House update …
SCREWED!!!!!
We waited for the paperwork, but when it finally came through they were asking for the extra 10k to be in cash! They would not accept us financing it, presumably because they knew it would not appraise for more than the $510k we had originally offered. We checked, checked and checked again but there was no way we could re-jig our finances to be able to come up with the extra money. We went back to them with our only options and they wouldn’t accept. So reluctantly yesterday we cancelled our offer and they placed the house back on the market. Gutted!
We have gone through all of the other options, houses in our price range in all of the areas we like and don’t like. As fun as living in the mountains sounds, the risk of earthquake landslip and mountain lions and coyotes eating the cats kind of out ways it. We know the areas we like and we don’t want to compromise on area or commute time.
So that leaves us with two options …
Buy a house that is in our price range in the areas we feel comfortable with, that requires compromise on size of house, size of plot etc.
Or rent a house for. The problem with this option is that most house rentals in the bay area are based on a one year lease. If we tie ourselves in to a one year lease we won’t be able to seriously look at houses again until next summer, by which time who knows what will have happened to the market and mortgage rates. It also means the prospect of moving twice in 12 months and I have really had enough of moving!!!
The best option seems to be the compromise house option, after all Kirsty and Phil are always banging on about the fact you can’t get exactly what you want and there is always a compromise somewhere.
We have a house in mind, one that we considered whilst waiting on Kenwood, but Kenwood was too good a house to not at least try for. The house we are considering is a regular sale, so we wouldn’t have to wait more than a day for an answer on any offer we put in. It is in much better condition than Kenwood. It has a decent amount of living space and a huge lot, bigger than Kenwood. There are however two big compromises, 1. there are only 2 bedrooms, which would mean future building work to extend or convert. And 2. it is on a busy street, it’s a 2 lane each way main road, with a decent amount of traffic throughout the whole day. The house is on a corner though and we think we can see a good way of making an entrance on the side street and fencing/hedging off the front of the house in order to reduce road noise and make it feel more private.
We are going to view the house again with our realtors in the next couple of days and will see if we want to put an offer in and whether we really can compromise on that road. Oh the other decent thing about the house is we think we can get it for about $40k less than Kenwood!!! Which would make a nice difference both on our monthly payments and in terms of being able to do a small amount of work with the capital we have left.
Anyway, that’s the update for now. Who knows what will happen this week, but fingers crossed we won’t be living in an empty apartment at Christmas!
Peace and love peeps.
Fi
xxx