House Adventures
Not sure how much I've said about this. Mostly kyoht posts about our personal stuff and I figure that anyone reading my journal probably reads hers too. But she's too worn out to post this stuff, so here goes...
We've found a home that we really want to buy. If you're curious, you can see an old link to it here: House Photos
We made an offer on the home and the seller agreed, but the purchase is by no means a sure thing. There are still two big things in our way.
1. The house is in serious need of repair. This doesn't really bother me. I'm willing to get a loan for the money to buy the house + the cost of the repairs, provided that the total is less than or equal to what the house will be worth post-repairs. We have a rental to live in and can stay here throughout the home-repair process, and only need move in once the new place is all fixed up.
This is hugely better than buying a house and trying to fix it up while living in it!
The reason that this is a concern is that we had our contractor (Scottie) come in and look at the house today to try and figure out what it would cost to repair all the damage to it. He very nearly just told us to walk away, and may still yet. The house can be fixed, but it is possible that the cost to fix it may be comparable to that of building a new one. In other words, even if the seller was willing to lower their price, it may not be possible for them to lower it enough to merit repairing the home.
Scottie figures he's going to need about EIGHT more people to come through the house and estimate what their portion of the work will cost. Eight is not a good sign.
2. Despite my great credit and the down payment we have in the bank, mortgage companies are hesitant to loan us money for the house. There are lots of other houses in the area with comparable square footage and price, but none of them are log cabins. I can see that this would make the bank nervous; they can't tell precisely how much the home might be worth, should I default.
But so what? They should just make a conservative stab at it. Shouldn't they? It seems like if a regular house with comparable land and square footage were worth X, then why can't they just presume that they should be able to get 90% of X for the cabin?
So, there's a lot of unknowns and one of us will update when we know more.
We've found a home that we really want to buy. If you're curious, you can see an old link to it here: House Photos
We made an offer on the home and the seller agreed, but the purchase is by no means a sure thing. There are still two big things in our way.
1. The house is in serious need of repair. This doesn't really bother me. I'm willing to get a loan for the money to buy the house + the cost of the repairs, provided that the total is less than or equal to what the house will be worth post-repairs. We have a rental to live in and can stay here throughout the home-repair process, and only need move in once the new place is all fixed up.
This is hugely better than buying a house and trying to fix it up while living in it!
The reason that this is a concern is that we had our contractor (Scottie) come in and look at the house today to try and figure out what it would cost to repair all the damage to it. He very nearly just told us to walk away, and may still yet. The house can be fixed, but it is possible that the cost to fix it may be comparable to that of building a new one. In other words, even if the seller was willing to lower their price, it may not be possible for them to lower it enough to merit repairing the home.
Scottie figures he's going to need about EIGHT more people to come through the house and estimate what their portion of the work will cost. Eight is not a good sign.
2. Despite my great credit and the down payment we have in the bank, mortgage companies are hesitant to loan us money for the house. There are lots of other houses in the area with comparable square footage and price, but none of them are log cabins. I can see that this would make the bank nervous; they can't tell precisely how much the home might be worth, should I default.
But so what? They should just make a conservative stab at it. Shouldn't they? It seems like if a regular house with comparable land and square footage were worth X, then why can't they just presume that they should be able to get 90% of X for the cabin?
So, there's a lot of unknowns and one of us will update when we know more.