(No, this is not a place we are looking at purchasing - too small, but it's cute!)
Well, we are moving, guys! Yeah, we don't have a set date but we do know it's sometime after June 6th because that's when the kiddo gets out of school for the summer. It's my sincere hope that we are moved and settled into our new place by July 4th at the latest. Fingers crossed!
When we originally decided to move up towards Asheville we had planned to rent to begin with. And then possibly purchase our first home down the road. The main reason this was our thinking was because we just didn't think we could afford to purchase a home. We started looking into renting and holy cow! For the minimum of what we needed (2 bed, 1 bath) was going to be close to a thousand a month!!! Luckily, my husband has a long time friend who is a successful businessman and investor in the area and after going over our finances he said we were in a great place to purchase our first home (say what?!) and that with the market the way it is this would be a good time for us to buy a home. He's done a lot with real estate and was able to give us a rough estimate of what we might qualify for loan wise and what our payments would be, etc. And it could be almost half of of what we were looking at paying if we rented!
We haven't met with a bank yet but we're hoping to do that in the next couple of weeks. For now we are looking at places in the areas we want. Two factors when it comes to location for me - I want to be close to stuff (none of this living out in the country stuff.) AND schools for Gianna. We've heard a lot of great things about one particular school in the area that we like so we are really trying to find a place within that school district. The crazy thing is most of the places we've looked at have 3-5 elementary schools within 5 miles! That's not the case where we live now. You have one school for a large area and you go there or you don't. Lol!
House hunting is fun and frustrating at the same time. You look online and of course the photos capture all the best angles. Those sneaky realtors! But when we drive up there to see it you realize it has a lovely view of a massive junk yard, or the neighbor's backyard is your backyard too, or it's not even finished inside (although the photos showed a cute little kitchen and wood floors! Lol!). It's so hard weighing all the pro's and con's. Every place is going to have both but it's trying to decided which outweigh which. So I love the outside of the house and the kitchen but then the yard is crappy and the development it's in is still under construction. Or we love the area and the neighborhood but the inside is a little less updated and kinda small.....geez. The past couple of weekends we've made a list of 5-6 places and we head up and check them out and grab dinner and make a date of it. We went alone last weekend but this weekend we're taking the kiddo! Of course she won't make the final decision by any means but I kinda like to hear her opinion of things too. She's not a baby anymore and she sometimes sees and thinks about things we don't. Not to mention I'm dying to take her to Neo Burrito (my new favorite place!) - I want to share the GIANT bowl of nachos with her! Lol!
Any advice for first time home buyers? What was it like buying your first place?
for us, it was really stressful purchasing our first home, but that was because our loan officer didn't know what she was doing AT ALL. our home had already been built, and we still didn't know if we qualified for a loan. she showed up at the hospital the day after owsley was born and had us sign more papers. we finally found out a week later that we qualified for the loan we applied for five months prior.
ReplyDeletebut other than that, it was fun. :) haha
Oh Lord, I hope ours goes a little more smoothly! Lucky for us my husband has a friend there who is very well known and respected in the banking/real estate community and he's going to put in a few good words for us so we're really happy to have some experienced helped with this process!
DeleteI'm kind of jealous of you! It was so fun looking at homes!
ReplyDeleteBut yeah -- they totally doctor those photos up -- so annoying!!!
I would just pay attention to your neighbors? I wish our street had more little kids? But I know Gianna is older now and in school so that might now matter to you!! :)
Yeah, it is fun but it's such a big purchase and I'm so afraid of picking the wrong one! But it is fun to think of ourselves living in certain places and imagining what our lives would be like there!
DeleteHow exciting! I love Asheville! Its such a neat little city. My advice would be don't rush. :) I was lucky that my husband and I are completely different in this respect. We balanced each other out. I would see a house that I liked, and say, "let's do it." But Zach would wait and think on it a bunch,(and usually talk himself out of it, which drove me absolutely crazy)! But now I'm grateful we took our time. It was a longer process, but we really did end up with a house we loved. Good luck! I think looking at houses is soo much fun!!
ReplyDeleteWe don't want to rush it either but at the same time we need to find a place and be moved by the end of June! Lol! So I guess that's my biggest thing is making sure we make the right decision but with a bit of a dead line looming ahead of us!
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