Andre's Big Blog

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.

The Time We Bought a House, Part 3

I have never seen Brenda cry that much! I was a little disappointed, but she was crying as if I had just broken her heart. She got over it and back on the saddle we got.

But as Brenda said, it’s like dating: you break up, you think the world will end and then you just get back on Match.com and everything’s OK! She’s silly.

So we got back on Match Zillow and with the help of our Realtor picked about six other homes we wanted to see. This trek included seeing a property that the Agent Remarks on its MLS sheet stated it came with a $4,000 allowance in carpeting. Once we pulled up, it became apparent why there was this generous allowance:

We can’t stop here! This is cat country!

A cat smell and some cat piss stains littered some parts of the house. As if that weren’t enough, the owner was lounging on the living room couch on her Kindle without ever bothering to excuse herself to go outside or get out of our way. Rude

On another trip, though, we found another home, a 1,700 sq. ft. piece of real estate in a small subdivision. Sellers were asking a bit too much for the house and I later found out why, I think. We made an offer that was about 10k less than asking plus closing, the -10k would make it comparable to other recent sales in the area. Once we saw the home disclosure, we saw who the sellers were: two gentlemen.

Putting my aforementioned stalking skills to work, I found Facebook pages for both and by putting two and two together realized these two were probably once an item but have now broken up and are hence selling the house. Because they purchased the house somewhat recently, they still owed a lot in interest and hoped to make up some of that difference through overpricing their property which showed really well. Their agent, who looked a bit like a douche, did a remarkable job staging and marketing the property as desirable.

Granted, our offer was low, the seller agent ended up being a douche after all. The main seller, if my stalking is accurate, is a flight attendant. The douchy Realtor said he travels a lot for work (bazinga!) and took him about five days to get back to us on our offer. When he did come back to us, not only did he not have a counter but this dude had the stones to give us an ultimatum to boot, at about mid-afternoon: “we’re currently entertaining all offers we’ve received, make us your best one by noon tomorrow.”

We both agreed to not enter into a bidding war over a home that’s overpriced. It’s a brilliant move by him to allow his sellers part with the asset with the most amount of money, but it was irritating to wait nearly a week on a response while he sat there and collected other offers. That home is now pending, so it worked.

The Time We Bought a House, Part 2

On a Friday morning, B was telling her co-workers about our plan and by Friday afternoon one of her co-workers already had her lined up with a Realtor and a mortgage guy. By the end of the day Friday, we had a pre-qual letter. B doesn’t mess around.

That following Sunday, we went driving around Buda to look at homes and like a beacon in the night there it was: the most beautiful house we had ever seen. With a car that seemingly belonged to a Realtor. And a for sale sign that had a “Coming Soon” placard. We pulled up, talked to the Realtor and she said she was there to clean the house to list it the next day but she’d let us in to take a peek.

It was love at first sight. This home was all open concept, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, an office and a generously sized two-car garage to boot! Our Realtor drew up an offer later that evening even before it was listed and by the next day we had a counter. Mind you, we actually offered more than what the agent was going to list for because we wanted them to pay closing costs. What do the sellers come back with? That higher price but about 800 less in closing costs. It wasn’t perfect, but we liked the house enough to live with the counter.

We scheduled an inspection for a couple of days later and bam, we’d have a house. Here’s where two property virgins end up getting screwed, through no fault but the crazy sellers’. The inspection accused that the roof was nearing the end of its life. Additionally, it had lifted shingles as well as improperly placed shingles on the south side of the house. There was also an active, though dormant, termite nest near the backyard entrance. There were also some minor imperfections, from gutters to home improvements that were supposedly done by an amateur or hobbyist at best.

Our inspection requests were: replace the roof, or provide some sort of assistance to that cause, take care of the termite and those other small-time things. The sellers agreed in principle, but not before taking a weekend break during our option period to celebrate their 37th anniversary with family in town (how do I know this? Because I have stalking skills. I found the seller’s wife on Facebook.)

Before the paperwork could be drawn to solidify the in principle agreement, however, our agent told us that the sellers’ wife flipped a switch on their Realtor and basically backtracked on the whole verbal agreement that was to be formalized, thus shattering our dreams of owning this piece of real estate.

Next up: Realty Screwed, Part 2.

The Time We Bought a House, Part 1

Alternative title: “Growing Up Is Fun, But It Sure Sucks Sometimes”

Well before the end of our lease in New Braunfels, B and I decided that we probably weren’t going to stick around for much longer. We were really excited about moving to New Braunfels last summer: lots of outdoor stuff to do, a seemingly endless supply of fun places to eat and hang out and proximity to a major city. As the months progressed, the way of living in New Braunfels started rearing its ugly head.

Plenty of places we’ve wanted to try for dinner are closed on Mondays. The entertainment area seems confined to the town square, which I’ve grown to call mainplatz. I am far from a German speaker but I have imagine that’s German for something like Main Square and given the town’s pride in their German heritage it seemed appropriate. Most “must-try” restaurants we’ve been recommended are overrated.

Life grinds to a halt in New Braunfels during the winter months. With colder air and cold water on the rivers, it’s not really all that fun to go dip your toes in the water when it’s 60 degrees outside. It was during one of those months, while we were sitting at our favorite bakery/coffee shop on a Friday night, we decided we had had enough of this town.

As the end of our lease approached, however, we wanted to look into leasing a home in Austin but found out that home leases in Austin are about as much as a mortgage so we wanted to see if there was any way we could buy a home without a down payment. Enter the USDA Rural Development Housing Loan Program.

Turns out this program allows homebuyers who meet certain income criteria (check) to purchase a home without a down payment; however, there’s a catch: the property must be in certain areas that are designated by the USDA as rural areas in need of development. The bad news? Austin isn’t one of these areas. The good news? Buda, which is a stone’s throw to the south of the Travis/Hays County line, is one of said areas. So off we went to search for homes in Buda.