When I purchase a home nothing about it matters to me except room sizes, layout and location. The rest can be changed.

Hi!
Location is the number one for us, like almost everyone. With the house we just bought, there were a few things we did not want to do without b/c we plan on being in this house at least 15-20 years. (We have moved 5 times in the last 7 years and we've had it!):

Screened Porch (favorite room in our last house)
Mud Room (makes life with snow, mud, children and pets a million times easier)
Laundry Room either on the 1st or 2nd floor
Fireplace
Good Sized Back Yard (to us, at least)
Good Sized Kitchen Space
Office for My Husband

Now, it didn't all necessarily have to exist in the house just then, just the ability to add or create the things that weren't there. (There are a lot of building restrictions in our town)

We got lucky and found a house in our price range that had all of these things. When we were looking, though, we also looked at less expensive houses that we thought we could renovate to get what we wanted in our price range.

Oh yes, we wanted hardwood floors everywhere except the bedrooms, too.

I agree with Linda117 that the rest can be changed, but it really depends on your budget when it comes to making changes.

Good luck!

Must haves have changed for us through the years. When the children were young, must haves were community pool, tennis courts, large back yard. Now that they've grown and gone, the community pool and tennis courts are nice, but not a must have. Likewise with the yard, we could do with a smaller yard and less maintenance. 4 or 5 bedrooms was also important with 4 kids, but of course we no longer need those since it's now just my hubby and myself.

The must haves that have stayed consistent are large eat in kitchen, separate dining room, large ensuite master bed and bath, 2 or more car attached garage, ample closet space and either attic or basement storage. Of course location is always important.

sidewalks, street lamps, walking distance to schools, parks, and shopping, good transit. location to me is just about it. After that it is size, yard, heating system, etc. When I was much younger I would buy a house after swooning over leaded glass windows. Not anymore.

My friend who has retired to a very nice community north of Tucson is appalled that for the same price as her new home, I bought a 100 year old house, 2 blocks from the university. I thinks she lives in the middle of nowhere. She thinks that my new house is unbeleivably old and cruddy.

School district is first, everything else comes second. One thing that struck me, Hittlets, is that a fenced in yard is a must have. I hope you mean that you will need to fence in the yard, not that you will only consider homes that have fenced in yards. Depending on the size of the yard, it isn't all that expensive to fence it in. It is not cheap, but small potatoes in the overall scheme of buying a home.
We built, and what we needed/wanted: a good sized kitchen with eat in area, sun filled rooms in the morning, downstairs master, upstairs laundry and oversized mudroom with pantry.
Jo

Here are my musts:

-Neighborhood/yard with lots of trees
-Mostly private backyard
-Office
-Good-sized kitchen (doesn't have to be huge)
-Formal dining room AND breakfast area (or eat in kitchen)
-NO formal living room (but a family room/den)
-Good-sized master bath, decent sized master and other bedrooms
-Master bedroom that does not share a wall with the family room (if people are watching TV and I want to sleep)
-Family room/kitchen that are as separate as possible from bedrooms (also a noise issue)
-At least 2 car garage

Here are my almost must-haves, but I am willing to compromise a little:
-Good sized laundry room
-Laundy room that's not a walk-through area when you come in from the garage (needs to be a separate room with a door)
-Big master closet
-Good closet space in other bedrooms
-Ample hall/linen closet storage
-One-story house
-Good school district
-Hall bathroom (one that doesn't get used regularly by the family)
-Kitchen close to entrance from garage
-Oversized garage with extra storage

Our current house only has the last 4 items on my "nice to have" list. We looked at several houses that had more of the "nice to have" items, but our house had by FAR the best yard and prettiest neighborhood. We have TONS of trees and back up to a creek (with trees) that has a huge park on the other side. For us, it came down to the lot vs. the layout, and we chose the lot. Looking out our huge windows to the backyard makes us happier than a bigger laundry room or closets.

Location/school dist/neighborhood (necessary).
2 car garage (necessary)
mature trees (necessary)
mud room (could live without if garage was big)
gargage on the same floor as the kitchen (not mandatory but sure would be nice).
Hot water heat would be nice but not many houses have it.

Deal breakers:
Large expanses of lawn that serve no other purpose except to be mowed.
Detached garage.
Busy road or noisy road sounds.
No mature trees.
If any house in the neighborhood looks really unkept.

These are the things we were looking for--and found--in our current house:
2+ bathrooms
3+ bedrooms (we have four, plus a bonus room)
Quiet, private location
2-car heated garage
mature trees
fireplace
downstairs "hanging out" space for DH's teenage sons
first floor laundry room
dining room
office space
porch and deck

Location, location, location, location. Did I mention location?
No HOA - that would be a deal breaker for me!
Structural integrity. No surprises with the place falling down, termites, etc.
If haunted, is the Caspar friendly or unfriendly?
Wiring, roof and plumbing all "newer" or at least satisfactory.
Reasonably sized yard
Type and proximity of neighbors, their habits,ages and hobbies
No old wallpaper to remove
No railroad tracks, major noisy freeways, other noise nuisances, not next door to a high school.
No "Half Way" houses close by
Check the sex offender website for the neighborhood.
I don't like a home where all you see from the front is a giant garage door. I like a welcoming porch.
Is it in a historic district? If so, find out what the rules are for YOUR home.
No mold or mildew problems
Oh - my husbands ONLY concern: close to a golf course! My concern: not TOO close to that golf course.

Last move:
House had to have character...historic value,no cookie cutters.
Large lot at least 2 acres
Space for a barn
Two car garage
at least four bedrooms
At least 2 full baths
Had to have a working fireplace
Good school district
no more than 20 minute drive to DH's job.

It took four days and twenty some showings before I found the house I wanted. I walked in the front door and without even seeing the rest of the house new this was it.
I spent over a hour trying to talk DH into it and another hour trying to talk him out of it. The place needed work. Last time it had been worked on was in the 70's and it needed updating.
We got 11 acres, four working fireplaces, five bedrooms, 3 full baths , 2 half baths, great school district, 2 car garage, area for a barn...have one barn up another will go up when DH retires, 20 minutes from where he works and it has historic value, not a cookie cutter at all.
I love it more now even with all it's faults than the day we moved in.
The trick with a list is to know what you have to have and what you can live without and that list does change over the years and is also dependent on where in the country you live.
I know when we lived in AZ A pool was a requirement, wouldn't even think about one in NYS with such short summers.

Top on my list has always been: not on a slab and no hard tile in the kitchen. I can't stand long on floors that do not flex.
I used to insist on hardwood floors, but in the last decade or so, hardwood floors became something that you can add later, so I am good with that. I have asthma and whatever they put in new carpet is a big trigger for me, so I need to put new flooring in if carpet wears out.
We insisted on a bath and a half in our last move, but now I think I would insist on two full baths. An invalid father needs access to the main bath in our house and is always worried about getting in the way of our showers in the morning.
Minimal stairs are crucial for me. I don't know how long I will be able to walk, so I need to ramp everything.
Ranch-style one story home is thus a vital feature and the laundry can't be in the basement.
Fenced yard for the dogs. More privacy is better than less.
We have come to love our kitchen/dining/family room all open to each other.
Trees. I don't want to bake in the sun, plus I have learned my gardening skills in a shady yard and would not know what to do with full sun!
Sunny rooms with a bright, open feel.
We need a big room (usually the formal living space) for a library/music/office space for DH. It needs some distance from the family room if you want to be able to talk or watch TV during trombone practice or composing sessions.

Things I wish I had paid more attention to include listening to the floors when viewing the house. I had no clue these were so noisy! We have to stop the movie and wait until someone is done in the kitchen before we can watch again. My sister-in law wears clunky shoes and so the squeaky floors and "clomp-clomp-clomp" drown out the sound and ruin the mood the filmmaker is trying to set. When she is taking care of Dad, any attempt to relax with a good show is a real challenge.

In my next house I wouldn't buy a house that didn't have:
3 car garage - even though my kids are almost grown, it's a pain to manuever around in a two car garage. It be nice to park the cars and still have some extra space for the stuff.

Larger laundry room with a laundry tub.

FR that was spacious enough for seating for 6 - ie two couches and two chairs... My current FR is nice, but too narrow.

Large MB and MB closet (have those now due to a remodel, and it would be hard to go back to small on either)

I tend to look at the bones of a house, but some things just can't be "remodeled" - ie. higher ceilings, transom windows etc. Those are nice extras in a house.

Everyone, this is exactly the feedback I was looking for. I am a excited to put together this list. I think it will really help me chose the house with all the features that I will need to be happy for a long time.

Thanks to all of you for such all your help. I will be checking back frequently to see if anyone else has added anything.

Thanks again. I can always count on you all.

Desirable location - that is the most important.
Older community where fellow homeowners take pride in their older homes (this is part of desirable location).
No subdivisions, no cookie cutter homes for us.
We won't live in a home built after WWII.
Mature Trees.
Convenience to public transportation (within 6 blocks) - I refuse to drive to work.
Old home with original woodwork.
No vinyl/aluminum windows. Many windows.
The more original features, the better.
A yard in which I can garden.

We are DIY types so we know that we can change the inside features, if needed, but with a focus to restoration and NOT remodeling or rehabbing. And, to us, there is a huge difference between those 3 words.

Musts:
Location, quality schools, no major work needed(everything already updated), attractive neighborhood, ready to move in, fair price, at least 3 bedrooms, at least 2 baths, curb appeal, garage or carport.

Very important:
Prefer cul-de-sac location, hardwoods, screened porch, fenced yard, community swimming pool (or nearby pool), sidewalks, family room off kitchen, finished basement.

I've lived in about 10 different homes, but this is the first one with 2 kids, so my entire perspective has changed.
Must Haves
1. Location/schools; near a park/playground
2. Master bath plus at least one other bath. The Mbath doesn't need to be huge, nor have all kinds of bells and whistles for us.
3. Family room open to kitchen. Ours was closed off, but we remodeled to accomplish this. Makes watching the young kids much easier.
4. Basement. All that kid stuff needs to go somewhere. If we lived in an area that normally didn't have basements, I'd trade it for excellent attic space and/or a third garage stall for storage.
5. Non-basement laundry.
6. Mud room. We don't have a convenient mud room, and I really miss it.
7. Nice deck/patio. We are outside a lot and really enjoy that space.
8. HWF. Much preferred over carpet.
9. Closet space. We have decent space, but could always use more.

My list of needs change as the family grows.

For this house:
-Decent schools
-curb appeal (so we can sell in a hurry if needed)
-house with flow
-Master bedroom by the kids bedrooms
-playroom that could be closed off
-room for computer and crafts/hobbies
-back yard for the kids
-place for us to sit and grill in the yard
-storage/closets/cabinet space in kitchen
-two car garage (in the future, we will want a more spacious garage where two larger vehicles ot the camper and a vehicle can be parked)
-Neighborhood that looks like it will hold the value. No neighbors with obvious issues like poorly maintained lawns or junker cars.

Being retired, and having had a compound leg fracture in 2004, made me realize that what we have is NOT our forever house. It is cute and beautifully remodeled, with a glorious garden that is great exercise to keep up......

BUT, not practical for getting old. Not even really practical for a full retirement where we want to occasionally travel around for a month or so. I can leave the garden alone for a few weeks, but it's just a lot of work overall that I probably won't be able to keep up with in another 15 years.

When I broke my leg it was four months before I could get on the stairs to our master bedroom suite. I slept on the LR sofa, which is fortunately extremely comfortable! It was sheer luck we had remodeled the spare bathroom and gained enough space that I could just maneuver my walker inside and shut the door.

One level ranch homes are extremely rare out here. Sometime in the next 10 years we will sell this place and have to find something else - either a rental or condo.

Critical features?
- Enough room for our several thousands of books. We have 16 full height full width bookcases, and probably need another 2.

- Close by our HMO, since we have retirement medical benefits through my DH's general retirement plan. He suffered a stroke in 2003, and it was sheer luck I was driving the car, not him, and that we were only 5 minutes from the HMO's emergency room. Most people can't tell he ever had a stroke, but now one of my criteria is that we are going to live within 1/2 hr of our hospital, max.

- a large kitchen (I like to cook) or a layout I can rearrange to create one, without excess expense.

Interestingly enough, my MIL had a beautiful home and wanted to pass it on to us. I steadfastedly refused the idea, because not only did she need to cash out the equity for her own retirement, but the house would have been a nightmare to remodel. It was beautiful and classic and extremely valuable, all of which meant it would have cost a fortune to remodel the small central kitchen and upgrade all the systems - probably in excess of $300K. Remodeling is extremely expensive in the San Francisco Bay Area and getting permits is a nightmare.

hittletts -- Will you share YOUR list with us?

We built our present home. WHERE we built if was of prime importance. We looked, off and on, for over two years before we bought what became a teardown.

"Location" has many meanings. We wanted to live in this particular part of this particular suburb. The town has many plusses and our area within it has plusses. ("Country" feeling street only 3 minutes from center of town and RR station, yet completely quiet.) The town is well managed with great city services, highly rated schools, good library, etc. There is a nearby choice of stores, hospitals, MDs, entertainment. Another plus is the one acre private lot with rear orientation to the south, creek on one side and conservation area to the rear, mature trees and shrubs, fencing.

On to the house... Single story, 9-foot ceilings, 2-car garage, MBR & bath w/walk-in closets, Guest BR & bath, Library & bath, LR w/fireplace, DR, large Kitchen w/large Breakfast Rm, screened porch, mudroom/laundry between garage and kitchen has powder room. Huge attic with walk-up staircase that can become additional BRs and baths (for future buyer). Basement. Hardwood flooring throughout except tile in baths and mudroom. No passages less than 36" wide. Many French doors and archtop windows. All new mechanicals.

As one of my older cousins said, "When you have a good new house you should have several years grace on repairs." He was right; we are in almost eight years now and have had to replace one thing: a washer. (Old houses are not necessarily better built than new ones and often lack modern features. Historic I understand, but 'old' is sometimes...just old.)

During my last home search, here are a few things from our list:
Central location
Front N/E Back S/W
Good light, windows
Yard I could have a veggie and herb garden in
Privacy
Covered porch or good place to add one (got latter)
At least 3/2.
Most our other items were things that could be changed.

Building our next home and it will be our forever home. It has been custom designed for the two of us AND our 4 pets. (My babies now!) We even have a screened porch just for the kitties to get some fresh air through a pet door.

I no longer have kids at home and due to aging we are making sure most of our living space is on the ground floor. We have an upstairs with two Bedrooms and a shared bath for my DD and her kids (when she has them) and any family members (I have 5 siblings who will be able to visit us and stay over as they will be retiring soon, too).

We already bought our lot in a gated golf community. (A must for us as we will have more time to socialize and recreate as we start to wind down from work) I wanted a community where there were things to do. And there is plenty to do there if we have the time. In addition, A water view was important to us and we found a lot in the development on one.

Important house features... lots of storage, lots of built ins (don't want to bother with a bunch of furniture anymore!)

House was designed to hold just what we were going to place in the rooms
A separate office area/laundry area/pet area off the kitchen for me and my "kids"
Large master bath suite with steam shower and whirlpool/air bath for our old aching bones.
A second bedroom on the first floor that will initially serve as an exercise room (but could be easily converted to another bedroom with a private bath for live-in helper - if ever needed)
Handicap accessible design
3 car garage (third bay for DH workbench) and a short electric car or golf cart.

Important to have a sun room with view of lake(for those days when we no longer can get outside.. as we age)
My DH wanted a library office for all his books (I will really need to get a cleaning lady to clean out those dusty books!)

Large kitchen with butler area to DR and good access to outdoors for entertaining as I plan on doing more of that when I retire. I will have family closer to me then now. I hope to finally be able to hold some good holiday dinners for my family.

As you can see we all need different things at different ages. I did not want to buy a lot in a 55 plus area, so we are also designing this home so that a family might want it later on if one of us dies and the other decides to move elsewhere.

Here are mine:

--Location, location, location!
--Excellent schools
--No corner lots
--No road noise so we must be in a quiet neighborhood away from busy roads and/or highways.
--Lots of light
--Large lot...an acre or more
--No HOA. Period. BTDT and had a really awful experience of being dragged into a frivilous lawsuit and had to spend thousands of dollars in legal fees for something we didn't believe in. NEVER AGAIN!!
--No mold in the home
--Structural integrity of home...no foundation problems, etc.
--Privacy from neighbors and road...long driveway preferable
--No sloping lots

Everything else I can deal w/ either through remodeling or adding space to the home. You can change those things, you can't change your location or neighborhood.

It all depends where you are in the cycle of life..

i can't imagine a 3 br 2 bath home with 3 children,but that would work without children or just 1...

Right now:
4 bedrooms and a master suite
3 1/2 baths,
FDR, AND Formal living room
family room
office
breakfast room
large kitchen
laundry room
3 car garage
finished basement
pool and spa
fenced in 2 acres

15 years from now:
3 br, 2 bath townhouse/condo
in a major northeast city
no yard

Location, i.e. great schools
Walking distance to minor groceries
Sidewalks preferable
Quiet street
No or at least very few multiple-family dwellings
Coat closet
Eat-in kitchen
Decent-sized yard, with easy access to it from back of house
No one-way streets

My priorities would be decent lot. But other than that I really feel that EVERYTHING else can be changed.

11 years ago when I looked for house #1 I had my criteria - cape style, 1 acre +, 2 car garage, etc. but I didn't get much of that for our first place and it was still THE BEST house... a ranch, with 1.5 acres, 1 car garage, etc. My second house (bought a year and a half ago) had none of that stuff! no cape, no acre, no garage... but it's on a fabulous lake! 90' of waterfront! I figure I can change (and did change - within affordable reason) what I don't like about the house... It's all in what you can live with... or what your priorities are...

Good question though!

A pool, so that my golden retrievers can go swimming.

I forgot to mention closet space in my first post. That was important too. And our current house has 16 closets if you include the built-in linen closets in the two full bathrooms. All four bedrooms have two closets each and they are the kind of closets with two doors per closet. I LOVE all the space! We need it as we don't have a basement, per se. Our entire lower level--sans the utility room--is finished.

I also don't like houses where the first thing you see is the garage door. Our garage is under the house.

Q-Dog, you complain that people on this board beat up on you just because you are well to do, BUT when you say things like you can't imagine raising three children in a 3 bedroom 2 bath house you invite that kind of comment. Even in the U.S., nevermind the rest of the world, having that much house or less is normal. Can you really not IMAGINE how that could be managed? My folks had a 2 bedroom 1 bath house and 4 children. I was the only girl so I got the landing at the top of the stairs with the chimney running through it. Sometimes you are just too lah-di-dah for the rest of us.

I'm so pleased to see 'location' given such importance!

hittletts, how is your search going?

Beyond poor locations, I was thinking of some things I would NOT want, like a pool or a wooden deck or other constant maintenance items.

Some drawbacks for me: only subflooring; a tandem or one-car garage; slab foundation; huge decorative-only front porch; decorative-only dormers; huge house on small lot; tiny house on big lot; tile in kitchen; kitchen distant from garage (groceries); treeless lot; tiny bathrooms and tiny rooms in general; low ceilings; 'cat' house (odor); layer on layer of paint or wallpaper or (worst yet) paint over wallpaper; no storage; outdated mechanicals and appliances (100 AMP, energy hogs); too few or poor condition windows; layers of roofing; no landscaping/bad landscaping/concrete-city. I'm thinking of things that would cost a lot to remedy, maintain or replace more than poor decorating.

"BUT when you say things like you can't imagine raising three children in a 3 bedroom 2 bath house you invite that kind of comment."

I think I'll have to take q-dog's side. F'rinstince, the house I currently own is 3 bedroom 2 bath, and with just the two of us it feels small. The family we bought it from? Had 3 kids, 2 or 3 dogs, a cat or two, and an assortment of relatives living with them from time to time. I can't imagine the ruckus, but for them not only it was normal, it was a "big" house.

It all comes down to what you've become accustomed to.

For us it's a pretty small list of "must haves". It MUST have a connection to the water. By "connection" I mean it either has to have a water view from the house, the garden, or even driving up the street. Water is everything here. Otherwise, we'd lose the reason for living here in the first place. But, we're looking for a property that's out of the flood zone...and there's the rub. We want water but no flood threat. Oh, no...we're NOT picky! That's the only reason we'd leave our current house. We're too close to the water.

After the above, everything else is negotiable. We're adaptive people. We'll live in 800 s.f. if the water connection is perfect.

We don't want a large home. So, I prefer to have our house be located very close to an historic inn & close to our boat. We use our boat as guest quarters. When you live on the water in a tourist trap of a village...suddenly you have a lot of 'friends' you never knew about. We like to be able to truthfully say, "I'm sorry, we don't have room but you can stay on the boat or at the Inn!" :) Hey, it's not that bad. The boat has a larger galley than my kitchen plus you'll sleep like a baby from the gentle rocking of the boat! Hmmmm, maybe, we're going about this all wrong. Maybe, we should get a bigger boat for us & we already have a dinky house for guests! Ah, that's a sign of a well researched 'disease' known as "Ten-footitis" & it attacks many boaters right around this time of year. It also hits in September-October which are boat-show months. rofl

We've looked at about 30 homes in the past year. All but one have failed to move us emotionally except one but that's a whole 'nother story. :(

/tricia

Devorah, i grew up with 4 siblings and it was a 2 bedroom home!!!! please, you don't know me at all..1 bathroom, my only sister slept in what was a dining room..It was very difficult, and could never live that way again..so save your lah-dee-dah for someone else ;)

sooooooo You were being disingenuous when you wrote "I can't imagine..."

ok, so now i guess you are an English teacher, because i didn't make myself crystal clear..lol...I should have stated "I can't imagine living in a 3 br 2 bath AGAIN!!!!!! anyway, i defintely would not live in a 3 br 2 bath home with 3 children...sheez........

Actually, there's one thing no one has mentioned, that contributes a great deal to one's enjoyment of one's home.

Good neighbors.

I tend to forget this because we have been fortunate to have fabulous neighbors on one side, and on the other, "merely" good neighbors in a rental home who were careful to observe the 11p noise curfew. Makes a big difference when you're getting up every weekday at 6a, so we appreciated it.

I'm sure we've all heard stories of people loving their home, but having great difficulty with a neighbor beside them or across the street. In fact, my niece (who is 30 and looks like a 14-year old, being quite petite) decided to sell her new home when the neighbor, being informed of her proposal to raise the home 6' to solve a serious drainage problem, both cursed at her and used racist language to boot. This despite the fact it wouldn't have brought her own home even to the height of said neighbor's house. She decided life was too short to live next to someone like that, and sold the house to buy something else.

I love living in the city - I'm more comfortable living around where people live, and love the many advantages of living close in. Especially as we age, I don't want to be physically isolated. But one doesn't get to pick one's neighbors - so when you have good ones, they should always be appreciated!

"...anyway, i defintely would not live in a 3 br 2 bath home with 3 children...sheez........"

qdognj, I 'think' what you meant to say was, "As long as I have a choice, I prefer not to live in a 3 br, 2 bath home with 3 children."

I 'presume' (dangerous, I know) that should your circumstances somehow change tomorrow you would do whatever was necessary to adapt. I am also taking the liberty of presuming you are understanding, empathatic, & aware that most Americans do not have your choices.

/tricia (who once thought that she had the world by the tail & nothing could/would change that...then, she became disabled in her mid-40s & learned life will move in its own direction no matter how well we plan)

stand corrected tricia, you put it the way i shoulda spoked it..lol...but in my defense, my original quote was

i can't imagine a 3 br 2 bath home with 3 children,but that would work without children or just 1...

the key phrase missing in devorah's rant of my reply was:
"BUT THAT WOULD WORK WITHOUT CHILDREN OR JUST 1",

so i wasn't being particularly harsh,lol..

I could've written kec01's post, with the exception of needing the public transit to get to work. I'm a SAHM so my commute is rather short. ;)