House

So...I'm buying a house this year. I wasn't going to, I was going to continue with my living arrangements for another year and try to save up as much money as possible...but several things happened: Someone sent me an article about the first-time home buyer tax credit....One of my friends built a beautiful (and affordable) house...and several of my coworkers are taking that plunge as well. So after speaking with some friends about what steps one takes to find out if one can even think about buying a house, I contacted a mortgage broker. I figured I might as well see how much house I can afford, if any. (Suffice it to say, I am still impressed with my credit score. :D )

After meeting with her, I contacted a realtor whom several of my friends had worked with, and away we went! I don't know how many houses we looked at--not as many as some people, I'm sure--but one neighborhood I think we looked at about six houses....

At the end of my first week looking at houses (I think we had gone out maybe 2 or 3 times), I fell in love. (NOTE: Don't let yourself do this!) I made an offer on a house--a darn good offer!--but the owner was clearly not ready to sell, as she did not want to come down on her asking price one little bit. I was saddened, but not willing to pay that price. We kept looking....

Funny enough, maybe two weeks later I made an offer on a house 3 doors down--a similar floor plan, but slightly different, and I lowballed, to see if they were willing to negotiate. Well, I nearly fell out of my chair when my realtor called me and told me they had countered! I thought for sure that they would flat-out reject my offer. So I countered their counter, and then we reached a compromise. Awesome! And really scary! Holy cow, this crazy house-buying idea of mine is becoming more real!

It's exciting--and periodically I feel a little panicked, because O.M.G. I am buying a house!!! I had scheduled the inspection for yesterday--he didn't find anything major--and then of course last night we had a huge storm move its way across Central Texas! Grreat! (Fortunately, i have friends who live in nearby neighborhoods, and they didn't have any damage. Whew.)