Sunday, June 12, 2011

Well well well...

It looks like Paul and I are considering purchasing a home... we were just over at Nathan and Katie's house, and the boys were playing Go and Katie and I were just looking at things on the internet when she suggested I look at Zillow.com. A neat real estate site. So I looked cause... that's what I do. I dream and end up getting really excited about things. Well we want to live in Germantown, it's about 10 minutes from Paul's mom's house. 20 minutes from Nathan and Katie and a little bit closer to church than where we are now. So I started looking at houses that are for sale in Germantown. At first I had no limitations on what I was seeing... but as I started filtering I started seeing some good prices. The one we are looking at is 129k, 4 bedroom 2 bathroom 2-story house, it's victorian style and was built in 1902, about 1600 sq feet. It has a fairly good sized kitchen from what I can tell, a nice dining room, living room and a den. Hardwood floors throughout the home. Sounds perfect. So now we will just see about doing a showing. Want to walk through before we decide anything.

For us this is a huge decision though... it means that we are committed to being in Wisconsin for another at least 5-10 years if not more. We would like to do a 10 year mortgage if we can. So I am taking a look at our finances... trying to see exactly how much we end up spending and where. I'll try to watch this closer so that we can stay within a budget. The other thing about living in Germantown is that we will be so much closer to woodman's too! Which means I might even be able to get food for even cheaper! :) We spend way too much money on food, but I think it's just cause I don't really watch what we buy... I don't really think about the seasons or anything. Just kind of buy what I want when I want. But that will have to change here soon... right? But the main thing about buying a house right now is that we make sure we just use one salary to determine if we can afford it. We do not want to be one of those people who bank on two salaries and then realize that "Oh right one of us isn't going to be working once there are children." So I don't know... we'll see. We want to do the walk through with Mark and Kelly, they have bought houses before, at least once so might be able to help. I might even ask my grandma for help... although that's tricky cause now she is starting to have really bad alzheimers... but I don't know, she might enjoy thinking real estate again.

OH so many things to think about that we haven't really thought about cause we were planning on renting for awhile. But this just seems like a really good deal, and it is such a cute place. It has character. :) So I don't know, we'll see. If you want to take a look at the place and give me your expert opinion here's the link. House! let me know what you think. :)

3 comments:

Rachel said...

The kitchen looks great!

Laura said...

This looks a little like our first home and built around the same time. I still have dreams about buying that home again! It looks lovely and well cared for...it will also require a little work in just general up keep....which is fine and can even be fun. Have a nice time looking!

Susan said...

I notice that it's in the same neighborhood as Pastor's bier stube that he enjoys. When we were in that area of Germantown once, it struck me as a nice little neighborhood, but I wasn't paying close attention (so no guarantees).

I would watch carefully with the house inspection. It seems like a very nice house with a very nice price. My friend Jane just bought a house like that, and it ended up there was a lot more fixing-up to do than they'd anticipated. Sometimes that is a great way to get a house -- grabbing it yourself before the flippers get hold of it. But go into it with your eyes open. It may be that there are problems with the house, or it may simply be a depressed market combined with an owner who really needs to be done owning this house.