Small town Iowa is sometimes just too perfect!
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Juicy Details
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Okay so here is all the house information I'm CERTAIN you've been dying to know about. The house is a 1920 Foursquare with some Craftsman features that badly needs to be landscaped. Here is the current outside.
I took a bajillion pictures that I hope will be the eventual "before" pictures. I had planned on giving a "home tour" here... but I've had enough house for the day. I'll leave you with one of the many little things about the house that makes me smile - the door handles. ALL the handles are like this, gorgeous and authentic. Until next time...
Yay for pretty things!
I took a bajillion pictures that I hope will be the eventual "before" pictures. I had planned on giving a "home tour" here... but I've had enough house for the day. I'll leave you with one of the many little things about the house that makes me smile - the door handles. ALL the handles are like this, gorgeous and authentic. Until next time...
Yay for pretty things!
Friday, May 25, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Big News!
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No dad, we aren't having a baby! But we are doing something pretty exciting... buying a house! We've run the numbers about a 1000 times and have finally jumped into making an offer on a home! (We'll give more details further in the post.)
We got a great deal on a loan from the USDA (read: perfect for a couple living on 1 modest teacher income). This is great because we need a project to work on together... something other than choosing our next movie on Netflix. We are also pretty certain living in a house will be about the same cost as apartment living plus we'll hopefully recoup some of that money.
So here are the juicy details I know you've been waiting for. The house is currently listed at $25,100 less than the appraised value because it has been on the market a year and is an estate sale. Sweet, right? Well, we happen to be looking at the top of our budget even with that schnazzy discount, so we offered $16,900 less than the listing price. That is a full $42,000 under appraisal value. Yep, that's right, welow-balled 'em stayed comfortably in budget. We also wrote a "seller love letter" saying how much we loved the house and how we could imagine ourselves and our future children (that's right dad, but focus on future). Then we waited...
We waited a full and agonizing 2 hours. They countered us... at only $1,500 more than we asked. HOLY COW! We obviously accepted and locked in the deal at $40,500 less than the appraised value. That number is huge, especially in this community where real estate is relatively inexpensive already. And the real estate agent told us our love letter to the seller was very effective. Yep - I'm that good.
We still have a slew of inspections and loan things to go through, but right now we are riding high on the fact that we are going to be homeowners on July 6! We've been told that the mixture of excitement and terror is completely normal - we hope so!
I'll give details on the house itself in a later post - for now... YAY!
We got a great deal on a loan from the USDA (read: perfect for a couple living on 1 modest teacher income). This is great because we need a project to work on together... something other than choosing our next movie on Netflix. We are also pretty certain living in a house will be about the same cost as apartment living plus we'll hopefully recoup some of that money.
So here are the juicy details I know you've been waiting for. The house is currently listed at $25,100 less than the appraised value because it has been on the market a year and is an estate sale. Sweet, right? Well, we happen to be looking at the top of our budget even with that schnazzy discount, so we offered $16,900 less than the listing price. That is a full $42,000 under appraisal value. Yep, that's right, we
We waited a full and agonizing 2 hours. They countered us... at only $1,500 more than we asked. HOLY COW! We obviously accepted and locked in the deal at $40,500 less than the appraised value. That number is huge, especially in this community where real estate is relatively inexpensive already. And the real estate agent told us our love letter to the seller was very effective. Yep - I'm that good.
We still have a slew of inspections and loan things to go through, but right now we are riding high on the fact that we are going to be homeowners on July 6! We've been told that the mixture of excitement and terror is completely normal - we hope so!
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| Can you see the terror in our eyes? The terrifying dreams of houses falling apart and negative balances in checking accounts? The excitement of learning new skills together and building something lasting? |
I'll give details on the house itself in a later post - for now... YAY!
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