Looking Further West

So today we went to Wrentham and Milford to check out two houses. The first house was in Milford. It was on a semi busy road which is okay with me if you can't hear the traffic. The inside was all done up new. New carpet, kitchen, nice redish paint on the walls. But the kitchen was in the front of the house. The sink was over on one side and the stove on the other???? To get to the living room, you walk between the bathroom with the shower and a staircase. The living room was long, but had ins and outs so it looked like 3 different areas. And the middle area had the stairs.

Upstairs they had another bathroom, which was very nice, but only had a tub and no shower because the ceiling was slanted. They did all this beautiful new work with new rugs too, but never swept up all the little pieces of everything. It was just plain weird. They did have a nice landing at the top of the stairs, but you had to walk right off the stairs to get to it. And the stairs were right outside one of the bedrooms. And I mean if you got up at night to use the bathroom, you might just end up using the one downstairs. hahaha.It had a small deck off the side at the end of the driveway. But the only set of

stairs went to the driveway not the yard. You had to walk beside the porch and down a steep incline to go to the yard that was two levels. Seems like the only safe way to get to the backyard was through the basement. Which had a sump pump and smelled a little. So I wonder how the children went out to their large three quarter acre yard and how the parents ran out to help them if they were hurt, and how you would have a picnic or cookout back there. It disturbed me a lot.

We've had our realtor for weeks now. He knows we only qualify for an FHA loan. So why, in the world would he waste his and our time looking at a total fixer upper? I know I have better things to do with my day than smell funny smells, walk up dangerous stairs and see people's trash all over the place. This house in Wrentham had some work done by the homeowners, but could not be finished because her husband passed away. That was really sad, but would not and could not make me buy this house. In the kitchen, they put in new cabinets and a nice sink. It was in front of a window, which is usually a great idea. But, this countertop was two inches above the windowsill. Craziness is the only word I have for that.

It was actually a large house and could be made into something gorgeous, but the one acre yard could never be fixed. It had a fence halfway down the middle cutting off the more than half acre that dropped to nowhere. Interesting at best. And this house had another driveway that was so steep we would never be able to drive up it in the winter. I thought our driveway now was steep, yikes!

Continuing Our House Hunting

CONTINUING OUR HOUSE HUNTING

Today we went to see a house in Lakeville. It was a nice size house and had a really big garage. The house posting said "minor cosmetics needed"! Well, I don't actually know who these people are talking to when they call them minor??? Some rooms needed floors because they were just plywood. And some rooms needed walls because there were holes in them. And the house smelled like mothballs. That is one smell I cannot stand. Who would think of using that as an air freshener? Did they ever hear of plugins? So the house smelled like mothballs and urine. And the steps to the upstairs bedrooms were so steep I felt like I was climbing a ladder.Now that I've explained the inside here is the outside. An above ground pool that has not been used for 2 years, they say. The whole yard was in the front and left side of the house. We noticed there was a golf course on the other side of the chain link fence (which for some reason my husband thought brought the value down). We walked through the tall grass hoping we didn't get tics, and then we saw it. Train tracks right there about 5 feet (not even) from the house. I proceeded to tell my husband that now we can live like tv stars. That's right, just like the family on Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. Except our train was closer.Needless to say, FHA would NOT approve us for such a house. Even though my husband still liked it. I never did get to see the basement.

The first house we saw was in Middleboro. It has almost 2 acres of land. A grape arbor and 3 buildings that were used for hobbies. They had a chicken running around and a bunch of others in the back. And they had a beautiful garden. The house was not very big 1097 sf wereas the other one was over 2,000. But the rooms looked very big and clean. We would have to paint because the walls were a yellowish beige. We liked it very much.

We are waiting until we see two more houses on Saturday until we make a decision. One is in Wrentham and one in Milford.If anyone sees a home we might like, please let us know. Our limit is $200,000 half acre or more would be awesome.I hope you're enjoying my blog. Would love to hear some comments if you have the time. Thanks.

Problems Of A Low Approval

THE PROBLEMS OF A LOW APPROVAL

So last night we went to see two houses in Plymouth. The first one we went to was on a semi busy road. We passed the house because it was blocked by a fence and had a small area to enter the driveway. When we turned the car around the driveway was angled the other way. It was so short and steep that I got vertigo. At the end of the driveway was a set of stairs that we almost ran into. We had an even harder time backing out of the driveway. We actually burned rubber. It must have been a short sale, (my Realtor thought it was, but wasn't sure????) There were broken windows taped with duct tape and the front part of the roof had plywood down and some tar paper. I was surprised it wasn't leaking. The front door and basement doors were unlocked. The house had clothes and toys all over the floor. My Realtor kept saying, "It may be a short sale, but they shouldn't keep their house like this." And my reply to that was, "They're losing their home and maybe they always live like this. I know people that live in worse." I can look past clutter and mess and see potential. The home was really nice. Two full baths upstairs and a half bath on the first floor.When we looked out the second story windows you felt like you lived in a tree house, which sounds romantic and all, but it really means that the backyard was so steep we couldn't even walk through it. Then on the other side of the fence was a dirt road and homes.So I would say NO to the first house.

The second one we saw was a little hard to find. FYI, when an address has an R after the number it usually means Rear. Well this was very rear. Off the main road we went for half a mile on a dirt road and came out to a beautiful view from the top of the hill of a very large pond. Evergreens going all the way down the hill. Then we looked to our left and saw the house. It was a large cabin. Inside there was mold everywhere on the walls. The large pine planks on the floors and some of the walls were actually very nice. The stairway down to the first floor was very well made. The mold smell and the tiny worn out kitchen was too much to take. The back windows were coming off and the roof needed to be redone. But the view...! Please don't ever be distracted by a view. Also, this property had 1.58 acres and was so peaceful and beautiful. The thought had crossed my mind to buy it, tear it down, reuse the beautiful wood planks and rebuild. Then reality struck and I realized that for $179,000 I could not afford any of that nonsense.So now we were suppose to see two tonight, and one or two on Friday. I asked our Realtor about that and he tells me, "Oh, I could only get one for Wednesday so maybe we can switch to Thursday and I'm busy on Friday so we can't see any. How about Saturday?" Of course I said okay, because what else can I do? He still has the magic key. The real reason I think he said he was busy Friday is because it's too far for him to drive on a weeknight. I'm fine with that, but not fine with thinking up excuses and not telling me the truth. All I ever want from anyone is the truth.

Realtors And All We Need To Know

REALTORS AND ALL WE NEED TO KNOWSo tonight we are going to look at three houses in the Plymouth area. I’m not sure we want to live in that area because in the summer there is a lot of traffic on the highway and my darling husband takes the highway to work. But if the house and yard are magnificent (for our price range), we might go.  It is good for our Realtor because he is from the area and won’t have to drive far like we’ve been having him do. Why do I feel bad about that? He will get paid when we find our home. It’s a major decision we have to make and here I am worrying about how far our Realtor has to drive to show us a house with his magic key. What is wrong with me?

We are still waiting for our $1,000 check that we gave him weeks ago when we put a bid on our “dream house” that someone else will soon be living in. He told us that he asked his boss for it and he still didn’t get it from him. Something about it being cashed (which it wasn’t). Hopefully we will get it tonight or else we will not be able to put it down on another “dream house”.There are so many rules and things you must go through to get a house. I have been searching the internet and finding things that our Realtor didn’t tell us. Maybe he thought we already knew? Like needing 5% down when you go for the purchase and sales agreement signing. That is when they will finally take the house off the market. Then at the closing you can put down the rest of your money. Problem is, we are getting our money from someplace that needs a signed purchase and sales before they will give it to us. And getting a loan for it is against the law and loan fraud. Which our Realtor says is okay to do since we are paying it off right away. Well, I DON’T THINK SO! Imagine trying to explain that to the judge?

I am also trying to make my own bug spray because we are going to an area where a lady just died of EEE. I don’t like chemicals and don’t like dying even more. One of the houses is on a pond (which my DH does not like, but also, does not know). I try to show him the online posts, but he can’t get into it. So when we go to these houses, he always says, “why didn’t you tell me _____?” And I laugh.

Tomorrow is another day and another set of houses. So after seeing seven houses this week, we might just find what we want.

House Hunting 101

House hunting is a very stressful thing. The most important thing to do is get a really good Realtor. Well, so far we haven’t done that. And we’ve had two of them. One would only show us homes that she wanted to see and would forget to meet us at our designated appointments. The next one, is a very nice person, but seems to be doing it to just have something to do to fill their time. Writing wrong addresses and putting email names instead of real names on legal papers does not seem appropriate.I did a lot of research about finding the right Realtor, and yet I still went with someone just because they seemed nice.

They say the average person finds their home in a few weeks. Well, we have been looking for over a month and have not seen very many homes. I know we must cut down our very broad area that we are searching in, but that is difficult. Every time I pick a place I want to see, it seems to have a problem or an offer. So far we have made one offer and it was overbid by someone else.I advise anyone looking for a home to educate themself and not depend upon the “professionals”.

I thought my Realtor would say, “hey, I found some homes that would be perfect for you”. Instead I give him a list of towns and he sends an automatic list daily to my email. Well, somedays I don’t get any. So I have two others sending me lists as well. I must sift through the criteria I want because I only get the price and town. No other criteria is filtered. I must check the crime rate, square footage and acreage. I must also make sure it has a basement, passed Title V and is not a Fannie Mae or HomePath house because I do not qualify for those. Then we drive by to make sure we like the area. And only then do we give the list to the Realtor who has the special golden key that gets us into the property.It is all so much work, that I think I deserve part of the 2.5-5% commission that my Realtor is getting. I think it is to pay for his gas when he brings us to these homes because I can’t seem to find anything else he is doing. We also will be getting a lawyer to check the documents at closing. So the only thing we need the Realtor for is his usefulness at getting keys.Hope this rant will open the eyes of some people looking for a home. The only thing we have going for us right now is, we are not selling, just buying.