What We Want In A House

Six months ago, we decided we did not like the latest rent hike for our apartment (about $100/month increase). We decided that it was time we got into our own home and begun building equity there instead. Besides, the apartment rules were beginning to irk us (mostly noise complaints about my electronic drum kit or loud music), and we still feel like we need more space than the 1000 sq.ft 2-bedroom suite.

Two months ago, we started researching what homeownership was all about - the houses, the loans, the realtors, our financial standing, our credit score, and what a 30-year commitment means. We also visited some model homes and open houses to get an idea of the kind of house we wanted. A month later, we had a 7-page requirements list that spells out everything we want in a home. The plan was that we'd use this list whenever we visited houses, but it didn't quite work out that way.

What has worked is taking a phased look at each house. You start with simple facts (perhaps from the MLS and pictures), then follow up with a viewing, and later dig deep to fill in the list. You can narrow down the choices considerably and avoid visiting too many homes. I have appreciated the alerts I get from Trulia and Zillow, though it is not always up-to-date or even accurate.

We are not looking for a starter home; no, we want something we can be comfortably living in 10-15 years from now with 5 children or relatives.
We want something for which the mortgage payments (including principle+interest, PMI, taxes, and HOI) will be less than what we are paying for our apartment right now. This is the biggest motivator for attaining the lowest interest rate possible, even if it means paying some discount points.
We want 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2-car garage, a large and modern kitchen, ample living room and dining room (at least bigger than what we have in our apartment now), and a great floor plan. The master bedroom should be "awesome", with its own bathroom and big walk-in closet.
We want a big backyard where I'll someday build a shed for a dog. It'll be an outside dog since the Mrs. is allergic to them.
We want convenient space for a home office, preferably close to the front entrance so that my clients do not have to traverse the whole house to get to it.
We also want a lot of storage space (like a basement) for the things we'll inevitably accumulate, and a place for an acoustic drum kit that I may buy in the future.
We want to continue developing the property, so an unfinished basement with high possibility of an additional room and bathroom would be great.
We do not want a house that will require fixups and other home improvement work within 9 months of moving in.
We do not like homeowner associations, so it'd be great if there was none in the neighborhood.
And rather than fixate on school district ratings, we will accept a house if the most likely schools for our kids have a reasonably high rating. Nonetheless, only houses in school districts 20, 11, and 49 would be considered.
The neighborhood should have a low crime rate, have a great cell phone signal, use municipal utilities, and less than 25 minutes drive to our jobs.
Finally, the house cannot have been the scene or a gruesome homicide, a suicide, or drug activity. My Ugandan family has heard this requirement before, when I was buying land there.

We want a lot of things, but that is the first filter any matches have to pass. Perhaps the only compromises have been whether the house can be improved to meet our needs, if it currently does not. So if it has 4 bedrooms and one can be re-purposed into an office, it becomes a second-tier consideration.