21 Feb 2001 (updated 3 Mar 2001 at 22:12 UTC)
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Buying a House
Don't ever let people tell you that buying a house is
scary. Don't let them tell you that getting approved is
hard. Especially if you have a steady job, and aren't a
complete basket case with your credit. Getting pre-qualified
was about as easy as breathing, and I was a basket
case ( back in college - still hanging with me, though ).
Now, finding a house is an entirely different
matter. Looking over different neighborhoods, realizing what
you can get for your dollar, trying to decide whether to buy
a ready-to-move-into house or a fixer-upper.
My gf and I live in Richmond, VA. We looked at some
historic neighborhoods, we looked at up and coming
re-development neighborhoods, we looked in the suburbs, we
looked in the boonies. We finally settled on a nice quiet
neighborhood close into town on the north side called
Bellevue/Ginter Park. We made an offer on a house and the
owner accepted.
Now we go through the process of getting the Inspectors
and Appraisers in. See, the house was For Sale By Owner (
known to our RealtorĀ® as a Fizbo ), and the owner didn't
want to contribute to closing costs or agent commissions, so
we had to inflate our offer to compensate for these factors.
Now the house has to appraise at our inflated offer price or
more, or we can't get the loan.
Actual Work Stuff
Not much going on here. Been Zoping still. Writing
a data validation module in Python to handle lots of form
stuff. It's fun.