Okay, went looking at houses today. Prior to today, I had them listed in order of preference House 1, 2, 3, & 4. When the agent got here, she told us that house 4 was under contract now, so now seeing that one. That's okay, I thought, I was least interested in that one. First up, was house 2.
House 2 is 119,000, with 4 bedrooms. When we got there and went inside it was, to put it lightly, a piece of shit. The only good things about it were the kitchen, which was relatively new, and right off it was a room with a toilet, sink and washer and dryer. Other than that...ew. There were holes in the walls, cracks in the ceilings, rooms half painted or half wallpapered, no shower, the one bedroom was actually the attic, and to reach another bedroom you had to first go through a third bedroom. It was quite obvious that the people who lived there last did not in any way take care of the place.
Upon leaving, I was quite discouraged, cause I figured if that piece of shit was 119,000, then House 3 must be pretty crappy as well, and I wondered if I'd be able to find ANYTHING decent in my price range. But off to House 3 we went.
This one is only 109,000, but both mom and I fell in love with it. It's got nice first floor, with a modern bathroom and shower on the first floor. There's three bedrooms and a bath with only a tub upstairs. The attic is spacious. The basement, okay, although the stairs to get to them are rather narrow. It's got a deck with a roof, a patio besides, steps down to a yard with a large shade providing tree in the middle and a two car garage at the end of the yard. the only downside to the place was that it didn't have a stove refrigerator or washer/dryer. Other than that, and the dodgey basement stairs, it's very nice. Lots of plants grown large (it's been empty for 100 days), but we can rip all those out of the ground and get rid of them. There's some painting that needs done inside, but that's not a problem. And it's got a heat pump, which mom was a bit concerned about, but I told her I don't need a lot of heat, and that's true. having throughly enjoyed House 3, we moved onto House 1.
House 1 was quite nice as well, as I expected it to be since it was my first choice. But upon actually seeing it in person, and not just in photos on line, it lost some of it's luster. And it's 154,000, quite outside my price range. But it does have all the applicances and washer/dryer.
After coming home and thinking about it and talking it over with mom, I've decided to make an offer on House 3 (which should technically be House 1 now I suppose). I've been preapproved for 120,000, which is way more than I'd need for House 3. And my realtor said House 3 is bank owned, so I'll probably be able to get them down even lower. And as mom pointed out, it'll be cheaper to get this one, and buy a stove, fridge, washer/dryer, and it would be to pay more for the 154,000 house just cause it already has the appliances. Would be so even if I could get the sellers down some more.
So I'm waiting on the realtor to call me back and discuss an offer, to see what I should offer.
I decided June 1 that I would buy a house this year, and then was kinda like "eh, what's the rush?" with financing and looking for houses online, and calling the realtor and so on. but now that I've seen a house I want, I'm all like "let's do this NOW!" in a hurry.
I just hopes this all works out, cause I'm quite attached to this place now!
POLT Listening to "Testify" by Rage Against The Machine
How many times do I have to tell ya, father, don't bless the virgin until you get the receipt! - The Hanging Garden
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14 comments:
Dude! This is fantastic -- very exciting days and weeks are in store for you.
Of course, anything and everything is possible in real estate. Take nothing for granted at least through the closing.
But I'm excited for you! Sending good karma your way!
Ohhh. Mojo that it all works out. I would just say put something in the sale contract saying contingent on inspection (I'm assuming you guys do that too) because my colleague put a bid on a house and when the inspector came it was going to be an additional $20K for the foundation to be redone plus the wiring was not up to code and would have to be redone and the sewer pipe in the basement dug up and replace for about $5K even though on the surface things looked fine. I don't want to rain on your parade but hopefully your realtor will explain it all and make sure you are covered should there be some major defect. Good luck.
TwoPi: thanks.
Tam: I'm pretty sure my mortgage lender's gonna have to look at the house first, and that's when, i think, all this stuff would be found. Guess I'll find out though.
HUGS>..
Good for you! I hope it works out!
Your mom is right - much better to buy the appliances yourself than buy a too-expensive house just for appliances. Besides, this way you would get to pick your own models of the appliances which is very nice.
Good luck! I hope it all works out for you!!
PS. If you want to move to Grand Rapids MI, I have a very nice house I would sell you CHEAP. It has all the appliances except a washer (dishwasher, dryer, fridge, microwave, stove, window air conditioners, dehumidifier for the basement). It even comes with a lawn mower!
Remember when you are buying appliances that you should not be cheap. Most of the time they last for a long time (10 years). Make sure you look around and get what you want even if they cost more...because 10 years with something you don't like is a long time.
A quiet dishwasher is well worth it.
YAY! Congratulations! House #3/1 sounds really nice.
You are lucky, I swear I looked at 50+ houses when I was looking.
Tam brings up an excellent point. We are required to have an inspection in RI, but I'm not sure this is the case everywhere. It is absolutely worth the money. Like Tam's friend, we avoided purchasing a house with major structural damage because of an inspection.
Good luck with everything!
Not bad, $120K at 5.75% on a 30 year is $700.29 a month, add taxes probably $150, so about $850.
If you accelerate it the 30 year mortgage can be paid off in just 12 years. That means paying $100 a month extra, and paying your income tax refund toward the principle every year.
Good luck, you're gonna need it. Now when things break you're either going to have to fix it yourself or pay someone to do it.
So exciting! Good luck!
terrific! Good luck.
Onanite
Happy to hear you've found something you like. Hope all goes smoothly from here. When they do the inspection, make sure you're there and ask lots of questions. You want to know what you're getting in for.
Inspection, inspection, inspection. Do they have radon in your neck of the woods? If so, another thing to check out. The inspector our agent used for the Colorado house was horrible. Live and learn...
I'm so happy for you - and that you found a house so quickly. We're still looking.
Hope everything goes through quickly and smoothly!
Yay! Your house sounds great. I'm not sure about bank-owned houses, but we had to pay separately for an inspection (I think it was on the order of $250) and based on that we came up with a list of requests, some of which they did and some of which they say No to (which we ended up being OK with, because nothing was significant -- the biggest thing was that the pipes were covered in asbestos in the basement, but our house was old so we figured that came with the territory and we saved up and got it removed about 2 years later.)
If the house has a fireplace and it's important to you that it works you might need a separate inspection of that, too.
My feeling about the appliances is that they're worth no more than $2000, and probably less. There's some extra hassle in buying new, but then you have NEW ones.
(I love hearing about people's houses: it's so exciting to find a good place!)
You should of taken pictures!!!
Email me the link - I want to see it!
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