would you guys buy a house in a flood zone. Its in A7 flood zone, meaning that it was flooded only once in the past 100 and it was only during Hurricane Irene? The house is going for 250K in a good neighborhood and town.
personally i stay in 500 year flood plan or less. YMMV, 100 isnt that bad, but your going to pay more in flood insurance.
Bought and sold several houses personally and with my parents. Its really not that bad, i dont know why so many on gaf are that negative about it. Just as long as you know its a game and you know that there are tons of hoops from the bank and government.
some of my rules:
location
location
location
if its a bad location, or even remotely sketchy, don't even bother looking.
never fall in love with a house
never fall in love with a house in a bad area, also see 1-4.
When buying a home, inspections are used to lower the purchase price.
When selling a home, inspections are used to lower the selling price.
Inspectors really arent all that helpful, the first 10 pages of the report are CYA for them stating they arent responsible if anything breaks after your purchase. If you have a legit concern about something you need to have a qualified professional come inspect the roof, plumbing, electrical etc. Luckily my brother is a master plumber so he'll do this for me for free, and he knows a bunch of people in the industry.
Always homestead your home(as long as its your primary), seriously, the house my fiancé and I bought last april, the guy didnt homestead it, its 10-20% in taxes that it will save you.
Your taxes and mortgage interest are all tax writ-offs.
thats all i can think of for now.