Just Put in a First Offer on a Wonderful Home

[physicist82]

---

@Legal_Girl wrote:

***********Physicist82        Absolute!! I certainly don't want to be house poor.  The right one will come along for you, I just know it will.  I have stayed away from short sales and foreclosures. Plus I am doing a VA loan through NFCU and no 'as is', and honestly, I work all day and have a teenager, and don't have the time to 'fix' a whole lot.  Let us know how your journey goes.

---

We wanted to stay away from shortsales as well, but within the 3 cities that we are looking in they are the only things in our range, except for the rare HUD or Fannie Mae house that comes along as an REO. Luckily the house we put a bid on only needs the backyard resodded (which we don't have to do right away and considering the precarious nature of things growing in the desert we would probably get a professional to do) and the carpets "replaced" (they weren't really that bad for our taste we would just clean them since we have kids of our own and replace it a few years down the road). There are plenty of cities that we could move to where houses are somewhat cheaper but we are in the unique position that for the past 4 years the house that we live in now that we are renting is within the boundaries of a school that has a Chinese immersion program that both of my kids are in. The sale prices of the houses in this city are way overinflated, especially considering that the lots are less than .2 acres and the land is pretty much dead (old farm land) without $200+/mon going towards watering and countless other $$$$ going to aerating and fertilizing and junk every year. The older more modest homes in the area are worthless because of rezoning so if someone buys it they have to remodel with additions or tear down and build new a house over 3000 sqft. Since they are already in the program we could live an hr away if we want and as long as we are willing to drive them to school each day they can continue going there but that is unrealistic. The 2 closest towns are about 15 min drive to their school or less and one of those is where the house we bid on is. It kind of bristles us because this is Utah where there is nothing but over watered desert and we moved here from Florida where you could buy something with 1acre or more for less than 200k and be less than 15 min from the beach. 

The most recent new construction in this town has gone down a bit to about 230-250k but they are on .1 acre lots with no trees and they have an HOA that pretty much includes nothing. They don't even have a clubhouse, because our city's rec center is across the street from the neighborhood and they just tell you to go buy the $300 membership for over there. I guess those houses are okay if someone wants to be able to lean out their window and hold hands with the neighbor next door.

[Legal_Girl]

***********Physicist82// I hear you!! One of my MUST haves that I told the agent about from the beginning was that I don't want to put my hand out a bedroom window and touch someone elses house.. That doesn't bother most people, but I am use to living on at least an acre, so I just can't live that close... The house I am in contract on is almost a half acre and is on a curve so the lot is bigger. The contract was submitted to Navy Federal today.. So excited. Let me know how everything goes with you.