Today we went house hunting

The results weren't awesome, but ok. First we saw a house on the end of the street where we already live and it was lovely... but someone put in an offer the morning we called. And now the listing is taken down, so they are obviously very sure of the impending sale. This bummed us out a lot.

The real estate broker, Juana, was just simply adorable and didn't mind driving all over to look at places nearby that were in our range and requirements.

The second house was perfect for us... inside. Outside was a different matter. The landscaping in nada, that didn't bother me, but there was no walkway, path, or pavement. Yuck. The property was shaped like a slice of pie with the front door facing the point and the back door (sliding glass door) faced the crust... the crust being a main road through town. One last though VERY important factor was the neighbors. The people on the left were slovenly and dirty, the house was in disrepair and there was "stuff" out front... broken chairs, tumbled trash, dead vehicles, a falling-down shack... and their two running cars were parked sideways across the driveway of the property we were looking at. It was obvious they had been doing this all winter. The neighbors on the other side had a cute, clean, well groomed house and yard, but two of the bedrooms had windows straight into their house, no trees or fence. No privacy.

The third house was one we had looked at before while cruising around checking out houses with For Sale signs out front. We had liked it, but they were asking too much for a place with some expensive issues. The inside was slightly dated, but beautiful. Downstairs had a giant living room and kitchen, a full bath and a big bedroom. Spacious two car garage was attached, door in the kitchen leading to it. Upstairs was an enormous mast bedroom with a big full bath and a walk in closet and a sliding glass door to the deck, a smaller bedroom with windows onto the deck and the roof of the garage (two foot drop to the roof). Next to that was another small room with a view of the other side of the garage roof as well as a door that leads to a set of outside stairs. Next to the garage was an un attached 2-car garage very nice. Bad points- the deck and stairs and front porch were all made of plank wood... and all of it was rotten. the attached garage's doors were saggy, the exterior doors were swelling and sticking in the jambs. The inside stairs were a little steep, Baby fell down the bottom two steps and has a bright shiny black eye and shallow scrape. There is a chicken coop out back that looks like a converted greenhouse and the neighbors were letting their chickens roost in it wildly, the fence to the neighbors horse paddock was sagging nearly to the ground and their whole property looked awful. No landscaping again and no fencing, but then there hasn't really been a property line established, either.

The fourth house was lovely, much newer but smaller. The property has lots of trees and is fenced on three sides, there is a large single car garage attached, a vaulted ceiling in the living room, a fair size master bed with a small, but full bath. There was a full next to two small bedrooms. Very modern fixture and floor plan. There is an RV size garage with a Mother in Law quarters... a pretty bare bones one, to be sure, it had a hunting cabin feel to it, lol. But it had it's own small loft, full bath, kitchenette, wood stove and living area.


I liked the interior of the 2nd, it was large, open, and built in 2005 though never lived in. The price was good.
I adored the interior of the 3rd, but hated the outside and the loads of expensive work it would take to make it safe for us, i.e. fencing, replacing the wood on the porches and upstairs deck, putting in a usable driveway, and replacing the windows. The cost was MUCH lower than it started out, but still on the high end of our budget.
I could live with the 4th, but I didn't like the interior very much. I loved the MIL quarters, I could see my father staying out there when visiting, MIL and FIL moving in for the winter, having "camp-outs" or sleepovers with the kids. The fence on three sides is good. The price was good for a place that size and year with an RV garage and a possible rental, but still on the high end and not likely to come down at all.
Juana (the real estate broker, in case you forgot) said she has contacts that can help push through our loan and we should know in a week whether or not we have a pre-approval. Once we have that, our biggest hurdle will be convincing the seller to cover the closing costs. The down won't be easy, but I am sure we can manage it since the loan stipulates 3% down.
I love looking at places, but I really hate shopping. We spent three hours looking, part of that was spent sitting on the floor of house #3 snuggling and nursing Mase in an attempt to make him feel better. I am crossing my fingers that it was a productive day, but we're going to talk to Juana's mortgage broker friend soon and go look at a house nearer Mike's job next weekend, so that might be our lucky day.