On the Hunt... to Buy a House

Are you my home?

During work, the hubs and I had our usual back and forth e-mail rhetoric:

“What do you think about this one?”

“Needs more bathrooms.” “Ewww, did you see that yard…” etc. etc. etc.

And then, we found one. It’s small (but has two bathrooms. very key!), the kitchen is totally updated and the yard is so big! And it’s in a very desirable part of town. However, it does need some work. New hardwoods must be put in because the carpet is n-to-the-asty and the paint choices of the previous owner were questionable… But other than that, let’s just say I have a good feeling about this one.

The only catch? Through our sleuthing we found out that the home is in preforeclosure; which explains the yicky carpet (they didn’t care to clean it) and the generally abandoned look of the home (the front door was unlocked so we just walked in). I’m also not sure what preforeclosure means, so that makes it seem a little scary.  We’ll be talking to our realtor soon, to find out more and if this could be a possibility.

It’s one part fixer upper, one part awesome investment, and two parts potential home.

It's Friday, y'all!

I am definitely not a morning person and have night owl tendencies, much like my father. However, this morning was extra hard to wake up. This was likely a combination of a few things:

1. The 2 glasses of wine I had before bed
2. The fact that I did not go to bed until 11:30
3. The other fact that I could not sleep because it sounded like the world was ending outside, but it was just a really, really bad storm passing through.
4. The stress of looking for a house makes me extra tired.

Assuming we don’t go to the beach this weekend for a mini getaway, we’ll spend our Saturday listening to music in Moore Square, our Sunday at an open house (fingers crossed!), and our Sunday night at the Government Mule concert.

In an effort to put energy into the universe, here are a few of the realtor’s pictures of the house I am in lust with (note: none of that is my furniture):

The living room

Part of the backyard

There’s lots more I love, but there aren’t pictures of my favorite parts of it.

Anywho, think positive thoughts for me. I am attempting to bribe my husband with a  boat since this house is fairly close to a lake. Win-win, right?

Tip(s)

When talking about how many thousands of dollars a down payment requires, it’s a good idea make sure you have a shot of tequila nearby for when the discussion is over.

It’s also not a good idea for your husband to suggest selling your clothes and shoes (“…because no one needs that many”).

Home Sweet Nope Part 2

On Sunday we saw 4 houses. Here’s the rundown:

House 1: Not to sound petty, but if you are going to go through the effort of adding an addition to a home that has ALL hardwood floors, do not make your addition have laminate floors. Just no. Also, if you are going to add a breakfast room off the kitchen, make the ceiling the same height as the kitchen instead of a good three feet shorter.

House 2: This house is probably pictured next to the word “weird” in the dictionary. First of all, I’m all for having lots of clothes, but if you are selling your house, you should pick them up and not leave them scattered about every single room in the house. Also, why do you have a secret room in the back that is actually a hair salon?

House 3: If you’re going to take your house off the market the day before you have people coming to look at it, the nice thing to do is to let them know.

House 4: Walking into this house was like the clouds of heaven opened up and the radiant light of the patron saint of homes engulfed my body and lifted me up. In a sentence: I loved it! Everything from the rich hardwood floors to the two story fireplace in the living room to the lush green yard made me swoon. Jason, on the other hand, had drank some haterade that morning and has been crushing my dream home hopes with his argument that it’s too far away from work, his “activities” (i.e. golf and softball league….whatevs), and downtown. Tis not, I say!

Home Sweet Nope Part 1

Husband and I went and looked at 5 homes yesterday. Here’s the rundown:

House 1: Was actually a townhouse. The owners had stuffed all their junk in the bathtubs to make the place look neater. It kind of made me laugh. Did they really think I’m not going to check out the bathtubs? I mean, helllooooo!!!! I need to see where my Husband will draw my bubble baths, lay out the candles and sprinkle rose petals.

House 2: So teeny. Also, it said on the sheet that they record house data on that it has 1 and a half bathrooms. Guess where the half bathroom was? In a 100 million degree storage room above the house. Not sure who they were hiding away up there.

House 3: A little teeny but so cute. Only problem is that the smell of natural gas overpowers you when you walk in. However, it’s owned by a little old lady and a part of me wanted to buy it just to make her happy. She had set out pictures of the home when she first bought it many years ago. But again, too small and I might die from asphyxiation. So, that’s not okay.

House 4: Fabulous, but way, way, way too expensive. Also, it was 4 houses down from some railroad tracks and it looked like a group of crackheads lived on the corner.

House 5: Cute and lots of character (and TWO fireplaces), but it was already pending for another buyer. Also, it was still kind of small (read: no closet space) and the owners had decorated it totally retro with bright orange countertops.

During lunch we met with a mortgage consultant. Um yeah, do this before you look at houses. All those online calculators are great, but they don’t include things like taxes and insurance which are literally hundreds of extra dollars a month.

Also, did you know that you are supposed to have something called an escrow account where you keep like 3 months worth of taxes saved up and another several months worth of insurance. And you’re supposed to have that when you close on a house. If you bought a house, you probably knew that, but just an FYI for everyone else.