The Time We Bought a House, Part 4
With another burned resale, we went to test out the new home/spec home market. Two houses in two neighborhoods called our respective attention. Mine was a decked out 1,500ish sq. ft. 3/2 house in a neighborhood that reminded me of Circle C in SW Austin a lot. The obvious drawback is that it’s small, but it looked pretty slick with its granite counters and dark wood cabinets. The neighborhood is new and still has a ways to go until it’s fully built out, I’d say it’s only about 30-40% built so that means we’ll have to deal with construction noise and possibly have to square off against a builder in resale. Another drawback was the clueless sales manager.
When we first arrived at the office, she asked in small talk fashion whether or not we were looking a house today. Feeling a little saucy, I shot back: “No, we’re actually looking for a burger”. My deadpan sarcasm fell on deaf ears. The remainder of the time we were there she brought up hamburgers and good places with hamburgers. Ugh.
So on to the other house: this one was a bit bigger and for the same price. It clocks in at 1,800 sq ft and change, has three bedrooms, a study and two full bathrooms. This neighborhood is about 75% completed and has a little pond and hiking trail around it.
I really liked the smaller home and neighborhood yet Brenda liked the other bigger home and neighborhood. So it came down to this, an impasse.
Shocker. We are probably the billionth couple who came to an impasse when buying their first home.
I suggested we wait for our Realtor to come back to town (he was away on business when we saw these two new builds) as he sure would have some insights that would sway me or Brenda out of the lockout, and sure enough that’s exactly what happened.
My lovely Circle C-ish home is the runt of its neighborhood, which I knew it was the smallest floor plan but I was OK with it. According to our Realtor, this puts us at a great disadvantage when it’s time to resell: no one’s going to want the runt when they can have a bigger house only for another $10-20k more in the same neighborhood. Not to mention, I would not want to have to talk about burgers with that sales lady every time I saw her.
So off we went to the other house to close the deal. With just a little negotiating needed, we breezed through the process and are currently in escrow! We should close in about a month or so, as the USDA loans take a little longer than conventional loans.
Whew! Buying a home is hard but it sure was fun.
P.S.: I thought about calling this post Final Part, but I’m sure I’ll be chronicling the move, too.
