Wow! Some real, honest-to-goodness news! Probably for the first time in over a year. So, here goes! I'll try to be thorough enough to make your reading worthwile ;) I was going to put in some cuts, but decided not to... forgive me if it's a little unwieldy!
So, we have been renting various apartments off-and-on since 2002. Renting, even with the best of landlords, stinks. There's just nothing quite like throwing hundreds of dollars away on a monthly basis, knowing that you are simply paying somebody else's mortgage when all is said and done. Combined with the 30-minute commute and living in Hicktown, USA, we've been getting pretty antsy for the last year or so. We actually really love the place we're in now, but we don't want to be here forever. With house prices coming down, we figured it would probably be a good time to look around and see what kind of mess we could get ourselves into ;) Thankfully, my brother and his wife had gone through the entire home-buying process only a few months before, and did all the legwork on finding a reputable lender, etc., so we just used their guy. And he is awesome.
On the state of houses in the Monadnock Region, and the buying process in generalWell, having found said lender and actually being pre-approved for a fixed rate 30-year mortgage, and finding a great buyer's agent to work with, we were on our way.
NOTE: A priceless piece of advice for any prospective first-time buyers out there: work with a buyer's agent, NOT a listing agent! You don't pay their commission, and they are completely impartial. It is definitely the way to go. Ask your mortgage broker for names of good buyer's agents in your area. You won't regret it. We started the whole process by looking at listings online, because, well, it's easier. Uhh, as it turns out, the house prices in our county aren't plummeting the way they have been in other parts of the state and across the border in Massachusetts. The pickings are slim....really slim. We've pretty much been presented two scenarios in our travels: 1) fantastic settings paired with tiny square-footage, and 2) really spacious places that are in terrible- oh, and I do mean terrible- condition. Though we are both very hands-on people who enjoy the occassional weekend project, we don't really want our first house to become the focus of our lives for the next 5-10 years.
House Hunting, Day 1On our first hunting day about a week and a half ago, we visited three places with our agent. The first was a foreclosure just outside of town that had been overrun with feral cats during the winter months, and possibly was home to a goat at one time or another. Yes, that one was instantly crossed off the list.
The second was a massive fixer upper with all kinds of incredible potential on Main St. in Marlborough, about 10 minutes from downtown Keene, where we both work:
The third was an itty bitty, but tidy little place in Keene, within walking distance of downtown.
Anybody who knows my dad knows that he is something like Tim Allen's character on Home Improvement, only without all the injuries :) He is currently in the process of entirely renovating my brother and sister-in-law's new house with his own two hands...after having torn down every wall and pulling up every floorboard. He owns his own portable sawmill. The man is ridiculous. So anyway, we thought it might be wise to have him and my mom come along to see the places in Marlborough and Keene to help us decide if either of them seemed like workable properties.
House Hunting, Day 2We went on our second excursion with our agent and my parents last night, and revisited the two seemingly promising properties from Day 1. We also visited two other places that I don't think I'll bother to describe here...suffice to say, they were pretty scary. But sure enough, my Dad instantly saw the potential in the house in Marlborough as well as the one in Keene. We all agreed after some basic comparisons that the house in Marlborough, as fun as it would be to overhaul, would take forever to fix up and would probably never return big profits when it came time to resell. Probably not the wisest investment, especially given that we are not exactly rolling in dough. But this house in Keene, though it is not oozing with character the way we hoped our first place would, is all kinds of practical. And we can give it all the character it needs over time. The big thing that completely swayed us on this second visit: the listing agent was there and we were able to see the attic space, which we couldn't get into the first time we went. MAN, what an attic! Totally huge and completely unfinished... so there is a lot of room for FUN BUILDING PROJECTS there :-D There is also a big backyard that is just begging for a small addition and/or a screened porch...so yeah, there's a lot we can do with the place, and in the meantime, it's tiny but move-in ready and definitely livable.
The conclusionWe emailed our broker and our agent last night letting her know our thoughts, and they are both entirely gung-ho about this transaction. She's in the process of crunching some numbers for us and we'll be signing our starting offer tomorrow night! This is um, really terrifying, but also very exciting :-) More updates will be forthcoming... wish us luck!
Take care,
Sue
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