We are looking to buy a house!
We have to be out of this house by March 1st, so Jason and I had been looking and looking and looking for another rental, but none of them were right for us for one reason or another. Jason kept saying that he'd rather buy a house, but I wanted more in savings and a signed contract for a partnership buy-in first. I kept resisting and he went along with it. Well, after a month of that, and many *seemingly* unanswered prayers, Jason came home on Monday determined that we should buy. After one night of shock, I came around to the idea and am now convinced it's the right move.
Problem.
There is almost no way we can be out of here and moved in "there" in a month. On Tuesday we got prequalified for a loan, and this Saturday we're going with our realtor (who seems to be fantastic) to see five different houses. So now we just HOPE that it all moves quickly. Hope that we'll find a great house, in a stellar neighborhood, with great schools, near Jason's office, with a pretty fantastic backyard, AND that we can make an offer quickly and get the loan finalized even more quickly than that. Whew!
I've contacted a family in our ward who has a vacant basement apartment, and I'm waiting to hear back from them. Hopefully they'll let us rent it from them for a month or two. Otherwise, it's either we get a 6 month lease somewhere, or stay at an extended-stay hotel (veeeery expensive). So, we'll see.
But we are excited! For what we're paying in rent, we can afford a nice home...so why not? Things are going GREAT at the office now, and Jason just got a job in Richmond, VA to supplement our income on most of his days off. Yay! Things are looking good down South, I just pray we'll find our new home soon!
5 comments:
I guess now you know why you couldn't decide on a rental! Buying a house is pretty exciting and stressful at the same time. Good luck.
My biggest piece of advice for house buying:
Don't look at your loan prequalification and think, "Oh, we can buy a house up to this amount." You should consider the top of your range to be about 75% to 80% of that number. Otherwise your mortgage payments will make your monthly budget very tight.
A second piece of advice, one which you probably won't like, is that you should not be rushing. This is a really big decision, and you're probably going to be in this house for a long time. Take your time and choose wisely.
Thanks for the advice. Yes, we're keeping a hold on our budget, we don't want to be "house poor." We want the payments to be what we're paying now, including property taxes and insurance. It won't strap us, and Jason's actually picked up a temporary job in Richmond at a different office to fill in his extra off days, until he gets more days here. We havent' even factored in the additional wages into our budget, so we're positive we'll be in great shape.
As for rushing, that's how we feel too, we're just hoping we find the PERFECT house the first time out! Yeah right, I know...
I'm excited for you! Don't rush it, but don't be silly either. You aren't going to find exactly what you want unless you build, so I would make a list of things that cannot be sacrificed like number of rooms or something like that and then a list of things that would be nice but aren't as important that you could do yourself like a fenced backyard. This is terribly exciting, though. Owning is hard work, but rewarding.
Wow, that's so neat for you guys. Everyone so far has given great advice. I'd like to add to that by saying that if it's meant to be things will move as quickly as they need to. With Heavenly Father on your side, you can for sure get moved out of there and into a new house in one month if that is what is suppose to happen. Keep an open mind about it. If things don't happen that quickly, try to remain positive and look for the lessons and the blessings that are involved. Good luck and congrats!
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