Monday, June 30, 2014

Little Teaser and the path to get there

Louis and I have been talking about buying a house lately. I've been very, VERY casually browsing homes-just kinda getting a sample of what's out there and what the prices are looking like  these days. Yesterday we actually took the time to go look at one that I found that we both really liked. It is in the best part of town, at least in our opinion, good ole Southeast Boise. We love it here. The house prices are a bit more affordable out in Meridian or other parts of Boise , but it's just not our thing. Problem with this part of town is the houses are more expensive, but apparently re-sell is never a worry over here. Plus I work over here, my parents live over here, and the girls go to school not far away, so there is no reason to go elsewhere. The best part of this house, besides location and it being brand new and sparkly clean, is it is completely affordable. It is well below what our pre-approval amount estimated. It is actually quite a bit below even the conservative figure we were given, which is good. I don't want a house payment that is so high that you are a slave to your house. We don't need a huge house in the most opulent neighborhood. I have a few stipulations and most of them are a nice kitchen since I love to cook and its the heart of the home. This house would need very little work expect for some vanity type changes- paint the walls, blinds, perhaps some wainscoting in the office or something, but all that would be cosmetic and no rush. Here's a few pictures of the home so you all can fall in love with it just like I did. The address is 974 E Wright which is just right off Apple and Law, about 5 minutes from my moms house.


**This computer is being stupid and wont let me upload some pictures, so here's the link to a virtual tour of the property:974 E Wright**


We sat down, like adults-boring right?!?!, and did our monthly budget and figured out all of our money stuff. Like I already said- BORING! Anyways, we have decided we are going to open a joint account and stash away about $2K a month, and then when we are ready we should have more
than enough to put down a decent down payment. We already are in the mind set of being obligated to put down 20%, if for some odd reason we get an FHA loan( with only 3.5% required down) or something vs a standard loan through a bank, then we will have a nice cushion left in the account. After bills are paid and we have socked away our monthly 2k savings it leaves us with almost another 2k as leisure money. What I suggest and we will see how it goes, is that we each get a 100$ a week as pocket change- buy a coffee on the way to work, go out to lunch, buy a coke on the way, etc., but the rest of it is there for those little things life hands us- car registration, doctors appointments, new pair of shoes for the girls, etc. Hopefully there will be money left over after all that stuff and we can blow it on whatever. In a perfect world, this is how I have it planned!! :) Here's to hope!