h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We went to a mortgage broker last week to educate ourselves about the whole not-throwing-money-into-the-rathole-that-is-renting thing, and to learn if this was something that would be remotely possible for us any time soon. We got lots and lots of information (we were there for over 2 hours! and Faith ended up earning ice-cream out of it ) and, while we didn't do the entire pre-approval process, we do now know that Tom's credit is obscenely good (and mine's not too bad, though we'd definitely use his numbers)--more than good enough to get us the lowest interest rate possible. We already know that we want a stick-built house *ponders--would a brick house be considered stick-built--completely academic, as there don't appear to be any brick homes 'round these here parts* as opposed to a mobile home, since mobiles depreciate quite badly. Of course, guess what kind of housing actually fits into the price range we'd be looking at We did a bit of driving around today, and at least we've eliminated some properties--that one fixer-upper appears to need a bit more work than we'd be up for, and, darn, that one's in escrow. And we're getting a bit more of a feel for the market, as we wrote down addresses with signs in front and I looked them up in the listing book. Though we did have *some* clue--quite a few houses we drove past and immediately knew that there was no way, and didn't bother to even stop. Though I can't believe that the little tiny house was the price it turned out to be--I could understand if it had a good amount of land, but the lot was small too!

In other "grown-up" news, a certain litle girl has reached 2.5 weeks (and counting!) with no accidents! And she just broke an I-don't-know-how-long streak of waking up dry, because of illness.

Very dear Amy,Tom ad Faith,

How excited you must both be. One's very own first home is something so special. I am so pleased that you took expert advice on it. I shall pray hard that you find your "dream" house at a price you can afford.

And well done to Faith.

with much affection and a great deal of admiration

Christiane AR1

I have had a great deal of experience in the building of homes, and even more in the plumbing, electrical, etc. Even so, when we bought this place (our first) we sought every bit of experienced advice that we could. Financial as well as physical. And indeed, there is no feeling quite equal to the first time you walk in the door of YOUR house. Good luck with the pursuit, Lady.

And of course, loads of praise and for the paper-baby.

Amy, I hope you find a house that's just right for you! Did he tell you about the possibility of borrowing "fix-up" money too? If you find a "fixer-upper" that's far enough below your max mortgage, you can sometimes qualify for enough money on the mortgage to do the repairs on it too.

I'm not trying to scare you off of home ownership, but there's also the thing of houses always needing something fixed. That's a real problem during the first year (make sure you get a warranty to cover any major expenses like a new roof), but after that you should have enough of an income tax refund (from the interest on the house, which you can deduct) to pay for any big repairs.

One of the best things about owning a house is that the payment, while it can go up (as property based taxes rise), the payment doesn't go up nearly as fast as rent increases.

I quite agree with the assesment that a mobile home just isn't going to be a good investment - they depreciate like cars! Worse than that, a lot of mobile home communities don't even allow homes over a certain age, so you get stuck in this cycle of buying a new one every so often (not to mention the problem of figuring out what to do with the old one).

Anyhow, good luck with it!

Yes, good luck, but can I ask a question? What does "stick built" mean?

"Stick-built" means that the house is built from the ground up, with a foundation, etc., rather than built in a factory and carted to its eventual destination.

Oh, you mean a REAL house then? It was a new term to me as well ...

I would've just said 'real', but then I couldn't've thrown in the pondering about brick houses Which probably *are* referred to as stick-built, jargon-wise, just like the brick-and-mortar stores 'round here are mostly wood.

Dear Paul,

Thank you for explaining what a "stick-built" house means. It is the first time that I have heard the term.

Best wishes,

AR1

Dear Rev. Nick,

thank you for "owning-up" that you, too, had not heard of that expression before!! I so often feel an absolute idiot saying that I do not know expressions which are used "across the pond". Many of which are totally strange to me.

Very nice to read your home page. My eldest brother lives in Canada. I have never been so cold as when I went and spent a christmas with them when they lived in London Ontario!!. Now they live Ottawa - I think!!/

Congratulations on becoming a Poppy again!!.

Kind regards

Also Ran1

I grew up not very far from London, and so know of the winters there. And been on the Rideau Canal in January a couple of times. Your brother must have a penchant for frigid, eh?

Mind, I have lived and worked in far harsher places in this country. And may even soon see the coldest one for me yet. A place where the arctic fox will walk up to a person and sniff them well, having no idea what a people-creature is. It may even be approaching day-break the week or two that I will be there.

Well, you got a lot of congrats and serious replies, so let me just say this:


Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional.

for the clarification. I gathered from context that it meant something other than a trailer, though presumably it also rules out the sort of prefabricated buildings they used to throw up in the sixties.

In case anyone's wondering how the house-hunting's coming--it's not. There's nothing currently on the market that we can afford. It's not like we're going for anything fancy, either--we want at least 3 bedrooms because we're planning on having more children, and it's bound to be simpler to get a 3rd bedroom to begin with than to add on later. I want at least 1.5 bathrooms because I want 2 toilets (2 full baths would be better...) We want our own piece of land, not a mobile home in a park, since we'd still be paying rent... We've looked at empty land, but our current situation is such that we're not allowed to own real estate unless we live on/in it, so that doesn't do us much good. We've toyed with the idea of a 2 bedroom place (either mobile or stick-built) on a piece of land large enough to build on later. We've thought about fixer-uppers--the only one around that's affordable and not in the middle of a remodel that the current owners aren't going to finish (no ceilings at present) or obviously in dire shape (we're talking what looks like major structural problems to a couple of laypeople on a simple drive-by) is the one in a area known to have more than its share of environmentally-caused health problems--it's in a valley that abuts timber company land and has been seen to be covered by haze when the trees are sprayed

So no news on this front, and there likely won't be any soon, though I do now notice every time a for sale sign goes up.

Oh, and I forgot to say that we even started going the tax auction route, but the one property that we were going to do some more research on (it had a house on it, which is rare for auctions 'round here)--such as what kind of shape the house was in--was withdrawn, presumably because the back taxes were paid.

It is amazing the things that you begin to notice, when you are actively seeking, eh? I never paid much attention to condition, add-ons, symmetry, exterior materials. Now, I see so many flaws or good ideas.

I think I'd mentioned somewhere that we started looking again, but I can't remember where I did so Anyway, we've expanded our looking to 2 bedroom places, on the theory that we could hold on and sell in a few years, if necessary (or maybe add on a master bedroom and bathroom, though that seems to be just in *my* head...)

We know a lady that is selling her house, and the listing says that the owner will carry. If I understand last night's research, that's the same as owner financing, which is good. My paycheck (which I only get 10 months of the year anyway) is a *bit* too small to qualify us for anything with an official lender, and, while Tom *is* getting paid at Daily Bread, it's a technically a stipend (though more per month than my check, which, since he's full time or more and I'm part time, is certainly fair, though not what I tend to think of when I think of stipends) and I'm guessing official lenders don't like those (at least since the sub-prime collapse thingy http://activerain.com/blogsview/166103/Buyers-and-Sellers-Are ). It's most definitely a fixer-upper (I didn't get out of the car when we went by to visit the lady, but Tom did, and from what he's said, sounds like everything but frame, foundation, and roof needs replacing/major work). We're going to officially look at it Wimpy morning. Since the owner would like us to get it, she may be willing to come down on the already low price What we'd do is get a trailer to park in the driveway and stay in while we work on the house--we've already bounced the idea to get a trailer and stay in one of the nicer RV parks in the area to save money, so we've already looked at some trailers. While the rent's cheap here, since it's based on your income, you're not allowed to live here if you have over $5K, which makes saving up a bit difficult... Plus, with what Tom and my income will be once I start getting paid again, our rent will be on a par with normal rents in the area. The house is approximately 800 square feet, so it's not very big, but I just measured the apartment (out of curiosity) and it came to around 700 square feet, so that's OK then. Oh, and the listing's at http://ccmls.fnismls.com/publink/default.asp?GUID=f6ceb574-07db-45e6-9fcc-7f5c8e286753&Report=Yes if anyone wants to peek. (Not much of a photo, but it looks like the yard got picked up some for it--one reason the lady's selling is that the anti-blight folks were after her)

Forgot to mention--the neighborhood's very nice--this house is the obligatory 'bad house'

It does look like a serious DIY challenge. Are the 3 of you up to the workings yourself, cutting as many 'contractor' costs as possible? With full-time employment, I'd personally be somewhat leery of taking on that much. But if you think you can deal with it, perhaps with some assists from folks that you've come to know quite well this past couple of years ...

I wish you much luck with the decision process, Lady. And with which-ever way the vote goes.

Well, one of the things Daily Bread does is day labor, so we'd have access to help