I got transfered with my job at the end of 2004 which meant buying a house in a new city in a new, never been there before state. All of the advice people gave you above is solid and on the mark.
Where I moved to there are 4 main towns here plus the city. I spoke to as many people as possible to get their opinions. Using that we were able to hone it town to one specific town we preferred over the others. We then used
www.realtor.com to find listings we were interested in. I had to make a overnight business trips here and I would schedule them for a Friday or Monday so that we could look at houses over the weekend. We found one we loved and were about to make a serious bid when the inspection report came back. When we found out the house needed about $60,000 in repairs - we ran as fast as we could away from that deal. With no place to move to, we paid a premium for a short term lease and rented an apartment for 3 months - we took just the minimum of what we needed to the apartment and left the rest of our stuff in storage. We found a wonderful house within 3 weeks of moving here. We took a gamble on just taking a 3 month lease but we kind of knew which areas we wanted to live in and there was quite a bit on the market to choose from. With the 3 month lease we were already paying a premium rate and they would have let us renew on a month by month basis if we needed it. We figured that was a better deal for us over being locked into a 1 year lease.
You should try and find a realtor in your new area. Ask for someone who specializes in relocation. Tell them what's important to you. Things that influenced our decision included:
- house price
- size of lot and privacy (I wanted a back yard with mature trees. Many of the newer subdivisions consisted of bulldozed lots that didn't have trees and the lots were right on top of each other - you could easily see over the fence to all of your neighbors - felt like you were in an arena).
- taxes - some towns have both city and county taxes, some just had county taxes. Many people wouldn't even consider living in the towns that had dual taxes. Ask too if there's a homeowner's association and if so, what are the dues and is it mandatory to join. Ask if you can get a copy of their by-laws to look over, just in case you find you're moved into an area that tells you what colors you can paint your house and what your mailbox has to look like.
- school systems - the suburban school system was far superior to the city school system. Even tho we don't have kids, we picked the town with the better school system because of future resale value on the house. We got more money for the house we sold because it was in an excellent school district.
- Commute time. There are 2 towns out here than basically have one major road into and out of town. I had no desire to spend 60 to 90 minutes sitting in traffic twice a day just to go 14 miles or to get a house a little cheaper than in other areas. If you find an area you're interested in, go there during rush hour just to gauge what traffic is like.
- Access to shopping. Crime rates are higher around malls - it's a proven fact just because there's more tempting things for criminals to steal around malls (purses and money, cars and packages). Another thing about shopping is that sometimes living in the country is nice but having to drive 45 minutes to an hour to get to the store (with gas approaching 3 dollars a gallon) is not so nice. We had friends who moved to a rural area outside of Fort Worth. It was pretty and the housing was much cheaper but she said she took for granted what it's like when there's no local pizza places or fast food joints or even a place to run out to at night when you're out of milk. And they had to buy a refrigerated cooler for the car so that her meat and frozen things didn't go bad on the long drive from the grocery store back to the house.
Find out as much as you can about the demographics of an area. We did alot of research on the Internet. Most of the towns had a municipal website that gave information about the demographics and moving into the area.
My niece moved to Houston 2 years ago from Wisconsin. She had a great apartment close to the water. After one year she moved closer to the city - apparently the traffic's pretty heavy there so she moved closer to her job, new friends and the night life.
Good luck with the house hunting! I would look at a house at least twice if you're seriously considering it. Try to find at least 3 things you can identify that will need some repair or that you'd change out - if you don't and it's all glorious and wonderful than maybe you're looking at it with blinders on. But you will also know it when you find the perfect house for you. Should not be a problem that you are from out of state - the mortgage company will run a credit check to qualify you same as if you were buying in your home state. If you find a place you love, I would very strongly recommend that you make an offer contingent on a home inspection, particularly if you're not very familiar with construction and electrical and plumbing and couldn't really tell yourselves if there was hidden or obvious problems. I think it's worth the price of an inspection for either peace of mind or to keep you from finding the home of your dreams is a money pit in disguise.
Buying a house out of state!
