Decisions, Decisions
Every time I sit down to write about how I feel about purchasing this house, my mind has completely changed from how I felt the last time I sat down. One minute I’m overwhelmed by the unevenness of the floors and convinced that I’ll never be able to resell the house for a profit no matter how much I refinish the floors or how many decks and swing sets I add, but the next minute my brother is sending me links to possible play structures for the backyard and I have no doubts about this being the perfect first (owned) home for my little family.
Mostly my worry is whether I should wait until spring, when more houses will come on the market. As I mentioned when I first started looking at places, everything left on the market right now is stuff that’s been on for a while because it’s weird in some way. This house is small (which doesn’t bother me so much anymore), doesn’t have a garage or carport (which bothers me a bit more because my price limit could potentially get me a house with that kind of structure, and damn I would love to not have to scrape my car windows in the winter — plus we really need that bit of extra storage for things like bikes and our Christmas decorations, etc.), and it has some “settling,” which means that the utility room area of the house slants downward in a noticeable fashion. This is the biggie and even though it won’t cost much to make sure the problem doesn’t continue (about $500 according to the inspector), you can’t really fix the current slant without significant remodel work on the house (because lifting the corner will crack all the walls to shit) and because it makes the house feel less sturdy or less secure or less grounded or whatever, it turns people off. Both my realtor and the seller believe this is the biggest reason why the house is still on the market.
The slant of that room doesn’t bother me that much, especially once it’s been secured so that it won’t continue, but I do understand the off-putting feeling that it conveys, I certainly experienced that myself. I wonder if I wait until spring, whether I could find a house with no weird foundation issues, with a garage or carport, with a little more storage space, but still with comparable character to this house. And, of course, a comparable yard and a comparable neighborhood, which are two huge things this house has going for it.
There’s no rush, right? you might be saying to yourself. Why not wait until spring because you’re right, there will be more houses on the market at that time and you might be able to find the house of your dreams. Here are the reasons that make that more complicated:
1) In order to afford this house (and any non-condo, really), I am using a down payment assistance program through my city (and the state). They only have a bit of money left for the year, and it will certainly be gone before the year is done. They’ll get more money next year, but, according to my lender who specializes in this program, it won’t be available until March. That means I’d have to wait until March.
2) Waiting until March is fine, except for the fact that folks who want to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit have to be in contract on a home by the end of April (and close by the end of June). That means that first time homebuyers who are taking advantage of both of these programs (not uncommon for first time homebuyers in my city) will all have the same March-April period during which to find a home and make an offer. My price range is the bottom of the current price range for low-to-moderate income first time homebuying families, which means that we will all be looking at the same homes. Given how the potential end of the $8,000 tax credit affected the market in October (sharp spike in sales), I worry that waiting until spring will result in my trying to buy in a market that’s going to be artificially inflated (and out of my price range) due to these other factors.
3) And even if I’m wrong about that potentially inflated market, there’s no guarantee that I’ll find a house I like. Yes, two months is a longer period of time than the two weeks I’m currently wrapping up, and yes, there are more houses on the market come spring, but still, there are no guarantees.
Right now, at this very moment, valid for this second only with no future guarantees, I’m feeling pretty good about buying the house. Or rather, there’s a shitload of stuff that has to be done as a result of the inspection, both things that the bank will require and things that I just want done for my own happiness, and I’m feeling pretty good about asking for them despite the fact that the seller proclaimed that his acceptance of my offer meant no further work on the house. So really, I’m feeling good because the decision is currently out of my hands. If he says no, I can’t buy the house. If he says yes, I can, and I’ll get a good deal out of it. Tomorrow night we write up the inspection results and then we’ll see what we’ll see.