That Could Have Gone Better...

We ventured out to meet our realtor at the first of four houses this morning at 9. We got there at 8:30 after breakfast at Jack in the Box and nervously waited.

From the outside, the house looked fine. However, inside was a completely different story. The first thing we noticed was that the carpets were awful -- stained and damaged. That wasn't a total deal breaker. Then, we spotted water damage on the ceiling and in the utility closet. Even though we knew after that, we weren't getting this particular house, we took an extended look around and found a door that had been previously kicked in and holes in the wall. The realtor also told us that we'd have to bring in a range to put in the empty spot for them to even appraise it. So no.

We drove a couple miles to the next house. It was in better shape. The carpets were pretty bad, and there was some rotting on the wood on the backyard door frame. We'd have to fix those things before the VA would appraise it. It was something worth considering until the realtor checked and found out they already had 15 offers and were taking one very soon. He said that investors tended to snatch up foreclosures at this price and pay in cash, which would be accepted over a VA loan offer.

When we arrived at the third home, the realtor told us that the last two homes had accepted offers this morning so there was nothing to look at. They had been on the market for less than 10 days each. We were pretty down about the whole thing. He put us on an email list to get new listings as they popped up and asked if we could expand our search.

We drove up north to Conroe and liked the area. It would be a 25-30 minute drive to my husband's work, but he works nights so at least it would be less traffic than if he worked a typical day shift. We have until September 15 to go into closing to have a Nov 1 move in date. We found out, though, that we would have a first payment in December if we took possession in October so that's an option as well. Anything from August 16 to September 15 would work for a 45 day contract.

On the way to Conroe, we decided that if we had to, we'd figure something out as far as temporary lodging goes since we can't afford to live in this apartment on a month to month basis. Worst case scenario is that we have to move into one of those monthly rate motels for a little while and put our stuff in storage.

My husband sent me listings in Conroe so I suppose it's time to go over them and try not to get overly attached to any of them.