Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Good News!

So, we're NOT moving in May. Whoo hoo!! Now I can have my gallbladder surgery, and let the little dude on a sleep schedule before taking him all the way across the country. This is very good news indeed.

In other news, houses are way cheap in Ohio. WAY CHEAP. Like, cheaper to buy than rent cheap. We've been looking at rentals for a while now, and it's like, Dang! You want how much for that house?? So today, out of curiousity, I started looking at the real estate website again (the one I had banned myself from) and started putting numbers into the PITI calculator. Yeah, we'd get a better house for less money if we buy. But then there's that whole renting it out issue again. Man, I thought I was done thinking about this!!!! You see why I have issues??? We keep praying about it, but neither one of us feel like we're getting an answer. Hello!! We need some guidance down here!!

If anyone has any house buying advice, I'd really like to hear it!!!

Anywho. I promised Nora some cookies. Should probably go take care of that.

2 comments:

rebecca said...

You should take into consideration how much it will cost to have a management company manage your property after you are gone. Personally, I love that we own, but we bought a house knowing we would be here for a good 5 years while Daniel went to school.

Oh, and you also need to take into consideration closing costs, if the seller doesn't pay them its a good $3,000 for that plus your down payment at closing. Those fees are whats keeping us from refinancing, if we decided to pay extra onto the loan instead of refinancing we would pay it of almost as quickly as refinancing. Those fees are like lost money if you ask me.

But, yeah our house payment is only $620 and you can't rent a 3br for that, even in the crappy neighborhoods where you pray for your safety every night.

Not-so-tiny Tim said...

I'm sure you've already looked into this, but check on what the property taxes are for your neighborhood, along with the homeowner's insurance. That can add a sizable amount of money to chuck out each year. Not to mention if your house is part of a homeowners association.

I will say that it's a nice time to buy, with housing prices really low & interest rates down where they are. Just take into account how long you plan on owning the home (living in & renting) and how much of your mortgage payment is going toward interest & how much toward equity. It's not an easy decision, but it's nice to have a place of your own.