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So we haven't gotten an offer from the school, but if we do, we'll most likely buy a house. I can't say it very loud because it's SCARY. We've been serial renters our entire marriage, so buying a home seems like a very big step.
Here's what I've learned so far:
-I think our piti should be less than 25%.
-Lots of houses are in foreclosure right now.
-And there are lots of other houses on the market.
-A lot of them are dumps, especially the ones that will be easy to afford.
-I don't mind a kind of fixer upper. I'm not sure about a gutter.
-Jesse and I are not in complete agreement about what kind of house we want to get.
-I don't know anything about buying a house.
So what do you know? What do you suggest? What has your home buying experience taught you that I should know?
My home buying experience taught me that if the roof comes out it's a bad thing because it always falls on the Maria's toes. Also if it opens up all the way it's more fun and you can stack more little people inside. I've bought 3 different houses so far. Two farm houses actually. The down side is that they're entirely made out of plastic. The upside is that the price was right, free from the free-bin.
ReplyDeleteI think it's so exciting that you and Jesse are already thinking about buying a house. We are far from that but the couple months that we were looking I think I came up with a few things I would like. One is sunlight. The other is making sure the foundation is good or else you're going to spend a lot of money fixing it up. The third is making sure that no one made crystal meth inside the house. We had a tiny budget so you can imagine what kind of houses we were looking at.
That's crazy that you guys might live in Wisconsin long term. It must feel good to have a more permanent address.
There are so many decisions up in the air right now for me that I'm scared to think that this is also on the list. Definitely one thing about buying a house: It makes about 10 other decisions non-decisions.
ReplyDeleteSo are you talking Wisconsin or Indiana?
ReplyDelete1.One thing I heard that seems to make sense is buy in a good neighborhood (for resell)even if it's the worst house in the area. The house can be fixed up but usually you can't fix up the whole neighborhood.
2. Don't disregard easy-to-fix problems. A lot of people look at the colors of walls and carpets and say they won't buy. Those things can easily be changed. Remember the ugly carpets in Provo? We looked under them and saw wood floors and knew we could get rid of the carpets.