Big (and expensive) Development

This might be a little premature, but I'm going to post it anyway. So that means keep it a secret (while it's posted on the internet for anyone to read)!

Nat and I went house hunting yesterday. It's a really scary thought that we're prepared to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars that we don't have to purchase a house. We are slowly getting over the sticker shock of home prices here, and becoming used to the idea of a town house rather than a free standing home.

Because this is the first time either of us have done something this drastic, we are completely lost. Let's just say that we've been doing a lot of researching on what steps need to be taken and when. In discussing this with one of my coworkers, I was given the name and contact information of what appears to be a top flight realtor. My coworker said that this realtor showed her two places, and she bought the second one. From their website, this team of realtors spend a great deal of time  getting to know you and what you are looking for before they actually show you houses. They also spend a lot of time with first time buyers (us) to help walk them through the process. I have an email in to her to set up a meeting time!

We also have a call in to the mortgage advisors at our credit union. From all that I've heard from members and employees who have worked with them, they are incredibly helpful and to the best possible job. There are a few products which I am particularly interested in: 100% financing so we don't have to have a down payment and 3.5% downpayment (if the first doesn't work out). We have lot of questions to ask them at our meeting.

The scariest part of this whole thing is that our apartment lease is up on September first. We pretty much have to have closed on a house by August and move in before September unless we want to sign another year long lease in our apartment. This complex doesn't do anything shorter than a year. Also, we will have to tell them we're moving out in July I believe. I'm not exactly sure when they try to get you to sign the next lease. It's a scary thought and we don't have much time at all!

So, that leads to the house hunting we did last night:

 This house was a no-go. It looks really nice, but it's in an area of town that is NOT where we want to be. I've been warned by several people to stay away from that part of town, so I'm glad we went to look before we did anything else with this house.

 This house is a cute one, but I believe it's way our of our price range. I think it's something like $230,000 or so? Anyway, we saw a house similar to this one but in a different neighborhood. It was billed at $339,900! It did have another story, but that's still outrageous!

 This is the same one from above.

 This house, I think, was my favorite. It needs a coat of paint, but we were going to have a showing. It's also less than $200,000, which is a big plus!

Here it is again. It's 3 beds and 2.5 baths. Unfortunately, we found out when we got home last night that it's pending already. :(

There were several other houses and duplexes that we looked at, but I didn't get pictures of. I will definitely post pictures of the ones where we have showings.

It's a little (okay, a lot) scary that we're going to own our own little piece of land!