Most first-time buyers see a house twice before they write an offer. Both visits fall on a weekend, usually around noon, with the windows open and a candle going in the kitchen. That's the house at its best. You won't be living in it at its best.
You'll be living in it at 7:15 on a Wednesday morning, and at 6 p.m. when everyone on the block gets home at once. So before you write an offer, go back at those hours. Skip me and skip the listing agent. Just park out front and sit in your car for twenty minutes.
Loma Portal is the example I give everyone. It's a great pocket of Point Loma, close to Liberty Station, full of older homes with real character. It also sits right under the takeoff path for San Diego International. At a Sunday open house you might catch a couple of jets and shrug. On a weekday, departures start at 6:30 a.m. and keep coming. Some people stop noticing after a month. Others can't stand it after a week. You want to know which one you are before escrow, not after you've moved in.
Planes are only one example. Here's what I'd check on that second, unglamorous visit:
- Street parking after 6 p.m., especially in North Park and South Park, where plenty of older homes have no garage (or one that barely fits a lawnmower) - Your real commute at rush hour, because the 805 at 7:30 a.m. is not the 805 Google Maps showed you on Saturday - Where the afternoon sun lands, and whether that west-facing bedroom turns into an oven by 4 p.m. - What the neighbors sound like when they're actually home
The coast gets its own version of this. Fall in love with a place in Ocean Beach in September, and June might surprise you, when the marine layer can hang around until early afternoon. It doesn't have to stop you from buying. You just want to know about it going in.
Here's my honest opinion. A second visit at a different hour is worth more than a third look at the kitchen. First-time buyers put a ton of energy into finishes they can change later and almost none into the things they can't. Countertops are a weekend project. The noise, the parking, and the light come with the address.
You can redo a kitchen. You can't move the airport.