I think we have come to a decision and are going to put an offer on a house.
Pretty exciting. I can’t help but feel oddly more nervous than I have in a while about this instead of excited. It is funny that through all of this I’ve been pretty darned excited about getting a place, and thought that we would just hop into the first place that we liked that fit our budget. But now I’m just sorta freaked out. I think it is because my whole life I spent all of 1 year in a place that my family owned. We have always lived in a parsonage, or I have lived in some kind of rented attached living situation. Even a condo I don’t think would weird me out as much because you pay the association to fix some stuff.
Also, buying a house was sorta “phase 2” in my brain. Phase one was to ease out of the apartment, totally unattached, college / just post-college type of living by getting into a condo where I still wasn’t faced with as much responsibility. So jumping to phase two with the nice kitchen and a basement, where I have to worry about flooding, and painting, and mowing and all that seems a little jarring for the construct I had built in my brain about what my life should look like for the next few years.
Anyway, since my wife posted last about the financials some things have changed. The seller dropped the price by 15k, so we decided we can probably buy the place and be in a little better shape in terms of our monthly budget. I think we are going to offer what they are asking plus closing costs, so we can roll most of that into the loan. That is what our buying agent said would be good, but we will talk about it more with him after a bit.
To help the finances, Lauren will get a job this summer, which will provide the extra cushion we are looking for (in terms of saving for disasters) until I get a raise in the fall (or get fired and find a better job).
Also, we are talking about taking on a roommate. We feel fairly comfortable about doing that given that it is a pretty big place and we aren’t planning on having kids for a while yet (until Lauren graduates at least). So if you are, or would be, or know someone who might be interested, and our bid gets accepted, put them in contact with me.