We want to buy a house.... and now we are!
Thank you for your suggestions. We are now on our way to home ownership!!!!
We've had our eye on this house for several weeks- it was one of the first open houses that we went to. It is also where we met our realtor. It had been on the market for a while at a higher price ($22,000 higher!)- and it wasn't getting any interest. We saw the house on 2 different open houses and then again with our realtor walking us through the house this past wednesday. After seeing a couple of other houses in the same price range, we knew this was the one. We went home to crunch some numbers, and wrote our realtor an email to let him know we wanted to make an offer the following day.
We were going to low-ball, but remembered that he said there was a lot of interest in the house since the last open house, and that there were 7 people scheduled to see the house between Wed and Fri of this past week. We scrapped the idea of lowballing, and decided to make them an offer equivalent to their asking price. (Because our realtor was the listing agent, he was willing to cut his fees in half- also, we needed about $5k in cash to get our of our apartment lease). We offered to close at the end of February.
The sellers did NOT accept our offer. Instead, they signed it back and asked for LESS money- if we could close in January!!!! Apparently, they're moving to New Zealand and want this to be done with before they go. We got pre-approved last week for a loan, and we apply for the loan this Tuesday. We have the inspection this Friday. WOW!!!! So quick!
We do have a few things that we need to buy- a sofa, tv wall mount, lawn mower, trimmer, patio furniture, etc. But I put together a newly revised budget, and even estimating a few things to be higher than they should be, and underestimating income (estimated taxes lower than they should be, didn't include my potential 10% bonus next fall, and didn't factor in a potential raise)- I think over the next 15 months we'll be able to pay off my Prius, increase the amount we're saving for retirement, and buy all of the things we think we need for the house, plus have about the same amount as we do right now. (Thank you first-time home buyer's credit!) (Also, this plan includes me giving Jessica my Prius, and when her car lease expires in May, I buy a $2,000 clunker).
Anyways - we're super excited!!! Hopefully we'll be able to get our house together and start inviting friends as early as March. I'm thinking maybe in March for my birthday, I can invite a few Michigan peeps down.... the house has 4 bedrooms, and we plan to have 1 guest bed, 1 large blowup bed (it was good enough for me all of last summer in Benton Harbor!), plus the couch.
We're still a little excited. Oh- if you didn't see the link on my facebook update - here is the page for the house we are getting.
Hooray!
Thank you for your suggestions. We are now on our way to home ownership!!!!
We've had our eye on this house for several weeks- it was one of the first open houses that we went to. It is also where we met our realtor. It had been on the market for a while at a higher price ($22,000 higher!)- and it wasn't getting any interest. We saw the house on 2 different open houses and then again with our realtor walking us through the house this past wednesday. After seeing a couple of other houses in the same price range, we knew this was the one. We went home to crunch some numbers, and wrote our realtor an email to let him know we wanted to make an offer the following day.
We were going to low-ball, but remembered that he said there was a lot of interest in the house since the last open house, and that there were 7 people scheduled to see the house between Wed and Fri of this past week. We scrapped the idea of lowballing, and decided to make them an offer equivalent to their asking price. (Because our realtor was the listing agent, he was willing to cut his fees in half- also, we needed about $5k in cash to get our of our apartment lease). We offered to close at the end of February.
The sellers did NOT accept our offer. Instead, they signed it back and asked for LESS money- if we could close in January!!!! Apparently, they're moving to New Zealand and want this to be done with before they go. We got pre-approved last week for a loan, and we apply for the loan this Tuesday. We have the inspection this Friday. WOW!!!! So quick!
We do have a few things that we need to buy- a sofa, tv wall mount, lawn mower, trimmer, patio furniture, etc. But I put together a newly revised budget, and even estimating a few things to be higher than they should be, and underestimating income (estimated taxes lower than they should be, didn't include my potential 10% bonus next fall, and didn't factor in a potential raise)- I think over the next 15 months we'll be able to pay off my Prius, increase the amount we're saving for retirement, and buy all of the things we think we need for the house, plus have about the same amount as we do right now. (Thank you first-time home buyer's credit!) (Also, this plan includes me giving Jessica my Prius, and when her car lease expires in May, I buy a $2,000 clunker).
Anyways - we're super excited!!! Hopefully we'll be able to get our house together and start inviting friends as early as March. I'm thinking maybe in March for my birthday, I can invite a few Michigan peeps down.... the house has 4 bedrooms, and we plan to have 1 guest bed, 1 large blowup bed (it was good enough for me all of last summer in Benton Harbor!), plus the couch.
We're still a little excited. Oh- if you didn't see the link on my facebook update - here is the page for the house we are getting.
Hooray!
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