The Hunt is on!
Well once again we are looking for a house. This time though we are on a mission. Everyone that remembers us looking at houses in Buffalo remembers our struggle to find something worth the money. We saw some nice ones but they were always out of our price range.
This time it is different. Yes we are still struggling with debt but the housing market it perfect for buyers and the low interest rates make it even easier. Not to mention that Charlotte is an up and coming young city and there are a lot of brand new houses that the builders need to get rid of.
The past week we have gone for a couple drives just to look around neighborhoods and swing by some houses and grab flyers. Basicly just to get a feel for where we want to live and how much we can afford. It was fun to just look around
Just one example of the houses in Charlotte.
and see the places that had lots of families running around. There were a lot of areas that were like ghost towns though. Some of the newer developments had only a couple families living in them and the rest of the houses were empty. As nice as it would be to be left alone for a while after living in noisy apartments, we would prefer an older neighborhood.
This is just one example of the type of house we would love to get a deal on. I believe this was a little out of our price range but it gives you a good idea of the beautiful houses we were looking at. Almost everything we saw that was for sale seemed to be well upkept. Most were lacking on the landscape but that we are not concerned with. My father-in-law and I are prepared to fully landscape which ever house we get, and enjoy doing so.
The next step is to get pre-approved for a loan and see how much we have to work with. In an effort to get some competition going I’m going to be working with two realtors and about three morgage brokers. Today is my day to call the brokers since I went over our fininaces and know what we can afford and later this week we will begin looking at houses with one realtor.
The basics of what we are looking for is a starter home. The market is in a state where as long as we buy something now we will make money in a few years so we can move into a bigger home. We need three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and would like a two story house but its not neccessary. In fact in one of our trips this past weekend we found a very nice and nicely priced ranch home that I believe we want to look at. We also saw some $800 thousand dollar houses that were amazing!
Another awesome aspect of our relocation plan from my employer is that they pay the closing costs on a house if purchased within a year from the move. Our aim is to be living in the home before October this year. I will try to keep you all updated on our house hunting and we will be sure to have a party to celebrate when we move into our new home.
Tags: Buffalo, Charlotte, debt, family, house, morgage, parties, realtor
April 13th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Take your time remember sometimes your first choice is your only choice because you fall in love with everything about it. And you never move again.
April 13th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Good Luck - I’ve been looking around here for months and haven’t found anything. Look into local grants there, NY had a few. Let me know how it goes.
April 14th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
well good luck guys! If your not wanting to stay in Charlotte…there are ALOT of houses down here by us.! Even in the same neighborhood. Good prices even some foreclosed on at cheap prices.Very good condition. Hope your hunting goes good.. good luck!