Sadness and Madness

Today, we heard back from the Realtor - it's never a good sign when she can't get a hold of the listing agent.  At least, that is what I've decided.  The house that we wanted to bid on (and we were going to low ball offer on in hopes we'd end up at our max) had multiple offers and the bank accepted one on Monday.  So, we missed out.  I'm mad - I had already started making lists in my head and figuring out steps of things to do when we got the house.  It's disheartening.  I'm thinking this might be a regular cycle for the next couple months as we try to find a house and get a steal of a deal...  please pray for us, cross your fingers and send up thoughts of hope.  We're back on the hunt...
Lesson learned: Jump when you find the house and be ready to be disappointed.  

Option 2 for financing - down the hole...

Well, we pursued another option for financing and it has turned out, 3 days later, that option has fallen through. Due to some short-sales and pre-foreclosures in our past, we're having to involve other people in our financing option.  It's a huge ask!  I'm not offended that this last option fell through.  The family member called me last night and said that they did a risk analysis - if something catastrophic happened to Mike or I, then they would become liable.  It is a huge ask when they have a family and are responsible for their own housing expenses and everything.  Now, Mike and I don't ever plan on this falling back on the responsibility of the family member but the reality is, we don't know the future.  Something catastrophic could happen.  So, we're on to our next option - a new family member. This will be our last ask. If it doesn't work out, then we will have to rent and pursue buying a house in a year or so.  We did learn that with several foreclosures put on hold last year, we will only see an increase this year.  If that is the case, our options of a great house can only increase as we wait for the right financing options (or the stars to align).

This is hard for us.  We started this marriage saying we wouldn't intertwine family and money.  And yet, we're breaking that rule.  

Broken Celebrations

I don't really have a housing post to make this week.  Tonight, I broke a bowl - which just adds to the list of glasses I've broken.  They are all Mike's dishes.  Do you think I'm subliminally trying to say something?  I'm really not.  Every time something breaks, I might be sad but the reality is... it's one less thing to move when Moving day comes :).

That's my tip - celebrate the broken things.

Sex Offender Registry and Your Decision

I Googled the town of the Estate House to see what would come up.  The first link was for "sex offenders".  Well, that is good information to know.  It turns out there are 4 in the town.  One lives about 3 blocks away from the house.  I then decided to Google other towns and see how many sex offenders there were.  In the town we currently have Mike's condo - the ratio to citizens is 1 in 850.  In the town of the Estate House, 1 in 1250.  In another town I really like, there are 18 registered sex offenders, 1 in 2500.  When I looked at the list of offenses, all but one of the 18 were for child sex crimes!  As someone who works in the field of helping children who are exploited and abused, it's appalling that there were so many child sex abusers in that town.  It made me sad to think about the society we live in today where it is so common.  It's more prevalent than we think.  If anyone you know is committing these crimes or a victim of these crimes, please get help!  The cybertipline at cybertipline.com is a great resource.  You can make reports there, anonymous if needed, about what you have observed and give the information you have.  Please report it.  Don't be a bystander that doesn't make a step.  Recent news stories have shown that you are culpable if you don't step in to help a child when you see them being abused.  DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN TO ANYONE AROUND YOU.  It's sad (an inadequate word) and my heart goes out to every child who has a life wrecked and innocence lost at too early of an age.

To tie this back into house hunting:  Do your due diligence and make sure your potential future house is NOT next door to a sex offender.  I wouldn't live next to them, even if they have "done their time".  There are studies that show the offenders are prosecuted for 1-2 victims but in reality have hundreds of victims they are never prosecuted for.  Make sure you are comfortable with the town and neighborhood you are looking at living in.
Sex offender registries are available through many online sources.  The source I used was, City-Data.

Drivebys from today

These are the houses we went through today and what our thoughts were - would you eliminate them?  Add them to the maybe list?  What would you do?

The PAC House1: This is the first house we saw.  It's on a main-ish road but in a town that is smaller.  The house is brand-new inside.  Because it was only 5 minutes from our Realtor's office, we were able to go see this house.  The garage, if it ever had one, is the master bedroom.  The master bath is also the laundry room.  The selling points for this house: Huge yard, clean, new, location is near safe park and nicer area for the era; off-street parking. Nothing needs fixing. The negatives: No garage.  No instant equity since it's already been fixed up.  

 the Food Bank House: This house was in a not-so-great area.  I would be scared to walk outside at all hours of the day. It's right next to a nice park but I don't think great things happen at the park.  Also, one block away was the town's foodbank and community center.  I'm not ready to live in the ghetto.  This is what this house sadly is.  It's nixed from the list.
The other houses we nixed from the list:

the Corner House: this house was in an okay neighborhood. It's on the corner.  The driveway beside it doesn't belong to the house.  It belongs to the nicer, bigger house behind it.The Hoarder House: this house shared the driveway of the house beside it (they had 3 cars parked there) and it was also next to a hoarder's house.  Mike drove by this one and nixed it very quickly.

The Bad Parking House: this one was in a neighborhood of ALL run-down homes.  My biggest complaint was cars were parked all along the road in all diferent directions. It just was sad and I would not like coming home to it.  Nothing looked good there.  I believe it to be rundown and don't want to live there.

  The TV Tower House:  this house is towered over by a tv tower and next to fast food stores.  It sounded ideal otherwise.  it had over 2400 square feet.  The sizing would be great.  The location is what killed it... but also what made it hit our price range.  it's a catch22!

houses still to see:

I did drive by the red house.  It's in a great neighborhood. The whole neighborhood is cul-de-sacs. It's the cheapest house in the whole neighborhood of almost no foreclosures.  Because of it's condition, they would appreciate an all-cash offer and we might have a chance with this one.  We're going to find out more about this house.  It technically has an offer that has fallen through but the buyer has refused to remove their contract on it.  What an odd world of real estate we have!  The white house below is in a town that we were robbed in - in our 2nd month of marriage. Because of that, we've avoided looking but because this is in the north end of it's town, we still need to drive by it and see if we'd consider it.  We'll do that later this weekend.  

 These houses are almost nixed.  If we're just purely going for the investment and not getting emotional about the decision, then they might be okay.  The top one is in an area that could be considered a great commuter location. It's next to a huge field and playground.  I don't know if it's too close to the ghetto and will have to have Mike drive back by it with me.

this house's backyard looks at the Walgreens and Chevron across the street.  While I like both establishments, I don't know that I want to be that close to a busy street and shopping centers.  I don't need to see them everyday. I doubt the owners of those companies live near their own company stores.  Why should I?

Lesson Learned:

• A house without carpet and appliances doesn't usually qualify for an FHA Loan.  Cash would be a great way to go with these houses.  But you're competing with investors when you fall into that bracket.  

Find Your Needle in a ...stack of needles

I saw this sign on one of the real estate search sites that I frequent:

But just this week, Modern Family used the phrase, "finding your needle in a stack of needles"

It's exactly what we're trying to do.  How do we find our needle in a haystack?  Our hidden gem?  If this house tomorrow turns out to be a great option, how do we know if we'll have competition in the short sale process? It's all unknown at this point.  But I thought I would describe the process we've used to look for houses.  Most of my research, after asking friends for general vicinity recommendations, has been online.  I save the houses under a gmail category of "houses to watch" - If I'm really interested in learning more about a house, I'll open the the house in one browser.  I will then open additional tabs with the following info:
1. House tab from the real estate site that I found it at (let's say estately.com).
2. Zillow.com - this is a great site for learning the history of the site and the estimated current value.  You can also look at the values of the houses in the neighborhood.
3. Redfin.com - owned by Zillow.  This is a real estate site that is great for giving additional information.
4. Google Maps - I do a virtual walk-through of the neighborhood. I look at the house from street level. I travel the road in front, I look at the houses next store, across the street and behind.  You can learn a lot and save a lot on drive time.

Why the virtual walk-through?
Besides saving us driving time, hHere's an example of why I do this. I looked up a house near a popular shopping area that we were told to look at.  It sounds perfect.  It's got some updates and is on a side street.  BUT - when I looked at the house, I found out that the house to the right of it has turned into a business "Dentures sold here".  I don't think that would be so great.  I did end up driving by the house and found that it really didn't have a yard, it was right next to the dentures house (no space) and we would not be comfortable there.

Another very cheap SMALL house was on the corner of an alley.  For the right price, maybe we could do TINY.  I drove by it.  The house made me laugh.  The yard was super tiny.  The house was super tiny.  And the house next to it towered over the yard of the for sale house.  There would be no privacy.  It was pitiful.