Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
House Hunting Rut.. this is lengthy
Let me paint a picture of the current situation for the hubs and me: We got married August 2011 and we are living in my dad's house with my brother (my dad passed away 2 years ago and have been living there ever since) and we both just finished school. I finished last December 2011 and he just finished May 2012. My brother has 2-3 years left of school and just transferred from a school an hour and a half away to one closer to home, meaning he is moving back home full-time instead of every few weekends, at Christmas and 2 months out of the summer (he played baseball and tore cartlidge in his shoulder and already sat out a year from tearing his ACL). With me being the older sibling, it assumed by everyone and their brother that I automatically get my dads house. Truth is, I dont want it. I grew up there, I'm running my dad's insurance agency and straightening out his estate. Truth is, I need my own *** and life.
With my brother moving home, the length of time we had to find a house went from 3 years to 3 months really quick. My brother isn't kicking us out of anything, its just really crowded and far less glamourous than Khloe Kardashian's life when she lived with her new husband and little brother. Hubs and I want to start trying to have a baby, but dont want to chance not having a house of our own by the time a baby comes and subject my brother to a newborn crying at all hours of the night. Here is how our house hunting experience has gone so far.
March 2012: a great 10-acre property located 1/4 mile away from my brother and 1 mile from my in-laws went on the market. There was a house on the property that we wanted to tear down since it had been vacant, copper wiring had been stolen and the home was destroyed. We couldn't get a mortgage because we wanted to tear the house down. Couldn't get a construction loan because we weren't ready to build (at the time, my brother was still at his old school with no intentions of moving home) and couldn't get a lot loan because the land was valued at 20,000 and house at 60,000. Erin & Hubs are 0-1 at this point.
June 2012: find a great 4.5 acre property.. that was a short sale. House was perfect, enough room for animals and kids to run around. Made a very reasonable offer and had market analysis submitted to back it up. Bank waited 45 days to counter, we countered the same day they did and they waited another 2 weeks. We lost interest and pulled our offer because we found another house. Erin & Hubs are 0-2.
July 2012: the best find of them all, 8.5 acres 1/2 mile from town, in between everyone in our family (they all live in the same little town as us). Definitely needs lots of updating but nothing too expensive. We would even be saving enough money to add on a master bedroom/bathroom and walk in closet. Made an offer quickly, but not quick enough to beat the first offer. We offered FULL asking price, we pay all property taxes and 1/2 closing fees. They did the morally correct thing and took the first offer since it got there first. We are the back up offer if first buyers can't get financing and we are already approved, but for the most part, Erin & Hubs are 0-3
Our goal is to remain in a country setting but we are limited to where we can go. My husband is a firefighter and we have to live within township limits for the next 4 years. There is a 5.5 acre lot for sale where we can build a small starter home and add on in the future. Would you pursue the empty lot or keep looking for an already built home?
Re: House Hunting Rut.. this is lengthy
You sound like us. We had a beautiful house in the country that I loved. We lived in it for just short of three years when DH took a new job in the same area as his family and twin brother. I was supportive of the decision. So we sold our house - thankfully in less than a week we were under contract. To move into a teeny tiny apartment. We have been living in this apartment for just over 6 months and I'm about to loose it. I was optimistic at first. But we, like you, want to live in the country. And would prefer not to see any neighbors. Well we have only looked at 2 houses. Yes, that's correct 2 houses. One of which was nothing that we would have even considered but we are getting desperate. DH also has one of those lovely jobs where he has to be within 15 minutes (not miles but minutes) from his job for on call purposes.... Being this is a rural setting, NOTHING ever comes on the market and it feels like no one ever moves! .... We still have an offer in on one place, that is beautiful! But it's been in for over 2 months (owned by an utility company) - I'm praying we hear something soon....
Anyways sorry for the rant, but just wanted to tell you to keep your head up... At least you've had some houses to look at
And I just keep telling myself that everything happens for a reason. Maybe this house that I love so much seems right for us right now but if we don't get it, I'm trying to be optimistic that there is something better for us and that it just wasn't meant to be.
*** My Bio *** For Sale ***
Oh, dont apologize for the rant! Never in my life did I imagine finding a house would be this difficult. The market in our area is stuck like yours. I was telling a friend the other night that there are 59 houses for sale in our township, about 5 of them being in the country. Only 2 of them are in our price range and they just so happen to be the 2 we've tried!
I kind of wish we could have minutes to limit us instead of the township. Minutes would open up SO many options to us. Which is the other issue I'm having. There is AT LEAST 1 home in basically every surrounding township that we would want, but can't have because its 1 road out of the township.
As irritating as it is, I am so thankful that my husband has a job. He's dreamt of working at the fire department in town since he was a little boy haha.
I'm glad that we aren't the only ones like this...I honestly was thinking maybe we are just being to picky... All his family keeps saying how many houses there are in the area, and oh you should look at this one or that one. Well most of the time they are more than 15 minutes or it's not what we are looking for. If we had to stick with just the township - we would be in SERIOUS trouble! But I mean we are in a very small farming community...
I honestly didn't think finding a house was going to be easy, because the last house we bought it took us over a 100 houses and about 9 months...But it at least we had houses to look at. I didn't think that we'd only see two houses in 6 months. It's starting to get depressing! Oh well I just keep saying this over and over, the rent is cheap and we are saving money for our dream house....If it ever comes along!
*** My Bio *** For Sale ***
With such limited inventory available, I'd pursue the empty lot option and build something affordable on it. You can always add-on later. And at least that way you could get the floorplan and style that you really want.
We also live out in the country. We have plenty of inventory if you are paying $600k or more, but that was significantly more than we were willing to spend. We spent 18 months in the market and had 3 cancelled contracts before we finally closed. The entire experience exhausted every ounce of patience that we had. But what can you do? You can't make people put their houses on the market. You just have to be patient. And if you are the praying kind, a little prayer never hurt!
I can't imagine waiting that long. I think the only reason we are so eager to get out is just because the last 2 years since my dad passed have been so rough with us both finishing school, getting married and me trying to juggle all of that while running a business and closing his estate. If my dad was still here, things would be different.
We've definitely said our prayers about the whole situation and are true believers that if its meant to be, its meant to be.
As of last night, we've decided to wait out the back up offer until Monday. Thats the deadline for the first offer to have financing in order. If they don't get their financing, all we have to do is change the address and sign a new loan application. But, if they do get financing, we are going to pursue the 5.5 acres and find a builder!