Good news!

The bank decided to accept our offer on Lancer Oak Dr. after all. Now we just need to decide if we actually can afford/want the house!

And...

I suppose the search continues.

This stuff sure can do a number on a relationship. Grr...

Lancer Oak Dr. update

At least we were valid candidates this time.

The bank (seller) came back with a counter-offer, but its much more than we can afford. We really can't come back with anything higher than we already offered. So, I guess we don't get the house. It's quite discouraging. I just don't know how to keep searching, or if we even should keep searching. Today, I thought once again about leaving Florida. If we buy a home, it won't be easy to just pick up and go, but I really do want a house too.

I wish the Staples "easy button" actually worked with real life situations.

Waterford home update

No go on the Waterford home. We offered 2K over asking, but it turns out the seller has cash offers that are definately higher than that.

14415 WATERFORD CHASE PKWY

While we're waiting for a response from the bank on the Lancer Oak Dr. home, we went along with our realtor to look at a new listing in the Waterford Lakes area today (close to Kevin's work.) We've already seen four different realtors at the place since it hit the market on Saturday (five if you count our own realtor.) I'm guessing this home is hot with a lot of competition. Our realtor also expects that's the case. It's pretty much exactly what we're looking for 3 bedrooms, 2 bath..ready to live into with the right floor plan.

Pros:
Great neighborhood
Great location
Great floor plan
Ready to move into
Decent sized bedrooms
Nice kitchen space
Nice tile floors (the kind I'd do if I was re-flooring a home)
Sits next to a "lake" (aka retention pond)
Extra nook in the garage for Kevin's stuff

Cons:
Sits on a busy road. There isn't much noise, but there is a lot of traffic.
Backyard isn't fenced. (But others in the neighborhood are, which means there's no restriction against fencing it in.)

Update

We made an offer on the house on Lancer Dr.
Now we just have to play the waiting game...

It is bank owned, so that could take a little longer than a normal house. From our past offer-making experiences, it'll be about 2 weeks before we know anything. I have a feeling our offer will be shot-down since it's less than asking and we expect the bank that owns it to pay for a new A/C unit. We shall see, I guess.

I'm also a little concerned that we offered more than we can afford. Kevin is working the budget to make sure everything is still ok.

::sigh::


Oh, and for something not house related. I seriously hurt my back and it looks like it could be something serious (well, not life threatening serious,but pain for life serious.) And now I'm fighting with the insurance company to cover the proper tests.

::sigh::

Life is a constant battle.

97 LANCER OAK DR, APOPKA

Pros:
HUGE (6 bedrooms. What would we do with all that space? oh the possibilities!)
Nice neighborhood
Nice floor plan
big master bed and bath
big kitchen
2 stories
Lots of space to work with.

Cons:
Needs appliances
No A/C (but we're trying to get seller to pay for it.)
Holes in the walls (people mad cuz they got foreclosed on) Easy to fix. Just drywall.
2 windows missing.
ugly kitchen counters
dirty bathrooms
not much backyard
No fancy tub. (but space to put one in).
Needs new carpet, but not right away necessarily.

I messed up

I've tried really, really hard not to let myself get attached to any single house. But I did fall in love with the home on Kati Lynn Drive yesterday. This afternoon I found out that it sold this morning. An offer was accepted on it THIS MORNING. We saw it last night.

I really feel like we don't have a chance at getting a home. And now, I'll be comparing every place we look at with this home and I just know that nothing else will be good enough. I loved the floor plan too much. I loved that it had a little bit of land. I loved everything about it...even the location, which Kevin wasn't fond of at all.

I feel like if Kevin and I had the chance to talk this home over and decided it wasn't right for us, I wouldn't feel so heart broken. But it got sold before we even had a chance to discuss it thoroughly. This is why I'm so frustrated. EVERYTHING we've liked has been sold out from under us. It just isn't fair.

Sure, I'm whining and complaining. But I came home today crying about a house. The stress is unbearable and I don't even feel like looking at homes anymore. We've looked at..probably close to 30 houses and have found 4 that would work for us. They all sold either way too quickly, or way above listing price and we just can't afford that. I just don't care to look anymore.

400 ROCKBRIDGE CT, APOPKA

This is our second favorite of all the homes we've seen, but it also has the issue of location. It'd be a 45 min drive to work for Kevin.

Pros
very nice neighborhood
nice floor plan
nice backyard
super nice bathroom with 2 person tub and separate shower!

Cons
kitchen needs more counter/cabinet space
guest bathroom needs some work, mainly a new tub
location (45 min. drive for kevin)

4709 KATI LYNN DR, APOPKA

We really, really like this home. It's everything we're looking for in a house. The ONLY real problem with it is location. We decided to look in other areas of the county to see if we could find something better, and we did. But this would be an hour drive to work for Kevin. Is it worth it? What would you do? (oh yeah, and there's a burned out car in the backyard. weird much?)

Pros
perfect floor plan
ready to move in
has a master suite instead of just a bedroom
4 bedrooms instead of 3
big kitchen
plenty of living space
big back yard (almost 1/2 acre)
right down the street from Rock Springs!
nice sized bathrooms
in the "country"
big back patio

Cons
location (an hour drive for kevin.)
I would re-do the kitchen cabinets eventually. They're very dated.
I'd eventually re-do the tile. It's nice tile, but not my style.
Backyard needs fenced in
burned out car in the backyard (weird?)

2154 KAYLAS CT

So, the good news (if you want to call it good news) is that our offer on Northern Leaf Cir. was not accepted. That means we're definately still in the market for a home.

2154 Kaylas Ct. is in a neighborhood near the one on Northern Leaf Cir. It's another very competitive real estate neighborhood. I like this home a lot, but it's in the upper end of our budget, and I doubt we'll actually get it.

Pros

Location
floor plan
ready to move in
super nice master bathroom
has a lot of interesting angles in the living room and kitchen area that would be fun to work with
no neighbors on two sides of the home

Cons

Right across the street from the high school. Afternoon noise and traffic?

Still on the smaller side of things (though I think its totally doable)

not much of a back yard & no fence

pricier HOA fees (but not too obnoxious)

Offer

We put an offer on the home on Northern Leaf Cir. We should find out today whether we get it, but I think we've both decided that even if we do.. we don't want the house. We'll keep looking. I think I felt pressured to put an offer on a home because we were getting so discouraged by the market. Our realtor feels very confident that we'll be able to get out of the house with no problem. The good news is, we didn't sign a contract that says we HAVE to take the home. In the meantime, we did find another home we're interested in and I'll post pics soon.

Northern Leaf Ct.

Pros:
Ready to live in. It needs very little work
Big garden tub, big shower, healthy sized master bath
Decent guest bath
4 bedrooms instead of 3.
Close to Kevin's work
Good neighborhood
Built in 2003

Cons:
Small living room
Small kitchen
Not much space for entertaining
Very small backyard
Neighbors are right there on all 4 sides.
No patio
Right down the street from a high school. I wonder if band practice will keep me awake in the afternoons when I need to be sleeping?

Ginger Cir.

Pros:

- price!
- neighborhood looks nice and quiet and well developed
- far from any big roads
- very small HOA fee/few rules
- pool (which is also a con, depending on how you look at it)
- big back yard
- awesome appliances
- good floor plan/use of space for the size
- vaulted ceilings
- big screened in patio
- workbench in the garage
- I love the kitchen (also a con, depending on how you look at it)



Cons:
- needs new flooring in the living room and bedrooms
- previous owner half-did the upgrades.. only half the cabinets in the kitchen are new, and I wonder if I'd be able to find the exact same cabinets to complete it.
- there's tile in the kitchen, but linolium in the bathrooms and entry-way. (Again, the owner half did it and I wonder if I'll be able to match it)
- small bathrooms (huge con for me.) No space for upgrading.
- popcorn ceilings (easy enough to fix)
- location is kind of annoying. The main road that you HAVE to take to get to the neighborhood is ALWAYS backed-up, especially during rush hour.

House Shopping

After much debate, Kevin and I have decided we are ready to buy a house. This is a huge, scary move for me. Owning a house is the biggest responsibility a person can have, other than having a kid. Once we buy a house, we can't back out of it. We can't whine to a landlord because the A/C broke and we can't just move because we don't like our neighbors. It's a big deal.

BUT.. I think it's a huge step that we've thought about very thoroughly and I think it's something we can handle financially and mentally.

There's so much to learn about real estate, credit, and mortgages. It feels like I'm back in school with all the terms, rules, trends, and choices we've had to research. Every day I'm learning more about the different options out there for potential home buyers to choose from.

There is nothing fun about shopping for a home.

• Step number one: get pre-approval and find a lender.
  We thought we had this one nailed down. We got our "good faith estimate" and decided who we were going to have our mortgage with. But then, something nasty turned up on my credit. The people who put that nasty mark there admitted they were wrong and agreed to remove it from my credit, but now I'm stuck dealing with that and trying to push for it to get done quickly so that we can put an offer down on a house.
  
• Step number two: find a house.
  Here's where the real problem stands. For some bizarre reason, I thought it would be fun to visit different homes and find the one that's perfect for us.. that is not at all the case. So far we've found three homes that we like, but it takes me too long to realize that I like them. By the time I make up my mind about the house, it's already off the market. This is a serious problem for me.

Competition

I feel like a life-changing decision shouldn't be made overnight. I can't just walk into a home and say, "yes! We'll take it!" It takes me several days to go over all of the pros and cons. It takes several visits to the neighborhood at different hours of the day to see whether it's the right spot for us to call home. It takes second, third, and fourth looks at the floorplan to decide if it's what I want.

Our realtor (who we love by the way) says the reason the places are getting bought-out from under us is because the market is flooded with investors. He tells us these people are sometimes buying two or three houses a day...CASH. How can we compete with that? Even if we offer asking-price for the home, there's a really good chance we won't get it because someone has else is willing to offer MORE than asking price. And these homes are often leaving the market the same day they get posted to the MLS. It just isn't fair to the average first-time home buyer.

So today, I'm waiting to hear back from our realtor. We found a home we want to put an offer on, but I'm expecting a phone call from him saying its already off the market or there are already ten other offers on the house.

I just get so attached to things, and I wish I wouldn't. When I've made up my mind about something..then that's it.. I'm attached. And I am unfortunately, very much attached to the home I'm pretty sure he's going to tell us "no deal" on today. :-(