Monday, May 23, 2011

House Hunting Update

House Hunting Sucks.  I hate it and so does my husband.  Plus, you add three children into the mix and that just makes it unbearable.   I swear we have looked at so many houses that our kids now think that "Bob" our realitor is reallly their grandpa.  Last week we found three houses that we like.   Last night we narrowed it down to two; one I love and one Trevor loves.    Here are the two choices:

House #1
This house is about 1/2 mile away from where we are renting now so Olivia would get to stay in the same school and on the same school bus.   It is in a development on 7 acres.   Most of the acreage is behind the house and a lot of it is swampy/marshland but both of the lots on either side of the house are empy.   It is the first lot on a cul de sac.   This house is what they call a four level split.  You walk in the front door and there is a huge room for jackets and shoes on the right and then the door to the garage is off of that which is so nice.   On the main floor to the left is the kitchen and dining room which is nice but the flooring in both rooms are very cheap.   There is also a smaller living room on the main floor.   If you go upstairs there are three bedrooms and two bathrooms (one is a master bath with a whirpool tub).   If you go downstairs (off the main floor) there is an unfinished walk out basement.   The walls are drywalled but it would need flooring and we would probably put one or two bedrooms and a bathroom down there in that space along with a family room/toy room.   If you go down one more level there is another basement with the mechanics of the house.  In that room they started to put up a wall to make another bedroom down there since there is a window.   So, ultimately this could be a 5 or 6  bedroom house with three bathrooms.   The nice thing is, we can make this totally us and once it's done, it will be an amazing house with a ton of space.   The yard also needs to be gutted and completely redone and a deck needs to be built off the back of the house.   Since the house is at the top of our price range, we may not be able to do everything right away.  This house needs a lot of TLC since the people who built it moved in and we think were really never able to afford it, they stopped caring pretty fast.   Total square footage once it's finished would be about 2500-3000 square feet.

House #2 
This house I will admit is everything we said we did not want.  It is a split level in a subdivision.   But, it is a HUGE split level house with a big foundation so not everything is squished together like in a lot of splits I've seen.   You walk in and there is a huge entry way with plenty of space and a big closet on one side and then the door to the three car finished garage on the other.  You go upstairs and there is a kitchen, dining room (with a 12x12 deck off it), living room, three bedrooms and two bathrooms (one is a master bath).   It has beautiful hardwood floors thru most of the house and everything is brand new.  It is also a foreclosure but the investor totally gutted and redid everything.  The kitchen is absolutely beautiful with birch cabinets and stainless steel appliances.   If you go downstairs there is a HUGE family room with a fireplace and a walk out with a patio poured already.  There are two more big bedrooms and a bathroom along with the mechanical room.   The yard is much smaller in this one, it's about .61 acres but the lots behind the house are huge so  the houses in the back are very far away.   The houses on either side are like a normal subdivision and are close by.   This house is completely move in ready and only needs some landscaping done.   It is also 10K cheaper.   Trevor is concerned because the driveway is very sloped and he is worried about plowing it in the winter and the kids riding their bikes down it in the summer.  Plus, there wouldn't be any place for us to use our Polaris Ranger.  

I am frustrated because while we were at the second house, Trevor was ready to make an offer on it immediately.  But, as we drove further and further away, he started to lose interest.  He hates subdivisions and the thought of people seeing what he is doing annoys him to no end.  I hate to be isolated and have been almost my whole life.   I want to be in a neighborhood where there are people and kids for my kids to play with. 

I am also frustrated because I called the mortgage broker to get our pre approval letter ready to submit so we could make a decision and make an offer on one of them and there is a small issue.  Last month when Trevor went to Arizona for work, someone stole his and 2 other guys that he works with credit card numbers  and maxed out all their credit cards.  This person got both Trevor's corporate card and his personal card.   It has been cleared up with the credit card company and taken care of, but they haven't reported to the credit bureau yet and on our credit report it is still showing that Trevor has two maxed out and over the limit credit cards bringing his score down 2 points under what we need to qualify for a mortgage.  SERIOUSLY???  So, basically, we have to wait until the credit card company updates the reporting system for his credit issue to reverse until we can get our pre approval letter.   In the meantime, both of these houses could sell right out from  underneath us and we have to start all over again.  

Waiting is not something I am good at, in fact I am the worst person in the world at waiting.  So, we shall see what happens.  Trevor called the company to ask when they update their reporting and they said today so we are going to wait and pull the credit again on Friday - hopefully it's fixed.   I just can't believe how much damage some jerk can do to a person's credit just by stealing their credit card numbers.  

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