House Hunting Nightmares

I am just so disgusted and am about to give up on the house hunting.......yuck. Not sure how many of you have heard but Jim is putting the condo up for sale next month and so we've been house hunting for the past 3 weeks now and it's just a nightmare. Of course we can only afford something in the 70 thousand range and what we've found sofar is just a bunch of junk that I wouldn't dare to live in. One guy was asking 69,900 for a house that he was remodeling and I'm telling you, the guy has no clue what he's doing. He's putting carpet over a rotting floor and new ceiling tiles on a bowed ceiling and he put in a new back door that has about a 1/4" gap where it's not sealing...........can you believe it? That's the nightmare that I'm dealing with in trying to find a decent house with a decent yard so I can finally plant the flowers that I want. Well, we're looking all the time and Jim says to not get discouraged.......we're not selling the condo until we find what we want. I can't wait, I'm getting pretty antsy about the whole ordeal. What I am looking forward to though is what I'll be able to plant.......LOL. So when the time comes, keep me in mind, I'll need plenty of seeds and bulbs and whatnot........LOL
We've looked at about 10 houses on the inside and nothing sofar and must have drove by at least 2 dozen. There are some really rotten neighborhoods in this town :o(

Hi Susan, Glad you're back. Check with forclosures at the banks and thru VA. The VA forclosed on a house on my street a couple of years ago and the family that move in got the house for $69,000 and it would easily sale for $100,000. One of my sons that just got thru building a new house said he wished it had come open before he built. Jim

flowox, with the very low mortgage interest rates right now, maybe you can afford more house than you think... payments should be affordable, great time to buy. Keep looking, you'll find that dream house! John

Susan, have you thought about outside of the suburbs, sometimes Rural properties are more affordable...


"eyes"

Yeah, Granville or Heath might be more affordable. Not sure if that would be too far away though. Best of luck!!

Granville --- noooo way, not more affordable than Newark, unfortunately. That's why we live in Newark, LOL. The property taxes are out of sight in Granville, too. Values have gone up in our area, which is cool - our house actually has equity now - wooo! I remember househunting, Susan...Don't lose heart, for you never know when THAT special house will just appear. And look at ones you're not sure about - that's how we fell in love with this one. Once we went inside it, we loved it!

it does take time to find the house of your dreams. but ask your angels to help. they will! we found this one that way it had an old barb wire gate and very unattractive enterance the sign was laying in the tall grass. i made dh stop and i walk very quietly up the drive and knew once i came to the clearing that this was it. took us 2 months. but 4 yrs later we are still tickled to have found this place. good luck and DO NOT GIVE UP HOPE.

I totally agree with Pardancanda.

Why not try sitting down with a mortgage broker, going over your finances and credit history, and seeing how large a mortgage you can get and at what rate, even though you have not locked in on a property.

As has already been wisely observed, with mortgage interest rates now very low, you may well be able to afford more house than you think.

Adam.

Susan, Did you try Realtor.com? I only hit in Newark, Ohio and a max of $75,000. It pulled over 1,000 hits. I know little about that area, having only been there once. For my area Cincymls.com is one of the best sites. Here are the results from the search I did. Have fun. http://www.realtor.com/findhome/nearbysearch.asp?mlsttl=&frm=bymap&pgnum=1&mls=xmls&lnksrc=&js=on&gate=&poe=realtor&ct=Newark&st=OH&zp=&mnprice=0&mxprice=75000&mnbed=0&mnbath=0&x=20&y=7

yeah, try realtor.com frequently. The thing is that Jim and I are not married and it's his condo and he's the one buying the house. I don't currently work either due to medical reasons so $76,000 would be the highest we could go and that's with $10,000 down. Already checked out the mortgage rates on that one. Thanks everyone for all the good advise :o)

Yeah, like GW said, Granville is just out of the question. Property taxes are sky high and you really can't touch anything for under $100,000 there. We are looking into Heath too but there just isn't much in Heath for under $100,000 either right now. We're not giving up quite yet though and if we don't find anything that's at least comparable to the condo that we are in then he's just going to refinance and we'll stay there until we get ready to move to NM. We just have allot of space in the condo with a full basement and bath and a half. It's just that we really don't have a yard and would really want a yard. Need room for flowers, you know ;o)

It makes sense to keep the place you're in and just have to go through selling a property once. They say a house is not likely to make you much money unless you're there four or five years, anyway, so is it really worth going through a new home's purchase if you're going to move? Good things come to them that wait, including your dream yard! :)

well, the condo association got new management and Jim has just about had it with them. The condo fees have went up to $95 a month in January and they are talking about replacing the front steps and all of the fencing, which does not need replaced and that will be one huge assesment. Jim said he would understand paying for it if it would make the property value go up but it won't and throwing out a couple thousand dollars for nothing is just no fun, you know. He made out pretty good in equity where we are now and he's only been there 4 years. So the house we are getting, we'll be there 5 years and if we don't find a house, maybe we'll just stay in the condo and move in 3. Beats me.........all I know is, it is all giving me a huge headache.

Try to look at it more positively - a new opportunity! You'll feel a lot better with that outlook than you do now. :)

Looking for a new home can always be time consuming, but when you find the right one you will know. It took us two years to find this place, but we will happy here for the rest of our lives - although he wants more land and I want a bigger kitchen.
Just because you can only afford a certain amount doesn't mean a higher priced home is beyond your reach. People sell their homes for many reasons and in this state any offer has to be recognized. This is not to say to make an unreasonable bid, but if you found a home you like for $10,000 more I would make an offer - you are in the driver's seat and everything is negotiable. Plus you can write down obvious and reasonable repairs that you have noticed to back up your bid. If you have a good realtor he/she will back you up. I hope this helps.

The bank told us we could afford a mortgage about 60K more than we ended up with. We're so glad we kept our house payment low, especially with the low interest rate - living below our means in this area results in my being able to stay home and knowing we could maintain even if we had to both take lower-paying jobs if he lost his job. The banks want your money - they're not talking reality a lot of times.

I like the way GW thinks.

This is exactly how I was able to leave full time work at 49, select my consulting projects for their intellectual interest and not only for the fee, do a little remote travel while I can still enjoy it, build some furniture, and start learning how to garden.

I had to change a lot of habits to learn to live debt free and below my means..., fortunately I have a wife who's smarter..., and patient.

Adam.

well, I'm at the point to where if the house comes along, then it comes along, and if not, no big deal. I think we pretty much just about gave up for the time being and will probably wait until we do leave for NM. The condo is a pretty decent size and we just have not been able to find anything comparable at this time for the price range. I want more of a yard, yes, but I'm content where we are because there is allot of space and it has a full basement. I'm just going to see what happens

Good for you, Susan. :) Bloom where you're planted!

Up here 10k can get you 1-2 acres and 60k can have a double wide put on it. Employment, however, is another issue. I could sell the house we're in and buy a huge house in Houlton, ME. But that's the end of the world up there.I've been told i could be hired to fix cars for 10 bucks/hour up there. So maybe retirement only. Frank.