We went to look at a few houses this afternoon. All three in are in the same general neighborhood. All three are single family homes.

The first was a disaster. It was the cheapest listing, but needs to most work. More work than I’m willing to put up with for the price of the home. It would take us a very long time to get it in shape because we wouldn’t have the cash available for a long time. So that one got a quick pass.

The second one is in much better shape. It needs work and it is priced higher, but none of the work is needed to make the place liveable. It has great curb appeal and a lovely fully fenced back yard with a nice sized deck. Oh, and a garage with storage space above it.

The third one is slightly less than the second one and in the best shape. The owners were there when we walked through. It’s a short sale, so there’s no telling how long we’d have to wait for the process or even if it would be worth the wait. It’s on a corner lot, so the yard is huge. Nice back deck. Tiny kitchen. Garage. And the price is about $10K more than we pre-qualified for, but I think we could get that amount if I get the promotion/raise. So our realtor is going to talk to their realtor to get the story, crunch numbers, and get back to us. We may put an offer in anyway, if our realtor thinks we can do it, knowing that short sales take forever to complete. We’ve got time and we can continue looking at other houses while we wait.

We have a different realtor - our previous one went to a different agency. This new one seems much better just from the brief time we spent with him this afternoon.

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1. Here’s Mom’s two cents ~ don’t rush into anything.  You have only just begun this second round of looking.

   Posted by  on  07/07/08  at  04:58 PM

2. Yeah, we know. We told our realtor that we’re not in a hurry to buy anything. The short sale may not happen and if it does it takes a long time - months.

   But Beau and I talked about #3 and we agree that it doesn’t have the useable space we need in terms of room placement. There would be no office for either of us. So we’ve put the kibosh on that one.

   Posted by  on  07/07/08  at  06:39 PM

3. Be careful too about going as high on the price as you might qualify with a lender.  From my experience, this is a lot more than most people are comfortable budgeting on a monthly basis.  Of course, if the payment is less than your rent has been, you’ll be comfortable, but I know too many people who’ve maxed out their lending capacity only to feel sorry later.  Happy hunting!

   Posted by Gwynne  on  07/08/08  at  11:08 AM

4. We want our mortgage payment to be $200-300 less then our current rent payment. Our top amount keeps us within that range.

   We decided against the third house because when we started talking about the actual useable space, we realized that it won’t work for our needs.

   The second house is better for our room needs, but we’re not ready to put in an offer until we look at other houses.

   I have a feeling we’ll be looking at a lot of houses before we finally settle on one, make an offer, get accepted/approved, and close.

   Posted by jen  on  07/08/08  at  12:55 PM

5. Here are my two cents, you sound like you have to find a house immediately. Are you on the run from the law? Is your landlord out to get you? I suspect your motivation has to do with owning a home before you have a second child, maybe throw in a little desire to take advantage of lower prices and good mortgate rates, but that’s just my guess. Am I close?

   I don’t know much about a short sale. I know that the owner’s bank has to approve it. If they do, I don’t think it takes any longer than any other normal sale, but I could be wrong there. Never been involved with a short sale.

   As far as home searches go, since this is your first home, you’ll probably see dozens before you pick one. And you’ll probably want mom and dad’s approval before you do get the one you are going to plunk hundreds of thousands of dollars on.

   Think about all the little things. Is the drive way side by side or tandum? Is there a street lamp right in front of your house that will shine in your bedroom all night long? Is there a big oak tree in your backyard that is going to drop thousands of acorns every fall that you’ll hate picking up. So many things you don’t think about when you shop for your first house. I should put together a list of these things. Maybe someone’s done that already. Google it and see.

   Either way, I still think you shouldn’t look for anything until Beau figures out what he is going to do with his job or stay-at-home dad job. Once he’s more settle, then you should start looking. The best.

   Posted by denis  on  07/08/08  at  06:00 PM

6. Denis, all good thoughts. We’re not in a hurry to buy, actually. As it has been explained to us, short sales can take months to get to final approval. So when we briefly considered putting in an offer for the short sale house it was with the knowledge that it could be 3+ months before we got any kind of word back from the buyer’s bank.

   Our realtor said he’s been working on a short sale for another couple that put in their offer in April. They still haven’t heard anything back and there’s no word on when they will hear anything from the buyer’s side.

   As for Beau’s job thing - we know for sure that we’re not moving to Dallas and it doesn’t make sense to continue paying the rent we’re paying (which is pretty high) when we could have a mortgage for much less each month and be building equity.

   We know that this is a long process and that it could be months before we find a place.

   Posted by jen  on  07/09/08  at  07:50 AM

7. Jaynee here (logged in on Denis’ browser).  We looked at about 70 houses before we picked the one in NJ.  No joke.  SEVENTY HOUSES.  Queens, Westchester County, a few counties in Jersey.  But all told it was 70 houses.  It took seeing that many for us to really hone in on what the priorities were for us, so that by the time we both walked into the Bloomfield house we both went THIS IS IT! without any hesitation whatsoever.

   If you have ANY doubts about a house - ANY - then don’t even think about making an offer.  Because that one little thing you had a doubt about will become the thing you HATE about your house once you move in.

   Posted by denis  on  07/10/08  at  11:14 PM

8. I’m prepared to look at a lot of houses.

   I drove by one we want to look at last night from work to test the possible commute. Nightmare commute by one route. I think the other possible route would take as much time, but not be as aggravating. It’s a really nice looking house from the outside, so we’ll see.

   I think the commute will be a huge factor more than anything else.

   Posted by  on  07/11/08  at  07:15 AM

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