The House Hunters Thread

[Harleigh]

Well, that''s all for now...hopefully by next week we''ll have a new floor and a pool design in the works! Yay, yay, yay!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Claritek, thanks so much for all of the finger crossing! I definitely appreciate it and I am sending you lots and lots of home selling dust. I remember your bath remodel and the AMAZING job you did!

Harleigh!!!! I can''t tell you how many times I thought about you over the last couple of months! In fact a couple of times I almost asked how you were doing (in case you still lurked on the thread), but I also know how completely draining and frustrating the whole process can be, especially when things fall through and you feel like you''re back at square one and buying a house will never happen, so I decided to hold tight and juts hoped you''d post with good news. I know that last time you posted you and DH had decided not to buy, but I was keeping my fingers crossed that after a break you would both feel a little more refreshed and open to buying.

So when I saw that you had posted I was elated!!! This house is gorgeous, I am so, so excited for you!!! You must be SO excited to be buying a place together (finally!) where you both have enough room for your own space!

So when are you officially closing, then? You said the final walkthrough wouldn''t be until Monday, so are you closing next week? If so, you must be packing in a whirlwind this weekend! Don''t you hate that feeling? Wanting to pack, but feeling like it could still fall through? So stressful!


Sorry, all, for my venting session last night. I was really fed up. I spent about an hour on the phone with the lawyer this morning and most of the issues have been cleared up. One of the mistakes was the lender''s mistake, so we have to get clearance on that, but it''s not a "make or break" issue. They could always send us a check with a credit if necessary. I''m just eager to have the closing over with so we can get the keys this afternoon! Soon enough!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

I''m totally hogging this thread today, but we CLOSED! YAY! And I only got into one confrontation with the sellers'' lawyer!

 

[Harleigh]

Date: 6/25/2010 8:05:10 AM
Author: NewEnglandLady

Harleigh!!!! I can''t tell you how many times I thought about you over the last couple of months! In fact a couple of times I almost asked how you were doing (in case you still lurked on the thread), but I also know how completely draining and frustrating the whole process can be, especially when things fall through and you feel like you''re back at square one and buying a house will never happen, so I decided to hold tight and juts hoped you''d post with good news. I know that last time you posted you and DH had decided not to buy, but I was keeping my fingers crossed that after a break you would both feel a little more refreshed and open to buying.

So when I saw that you had posted I was elated!!! This house is gorgeous, I am so, so excited for you!!! You must be SO excited to be buying a place together (finally!) where you both have enough room for your own space!

So when are you officially closing, then? You said the final walkthrough wouldn''t be until Monday, so are you closing next week? If so, you must be packing in a whirlwind this weekend! Don''t you hate that feeling? Wanting to pack, but feeling like it could still fall through? So stressful!

Sorry, all, for my venting session last night. I was really fed up. I spent about an hour on the phone with the lawyer this morning and most of the issues have been cleared up. One of the mistakes was the lender''s mistake, so we have to get clearance on that, but it''s not a ''make or break'' issue. They could always send us a check with a credit if necessary. I''m just eager to have the closing over with so we can get the keys this afternoon! Soon enough!

Hi NEL!!! Congrats on closing today! Did you get the keys to your old/vintage/new-to-you house? I am beyond excited for you and can''t wait to see what you do with the place! I''ve loved reading about all of your decorating ideas...they all sound beautiful!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your enthusiasm! I love that I can come here and others are excited for us! We actually have a walk-through with the insurance company tomorrow at 10 AM...does that count as our final walk-through? I don''t know and DH''s phone is dead and he''s been at a drill all day, so I don''t have a lot of information yet...I''ll have to wait for him to call me from his work phone after things slow down for him a bit tonight. As far as we know, the seller agreed to and has fixed everything from the inspection (aside from the floors) and another roof cert has already been completed. There weren''t a lot of things on our list to begin with, so hopefully nothing major will pop up tomorrow. From what DH says we may close on Monday, which I think is the 28th. The seller really wanted a 30-day escrow, so that would be right on timewise, so I spent part of the day working in my classroom, picked up as many boxes as my little car could hold and then spent the rest of the afternoon packing like a madwoman!!!

I''m sure many of you here can relate!

I am guessing that things are done a bit differently back east...I don''t think there are any lawyers involved in our purchase (or there hasn''t been a need for them that I''m aware of.) Is that weird? As I said, the one house I bought by myself was brand new, so I didn''t have to deal with sellers and all this back and forth crappola. This is DH''s third house and he seems to be very comfortable with how things have been going, but he is awfully laid back, so that could just be his take on things and I''m just too clueless to know differently.

I forget who posted a little ways back that they just went in and signed all the paperwork and got their keys, etc... I have a feeling this is going to go in a very similar manner...sign our life away and they hand us some itty bitty little keys!

(I can''t wait!)

If I hear anything else from DH tonight I''ll let you know...hopefully I''ll get some better info out of him when he has more time to chat. Now I''m off to go pack up all of my Precious Moments figurines...I have a feeling that''s going to take me a LONG time...I''ve been collecting them since I was a kid!

Please keep us posted on how the rest of your day went today...I can''t wait to hear, and good for you for limiting your confrontations to one today!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Oh my gosh, Haleigh!! EEEeeee! You could be closing in 2 days!! I''m so excited for you!! How did the packing go today??

We had our final walk-through at 1p.m. and we were done signing all of the closing docs by 3:30. Our lawyer was very patient and answered all of our questions without any problem at all. The sellers'' lawyer was a complete jerk and told us we needed to hurry up, which really set me off. The cleaners didn''t get to the house until 5 and we gave them a couple of hours to clean, so D didn''t carry me across the threshold until about 7:30. We''ve spent the past few hours shuttling a few things over there. It feels very odd for some reason. So weird that we finally have a house after saving for so long.

In celebration of finally closing I thought it would be fun to go back to my VERY FIRST post on Page 1 of this thread to compare what I originally wanted to what I ended up with. Our tastes definitely changed after looking for a house for 8+ months:

So I guess must haves are:
at least half of an acre--we ended up buying 1.25 acres. It''s about half lawn half trees and I love the privacy
no more than a half of a mile from the ocean--this was our biggest sacrifice. We ended up 4 miles from the ocean, which does feel far away
2,000 SF+--the house is just over 3,100 SF, but we won''t be using all of the square footage until we have kids
Bedrooms on one level (for kids)--this was a "no comromise" must have, so all the bedrooms are on one level
3/4 bedrooms--4 bedrooms
2+ baths--3 full baths
all hardwoods (or at least mostly hardwoods--we can put some in)--all original hardwoods with the exception of the new bedroom, which is carpet (we''ll put in hardwoods somewhat soon, however)
Nice-to-haves:
Central Air--unfortunately no central air, though it is admittedly rare in New England and we already have window units
Garage--yes, large 2-car attached garage
Antique (preferably built in the 18th or 19th century)--yes, built in 1775

Let us know how everything goes tomorrow, Harleigh!

 

[Harleigh]

That sounds spectacular, NEL! I can''t believe you actually have time to post with all of the excitement going on! Are you going to start moving in this weekend? I don''t remember if you said or not, but how far is this house from where you are living now? How ever will you be able to sleep tonight??? BTW, did I miss where you figured out how big the property was? I remember reading that it said 1.25, but you found documents stating it was either .75 or 1.0...how did that all turn out? From your post it looks like you got the full 1.25 acres...that would be awesome! Have you had a glass of champagne to celebrate yet?

DH just called and said he might work overtime tomorrow and that he''s sorry we might miss this stupid costume party tomorrow night (that I was hoping to get out of!) and seemed to forget about the walk-through tomorrow...apparently our REA can''t get us into the house tomorrow so DH cancelled this morning and hasn''t heard back from the guy, soooo, we''re going to try for Monday. I love that he''d already forgotten about the walk-through and was worried that I''d be disappointed if we missed that party...NOT! (Please, please, please let him work overtime!!!) I''m sure he won''t and I''ll have to go to that dang thing with a bunch of people I don''t know...

He did clarify that it wasn''t going to be our final walk-through, it is just for insurance purposes since it''s a fairly large and expensive home to insure. He said he would talk to our REA tonight at work to try to nail down a walk-through time, but that it should be early next week, he thinks.

So...I am a little deflated but I could honestly use the time to get things better organized. Tonight I packed up most of the wine decor stuff in the kitchen, wine glasses, champagne flutes, etc... and have started on my serving pieces. I feel like I''ve hardly packed anything and I''ve gone through about a zillion boxes and a ton of newspaper wrapping stuff as carefully and as fast as I can. I''m feeling lazy right now so haven''t started on the figurines yet...trying to match each little piece to the correct box just seems overwhelming right now so I decided to heat up some leftovers for dinner instead!

Congrats again!!!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

I couldn''t sleep well last night because I''m excited to move today. Strangely enough, I wasn''t stressed at all yesterday or today because everything is completely packed--I''ve been packing slowly over the past several weeks and last weekend was the last big push. We''ve been eating take out off of paper plates for about a week, so I''m pretty eager for the movers to come so we can get everything moved, unpacked and normal life can resume

Good memory about the whole land issue. Yes, after many, many hours of investigation and piecing together all of the property lines from different sources, the property seems to be somewhere between an acre and about 1.2 acres. I didn''t have one measurement (front of house), but the town requires that the property have 155'' of street frontage, so at the minimum it has one acre. The deed will still say 1.25 acres because it''s too big of a pain to fight it and the property value between an acre (or just over an acre) and 1.25 acres is minimal.

I''m keeping my fingers crossed for you that your DH works overtime and you can skip the party And I''m really sorry that the walk-through was cancelled, though Monday is not far away at all. Our insurance agent walk-through is after we close (we already bought the insurance, but they want to ensure the coverage is adequate), but as you said, things defniitely vary regionally.

Lots of luck to you, Harleigh! Enjoy more packing today! I''ll be in a sea of cardboard boxes, too

 

[ts44]

Woo congrats on the close NEL! You certainly have fought long and hard for this one. And good luck to you Harleigh! I''m so happy everything is working out for you both.

Miscka, you seem to be in a similar dilemma to my FI and I. We are in the battle of the newer construction vs. older home right now. No easy answers - I tend to lean towards the lower maintenance home with amenities, and FI tends to lean towards the older home with character and tiny bathrooms, lol.

We had a bit of a wrench thrown at us the other night. Our realtor emailed us to let us know that the sellers of the home we bid on had fired their old agent and want to re-enter negotiations with us. They are claiming they had no idea the counter wasn''t reasonable and want to assure us that they are very motivated to sell. How does somebody not know that 3k off the list price isn''t a reasonable counter? FI wants to give them the benefit of the doubt and see if we can''t get this house, but I''m a little wary now. In addition, this is an older house that he''s in love with but we''d have to completely re-do the master bed and bath because right now the bathroom is literally the size of a broom closet, and it is only a three bedroom house and it will always be a three bedroom house unless we put an addition over the garage, which is a major project that I''m just not keen on for a first-time owner situation.

I had almost gotten FI to agree to bidding on the newer house, but now that the old one is active again he''s forgotten all about it. I like both houses, but I think the newer one is a great opportunity and a better future sell than the older house since it''s new construction and has a real master suite with 4 bedrooms. This was easier when we thought the older house was dead in the water!

 

[Clairitek]

Date: 6/25/2010 10:52:04 PM
Author: NewEnglandLady
Oh my gosh, Haleigh!! EEEeeee! You could be closing in 2 days!! I''m so excited for you!! How did the packing go today??

We had our final walk-through at 1p.m. and we were done signing all of the closing docs by 3:30. Our lawyer was very patient and answered all of our questions without any problem at all. The sellers'' lawyer was a complete jerk and told us we needed to hurry up, which really set me off. .The cleaners didn''t get to the house until 5 and we gave them a couple of hours to clean, so D didn''t carry me across the threshold until about 7:30. We''ve spent the past few hours shuttling a few things over there. It feels very odd for some reason. So weird that we finally have a house after saving for so long.

In celebration of finally closing I thought it would be fun to go back to my VERY FIRST post on Page 1 of this thread to compare what I originally wanted to what I ended up with. Our tastes definitely changed after looking for a house for 8+ months:

So I guess must haves are:

at least half of an acre--we ended up buying 1.25 acres. It''s about half lawn half trees and I love the privacy

no more than a half of a mile from the ocean--this was our biggest sacrifice. We ended up 4 miles from the ocean, which does feel far away

2,000 SF+--the house is just over 3,100 SF, but we won''t be using all of the square footage until we have kids

Bedrooms on one level (for kids)--this was a ''no comromise'' must have, so all the bedrooms are on one level

3/4 bedrooms--4 bedrooms

2+ baths--3 full baths

all hardwoods (or at least mostly hardwoods--we can put some in)--all original hardwoods with the exception of the new bedroom, which is carpet (we''ll put in hardwoods somewhat soon, however)

Nice-to-haves:

Central Air--unfortunately no central air, though it is admittedly rare in New England and we already have window units

Garage--yes, large 2-car attached garage

Antique (preferably built in the 18th or 19th century)--yes, built in 1775



Let us know how everything goes tomorrow, Harleigh!

Congrats NEL! I adore your home and I hope it lives up to everything you''ve been wanting! Soooo adorable that D carried you across the threshold! I wish I had given DH a chance to do that but I was overly excited to get into the house and didn''t give him the chance. Enjoy unpacking and settling in! I can''t wait to see how your house evolves into your home with all of your personal touches and decorating.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Ctek, how''d the open house go today????

 

[Harleigh]

Date: 6/26/2010 6:20:02 AM
Author: NewEnglandLady
I couldn''t sleep well last night because I''m excited to move today. Strangely enough, I wasn''t stressed at all yesterday or today because everything is completely packed--I''ve been packing slowly over the past several weeks and last weekend was the last big push. We''ve been eating take out off of paper plates for about a week, so I''m pretty eager for the movers to come so we can get everything moved, unpacked and normal life can resume

Good memory about the whole land issue. Yes, after many, many hours of investigation and piecing together all of the property lines from different sources, the property seems to be somewhere between an acre and about 1.2 acres. I didn''t have one measurement (front of house), but the town requires that the property have 155'' of street frontage, so at the minimum it has one acre. The deed will still say 1.25 acres because it''s too big of a pain to fight it and the property value between an acre (or just over an acre) and 1.25 acres is minimal.

I''m keeping my fingers crossed for you that your DH works overtime and you can skip the party And I''m really sorry that the walk-through was cancelled, though Monday is not far away at all. Our insurance agent walk-through is after we close (we already bought the insurance, but they want to ensure the coverage is adequate), but as you said, things defniitely vary regionally.

Lots of luck to you, Harleigh! Enjoy more packing today! I''ll be in a sea of cardboard boxes, too

Wow...I have no idea what day it is. I''ve decided that when your life is surrounded by newspaper and boxes and two cats and a dog who think said items are new toys, well, I just don''t even know what to make out of that. I have been packing nonstop and seriously almost packed one of the cats sleeping under crumpled up newspaper in the bottom of a box. I''m telling you, this stray I brought home in January is so mellow that he truly didn''t seem to mind me packing around him...I happened to see part of his tail and had to yank his lazy a$$ outta there before I crushed the poor guy. Phew! This seems to be a neverending endeavor...pack a box, remove a cat. Pack a box, remove a cat...you get the idea.

I honestly don''t even know if I posted yesterday or not or if yours was from yesterday or today...I think I have lost track of any sense of time...being on vacation doesn''t help that, but now I am in panic mode wondering how we''re going to get everything packed up and ready to go so soon? We do have the insurance walk-through tomorrow morning at 10...that wasn''t actually confirmed by our REA until almost 10 PM tonight

and so my parents have decided that that would be a perfect time to come and see the house for the first time. Can''t say I''m really in the mood for that, but since they didn''t ask, they TOLD me their plans, well, it''s just not worth the fight right now as I''m not running on all cylinders. So now I''ll have to hear everything that''s wrong with the house and how I need to talk DH into doing this and that to make it different or better, etc..., and while I do think they have great ideas, I think they''re getting a little ahead of themselves considering we don''t even have the keys yet! Sheesh! We were supposed to close Monday or Tuesday and DH works Wednesday and Thursday, so hopefully the keys will be in our hands no later than Friday. We''d really like to get the floor guy in to get that started ASAP because there is no way into the house that isn''t hardwood, so that could delay our doing any other work in there if we don''t get it going right away.

You are so lucky to have movers coming to move you NEL...how did that go this weekend? So glad to hear you got the land issues figured out...that would have bugged me, as well, and I think it''s just too cute that your hubby carried you across the threshold...I honestly don''t think I''ve ever been carried over the threshold of anything...wonder if I could talk R into it? Nah, he''d probably throw his back out and then we''d be in a big fat mess with him not able to do anything getting into the new place! I really think we should hire movers for the big stuff because that driveway is so steep that I am afraid we could have a LOT of problems with some of our larger pieces. DH thinks he can just get a pile of his fellow firefighters to come over and get it done in a day. That''s great that we might have free labor, but I really like our stuff and I''d like it treated with some semblance of care, and in my experience with some of these guys, that''s just not a priority when they''re only working for pizza and beer!

BTW, DH did work OT yesterday and I didn''t have to go to that stupid party...I don''t mean to sound unkind, but who has a "White Trash" party? Really? For some of the people that would be there I don''t think they''d be in costume if you know what I mean...

Just not my cup of tea so I''m relieved I got out of it, and I was uncomfortable because I didn''t know a lot of the people there, and dressed like a floozy wasn''t how I''d prefer to meet new people! So, I stayed up packing till after 3 AM and have been at it again since about 9 this morning. I think I''m definitely ready for bed soon but wanted to check in with all of you before I hit the hay.

I hope everyone else is doing well...I, too, am curious about your open house, Clairitek...I remember seeing your amazing bathroom remodel...it was so serene...I found some dragonfly bathroom accessories I''ve never seen before that looks like they''d go perfectly with the colors you chose...I''ll have to go back and check it out again for some inspiration! Now that I''ll have 4 bathrooms to decorate I can branch out a bit, and DH said he doesn''t care how many of them I fill with my dragonfly fetish!

All right...nighty night, ladies! Lots of house hunting, house buying and house closing dust all around!

 

[zoebartlett]

Harleigh and NEL -- I''ve been thinking about you, wondering how you''ve been. I haven''t been on PS too often lately because of our move, but I''m hoping to catch up soon. Harleigh -- what a beautiful house! NEL -- I''m dying to see pics! If we plan another PS GTG, would you feel comfortable bringing a few?

 

[Clairitek]

HH and Harleigh- The open house went OK, I guess. Only 3 groups through. Apparently one seemed VERY interested, but I''ve heard that a bunch of times before.

We had a showing appointment on Saturday. Apparently the realtor (who has seen the house before, when the price was $17k higher) STILL thinks the house is overpriced. Ummmm any lower and we will be GIVING IT AWAY. We are going to sit at this price for a while, I think. Now that DH has guaranteed employment for our time in CA (two years) we can breathe easy and know that we can more than comfortably cover our mortgage and rent out there if we have to and still save a good amount of money. In hindsight, I sort of wish we had started it out at a much lower price than we did, but oh well.

I''ll keep you guys update, I promise! I know it will sell eventually.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Is renting it out while you''re in CA an option?

 

[Clairitek]

Date: 6/28/2010 12:31:24 PM
Author: Hudson_Hawk
Is renting it out while you''re in CA an option?

No. I know almost any renter we get will not take care of the house the way that we do. Even if youre the most respectful renter in the world, you still won''t care for the home the way an owner will. I just don''t think that the house will appreciate in value enough to make it worth our while and mitigate any damages caused by a renter.

Plus, I have no desire to be a landlord.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

ts44--isn''t it uncanny how the sellers chase you down when you walk away from buying? So now what are you guys going to do? It sounds like you''re leaning towards new construction and your DH is wanting to put in a second offer on the older, more rural home? During our closing the sellers'' lawyer was talking about a well-water report he just received and the well was full of e coli. You could always sneakily add that into a conversation

Claritek--how did the open house go over the weekend? I completely forgot that you were moving to CA, when are you scheduled to move??

Harleigh--how did the walk-through go yesterday? Are you officially closing today or tomorrow? How did all of the packing go over the weekend, are you basically done? The only thing worse that packing around the furkids is actually moving. We dropped our boys off with D''s parents before our movers came!

Zoe--I''ve been thinking about you a ton recently! When are you moving back up here? I''ll have to remember to bring pics to the next GTG!

---------------------------------------------------------------

Our move was uneventful. I woke up early to wash the bedding and dismantle the bed before the movers arrived. They showed up just as I was packing the last box, so the timing was perfect. It was a hot day, but they moved quickly and I was counting my blessings that I wasn''t the one doing the heavy lifting. I''d labeled all of the boxes by room, so the movers put all of the boxes in the correct rooms and put all the furniture where I wanted it. This made it SO MUCH easier to unpack everything since I didn''t have to move boxes around at all.

I unpacked everything and put the boxes out for trash collection today. No more boxes!! YAY! I still have a few things to hang, but want to retouch the paint in a few spots first. Everything else is completely done. I even roasted a chicken for dinner last night.

I think I''ve gone a little crazy buying things for the house on Overstock. I''ve bought curtains, 6 rugs (only one large rug), barstools and a few other odds and ends. I need to stop and take my time or I''ll buy something stupid in my rampage. I am just so eager for it to all come together. I''ve never really been the type to care about decorating, but this time I am really enjoying it!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

NEL-Don''t forget about your close proximity to an AWESOME Homegoods! Your local store is one of the best I''ve ever been to.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

HH, unfortunately for my bank account, I''m all too enthusiastic about the Homegoods In fact, I just went yesterday and bought a bunch of stuff. I actually frequent most of the stores in that plaza, haha. I like the TJ Maxx because they have a pretty big "The Runway" section. Hannaford''s is my favorite grocery store, so I''m really glad to have one so close. I go to the Aveda salon there AND I love TCBY (D and I just want last night after taking the boys for a walk in a nearby park). D jokes that the only reason I wanted this house is so I could be within 5 minutes of Homegoods and TCBY.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Don''t forget about the Massage Envy!

Maybe our next GTG needs to be a trip to HG? I took Clairetek there last time she was in the area.

 

[gardengloves]

Date: 6/29/2010 1:38:01 PM
Author: NewEnglandLady
HH, unfortunately for my bank account, I''m all too enthusiastic about the Homegoods In fact, I just went yesterday and bought a bunch of stuff. I actually frequent most of the stores in that plaza, haha. I like the TJ Maxx because they have a pretty big ''The Runway'' section. Hannaford''s is my favorite grocery store, so I''m really glad to have one so close. I go to the Aveda salon there AND I love TCBY (D and I just want last night after taking the boys for a walk in a nearby park). D jokes that the only reason I wanted this house is so I could be within 5 minutes of Homegoods and TCBY.

Homegoods can be dangerous.. but oh so good! I love it, but tend to stock up on too much stuff.. I now mainly wander the gourmet food items, gorgeous pastas, nuts, condiments and oils.

We need photos and a thread NEL, you are so like me, we also went over closing papers with fine tooth comb, caught mistakes, fixed errors, drove everyone crazy . I moved and unpacked in a day, everything labeled boxed and organized, boxes in trash the next day. Enjoy the new home, can not wait to see pictures.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

HH--a Homegoods outing sounds like a good idea to me, even if it''s just the two of us, haha. Maybe we could get AlisonD to join--she recently told me she took an interior decortating class. I had no idea!

Gardengloves--I am definitely going to try to get a few pics in this thread. I put together the bar stools last night and really like the way they look. The rug for the kitchen/dining area is coming in tomorrow and then I think that room will mostly be done. At least enough to post a picture or two. I ruined my digital camera while Dan and I were in Hawaii last month and we haven''t had time to replace it, so for now I''m borrowing a friend''s. Hopefully I can keep it for another day

 

[zoebartlett]

Date: 6/28/2010 1:46:00 PM
Author: Clairitek

Date: 6/28/2010 12:31:24 PM

Author: Hudson_Hawk

Is renting it out while you''re in CA an option?

No. I know almost any renter we get will not take care of the house the way that we do. Even if youre the most respectful renter in the world, you still won''t care for the home the way an owner will. I just don''t think that the house will appreciate in value enough to make it worth our while and mitigate any damages caused by a renter.


Plus, I have no desire to be a landlord.

Just a thought, but you could rent it out and hire a property management company to act as landlords for you. This is what we ended up doing with our condo when we moved, and it worked out well. We''ve since moved back to the area and we''re renting another place for ourselves.

 

[zoebartlett]

NEL -- you kill me with how much you''ve gotten done! Roasting a chicken -- pish posh!

We moved back in mid-June, but we were staying with my parents nearby until almost a week ago. We just moved into a new condo last Friday (we''re renting in a fairly new complex), and we''re still getting settled and unpacked. D. started work on Monday, so I''ve been doing most of the unpacking and organizing. Things are shaping up. Our place is only 1400 sq. ft. but we have a ton of closet space and even a garage. We love it so far.

We got the chance to finally meet the tenant in the condo we own and had moved out of last June. We had lived there for 3.5 years. She''s great! She asked us when she moved in if she could make the place more homey and we asked what she had in mind. Turns out, she had a list of things she wanted to do (nothing needed to be done to the place, but we were intrigued by her offer). We ended up agreeing to most of what she wanted, knowing that she may decide to buy the condo some day. So now, our rental unit has new laminate flooring (which I didn''t want at first but we couldn''t swing real HW), and each room has been painted in nice neutral colors. The bathroom and kitchen were even painted white (they were a light oak), and they look awesome. We split the cost of materials but she took care of the rest and she also paid for the labor. Score!

Wow, sorry for the novel!

 

[Harleigh]

Crap! PS just ate my whole post!

Outta time so I''ll just check in quickly...amidst several errors and delays with paperwork, we closed today at 4 PM!

It was kind of anticlimatic since R works today and tomorrow and our REA called to tell me I could *legally* use the key he gave me on Monday while we were there! Woot woot! When R called he was concerned about a meeting he had today, so we didn''t have much time for new house talk. My dad is also down with Pneumonia and a temperature of 103.9, so I''m kind of out of sorts all around...

I''ve got most of the house packed except the master bedroom and the spare room overflowing with all of my boxes and crappola that''s been in there since I moved in two years ago...I''m actually afraid to get started in there...

R used up almost my entire supply of boxes yesterday alone so I know I''m going to need a LOT more to get out of here...I really need to get rid of some stuff. Goodwill, here I come!

We have a pool estimate and the floor guy coming out on Friday to do a test area, so hopefully R will change the locks then. I think I should probably take a load over tomorrow while I have his truck, but I just don''t like the idea of someone possibly having a key to the house...there have been so many people through that house in the past year and here we''ve complained about the bad job the contractor did, so it just makes me nervous to leave anything there.

So, we are new homeowners! We discovered yesterday that from the floors being sanded down so many times that the walls are completely coated in dust and the paint job is spotty at best. We''re going to have to wash the walls and repaint almost everything once the floors are done, which I don''t look forward to, but at least that will give me time to pack before we can move in.

Now, if only I could talk R into hiring movers to move all our stuff...

So glad to hear everyone else is doing well. I bow to all of you who get moved and unpacked in one day...you are my heroes! I have a feeling ours is going to take a few weeks at least with trying to do the floors and paint all the walls...it''s a big house with some high ceilings...good thing DH is tall!

 

[Harleigh]

PS...I

HomeGoods! We have one right down the road from the new house!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Zoe, it sounds like you have an amazing tenant and I''m really glad you got to meet her! With all of the investment she''s willing to make it sounds like she very well may buy the place!

Harleigh! Congrats on closing!! I''m so sorry your father is sick, though, his fever sounds very serious. How is he feeling today? The floor guy is coming out today, right? You are going to be one happy lady when those floors are done! And the painting, too!!

 

[ts44]

Re:

ts44--isn''t it uncanny how the sellers chase you down when you walk away from buying? So now what are you guys going to do? It sounds like you''re leaning towards new construction and your DH is wanting to put in a second offer on the older, more rural home? During our closing the sellers'' lawyer was talking about a well-water report he just received and the well was full of e coli. You could always sneakily add that into a conversation

Laughed at the e-coli suggestion! It would be just the thing to make him iffy on well water. Well we had an eventful week. Since FI was so in love with the house I agreed to return to negotiations with the sellers and we told them that since they didn't REALLY counter effectively, we were still waiting on a counter and that they would need to make the first move. They agreed, but made us fill out buyer profile paperwork, and ran credit checks and everything - you would think we were buying a million-dollar home! It was especially ridiculous since FI and I have been pre-approved for twice what they're asking for their house, and they know it. We just don't want to pay more than the house is really worth! So after we jumped through all their hoops, a week later they finally came up with a counter - 10k under list. Which is all fine and dandy except there's still a huge margin between our bid which was supported by comps and appraisal values, and their perceived value of the home, AND they've wasted a great chunk of our time to boot. Their agent was trying to explain it to us, that they have enough set aside to let the house sit and they might entertain that offer by January but not right now, and that the sellers are very careful and savvy with their money. Uh ok, except that if you do basic arithmetic, just the taxes on the house between now and January will cost them more than accepting our bid and getting out right now, let alone adding in the mortgage payment and upkeep for an empty home. Needless to say, I got fed up with the games and told them that our final offer is X, and if you don't like it, we walk because you've already wasted too much of our time. Of course, X didn't cut it for them so we walked, for GOOD this time. Sheesh!

On the upside, we are now FINALLY putting a bid on the house I want! Fingers crossed!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

ts44, it sounds like this week has been exhausting for you! So sorry that the homeowners of the rural house wouldn't come down more. Since the owners knew you were pre-approved for twice as much as their asking price, they probably assumed they didn't have to come down as much. Our personal budget was also about half of what we were pre-approved for, but we never let the sellers know. Both times we had an accepted offer we waited to see if the price would drop, telling the owners that the house wasn't in our budget, then when we did finally make an offer, we made it seem like we were really stretching financially to make it work. In both cases there were three or four counter offers--I'm willing to bet if they knew our pre-approval amount, they woudldn't have come down nearly as much.

I'm super excited that you're going to put an offer on the house you love!! When are you submitting the offer? I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you!

 

[Blenheim]

Hi, mind if I jump in? We've been casually going to open houses and decided to get a little bit more serious about house-searching in the past two weeks.

I read through this entire thread over the course of the weekend, and wow there's a lot of information in here! I learned quite a bit about short sales. It was a lot of fun following NEL's house-hunting journey in particular - it sounded so incredibly stressful with all of the ups and downs and surprises, but the final house just sounds like a dream! And congrats to Harleigh as well for just closing! Unfortunately I'm not able to view the photos - maybe it's something about the new PS - but it sounds fabulous as well.

As for me, in December DH and I moved back to the area we grew up in and where both of our families currently live. We've been living with his family to give us time to both get jobs and save up a bit more money for a down payment. We're in a HCOL area and we knew going into it that we'd seriously have to readjust our expectations as our money went much much further where we were previously living, but it's still really hard now that we're looking at things more seriously and trying to envision living in specific houses. We're not in a huge rush right now and would ideally like to take wait another 6 months or so before buying (well, closing really) so that we can save a full 20% and still have a healthy emergency fund, but we figured that it's a good time to start really sorting out our conflicting preferences and getting a sense of the different areas here. We have enough money right now that we'd be reasonably comfortable buying if we found the right place for the right price, and so we just went ahead and got preapproved and started working with a realtor. We went to see 7 houses yesterday.

Our musts, as of right now:
Good school district
3+ bedrooms
Access to public transporation (metro and/or bus)
Both of our commutes less than about 60 minutes, including daycare drop-off/pick-up. We live in an area with lots of traffic and our workplaces are not all that close, and so while I'd like us both to have much shorter commutes, it's just not going to happen.
Backyard. Postage stamp sized backyard is ok, we just want to be able to put the dogs out without having to take them on a walk each and every time.
No major issues, like big structural problems or mold. Cosmetic issues are just fine with us.
Townhome or SFH
Walkable, safe neighborhood

Things that would be nice:
Lots of mature trees
Single-family home
Within 1.5 walking miles of grocery store and library
Fenced in backyard
Streets on more of a grid system than the cul-de-sac arrangement that tends to be typical in the suburbs.
Reasonable amount of storage
Decent amount of visitor parking

DH had been looking online and had convinced himself that we could afford a SFH as he's found some within our price range, and I think it really helped him to actually go into some of them yesterday. One was a flip that had lovely restored wooden floors and kitchen but they hadn't done anything about the big roof problems or mold issues, so that was a definite no. One was on a major road and everything about the house just felt very cheap; DH hated it. Most of the other SFH in our price range are short sales that are much below comps, and so I just don't have much hope for those either. I think it was a bit of a reality check for DH. We may be able to find something if we're very very patient, but it's certainly not going to be as easy as DH had hoped.

The townhouses seemed a lot more promising, but nothing was "it". We really need to figure out our priorities and also figure out how to evaluate school districts. DH's aunt worked in the local school system for years and years and is the type of person who knows everything about everything (and I don't agree with most of it ), and she has very definite opinions about the various school districts in the area. Her opinions conflict with the opinions of other people we know, although there are some areas to avoid that everyone disagrees about. We've also been spending a lot of time on the county website, looking at test score and demographics and similar.

We went to one townhouse in a school district that everyone agrees is great, but it just feels sooo suburban to me, and that's just not me. The house was fairly roomy and had great wood floors and the neighbors seemed to love the neighborhood, but it would be a bit of a hike for me to get to work. It was a foreclosure that seemed very well priced for the neighborhood. Some obvious little cosmetic issues like small holes in walls, but nothing we couldn't take care of.

We went to a couple of townhouses within easy walking distance of a metro stop on my line, and the school test scores looked fine. But those houses had practically no storage, and we just weren't sure where we'd put stuff. To a large extent I'd say that if we can't fit it in a 3bd house then we don't need it, but then again there wouldn't be a clear place to put DH's hockey and golf equipment when we have another baby and start using all of the bedrooms, or even things like a stroller and coats as one had no coat closet. Then, yesterday evening, DH's aunt told us that the school district has been going downhill lately and that she wouldn't send a kid there. But again, the test scores and such looked fine - I'm not convinced that we should just avoid the area, but DH seems to be taking her fairly seriously on this one.

We've also been looking some at a suburb that's a little bit further out but just feels better to me than most, as they really worked on prioritizing things like mature trees and walking trails and lakes. Plus they're going to be extending a metro line to it in the next few years. I think that buying there may be a smart move as far as property values go in the next 10 years or so because of the metro line. But said Aunt is very against most of those school districts, and looking at test scores online they look okay but the schools for the first townhouse clearly have a leg up. The north side of that suburb is supposed to be better as far as schools go, but it doesn't look like we'd be able to afford more than about 900 sq ft there, and that's just really small. I don't know.

I have a feeling that this is going to be a very long, stressful process.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Blenheim, welcome!! This is such an exciting time for you and your family! The beginning of your hunt sounds very similar to how ours started out...first visiting a bunch of open houses, then finally biting the bullet and deciding to really start the hunt (though we were not in a rush, either). I think it's great that you have a very detailed list of what you want--it definitely narrows down the search and there is nothing wrong with that. I think that if you give yourself a lot of time and stick to what is important to you, you will find something you love in the budget.

I definitely know how daunting it is to save the 20% in a high-cost-of-living area. Not fun, but it's absolutely worth it. And smart to have a separate emergency fund as well. Our dog fell ill while we were buying our house, but having the emergency fund kept us from stressing about money (Murphy's law, right?).

Enjoy the process!! I found that the first couple of months of looking was the most fun. It took us nearly a year from the time we started seriously looking to the point where we closed, but I am so, so glad that we took our time and didn't compromise on the things that were most important to us. We did end up buying in a town that wasn't on our original list, but the town had all of the things we wanted (great school district, large, private lots, close to public transportation, etc.) so I'm not sure why we didn't consider it sooner. All things you learn in the process, I guess! Enjoy yourself and we're all here rooting you on!