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Archive for May, 2009

Searching for a house

May 27th, 2009 at 10:36 pm

I've now been out with the agent twice and have looked at a total of 8 houses. The first time I met with her the very first house we looked at I was hooked. It was beautiful with all hardwood floors and very large with both a living room and family room. My only hesitations were that the two bedrooms were close to one another and the hardwood floors would need refinishing. It was my favorite of day 1.

Then day 2 we go look at that house again along with 4 new ones. Looking at the house again I found a spot where there is a leak and it had soaked through the wall. Now this is something the sellers will have to fix, but it sort of sucks to know that at least part of the roof needs repair. Second, both times I've been there the backyard has been flooded. To make matters worse the entire street has drainage issues. To be fair we've had massive amounts of rain in the past couple weeks (on the order of feet). But we're still not sure if that's something we'll want to deal with.

On day 2 we also saw a house that is a great house, but is decorated very heavily in a country cottage feel. It's hard to see what the house will look like because I am so put off by the decorations, but it's nothing some hardware, paint, and a new sink can't fix. This one has a lanai and is right on a man made lake so no drainage issues there (and the house is quite a bit above the water).

So we have two houses that we like with some positives and some negatives. When DH gets home from deployment he'll get to see them and we'll probably put an offer down on one of them.

Housing situation

May 13th, 2009 at 10:06 pm

We found out in January that the condo we are renting is going through foreclosure. We've been paying (and continued to pay) our rent on time, but it is going through the process nonetheless. They say it is only going through Loan Modification, not foreclosure, but really it's all the same to us. Our lease is up in August and we've been holding our breath that we'll be able to stay in this place til then...looks like it will. Smile

So during this process I got a wild idea to just buy the condo. We decided to rent this place with the idea that we'd stay here for at least 2, if not 3 years. So needless to say the realization that I'd have to move was not a pleasant one...I've moved about 5 times in the last 3 years.

So our condo is on the market, but listed at 175, the balance of the loan. In looking up the listing I found that there was a bigger condo in the complex that had already gone through foreclosure listed at 90K. I was really ecstatic and wanted to buy it RIGHT THEN! So I found a real estate agent and began talking to our bank.

Then the other shoe fell. I didn't like the agent I was working with. I don't think she was that experienced in buying/selling...I found her from people who had used her looking for apartments to rent, not places to buy. Then we found out that we couldn't get a VA loan on this condo complex because it was a conversion from apartments to condos. Our primary bank said they'd lend to us, but they'd require 25% down. 25%! I've never heard of that before. I figured that because of the poor economy we may have had to put 20% down, but 25% never crossed my mind. Now we actually had the money, but we hadn't been planning on putting that much down.

I called up other lenders and some flat out refused to lend for this condo. Apparently the high number of foreclosures and number of investment properties (versus primary residences) in the complex made it unappealing to lenders. So I finally found a bank that would lend to us, told the agent, and found out that someone else had already put an offer down.

I was devastated. Frown At that price it really shouldn't have been surprising, but I was sad that we didn't act quick enough.

So I picked myself up again. I've already found a new agent...one that seems ok. I haven't dealt with her much yet. This one was recommended by the bank (USAA Movers Advantage, for those who know it). I drove all over town looking at nearly every condo complex to see if it's a place we'd want to live. Well 2 hours and 60 miles later, I decided that I didn't really want a condo. Figures. Smile

So now were narrowing the search to single family homes under 160, but widening it in terms of location. We've already found some that are looking good. Now if only DH were here to help me! Less than 1 month left!