House Shopping

That comes later. I don't have any friends who are home inspectors.

 

Home inspectors can be useless. I two two to inspect my townhouse before I sold. One said I needed to make $3,000 worth of repairs, I refused and the deal fell through. The next inspector said I needed to only make $400 worth of repairs. I had done nothing in between inspections. I agreed and closed in one month.

 

I know. The inspector that checked my condo completely ignored the damage at the backdoor caused by water. But he did tell me I had to tighten the upstairs toilet. It wasn't loose.

 

UGH. I've been hunting my beach house for over a year now. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, I can't count how many I've seen inside and out. Land, trailers, condos, townhouses, stick built homes...I've already worn out one realtor and am working on driving my second realtor into the asylum now. Even I have come close to throwing in the towel several times, and I believe I would have if I wasn't so damned stubborn.

Finally toured one I really liked 2 weeks ago, good size piece of land, minutes to the beach, good foundation, no maintenance issues, well taken care of, one owner, and half furnished (which I didn't need but oh well). Five days later I went to make an offer and found out that we couldn't get financing on it because they wanted 20% down instead of the usual 10%. Bah. Back to the drawing board.

 

I found a bunch of properties that I really liked. Most have doublewides or singles. The loan I'm getting won't qualify any of those. So, I have to look for real houses on land that I can remodel to make what I want instead of building it. That doesn't leave a lot. But I have found one that I've seen. If the inside is even close to something I can make my own over the years, I'll sign the papers. I just want to see a couple other options before I make that decision to make sure I'm not overlooking something. Just can't wait too long.

 

So in other words you screwed the buyer.

 

Can't you just buy land, and then use a trailer while you build/

 

Not according to the mortgage people. I've been approved for what I want to spend and a little more. But because I'm self-employed, we're going with a loan that won't let me buy anything manufactured. I'm okay with that for now. Especially if I find a house I really do like.

 

One Saturday morning, all hung over, she drives me to this place I've never been before...a new neighborhood under construction. We drove up one street and down another looking at different models already erected. We went back to the office, looked at some books, picked out what we wanted, put down a deposit and moved in 9 months later...watching it being built along the way.

 

one day. my wife thought buying a house was like buying shoes. Couldnt go home with nothing.