Stress

Mr. Cap and I have decided to concede on the warranty issue we were having, coming to the conclusion that if it weren't a new construction, we wouldn't have a warranty anyway. And a limited warranty is probably better than nothing at all. In addition, since it's a condo, it's not as though we would be paying the full cost for anything that might go wrong with the outside of the building (per the warranty). We both spoke with my father to get some additional advice. I talked to my boss, and Mr. Cap threw around the idea of talking to his father (but ended up deciding not to). Everyone agreed that the warranty situation is probably not something that should cause us to walk away from the house. And considering that this was our only concern, it might not be great to say "no" to something that passed the Inspection with flying colors.

We are still in the "we shall see" stage, I suppose. But I do feel better after talking to my father about it. I think Mr. Cap does, too.

P&S Edits

This morning, we sent the updates we would like to have made to the P&S back to the seller.

Most of the updates are pretty standard, and I don't think will be an issue. One of the changes, however, might be a deal-breaker...

Our lawyer didn't like the warranty agreement that came with the P&S. Apparently it's different than what is normally agreed to in this State. We're asking the seller to have the warranty changed to the regular version...not sure whether they'll go for it or not. I imagine if they've changed the warranty, it must lean heavily in their favor (and it does seem to). So if they say they won't change it, I guess we'll have lost this condo twice. I hear that third time is the charm, however...

Mr. Cap and I are hoping that things will work out, but at the same time have done our best to not get too attached to this location. I think we've done a good job on that, and are willing to walk away if we need to. I really don't want to end up living in an apartment, but I suppose whatever is meant to happen will happen.

Time to wait and see.

Extending P&S Deadline and Other Picture Postcards

We were supposed to have the P&S signed by Monday (yesterday), but we ended up getting an extension until this Friday in order for us to have more time to look over all the documents involved in the signing. Mr. Cap and I currently have a meeting set up for tomorrow morning to talk to our lawyer about what we're about to get ourselves into.

Our realtor, who is a close friend of ours, is starting to worry me a little bit with how often she keeps e-mailing our lawyer asking him for specific deadlines. And he isn't responding to any of her messages. The lawyer is someone I've known for nearly my entire life, so I'm sure that he'll come through and get the P&S amendments out and turned around before our deadline. But the silence on his end versus the pushing on her end feel like a recipe for a bad interaction...

Last night I met with the mortgage broker to start signing documents to begin the loan application. She said she normally doesn't do this before the P&S is signed, but she doesn't believe that any pricing will need to be changed since the unit is brand new. And from the results of our home inspection, the only thing that really needs to be fixed/replaced is one window. So as long as the seller is willing to make that change without upping the price, I think we're in a fine position to move forward.

The FHA status of the condo is still in flux, so I can't officially lock in the mortgage until that is all settled. But I can at least start getting any needed documentation over to them, so hopefully that will help move the process along smoothly. 

I'm still hopeful that everything will work out, but I have a nagging sense of dread in the back of my mind. Mainly this is due to our realtor friend's apparent anxiety over our lawyer. But I'm trying to not let anything phase me at this point. Mr. Cap is getting more comfortable with the idea of living in the condo, so if all goes according to plan...the P&S should be signed by this Friday. At which point we should be on our way to...spending more time waiting to see how long the FHA approval takes to go through.

Oh money. Why do you have to be so complicated?

Lawyers?

I had trouble sleeping last night because we still haven't heard back from our lawyer regarding the Purchase & Sale. We sent it over to him 4 days ago, but we haven't made any progress. Since we have to have the P&S signed by Monday, I'm worried that we won't get it back in time in order to make the updates/changes that might be needed. 

I've known this guy for a long time, though, and I'm sure he'll come through in the end. And I know he's been super-busy this week. I just can't help but worry that we won't make the deadline...

But these guys do this for a living. I'm sure we'll have everything squared away in a timely manner. Right?


...right? :<

A New Complication?

So we were contacted by our mortgage broker the other day--she wanted to let us know that the condo that we're in the process of purchasing is not yet FHA approved.

We were a little dumbstruck by that.

We looked into the complex because it was an FHA approved complex. The seller was aware we'd be using an FHA loan to make the purchase. But apparently, that particular unit has not been fully approved yet.

Oi.

So she wanted to let us know that this could cause some delays--depending on where the seller is in the approval process, it could take anywhere from an additional 30 to 60 days to close on the condo. Mr. Cap promptly began panicking as soon as he heard the news--particularly because the mortgage we'd planned on was based off of a 30-day forecast, and if the rates go up (and it takes us 60 days to close)...we could be looking at spending more on our mortgage than we want to.

I guess things can't stay interesting in life without a few curve balls! I've been keeping an eye on the housing market's interest rates the week, and it looks like we're still in good shape. If the rates keep dropping (or even if they stay the same), we could actually end up with a lower mortgage than we were counting on (which would be a million different types of awesome). But of course there's always the possibility that the rates will go back up...but we'll just have to sit with our fingers crossed for the time being and see where things lead us.

Home Inspection

Today we attended the home inspection for the condo that we put an offer in on.

The results were definitely promising! 

We chose an inspector that my boss had recommended (his inspection skills led her to back out of a deal to buy one house that would've had extreme structural issues). I have to say he did a very thorough job--and since I work as QA in the biotech field, it was interesting to seeing auditing techniques used in a very different circumstance/setting. 

We got to take a nice tour of the house again (and think about what we wanted to do with certain areas of the home), and Mr. Cap was extremely pleased to discover that there was a cable outlet located in the loft area (which will probably become his "man cave"--haha). Everything was a little bit smaller than I had remembered, but that's likely due to the fact that we had looked at 5 different places on the day that we had visited the condo for the first time. So some other locations were mixed into the memories.

But overall, we're pretty happy with the location and the structural integrity of the building. The cellphone reception isn't great, but that's something that we might be able to address in time (and what can we really expect when the condo is right next to conservation land?). 

The inspector told us that overall he was really impressed with the building. He said it wasn't sloppily built (but neither was it "perfectly" assembled). The builder had also apparently added in some additional things that weren't required by code, but were really good additions to have. He inspector told us that only once or twice a year he inspected a home that was in as good condition as this one--even though it's new, he'd seen plenty of other "new" buildings that weren't constructed properly. There were only a couple of minor issues he noted, and they're both things that should be easy to address.

We're happy that the inspection went so well. It was definitely on the expensive side (and the realtor/mortgage broker told us the inspection wasn't required since the building was new), but it really gives us quite a bit of peace of mind--and if we do end up staying in the condo for only 5 to 10 years, it's unlikely we should have to face any real problems with the building.

Now that is something worth paying for.

Offer Accepted!

So at present, we're back in the running for that condo!

Mr. Cap and I agreed on how much we'd be willing to spend on a monthly mortgage, the mortgage broker helped us work something out that (basically) fit into our plan, and our offer got approved by the seller!

Now we have a home inspection planned for this week, we've sent the P&S over to our family lawyer to look over, and I need to get myself over to the mortgage broker's office at some point this week to start the official mortgage application.

I hope everything goes smoothly...we have until Monday to get everything in order/over to the seller. I really really hope that there are no complications in the process...

On the bright side, Mr. Cap seems pretty excited about the prospect of owning this condo. That makes me happy, and I feel a lot better about things knowing that he's on board with this. 

Nervous

The condo we put an offer in on last week responded to our realtor today asking if we'd be willing to do more negotiation.

I'm really nervous. The terms they put down aren't bad ($2k more than we were offering, and now willing to cover our closing costs). I'm just nervous about what Mr. Cap will want to do. He's been very cautious for this entire thing, and he's been trying to stay "uninvolved" as much as possible. I think I'd be willing to make the deal due to these terms, but I don't know if he will.

Ahh! I've left him a message at work asking him to get back to me on how he'd like to proceed. I don't want to wait too long in case another offer comes in that's better for them, but I also don't want to appear too eager. I hope he gets back to me by lunch time at least...

Feeling a Little Defeated

It seems that fewer and fewer homes are showing up on the market, recently. Which I'm sure is due to the time of the year. However, I was hoping that we might be able to find something before this point...but still, no luck.

We're trying to keep ourselves to a budget when buying a home--that's the correct course of action, right? But everything that piques our interest is either just barely out of our budget range, or is gone before we even have a chance to look at the place.

Other buildings that look like they'd fit our criteria are way over-priced. I can't get a decent mortgage idea on them because I don't know how much the owners will actually sell for.

I'm still struggling to understand why some people put their houses way over market value. To my understanding, if the house doesn't appraise to what you agreed to pay, then the buyer has to make up the difference. So if a house is $100k over-priced, is and buyer really expected to drop that kind of money?

I suppose if they want the house that badly, it's their own choice. But I don't understand the people that never drop the price (or raise it) when they find they aren't selling.

We looked at one little house over the weekend that was kind of cute--and also over $50k out of our price range. But the assessed value of the house was well within our price range. And the owners had already dropped the price by $20k. I'm not sure why it's thought that people will pay so much more than the actual value.

I'm really feeling defeated today, and I sort of want to give up looking for awhile. Mr. Cap hasn't been especialy helpful recently, and he still seems more than happy to continue to live out our life in my parents' basement. 

I don't feel like I have a "home" in the basement. I can't do anything to it that makes it feel like mine--and most of our possessions are stored away in a container in a warehouse somewhere. I'm frustrated that we haven't had more success.

Once again, I feel like Mr. Cap is concentrating on very different areas of life than I am. He's currently making an attempt to find a friend-group--which I think is a really good thing for him. But it's hard to measure what's more important--going out with new friends, or actually checking out houses when we have soem time together. We've had to put off/cancel more than one showing because he had "plans" on that night. 

It feels like I'm fighting a losing battle most days. 

I know eventually we'll move out--we don't have much choice in the matter, after all, since my family is planning on selling the house next year and it's not like we could afford to buy it. But I wish he felt the same sense of urgency that I do. It's like the clock is ticking down, and he's putting on headphones to try to avoid the sound. The same result is going to happen, whether or not he pays attention to it--we're going to have to move. Whether it's into a home or into a shack is for him to decide. Tomorrow we're going to talk (together. for the first time.) to the mortgage broker, so we can sort of force Mr. Cap into accepting that he's a part of this process. The broker no longer feels comfortable with him making changes to the plans from the sidelines, and passing those changes on to her through me. So we shall see what comes of this.

I'm nervous, but I hope that everything will work out in the end.

Keep on Trucking

Our offer for the condo yesterday unfortunately did not make the cut. 

However, after looking at the listing for the condo that was re-posted this evening, it appears that the other 2 people we were bidding against also did not make the cut. Because the condo is back online...and at a higher price. 

When we made the initial offer yesterday, we thought we'd start strong by offering them $1k more than the asking price (since we knew we had competition). But when we heard back from the listing agent today, we were told that the price they had posted on MLS was not the price they're actually accept on the house. The lowest they'd be willing to accept was $5k higher than the listing pricing. And the $5k in buyer's closing costs that they were supposed to cover (according to the paperwork that was given to me on Sunday by the realtor)  no longer applied. So altogether this puppy was going to put us $10k back from what they originally implied with their listing.

So Mr. Cap and I said that's all fine and dandy--we don't need the condo that badly. Especially if the company isn't going to be upfront on the actual acceptable price. Now that I see the condo has been re-posted on all the realty websites, I'm under the impression that the other potential buyers felt the same way we did.

Maybe, if it's still on the market in a few weeks, we'll re-submit our original offer to them. It couldn't hurt. But I image they'll manage to sell it before then. Since they've updated the listing with the actual price they want now, it's more likely that people in that price range will check the place out.

It's a shame, since we quite liked it. But it wasn't "love"--I think we would've been happy there, but we never got that feeling of "THIS IS THE ONE!" that I've heard other people mention.

So we shall keep on trucking, and hope that eventually our house shows up for us to find. :)

Progress Update

A crazy few weeks have passed! Not much happened with the house search, since we weren't sure if the government shutdown would get in the way. But this past weekend we started looking at places again and I think Mr. Cap found his "happy place".

Unfortunately, said happy-place was located on a hill. And to get to the hill the house was on, you had to drive up a series of ill-maintained (and very steep) roads. Happy-place house had to be crossed off our list purely due to its location. In the winter, it would be dangerous both coming and going. And the town the house was located in isn't well-known for improving their roads.

However, it was an absolutely beautiful piece of land. The house was a tad out-dated, but for what the yard looked like, it would've been worth the money to update it. Bad roads can be a total deal-breaker, though (especially after living off of a bad road for 15+ years. All the cars on the street were in the shop constantly for repairs). 

We did find another place this weekend (a condo this time, instead of a house) that also made Mr. Cap pretty happy. So today we're going to try to put an offer in on it. It's only been on the market for a couple of days, and there are already a couple of other offers out on the place. So we're going to cross out fingers and hope that our offer looks more appealing than any of the other people. We don't have any contingencies, so I hope that looks good to the seller. But if someone offers more than we do, we'll probably be out of the running. It's kind of exciting yet stressful.

Currently we're waiting for our agent to finish writing up the offer letter so we can sign it and send it over. I really hope that we make whatever deadline the listing agent has set up!

Everyone Has an Opinion

Have you noticed that everyone has an opinion on how to go about buying a house?

"Yes--you should look here."

"No--you should avoid that bank."

"Use my realtor."

"Don't use that realtor."

and the best:

"Why are you buying a house? Don't do that!"

About two weeks ago, I was at the doctor and mentioned that Mr. Cap and I were looking for a house, probably with an FHA loan. She immediately told me to be wary of those, because of the government reclaiming all of your equity if you don't stay in the house for a minimum of 9 years. She was also very adamant on why owning a house was a bad idea, and that it was safer to just rent.

I've mentioned buying a house/condo to two of my good friends, and both of them have immediately asked what the price range was that I was looking in. Since they're good friends, I wasn't uncomfortable in telling them...until they began making comments on how I should find something for "no more than X-dollars", or "just do what I did and buy a condo for under X-amount". I do appreciate their desire to help, but one of them has never owned a house, and the other is living in a condo that's far smaller than I'd really be comfortable in. And all three of us are in completely different financial situations. So it makes me uncomfortable to have both of them stating how much I should or shouldn't spend, or what I should be looking for. 

I haven't even mentioned that I'm buying a house to another good friend of mine. She's convinced that I need to move to the state that she lives in (which I really wouldn't mind), but I'm not looking forward to the comments and questioning I'm expecting to come my way when she finds out I plan to buy something where I'm currently living.

In the same vein, I don't think Mr. Cap has even mentioned to his family that we're planning to buy a house. They're from the same state as the above-mentioned friend, and they are also all under the impression that we should just pack up and move to be near them. Again, while I'd absolutely love to be out there (and ultimately, that IS where I want to move), it just seems to make more sense to buy a house in our current location, build up some savings for a few years, and move to be near them when we actually have the possibility of finding a job. Right now the job market is so terrible where they live, that it'd be committing financial suicide to move out there. 

I just want to try to make the best and most educated decisions possible for our future. If we waste our money on rent, I feel like we'll never end up moving out of this state. But by the same token, if we up and leave the jobs that we currently have, we'll be in an even worse position because there really doesn't seem to be anything worthwhile job-wise out there.

I think I'm just dreading the inevitable "I told you so" coming from a variety of people, or the questions/shock from others on how much I did or didn't spend on a house. It's interesting how much people seem to feel that your purchases will impact them...

My goal is to buy something that can be sustained on one salary (in case the Mister or I happen to lose a job), but has resale value. It's been much harder than I was expecting to find something that meets that criteria...

Open House

This past weekend, we looked at two open houses!

One was the Short Sale home that we really liked the location of. After seeing the open house, we came to two conclusions:

1. The Location is nice. Really nice.
2. The inside of the house needs to be gutted.

The inside of the house probably needed a good $100k worth of work. It really wasn't livable the way it was. There were cracks in the spots where the wall met the ceiling, the carpets were held together with duct tape in some places, and the entire house had the overall smell of "old books". Which Mr. Cap assured me was mildew. :P

Still, I have to say I'm sad we don't have the type of money needed to renovate that house because the location is seriously THAT GOOD. You could see the pond from multiple windows in the house, and over all it was just a calm and beautiful area. I'm sure once that house is fixed up it'll sell for around $400k. Mr. Cap and I assured ourselves that one day, we'll find a location to live in that's as nice as this one.

The other place we looked at was a condo. It was good size, and very nicely kept up (with granite counters and everything). However, our main issue was the fact that it was all carpeted (which we'd have to pull out), and there is a limitation on size of dogs allowed at the complex. I'm of the mindset that I'd like a good-sized pup once we find the right place. So the changing of the flooring + the inability of housing a dog over 25lbs was something of a dealbreaker. Also, for the price of the place (and the condo fee), I'd expect a lot more out of the deal. So although the location was closer to work for the both of us, we'll be passing on that house as well.

Hopefully we'll start seeing more houses soon, and be able to make more decisions on what we do and don't like.

Short Sales

Going into this whole home-buying business, I was under the impression that there were two ways to sell houses: By the owner (with or without a Realtor), or by the bank. This week I discovered that there was yet another way to sell houses--short sales. 

After doing some reading up on short sales online, I'm surprised that I hadn't already heard of them (since they seem to be quite infamous). And of course, I was looking into short sales because a house appeared on the market two days ago that looked perfect for me and Mr. Cap--but it was, of course, a short sale. 

I'm still waiting for my pre-approval to go through, but our Realtor friend said she'd look into the house and get us as much information as she can about it. She hasn't yet said "Don't go for it", but it seems that very few Realtors are actually interested in spending the time to work through one of these. So although the house looks like it would be an awesome fit for us, the process we'd have to go through in order to purchase the house might not be worth it. It's sort of disappointing to think that we found something that looked like a great fit, but we don't have any real chance at getting it. But I think most people go through this at some point while looking for a house (either it's bought before they can make an offer, or they find out it's a short sale). 

After considering this house, however, I think Mr. Cap is now more interested in purchasing a house than purchasing a condo. When I ran the condo idea past him again a couple days ago, he said "Is it really worth paying over $500 a month in condo fees to have your grass cut and your heating bill paid?". Since Mr. Cap had previously been leaning more towards the condo idea (since he wouldn't have to take care of the outside of the house), I was kind of surprised to hear him say that. But he makes a good point. Even in the coldest months, I don't think we'd be paying $500/month for heat + plowing. And even in the warmest months, I don't think we'd be spending $500/month on cutting the grass. So...unless we found a place with a far more reasonable condo fee (which can be difficult in the area that we live in), a condo is probably not the way to go for us. 

There is one condo location that we liked very much, that has a $215 condo fee. That's a little more reasonable than $500. But the prices of the actual units are outside of what we're willing/able to pay (curses!). I'd absolutely love to live at this complex, since the units are new and it's in a nice quiet area. But paying around $300k for a condo isn't something that we're really ready to do at this point.

So, the search is continuing for us. I think we'll keep looking into that short sale a little bit (because it just looks so right). But I won't be surprised if for 1, our Realtor doesn't want to pursue it, and 2, someone puts an offer in on it before we do. 

On the bright side, I now know what a house looks like that Mr. Cap really likes! I dragged him out of the house to drive by it on Wednesday, and his response was immediately "yes" when he saw it. This is the first time he's responded so immediately and so positively to a location. I'm going to have to tuck that information away to keep in mind later when more houses show up on our e-mail lists. It's such a shame that it's a short sale...

The Loan Officer

(sounds like the name of a crappy action movie--*dun dun DUN*!!)

Last week I had the opportunity to talk to the loan officer that was recommended to me by my parents. She seems to have a very good personality for this sort of thing--I'm the type of person with phone anxiety, but she was easy to talk to and definitely put me at ease.

She confirmed one of my worries...however it might also be a blessing in disguise. 

Issue: Mr. Cap is a contractor. And because he's only been one since May (and had a career change from his previous job), we can't use him as one of the borrowers. On the negative side...we can't use him as one of the borrowers. So it's all up to me to do this thing (yikes!).

And the plus side...we can't use him as one of the borrowers. Which bring the loan they're willing to give us down quite a bit. So I'm *hoping* that we can avoid going into mortgage-debt because his income isn't being counted into what we can actually afford. 

So it's kind of actually a good thing. I don't want to get carried away and buy a house that's more than we can reasonably afford. Also, Mr. Cap and I are only planning to stay in this home for 5 or so years: we'd like this to be a "starter home", so to say. And if we eventually need more room/want a better location, I'm hoping that we can have saved up enough in order to do that. 

In the end, I'm disappointed that Mr. Cap isn't going to be a part of this process as much as I'd like him to be. On the plus side, this should help us avoid getting in over our head with house-debt.

I'm a strong believer in all things happening for a reason. So I'll face this minor set back and keep moving forward until the next issue pops up. And then I'll deal with that, too! 

Another issue that the loan officer brought up was that she felt it was more difficult to secure funding for a condo as opposed to a house. We're planning on using one of those "First Time Home Buyer"'s loans, so maybe that lends to the problem? In any case, this is something that we'll need to think of in more detail. We recently found a brand-new condo complex that falls into our price-range (and Mr. Cap definitely likes the idea of someone else mowing the lawn). It's pretty appealing to think of moving into a new building, since we wouldn't have to worry about much in the way of maintenance for a few years. I'm thinking I'll need to find more details out about the loan process in regards to condos. I don't want to make a bad choice...especially since Mr. Cap isn't going to be involved with the "borrowing" part of the loan anymore. I really hope he doesn't completely check out of looking for a home now and leave it all to me.

Realtors

So tonight Mr. Cap and I plan to meet up with a friend who is a Realtor to see about what sort of areas we should be looking to buy in. She's pretty new to the industry, and real estate is more of a side-job that her main one. But we've known her for awhile now, and we think that she'll be able to help us out with this. Also, since she's a friend we'd rather have the sale go to her rather than to someone that we don't know. So tonight we'll meet up with her for dinner and house-talks. Hopefully we can come to a few decisions after this--we're still torn between the house vs condo issue, for one thing. 

Our loan officer doesn't seem to be too pleased that we're working with a friend instead of a professional that she knows (who is actually the Realtor that my parents are using). But my thought is, in the worst case scenario that our friend isn't able to come through, we can always switch to the other Realtor--right? But I think that our friend will work out fine. She knows us as actual people, so I'm hoping that will help more with us finding the right home. And I'm hopeful she won't pressure us in to spending more than what we're comfortable with (I really doubt she will) just so she can get a bigger commission. Since this is her side job, the money she'd make off of our purchase would be more bonus income than what she's actually needs to live off of. So....fingers crossed on all counts of this. I really hope our friend comes through and we don't get put on the back burner too often!

Enlisting the Sister's Help

This week I've asked my younger sister to take a look at one of the condo complexes that Mr. Cap and I are considering. She works in the same town that it's located in, so she said she wouldn't mind driving by at some point during the week.

The condo in question is particularly interesting to me. It was built this year, it has a garage (score!), and it's within our (currently assumed) price-range. The pictures make the inside look beautiful, and the condo fees are very reasonable. However--according the my lovely crime-rating map overlay (courtesy of Trulia), it appears that the condo is located only a few blocks away from some rather unsavory parts of town.

By the same token, it's on the edge of the *really nice* section of town. But it's in that sort of "middle ground" that makes me wonder if in 5 years it will still be the same. Will it have given in the the Dark Side? Or will it be absorbed by the Light? I'm hoping my sister and her experiences in this town will help to give us an idea on how to proceed with this place. I'd hate to cross something that looks that nice off of our list--but at the same time, I really don't want to die. Or be robbed. Or have the car stolen. All of those things are events that I really could do without. 

Taurus' Thoughts on Those Popular Real Estate Web Sites

Zillow was my first real estate website love. I think I discovered it last year at some point (possibly during the time frame that Mr. Cap and I were planning to move to Portland). I loved that it was easy to navigate and to filter. And I really loved that giant map they had--one thing that makes this girl happy is to actually be able to see where the houses are in relation to where we work. 

But then I discovered Trulia through a co-worker. And oh my--this one had an EVEN BETTER map. This map had overlays with Crime levels, Transportation, Amenitities--Trulia became my new go-to website.

One day while making my usual rounds on Trulia, I decided to type in an address into the Google search engine to see if I could find some additional details on the property. It was at this point that I discovered Estately--and my love blossomed once more. Estately did awesome things like give you taxes rates, HOA fees, and breakdowns of the property (sq footage of rooms, land, etc). The map may not have been the best--but I can overlook that since it has other wonderful features.

Now I tend to use a combination of all three sites--Estately for my initial search (so I can have as many details about the property as possible), Trulia to check out crime ratings, and Zillow as an additional verification tool. I've even pulled my father on to the band wagon of using multiple websites to check out listings (as he was purely using Zillow before). 

I also have been taking advantage of Google Maps to look at houses and condos that have caught my eye--certain ones end up falling off my radar as soon as I can confirm that they are, indeed: 

• Located under high-tension wires. (the adorable cape with the wonderfully wooded back yard) 
• Located in a trailer park. (the 1900 sq ft 2008 home with beautiful wood floors) The friendly town 
• Project located in the back yard. (the beautifully restored ranch with A HOT TUB in the fenced-in back yard) 

Google maps has definitely saved us time in a lot of cases. But in the event that something doesn't show up on Maps, a good old-fashioned drive has always answered our questions--for worse, more often than for better. But an answer is an answer all the same!

The Purpose of this Blog

I can't really say I knew what I was getting in to when I decided it would be a good idea to buy a house. I only knew that I really wanted some place to live that was *mine*--not rented, not my parents'. Mine.

This desire for a home of my own might have something to do with the Taurus in me. And my Capricornian husband has told me that I'm getting a little bit too obsessive over this--so, in order to try not to push all of my concerns on to him, I'm going to start this blog.

At best, it'll be something that will help me arrange my thoughts (and maybe give some ideas to other first-time home buyers). At worst, it will never be updated after this post (and alas, my poor husband will be putting up with the brunt of my thoughts in that case).

Fingers crossed that this Taurus and Cap duo make it through the home-buying process in one piece.