Since the beginning of the year I’ve been looking to buy a house.\u00a0 The one in NOLA sold near the end of 2007, and that marked the moment when I seriously considered home ownership again.\u00a0 My slate was clean, and I now had the finances to put a significant down payment on a new place.\u00a0 My debt is nil, and my credit is awesome (and nobody was more surprised than I was about that).<\/p>\n
Started the search January 7th.\u00a0 Looking specifically for a single story house, around 1300 sq ft, a two car garage (one side to park in, one side to have as a workshop), three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a reasonable yard, a spacious kitchen, and located in South Austin.<\/p>\n
To keep within my calculated comfortable budget, my sacrifices would fall along the lines of proximity (looking further south, and consequently further away from downtown) and attractiveness (finding a place with good bones and lots of potential that had a certain amount of “ick factor” that I could spend my own time renovating bit by bit).\u00a0 I have a few deal breakers: foundation issues, obviously crappy neighborhoods, low flood elevation, natural drainage issues like a driveway that slopes down toward the house or a yard graded toward<\/em> the house rather than away from it, location immediately on a busy road, and direct close proximity to train tracks.<\/p>\n In early February I went under contract for a house that had a phenomenal multi-level yard, and was located on a third of an acre.\u00a0 The house itself was dated, had obvious potential, but was a two story home and had some immediately apparent problems that didn’t seem unsurmountable.\u00a0 We haggled the price down about $8k \u2014 it was at the high end of my comfort zone for price, but certainly worth it considering it’s location.\u00a0 The lot more than made up for the shortcomings of the house.\u00a0 That is, until the inspection.<\/p>\n Settling had caused some flexing of the foundation.\u00a0 No breaks, but there was dramatic difference in elevation from the center of the house, to the corners.\u00a0 The bulk of the house had vinyl siding on it, and that was becoming another death knell right there as there was a 90% chance that the siding was concealing a deteriorated original exterior, and would invite future expenses to have the whole thing stripped off and redone with proper fascia material (and another deal breaker was added to my list).\u00a0 The heating and AC systems were “antiquated”, and the ductwork was riddled with holes and in need of immediate replacement.\u00a0 There was a mystery leak from the roof that had rotted the interior of an outside wall in the utility area of the garage.\u00a0 There was a buckle under the floor of the second story that ran front to back that was a side effect of the flexing foundation. And many, many more problems… too many to list.<\/p>\n I walked away from that house reluctantly, but happy that I didn’t buy into a lemon.\u00a0 That foundation problem alone would have been an inherited albatross around my neck, and would have dramatically devalued the house when I went to resell it.\u00a0 But damn, that yard was awesome.<\/p>\n Continued the search, and found another place I liked.\u00a0 Started the haggle over the price until the owner put his foot down and wouldn’t go any lower… a meager $3k less than his listing.\u00a0 The house was about $7k more expensive than the other most expensive house in the neighborhood, and about $10K more than the average neighborhood prices (and as a rule of thumb, you never, ever want the most expensive house in the neighborhood).\u00a0 Fine.\u00a0 If you can get that price from another buyer, go for it, but you’re not getting it from me.<\/p>\n About that time the interest rates for mortgages took a jump due to the high rate of foreclosures and underwriter skittishness as a result.\u00a0 They were in the mid to upper 5% range when I started looking, suddenly they were in the high 6%.\u00a0 Anything under 7% is a deal, but I’ll be damned if I don’t take advantage of this downturn in the market to get a killer APR.\u00a0 I put on the brakes to see where they were going.<\/p>\n Meantime, home prices are dropping a bit.\u00a0 The advantages have been falling to the benefit of buyers with the big home sales slump, and all the foreclosures \u2014 and apparently sellers are getting the message.\u00a0 Home prices have been over inflated (and climbing) for the last decade, and now they’re starting to head back down to normal mortal levels.\u00a0 Good for buyers who plan to stay in a house for a while.<\/p>\n Resumed the hunt when the interest rates came back below 6% (and they’ve been hovering there for a while).\u00a0 In the last two weeks I’ve had two houses sniped out from under me before I could even put an offer on them (one of them went under contract an hour before we set foot in it).\u00a0 Both were on the market less than 3 days, in decent neighborhoods, and reasonably priced from the start.\u00a0 This was a sign that buyers were paying attention now, and that I couldn’t waste time when putting an offer in on a house that I liked.\u00a0 It also meant I was getting better at targeting houses that suited my tastes, and were attractive to others as well.<\/p>\n Saturday I looked at four houses.\u00a0 The last one was a winner.\u00a0 Got a great vibe off of it, the layout was nice, it was a reasonable size and seemed to be in really good shape.\u00a0 And Jeebus, the kitchen is huge.\u00a0 It was on the market for two days.\u00a0 Left there and went right back to my place where my Realtor an I banged out an offer.\u00a0 Ours was the first they received.\u00a0 A few hours later I got the word that they accepted it.\u00a0 Wow, that was fast.<\/p>\n So, the main inspection happens this Friday, the 4th.\u00a0 The plumbing inspection is next Monday, the 7th.\u00a0 We have till midnight on the 8th to get out of this contract scot free for any reason whatsoever.\u00a0 If all goes well, I close on April 30th.\u00a0 But, should the general inspections turn up anything nasty and expensive, I’m outta there.<\/p>\n Stay tuned for updates, kids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since the beginning of the year I’ve been looking to buy a house.\u00a0 The one in NOLA sold near the end of 2007, and that marked the moment when I seriously considered home ownership again.\u00a0 My slate was clean, and I now had the finances to put a significant down payment on a new place.\u00a0 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