Looked at some houses
This past week I have been getting on with the house search. I started on Tuesday by meeting with a Realtor, we looked at the MLS listings and identified a dozen or so houses which seemed to fit my parameters. On Wednesday and Thursday after work I drove around checking out the houses on my own, and I was able to easily identify the ones which wouldn't work -- mainly due to being in a bad neighborhood. This afternoon I met again with the Realtor and we went to check out the five houses left on the list.
My number one pick was crossed off the list because we discovered some dry rot in various places which suggested a lot more damage under the surface, and that's probably why it has been on the market for over 6 months. We eliminated a couple more for various reasons, on one the layout of the lot was lousy (although the house itself was good save for a few issues) and another in the same neighborhood which was just kind of funky all over. In the end I have two houses of interest remaining.
The first house is really great in so many ways except it could really use a new roof and windows. Also it is at the top end of my "comfortable" price range so I have to do some work to figure out how soon these things need to be replaced and if I can afford to cover the expenses and still have enough to make the down payment. The second house is considerably less expensive, as well as being in a nicer (more mature) neighborhood... however it's not quite as big and needs some cosmetic work.
I am leaning towards the first house because it is so much easier for me to replace the roof and windows -- it doesn't really require much imagination. For the second house, the Realtor pointed out some things which would really improve the appearance such as replacing the red-orange shutters with black shutters and painting the front door a different color. When I hear these things it seems totally obvious how much better it would look, but there's no way I could have figured that out on my own. Also, in the second house, the rooms are a bit smaller and there is some question as to whether I could fit my bedroom furniture into the largest bedroom (king size bed, two night stands, and a dresser). I didn't think about this ahead of time so I may need to go back there with a tape measure and sketchpad to see how that would work.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the options I have seen so far. I think I can find something nice in my price range without too much trouble. I'm pretty excited about getting a place where Mr. T can come and go and be an indoor/outdoor cat. It's a lot of work finding the right place though!
My number one pick was crossed off the list because we discovered some dry rot in various places which suggested a lot more damage under the surface, and that's probably why it has been on the market for over 6 months. We eliminated a couple more for various reasons, on one the layout of the lot was lousy (although the house itself was good save for a few issues) and another in the same neighborhood which was just kind of funky all over. In the end I have two houses of interest remaining.
The first house is really great in so many ways except it could really use a new roof and windows. Also it is at the top end of my "comfortable" price range so I have to do some work to figure out how soon these things need to be replaced and if I can afford to cover the expenses and still have enough to make the down payment. The second house is considerably less expensive, as well as being in a nicer (more mature) neighborhood... however it's not quite as big and needs some cosmetic work.
I am leaning towards the first house because it is so much easier for me to replace the roof and windows -- it doesn't really require much imagination. For the second house, the Realtor pointed out some things which would really improve the appearance such as replacing the red-orange shutters with black shutters and painting the front door a different color. When I hear these things it seems totally obvious how much better it would look, but there's no way I could have figured that out on my own. Also, in the second house, the rooms are a bit smaller and there is some question as to whether I could fit my bedroom furniture into the largest bedroom (king size bed, two night stands, and a dresser). I didn't think about this ahead of time so I may need to go back there with a tape measure and sketchpad to see how that would work.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the options I have seen so far. I think I can find something nice in my price range without too much trouble. I'm pretty excited about getting a place where Mr. T can come and go and be an indoor/outdoor cat. It's a lot of work finding the right place though!