BEST ANSWER
Eldric1 -
Your agent most likely had a good reason for saying what they did. Our first advise to you would be to ask more questions when a professional gives you advice, especially if it steers you away from something you were genuinely interested in. Just because they are the professional doesn't mean that you should take everything they say at face value. A lot of professionals are guilty of disguising their opinion as fact. Ask them, "what makes you say that?" Even then you do not need to take their response as the word of law, but it helps to have someone back up blanket statements such as "don't waste your time with a town homes." Take notes on what they say and utilize search engines such as Google.com or forums such as this one.
Rather than type a list of all of the reasons you why your agent may have said this or a list of all the reasons why they may have been mistaken, we would like to point out that on November 1st, FHA guidelines are going to be experiencing a MAJOR over haul making it much easier, we hope, to have a project, such as a set of town homes, approved for FHA financing. As such, if you are not in a major hurry to buy you may want to wait and see how these changes effect the availability of homes that decide to seek out FHA approval.
A word on town homes. Town homes can be an EXCELLENT value and give you almost all of the benefits of a single family home at a fraction of the cost. Here in Chicago a single family home in a desirable neighborhood could start around a million dollars. A town home with the same square footage and probably 50 years newer would cost half that and be tremendously more updated. In addition, there could be group (association) amenities that are appealing such as a shared park private to your association, a pool, a party deck, etc.
Hope this helps, good luck!
Tue Oct 6 2009, 08:21
Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity