new home sweet home?

this weekend alex and i took our first house hunting excursion with our new realtor and it was LONG - we spent over 4 hours looking at a bunch of places, and i think we've found 2 possibilities! of course, it's only our first time out with her, so there's probably lots more looking to come, but it was exciting to find 2 places that were in the budget, in a location we liked, and in move-in condition!

the first is a townhouse near a cute downtown area with good highway access. it's 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, with a little dining area and a living room, a patio, plus a kitchen of course. this is a place we could really do a lot to make it feel like our own - we'd paint, replace the kitchen cabinets, maybe put in a new floor, possibly make some upgrades to the bathroom (all in good time of course). the major plus here is that it is 2 blocks from the train we'd take when we want/need to go downtown, it's a very residential area, and it's walkable to several restaurants.

the second is a first floor condo, also with good highway access and close to a mall/restaurant hub. this one has gorgeous hardwood floors, a cute updated kitchen & bathroom, and the patio backs up to a big green space with a pond. it would be really fun for entertaining, has lots of closet space, and fun paint already done on the inside. it's not in a very residential area, but the community has a nice feel.

anyways, those are the updates from the house hunt - anyone have advice on pitfalls we should watch out for in this process??