Timewaster's Guide Archive
General => Rants and Stuff => Topic started by: Nessa on January 08, 2006, 06:30:41 PM
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So my husband starts a job at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in July, and since we don't plan to commute from Salt Lake, where we are now, we have to find a house. We will begin the 'offical' househunting in February.
Anyone have recommendations? I'm leaning toward Springville because the grade schools are supposed to be better there (I will have a 2nd grader next fall). Plus I'd like a house attached to a decent-sized lot, being a gardener and all. Not one of those fancy new houses with a yard smaller than the driveway. Age of house isn't really an issue, but I'd like a nice neighborhood. Nothing really close to the Y, but not a far commute from the hospital (this means NO to Saratoga Springs and the like).
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Springville has one of the highest heroin usages per capita in the state. That's not saying much. It's still a nice town.
Pleasant Grove and Lindon are very nice and less expensive than American Fork, Highland, or Alpine.
Lehi and Payson are...um...well if you like western music, rodeos, and cow-tipping.
Spanish Fork can be about as bad, but I can't bash it because my outcast reletives settled it.
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I liked living in Spanish. I lived there before moving up to Provo when I first moved to Utah (had a cousin who lived there). Certainly gives you easy access to Spanish Fork and Diamon Fork Canyon, if you like the outdoors kind of stuff. We went repelling up Diamond Fork when I lived there--good times.
Other than Provo, though--and working in Orem--I never lived anywhere else in Utah County. 42 is correct about Payson being pretty redneck, but then, so is a lot of more country-ish Utah. I don't mind it, but then, I grew up on a farm and it makes me feel more at home.
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There are quite a few new housing tracts in the Lehi/Pleasant Grove/Alpine areas. Housing is growing like crazy around here, and many of the new homes start around $130K or so for a three bedroom home. Some of them even have decent-sized yards.
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Unless you expect to make a lot of money, I would avoid Alpine.
American Fork has a few good deals left, but the closer you get to the temple the more expensive things get. American Fork and Lehi are getting more businesses and other developments, so it's not quite the wasteland it was when I went to high school.
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There are quite a few new housing tracts in the Lehi/Pleasant Grove/Alpine areas. Housing is growing like crazy around here, and many of the new homes start around $130K or so for a three bedroom home. Some of them even have decent-sized yards.
I'm trying to avoid those because they are track housing (my husband is very particular about this...yes, he is a snob sometimes). They will be too small anyway.
Unless you expect to make a lot of money...
My husband will be ending residency at the U in Salt Lake and will be working as a doctor at the hospital. So we will be able to afford a decent house.
Alpine and Lehi are too far away. And he would hate the commute on I-15 into Provo. We want to avoid that.
Pleasant Grove might be OK. I will have to investigate.
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Actually, if you can find one, the benches in East Provo offer the best schools and are some of the nicest neighborhoods in the valley.
And refering to Alpine, first, there is an ordinance in Alpine that mandates the home there must be very large. The friends I knew from Alpine had things like ballrooms, indoor pools, and 7 car garages in their homes. Not all of Alpine is that way, but it is for the wealthy in general.
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There are quite a few new housing tracts in the Lehi/Pleasant Grove/Alpine areas. Housing is growing like crazy around here, and many of the new homes start around $130K or so for a three bedroom home. Some of them even have decent-sized yards.
...a three bedroom house starts at like $750,000 in Britain... :'(
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Ent, this is Utah. My town house would cost me at least $500,000 if I was buying.
I looked at buying a house for $120,000 a while back (before the bubble), it was drafty, had one floor, 40 year old wiring, bad plumbing, a decent sized yard (but it was full of chest high weeds), and a kitchen/dinette/living room about the same size as my last wymount apartment. plus the driveway wasn't paved and it needed major renovations.
Yeah, If it weren't for the fact that salaries out in Utah are pitiful, I'd be jealous of your housing market.
My finance advisor sold his house out here, paid cash for a house in Utah, and it using the change to pay for his kids' college.
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Actually, Utah is far from being one of the cheapest housing markets in the US (25th most expensive state to be precise). Places like Tennesse and Arkansas are a lot cheaper. Yet, compared to states like California and New York (the 2 most expensive states in the Union), Utah is a bargain.
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Idaho is dirt cheap too.
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When we were living in St. Louis, Missouri, the market was pretty good there, too.
But we'll be able to afford something decent in Utah County. We're selling our house and we're in Salt Lake's east bench. Not a ritzy neighborhood, but it should still sell for a tidy profit.
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I really enjoyed living in Pleasant Grove. I was there for a year some 7 years ago.
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Utah's housing market has had slow and steady growth over the years and so it isn't going to see the crash in real estate prices that is expected in parts of the coasts (such as Boston, San Fransico, New York, and D.C.). So I won't worry about buying a home in a more expensive area of Utah County if you can afford it.
Having briefly lived in Utah County, I would recommend living in Provo or north of Provo (like P.G., Lindon, Orem, American Fork, or Lehi). There are lots of advantages of being either in Provo or north of Provo. The biggest is that it is easier to get into Salt Lake from those locations then if you're down in Springville or Spanish Fork. But really, I don't think you can make a mistake, Utah County really doesn't have any bad spots to live (i.e. places with high crime rates and horrable schools), just some spot that are a little better than others.
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... some spot that are a little better than others.
I guess that's what I want to figure out. Which spots would best suit me and my family.
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Idaho is dirt cheap too.
That's why there are so many farmers there.
Edited to add: Oh, wait, I thought you said the dirt was cheap. ;)
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So we sold our house here in Salt Lake, even before we were planning on putting it on the market. Yay!
However, this means we need to immediately begin looking for a house, since now we're going to move in June instead of July.
This could be fun or very very painful.
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I live in North Orem and actually love it up here. It's far enough away from the Y that you don't get the students everywhere thing, but close enough to everything else for decent access. I don't have kids, but my neighbors are very complimentary of the Orchard schools in our area.
One thing to keep in mind with coming south. The construction on the I-15 corridor is going to get worse before it gets better. Orem to PG is a HUGE bottleneck for traffic going both directions in the evening. Not as bad in the morning, but if you mistime your evening commute you can sit for as long as 30 minutes in stop and go traffic. I communte between South SLC and Orem every day and if I miss the window for going home and beating the traffic I just stay at work until after 6. Better to be here where I can accomplish something than sitting in traffic and wanting to swear. The current plans for construction will increase the number of cross roads to I-15 and give stronger options for getting into SLC while continuing the I-15 work to expand the lanes all the way down to Springville. Not to say that won't change, this was just what was in the last city update I got in the mail, but something to keep in mind as you figure out where you wanna locate to.
~J
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House shopping in Utah County can be frustrating. It's often easier to sell a house than buy one. Hence there is so much construction to meet demand for more housing.
Course, in June you could probably rent a place for a month or two at the last minute if you run into a snag.
Good luck.
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Not as bad in the morning, but if you mistime your evening commute you can sit for as long as 30 minutes in stop and go traffic.
NO! NOT HALF AN HOUR!
On the best days my commute is 55 minutes. Stop your whining you panty waists!
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*THIBBIT*
I wasn't whining, but commenting. :) I hate stop and go traffic whether the hold up is 5 minutes or 3 hours. I'm sure there's documented evidence, somewhere, that stop and go brings out the road rage in all of us.
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The realtor we used to buy our house in Orem was awesome, Nessa. We've worked several after buying three times, and this guy was the best. I can give you his info if you like.
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whoo-hoo, Nessa! That's wonderful to have your house sold way early! Although, hearing about your plans to move to UT county are making me rather homesick.
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The realtor we used to buy our house in Orem was awesome, Nessa. We've worked several after buying three times, and this guy was the best. I can give you his info if you like.
Sure, what the heck. We're working with a realtor through my husband's job, but if she doesn't work out...
whoo-hoo, Nessa! That's wonderful to have your house sold way early! Although, hearing about your plans to move to UT county are making me rather homesick.
You are invited to visit me whenever the mood strikes you.
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So my husband's new company has set us up with a realtor, who seems really nice and knowledable. Right now she's setting us up some places to see on Saturday when we go down to Utah County to look at houses.
We got a contract via email yesterday that we're supposed to sign and bring with us on Saturday. It's a typical exclusive realtor contract thingy. Do I have to do this? The flat rate for houses marketed by her company is fine, but the % for helping us with non-company marketed houses is out of control. Is it reasonable for her to expect us to only go through her? We would rather look at for sale by owner houses on our own if she's going to charge 3% of the house cost to represent us.
I could really use some advice.
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Sometimes you can negotiate the realtor fee, usually when they are trying to get you to buy a more expensive house than what you had planned on getting. This just what I've seen on HGTV during the middle of the night.
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I'll get you my realtor's info this evening when I get home, and you can call and ask his fee. If it's better then go with him, if they're the same then it's probably pretty standard.
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Although 3% seems standard, you don't have to take it. 42 is right, you can negotiate the fee and I would do that before you sign any contracts or look at any houses (unless they are for sell by owner). Tell the realitor that 3% won't work for you and see if the realitor will give you a different offer. Do not sign a contract with a realitor unless you know for sure that you want to go through that realitor to buy a house.
The important thing to remember in any negotiation is to recognize what leverage you have (you can walk away and find another realitor) and having information (what other deals/options are avialable).
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And if you need any advice about bed posts, I'm sure Lost One could help you out. At least until he levels.
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Hehe Fish. Great advice, thanks. ;)
So we negotiated, talked it down, straightened everything out, and I'm happy with how it's going. Saturday is all set. I'm excited to look at houses! We're mostly looking in Springville and Provo, but there's a few houses in Mapleton and Orem.
Wish us luck!
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I have to say that since moving to Orem three months ago, I really like it. I don't know where your husband will be working, but it just seems closer to every thing. I've really liked it and decided that when we buy a place, I want to look mainly in Orem (unless we can afford something more north, but I doubt we will). Also, have you checked out Realtor.com. It's a great site cause you don't have to sign up to look for houses and it pretty much shows all the houses that have been listed because it's the Official Site of the National Association of Realtors. It's really great!
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I have to say that since moving to Orem three months ago, I really like it. I don't know where your husband will be working, but it just seems closer to every thing. I've really liked it and decided that when we buy a place, I want to look mainly in Orem (unless we can afford something more north, but I doubt we will). Also, have you checked out Realtor.com. It's a great site cause you don't have to sign up to look for houses and it pretty much shows all the houses that have been listed because it's the Official Site of the National Association of Realtors. It's really great!
He'll be working at the hospital in Provo, so we're looking to find a place within 15-20 minutes commute time. Of course, that includes Orem. We have looked at houses in Orem, but haven't found many yet that suit our preferences. Who knows, that may change. There are a couple of houses in Orem that we'll be looking at when we come down on Saturday.
We have looked at realtor.com and found it very helpful in getting a better idea of what houses are out there. The Daily Herald's website also has been a great resource for us (through which I found one in Mapleton that I really hope we get...).
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Don't overlook Lindon. I've lived here now for almost three years, and I really like it. It takes me about 15 minutes to get to Provo, but it's far enough away that you don't feel like you're in a college town. Also, you skip out on the orem traffic on I-15 if you're going to Salt Lake, and you can take back roads to get to Provo to skip the I-15 traffic that way, as well. Also, there's more variety to the houses, and less strip malls. (Always a plus.) We even have our own WalMart now (which is evil, but convenient).
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I will definitely look there when I am ready to buy, but the problem is whenever I have put that into the search criteria for Realtor.com, it has not come up with anything in my price range. It's true that I'm poor and that is partly why, but even putting in $150,000 to $250,000 for the search criteria only brought up 7 results (and this includes condos, townhomes, and single family houses), with no results for less.
You can't really live somewhere that has nothing in your price range, which is why I'll probably have to stick to Orem/Provo/Springville area when I look for a place.
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Good luck, Nessa. Hope you find a great place. I'm partial to Orem and Lindon myself. ;)
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We found a house.
It's in Orem (it's about 200 E 300 S). We gave an offer today and hope to have it under contract by the end of the week.
Although south county had a lot of beautiful homes, none of them grabbed our attention quite like this older home has. It's a fixer-upper, but it's a good price and a great house in a great location. We're excited.
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That is so exciting! I can't wait till we can buy something, but unless prices go down in the next year, all we'll be able to afford is a small condo that doesn't even have a garage! A couple years ago prices were so much lower. How frustrating!
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Orem! Orem! Good for you. I'm glad you found a great home. :)
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The market has really inflated out here, you can expect prices to drop significantly in a year or two.
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That's about a block away from Lovebasket (a good friend of ours who rarely ever posts here). It's a nice neighborhood, well done.