Tracy and I went down to the bank on Saturday to apply for a home loan. This is just the pre-approval letter part, but it's the first step, one that we haven't been able to do before. Tracy's credit history has prevented us from being able to get anything before now, but with the mortgage market going belly-up, prices around here have dropped dramatically.
When I say prices have dropped dramatically, I don't mean 10 to 20,000. I mean $100,000 or more. You can find listings on the market now for less than half what that house was listed for 2 years ago.
Almost half the homes in our price range are foreclosures, and everyone says "Oh, those foreclosure homes are always trashed," but really, what can they do to the house that I can't undo? Holes in the wall? I'll patch 'em, or replace the drywall in that part. Carpet trashed? I'll replace it, possibly with something more durable like wood or tile. Unless it's structural, I can deal with it. Heck, even if it is structural, it may be an opportunity for improvement. If the previous residents tore the drywall off the wall, I'll wire the dang room for ethernet before I replace it! If this happens, it'll also let me put all those plans I mentioned here into practice. Hello, warm bathroom floors and unending hot water!
4 comments:
Yes, you can certainly do a lot of the work yourself. To me, the most important thing is that it's in a good neighborhood.
Neighborhood quality is the biggest problem we think we're going to have. Something like 90% of the home in our price range are located in unpleasant neighborhoods. However, we have found some possibilities in good neighborhoods.
I agree with the good neighborhood. What's the point of buying something in an area where you can't even go outside. Anyways, we will see what we can find.
That would be so great! Good luck on your house hunting adventures!
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