House Hunters

After receiving our renewal notice on our apartment and discovering that it would cost us quite a bit to continue renting, we began an abbreviated house search.  Luckily, Bobby and I had already done most of the legwork and selected the homes we wanted to see.  My realtor, Charo (who I LOVE dearly, she's so nice and has a very kind heart), and I set out on a mad dash to find the perfect house.  I told her from the start that my home was in this mix and that we were going to find it.   Due to our short time frame, I agreed to visit the homes during the week and then if I liked them, I would schedule a 2nd tour for Bob.  Our budget ranged from $165-230 and we were willing to do moderate fixing up.  I drove all over greater Houston, navigated the most convoluted interstate system, put an extra 600 (plus or minus) miles on my car, and saw about 20 homes.  We narrowed them down to these 3.



Guess Which House Is Ours?

When I walked into this home, I immediately told my realtor, "This is my house!"  I was overjoyed and quickly called Bob to tell him about it.  We discovered it had already entertained 4 offers and was now looking at its 5th offer, but we were allowed to return for a second visit so Bob could see it.  After we toured it, we found out that the offer had fallen through and that it was still available.    At the very top of our budget, we worried that the sellers wanted full asking price ($229,900).  Could it be...could this be my house?

This home was an interesting one.  It's located in a neighborhood that I wanted to live in, but had already decided that the area was out of our price range (think $250-350,000).  This little gem ( over 3,000sqft/5 bedroom/3full baths) came on the market at $199,900 and our realtor informed us that we could easily get this home for $190,000.  It was a fixer upper- kitchen, bath, carpet, etc.  But at that price and having so much living space, it was hard to ignore.  I saw this home first and didn't get wowed by it, but it still lingered in my mind.  I took Bobby to see it and did another walk through. 

I fell in love...again.  Even more with this one than the house pictured previously.   I started envisioning the new kitchen and wood floors, the girls having gigantic bedrooms, cooking in the massive kitchen with my "cookies and cream" granite.  Could this be my new home?



This home was another rogue addition.  It's in another neighborhood that we discounted due to high entry level, but after crunching our numbers, we discovered that this neighborhood was actually cheaper because of it's low tax rate and no HOA fees.   This home was exactly our style- Craftsmen cute- and fit our budget at $225,000.  However, it was significantly smaller and less grand than the other homes we had seen and were considering making an offer on.  My initial reaction to the home was, "It's a good house."  I could see our family living here, but I couldn't shake that it read a little "townhome-y, apartment-ish" to me.  But I could see us living there and making a few minor changes- mostly change the carpet to wood floors.  The neighborhood was super cute and all decorated for Halloween.  My realtor commented that this neighborhood was like a storybook Christmas village.  Up until this afternoon, we were going to make an offer on this one.



Unfortunately,  NONE of them will be my new home.  And I'm still wiping away the tears.

We crunched numbers, worked and reworked the budget,  prayed and prayed some more.  But, we couldn't make a decision.  The bottom line is: We want a home.  We want those homes.  However, we don't want to stretch ourselves thin and leave nothing for a rainy day and it seems that rainy days like to visit our home often.  I know that had we made a decision to purchase one of those homes that everything would've been okay.   It would've been fine. 

So, we're taking a step back to decompress.  We signed on to our lease until May and we'll resume our house search again in March.   I'm sad.  I can see why people get emotional about buying a house.  You wrap up all your dreams and memories into a home.  And when it doesn't work out, you're left with a lot miles on your car and a few more gray hairs from Houston's interstate system and horrendous traffic. 

Our home is out there 

(and honestly, we've got great taste! I mean, really, did you see those homes?  Talk about nice! I wish you could have seen the inside.  I also never noticed how symmetrical each home is- Can you tell we like symmetry?)