5.12.2006

Adventures in Real Estate

Last weekend Philip and I decided to do something that we though we wouldn't start doing for years. We started looking at houses- to buy. It seemed like a crazy idea until we figured out how much house we can get for the same amount we are paying in rent. Our lease expires in July so we only have a few weeks to find something before we get locked into another year so we are going to try and look at a few houses every night after work. We are really excited about the prospect of having our own place where we can do anything we want. If we want to paint the dining room orange with a red ceiling, we can. Just the idea of having that kind of freedom really excites us. We have since looked at several houses, some good and some horrible. We really like older buildings so you get a lot of surprises. There was the bungalow with a huge apartment built in the backyard out of the garage or the Victorian cottage with only one closet or the amazing restoration that ended up being $100K out of our price range. I have always had such good luck with apartments and I thought that a house would be just as easy, but that is not the case.

We saw a house tonight that was perfect for us. It is a major fixer upper and has the potential to become a time and money pit so we are a little scared to make the jump. Another thing that scares us is that this house is in a historic district so we have to get permission from the city to do any exterior work and if anything goes wrong we have to use approved materials to make repairs which can get really expensive. On the other hand, the house is in our current neighborhood and we couldn't afford to buy into this neighborhood if the place didn't need so much work. Also, other than the repairs, this house is everything that we want. It's such a difficult decision, I don't know how anyone does it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well, it's about damn time. You guys need a place to go crazy on. I am excited for you. The right place will come along. Good luck!

Heart, Nieves