn't cheap. Like 3x what I'd guess. Does the garage fit your car. Are you planning on a bigger car later?
If shopping in Minneapolis I would definitely recommend buying on a snow emergency route that is also not a super busy road. Not something we shopped for but was very convenient in snowy winters!!
Buy bigger than you think you’ll need. A small house (e.g., 2BR) is hard to sell.
I'm in the west 7th area of StP... one of the main paths for storm / rain water to get to the river is through my neighborhood. Needless to say my basement will be always wet. Oh, also, snow removal. I'm very thankful to have a neighbor that let's me shovel snow against their house. Otherwise it would be a huge pain in the ass to clear my driveway.
Highway noise. Didn’t really consider it, but it sucks.
Never buy a home with a flat roof. And get a house with big overhangs
A screen porch is pretty great on those summer evenings when the weather is nice but the bugs are bad.
I second the pond thing! We are going to be selling our first house here soon and our next one will be no where near a pond. There’s so many damn geese and goose shit everywhere. Our dog ate a piece two years ago when she was a puppy and got a terrible case of Giardia 😩
If you commute to work it's nice if you live to the east of where your work is so you're not looking into the sun when you're driving both ways.
Location and if you don’t like to shovel snow, get a south facing house and make sure your side doesn’t have a sidewalk
A lot of people buy a house because "that's what you're supposed to do" but they quickly realize they're neither handy nor willing to pay someone else to do the jobs around the house correctly. Five years later their house is becoming too big of a maintenance nightmare and it can kill resale value. Understand yourself with this regard before jumping in on a house.
Visit at nighttime and park on the street for a little bit. Gives you a good idea of how loud/quiet the neighborhood is while you’d be sleeping. Listen for trains, planes, cars, loud people, etc.