Although we knew it was going to be hard to find something that would make us happy, we thought that we had pretty reasonable/easy to find requirements. The only things that a rental property needed to have was a garage (we have a '52 Chevy pick-up, which we need to store), at least two bedrooms, be pet friendly, and a small yard for our dog to do her business.
We thought our budget was pretty reasonable for our "needs" as well. We were willing to go as high as our mortgage payment, but were hoping to get something a bit cheaper to help us save for a down payment. Other than that, we were pretty flexible. We were hoping to stay in the town we live in, since I work here, Liam's preschool is here, Nolan's daycare is here, and it's convenient for Joe work-wise. But even that was negotiable for the right place.
Because a house sale can fall through all the way up to the closing date, our Realtor suggested that we wait as long as possible to sign any paperwork on a rental and/or pay any fees. If the sale were to fall through at the last minute, we would not only be out of any money we had already put down, but also the cancellation of the lease fees, and (of course) any money we had put into packing/moving. Because of her advice, we didn't really start looking until we hit the three week until closing mark (we're super happy we took her advise, because we did hit a snag or two, but that's another post...).
Unfortunately for us, the three week mark hit right about the same time as school starting, so people stopped listing rentals-apparently, everyone wants to be settled by the time the school year begins- so our list of options were dwindling fast. Also, finding pet-friendly housing is much harder than we thought. Everything within our price range and desired locations, was opposed to doggies and kitties.
Fast forward a couple of weeks to yesterday, a week and a half before closing, and we still hadn't found anything that would work. Joe and I decided that we would just have to make whatever met our requirements work, no matter what the downsides. We needed to have a place to go, and the decision needed to be made by the end of the day.
We reviewed our list, and had two possible options: a small townhouse in a town a few miles away from our current home, which would save us a lot of money monthly, or a house with more than enough space, in the same town, that was near the top of our budget. After a lot of discussion, running the numbers several ways, and a pro/con list for each, we decided to go with the bigger home. We don't know how long it will take to find the perfect house, and we don't want to feel rushed into it because we're so uncomfortable in the home we're living in.
We are so happy to finally know where we are going, and be able to plan our near future. Being a mommy with no plan for your babies, is a tough place to be, and I'm so so glad we won't deal with that situation again!
No comments:
Post a Comment