House

[Kacie_bride]

I am sooo excited about what I found out! Right now we rent a house and we have a roommate who I like, but I am really tired of living with. Anyway the people who we rent the house from really wants us to buy the house. We do not want to buy the house because a- it does not have enough land and b-it is right on the highway. The house is owned by a family. Anyway one of the family members is getting to old to live on his own and they are thinking of saleing his home. It is only 2 miles from this house and it is off the road and has 5 acres. It is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath. They called and asked Justin if he would be interested. He said we would be interested in looking at the house and they haven't said how much they even want for it yet and I don't know what kind of financing we could get! Anway I know nothing may come of this, but it is exciting to think about anway!

[officiant-fica]

I'll send good thoughts your way! I hope it works out exactly how you want it to. It's wonderful to have something that you can call yours and know that all the time and effort you put in to it are for your benefit!
GOOD LUCK!:goodluck:

[Kacie_bride]

Thank you Audrey!

[ikkin510]

Good luck with the house Kacie. That will be great if it all works out for you. Definatly keep us updated with how it all goes!

[brewsells]

Good luck with that Kacie! Keep us updated. It's excited to have possibilities like that!

[usahgrad]

Good luck with the house Kacie! I know I was really excited when the prospect of buying the house we currently live in came up. I figured we could rent out where we live now (the top back half) and live in the bottom until we paid off the mortgage, then rip out the separating wall and return this house to the beauty it once was. It is an old victorian house that is just beautiful! But it comes with lots of needed repairs, so it's only just a thought right now. Good luck to you! It seems the closer I get to the wedding the more I don't want to be renting anymore! :)

[Kacie_bride]

Well I have some more news regarding the house. Justin went to look at it yesterday. He said the outside is nice, but he does not like the color (peach) and we would paint it. He said it had a big living room and kitchen and a big master bedroom. The other two bedrooms were pretty small, but that is fine because it is only us for now. Even if we do have kids quick we probably would upgrade our home before they would get old enough to notice the lack of space in their bedroom.

The 5 acres is cleared, but it is not fenced. However, they do have post up so all we would have to do is buy barbed wire which is not every expensive. I would also like to have a fence put up in the front yard for my dog to play outside. Justin also would like to get his own dog, but that dog would have to be an outdoor only dog. One dog inside the house is enough.

The man said he would probably be asking $130,000 for the place, which for this area, is a pretty good price. The house is only 3 years old. He has not decided for sure that he is going to sale. The man is getting older and the place is getting to hard for him to care for. He is probably going to move into town. I haven't gotten to look at it yet, but hopefully I will soon. I also hope he does decide to sale and we can get approved for the loan!

[WhiskeyGirl]

Wow 130....Kacey that is a steal! We just bought a 1534 sq foot home in town with a small back yard for 299,000!! An acreage that size around here would probably go for about $745,000. Its crazy how real estate is so different from area to area!!!

[Kacie_bride]

That is a good deal, but not a steal. My parents have a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, with 17 acres. It is a two story brick home with a fire place, granite counter tops, tile floors in the kitchen, new range, hard wood floors in some of bedrooms and brand new carpet in 2 of them. It is a barn and it is cleared and fenced. They are looking at saleing and it is worth $250,000. For $740,000 here you could have a huge brand new home with lots of land and a pool that is super nice. Here are some pics of what you can get for $300,000 and under here.

http://harpictures.marketlinx.com/MediaDisplay/12/lr1624912-2.jpg (http://realtorshelp.har.com/search/engine/indexdetail.cfm?mlnum=1141624&class=1&leadid=6&sTYPE=0&backButton=Y)

http://harpictures.marketlinx.com/MediaDisplay/11/lr1529211-1.jpg (http://realtorshelp.har.com/search/engine/indexdetail.cfm?mlnum=3770070&class=1&leadid=6&sTYPE=0&backButton=Y) This has 4,000 sq ft.


This one is under $200,000

http://harpictures.marketlinx.com/MediaDisplay/47/lr1545147-1.jpg (http://realtorshelp.har.com/search/engine/indexdetail.cfm?mlnum=9361226&class=1&leadid=6&sTYPE=0&backButton=Y)

You are right. It is funny how real estate goes. The price of living in Southeast Texas is not very high compared to the rest of the country. Really the cost of living in most of Texas is pretty inexpensive compared to everyone else. The Austin area is probably one of the most expensive places to live in Texas. We have no state income tax either.

[CindySue]

You are right. It is funny how real estate goes. The price of living in Southeast Texas is not very high compared to the rest of the country. Really the cost of living in most of Texas is pretty inexpensive compared to everyone else. The Austin area is probably one of the most expensive places to live in Texas. We have no state income tax either.
Texas is pretty cheap. Our house appraised at $95,000 and we got it for $60,000. My mom brought home real estate ads from Florida and for a house just like ours the prices are $250,000 and up.

[WhiskeyGirl]

I think Matt and I are so totally moving to texas! This is what we got for 299!!

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/CanadianBride/DSC00146.jpg

We have discussed moving to the states for Matt's work! Maybe it isn't so far fetched after all!! lol

Oh and thats brand new and without grass. We only have dirt!! lol

[MOB Karen]

I think Matt and I are so totally moving to texas! This is what we got for 299!!

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/CanadianBride/DSC00146.jpg

We have discussed moving to the states for Matt's work! Maybe it isn't so far fetched after all!! lol

Oh and thats brand new and without grass. We only have dirt!! lol

Sorry, I can't get past the snow. I'm in Phoenix, Arizona and we don't get that here. Was this today, Shawna?

[WhiskeyGirl]

Sorry, I can't get past the snow. I'm in Phoenix, Arizona and we don't get that here. Was this today, Shawna?

Heck no Karen! lol. No snow here for quite a while! lol. This was a couple months ago!!

Here's a picture out of the computer room window from today!

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/CanadianBride/edc91380.jpg

Those are the houses across the road from us. They also only have dirt but you see, no snow!! lol

[MOB Karen]

I was thinking it is AWFULLY cold up there in Canada! You have a beautiful neighborhood, Shawna!

[WhiskeyGirl]

I was thinking it is AWFULLY cold up there in Canada! You have a beautiful neighborhood, Shawna!

Our old neighbor hood was much nicer! I get a little choked with these people who park infront of our house all the time! And the guys across the street keep having parties and there are loads of cars every where! one of these days I'm gonna hit one of them just for the fun of it!! I have a crappy old truck anyhow, I could use a new one! lol... I don't think Matt would be happy with me though!! :wink:

[CindySue]

Heck no Karen! lol. No snow here for quite a while! lol. This was a couple months ago!!

Here's a picture out of the computer room window from today!

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/CanadianBride/edc91380.jpg

Those are the houses across the road from us. They also only have dirt but you see, no snow!! lol
The house are entire TOO close together for my tastes!!!!!!

[MOB Karen]

The house are entire TOO close together for my tastes!!!!!!

That's the way they are building them now. Up and not out. That's how it is in Phoenix too. They can put more houses on less land and make more money.

[WhiskeyGirl]

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/CanadianBride/DSC00267.jpgThe house are entire TOO close together for my tastes!!!!!!

They have to do that because there is such a housing boom right now! People are paying 320 G or more for a house like ours now!! The oil just keeps bringing them in. They are entirely too close for my liking as well!! only a few more months and we can move! lol

This is a picture from just down the street, again taken from computer room, it shows how much the housing boom is going!http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/CanadianBride/DSC00268.jpg

ETA sorry Ihave no idea what happened here...and its a little dark to see, but they are building about 15 houses just down the street from us. They are all at the wood stage right now. Maybe I'll try and take better pictures when i go out to get the mail!

[Kacie_bride]

There is a pretty big housing boom around the Houston metropolitian area and also the Beaumont area. Builders are buying out people in the neighborhoods that are close to downtown that have been known as really bad neighborhoods and tearing the old homes down to build nice town homes and homes that are really close like htat. Out here in the rural areas there is also a big housing boom, but there is a lot of land available so people here even in the neighborhoods don't live that close. Even in the close neighborhoods people usually at least have a half of an acre. My parents technically live in a neighborhood, but they have 17 acres. We have so much available land out here because they are building on old rice farm land. A lot of the farmers can't make it anymore so they sale and they build homes on the land. Pretty scarey if you ask me! So what we'll all have a place to live, but no food to eat!

[WhiskeyGirl]

HEy Kacie

Sorry about hijacking your thread! I am getting so bad for that lately! I think I need a good :chair:. Lol. Sorry again Girl!!

[LaceyinPgh]

All I can say to any of you is this, try living in the Northeastern part of the US. I live in a metro area. It is a 2 bedroom townshouse which is just a fancy way of saying I live in a little three story inverted shoe box. My shoe box does have a garage though so that ups the value. I am literally two minutes out of downtown Pittsburgh. I know that our house will sell for at least $200,000 and it is a piece of :censored:. It was made as quickly and as cheaply as possible. ut someone will be dumb enough to pay at least the $200,000 for what is really an apartment. I have NO yard whatsoever. I have a few patio stones and two lilac bushes that are fenced in. In the front I have a front step and a small tree that you can squeeze some flowers around. I share a wall with one neighbor and can almost touch the other neighbor's house from my livingroom window.

If that isn't crappy enough, I have Allegheny County AND Pittsburgh City taxes that I have to pay. And I don't just pay taxes on the house I have to pay them on th egarage too because since it is unattached, it is considered a second piece of land. Our taxes last year were roughly in the $10,000 range. And let's not forget to ad in the $100 a month I have to pay to the houseing association. That way that quarter square inch of grass in the front can get mowed.

[WhiskeyGirl]

All I can say to any of you is this, try living in the Northeastern part of the US. I live in a metro area. It is a 2 bedroom townshouse which is just a fancy way of saying I live in a little three story inverted shoe box. My shoe box does have a garage though so that ups the value. I am literally two minutes out of downtown Pittsburgh. I know that our house will sell for at least $200,000 and it is a piece of :censored:. It was made as quickly and as cheaply as possible. ut someone will be dumb enough to pay at least the $200,000 for what is really an apartment. I have NO yard whatsoever. I have a few patio stones and two lilac bushes that are fenced in. In the front I have a front step and a small tree that you can squeeze some flowers around. I share a wall with one neighbor and can almost touch the other neighbor's house from my livingroom window.

If that isn't crappy enough, I have Allegheny County AND Pittsburgh City taxes that I have to pay. And I don't just pay taxes on the house I have to pay them on th egarage too because since it is unattached, it is considered a second piece of land. Our taxes last year were roughly in the $10,000 range. And let's not forget to ad in the $100 a month I have to pay to the houseing association. That way that quarter square inch of grass in the front can get mowed.

Thats what gets me. Lol. Whenever you think you have a sh*tty deal, someone has a shittier one! lol. I feel for ya Lacey! Its ridiculous how things change so much! I think we may end up selling our house for about 350,000 to 400,000 in September and the beauty is that someone WILL buy it and think its a good deal!! Then we'll move back down south and get some real property where I can have my horses and dogs and cats! lol

[usahgrad]

We're not even to the point where we can look into buying a house yet. However, I'd really just like something with a porch, a decent sized kitchen (I could throw a hundred tons further than our kitchen is wide) and some sort of area to plant flowers. I want something that's ours. I want to be able to hang stuff on the walls, paint the walls, put up drapes in bedrooms that aren't garbage bags taped to the window frame (we can't put holes in the window frames and there's no drapery rod or anything to put drapes on, so we get to use tape, and tape doesn't hold up much). I keep telling Jason I'm nesting...he thinks I'm crazy...but I really want a house that's ours. I want a yellow bedroom and tulips in the springtime and counterspace in my kitchen...ok, I'm done now. Sorry y'all; just thought I'd add in my dream house...or at least anything outside of this apartment! :)

[CindySue]

We're not even to the point where we can look into buying a house yet. However, I'd really just like something with a porch, a decent sized kitchen (I could throw a hundred tons further than our kitchen is wide) and some sort of area to plant flowers. I want something that's ours. I want to be able to hang stuff on the walls, paint the walls, put up drapes in bedrooms that aren't garbage bags taped to the window frame (we can't put holes in the window frames and there's no drapery rod or anything to put drapes on, so we get to use tape, and tape doesn't hold up much). I keep telling Jason I'm nesting...he thinks I'm crazy...but I really want a house that's ours. I want a yellow bedroom and tulips in the springtime and counterspace in my kitchen...ok, I'm done now. Sorry y'all; just thought I'd add in my dream house...or at least anything outside of this apartment! :)
Kelli, theres no way to add something for curtains? What did the manager say? Thats why I always loved the solid white walls in apartments. You could fill the holes with colgate toothpaste and no one ever knew!!!!

[usahgrad]

Kelli, theres no way to add something for curtains? What did the manager say? Thats why I always loved the solid white walls in apartments. You could fill the holes with colgate toothpaste and no one ever knew!!!!

Most of the walls aren't white here. Our living room is lavendar! And all the rest of them are cream colored...it's like they were trying to make sure they would know if we put holes in it. We live on the top floor of an old victorian house, so the curtain thing is an issue because they don't want any holes in the original wood framing around the windows (other than the ones that are already there). So that's why no drapes, curtains, nothing on some of the windows. We'll be moving out within the next year (at least I hope we will), so I'm not complaining too much, but right now, it's frustrating me.

[Kacie_bride]

HEy Kacie

Sorry about hijacking your thread! I am getting so bad for that lately! I think I need a good :chair:. Lol. Sorry again Girl!!

I don't care. I'm having fun with it!

[Kacie_bride]

I know what you mean Cindy about the white walls in the apartments! I used to do that. We have white walls here in this rent house and I detest the white walls. I want to paint them so bad! I know this is far fetched, but I really want a room with a red accent wall. I know it sounds weird, but I've seen it on HG TV and it is really beautiful. I also want to paint my kitchen cabnets red! One thing I don't understand about this rent house is the carpet. In 2 of the bedrooms the carpet is pink! Yes pink! Why in the world would anyone want pink carpet? Think neutral people please! I don't even want carpet anywhere but the bedrooms, and where I would want carpet I would want it neutral. With neutral carpet you can do the room in any color you want. It is a lot easier to paint the walls and cheaper than it is to get new carpet. I would love to have hard wood floors and just use rugs. And you guessed it, red rugs!

My dream home would be a rock home with a huge living room with cathedral celings. I want a rock chimney. It would have hard wood floors in the whole thing. I would like a big kitchen with an island and lots of counter space. The counters would be granite like my mom's are. I would also like a mud room. The master bedroom would have a bathroom with a spa tub and a separate shower. It would have two sinks and lots of counter space and storage! I would also have a huge walk in closet in the master bedroom. We would have an office that Justin could put all his stupid decorations like the cow head in. I hate the cow head! I would like a front porch that went all around the house. I would also like an in ground pool. I want lots of room for flower beds and a big magnolia tree in the front yard like we had at the house when I was a little girl. I would like about 15 acres where we could keep our horses and backyard with a wooden fence.

Oh to dream.

[WhiskeyGirl]

Hee hee Guess what Kacie??!! I told my DH about Texas and he seriously told me we should move there!! I was like :bbeek: ! Really?? And he laughed and said yes!! I was like :bbeek: ! Seriously!!?? I'd love to live in Texas, I've had enough of being close to family, they're driving me up the wall! So yeah, we might be making a trip to Texas to look at land!! Its kind of a dream now, but when Matt talks dreams, 9 out of 10 come true! Plus there is plenty of work for Helicopter pilots he's heard!!

Oh and your dream house sounds wonderful!! I've got most of the things you listed but the inground pool!! I could skate on it in the winter!! lol. All kidding aside, sounds like you know what you want!!!

[Kacie_bride]

A lot of people move to Texas because they can sale what they have there and get something a lot nicer here because of the low cost of living. The thing you have to realize about moving to a place like this is because the cost of living is less you usually will make less.

Also here in South East Texas there are a lot of job opportunities. Where I live works well for people because you can work in the city (Houston or Beaumont) and live out here in a rural area and commute. Both of my parents do it.

A lot of the guys out here work offshore and make mad money! My brother works off shore. He repells off the rig and does something with the scaffolding. He works on Thunder Horse which is off the coast of Lousiana. They still haven't starting drilling yet because they are still fixing stuff from the hurricane last year.

[ikkin510]

Kacie, your dream house sounds exactly like mine! lol. Houses in my town run about the same price as the ones in Texas that you were talking about. I'm lucky, with the house I am going to be renting. They are fine with painting and hanging stuff. Of course we just found out that they are selling FH's grandparents house. We would love to buy it, but can't afford to right now since it needs a LOT of work.
Sorry, guess I'm getting off topic...lol. The house you are looking at sounds perfect for you right now Kacie. Best of luck with it!

[WhiskeyGirl]

Lol...today after showing my DH this thread he said and I quote "holy cr@p We're going to apply for a green card and move to Texas!" Lol....Cindy we could be closer to each other if I keep telling Matt these things!! :wink:

[Kacie_bride]

Yes you could be a lot closer to both Cindy, myself, and Carrie!

[WhiskeyGirl]

Yes you could be a lot closer to both Cindy, myself, and Carrie!

BONUS!!! Lol...that'd be awesome!! :) I just gotta keep trying my luck. and right now as we speak he's sitting here looking at real estate in Texas!! What part of texas are you from Kacie?

Which major city are y'all close to??

[Kacie_bride]

I from South East Texas. I am right in between Houston and Beaumont. I live about an hour from Houston and 45 minutes from Beaumont. Cindy is close to Dallas I believe ( More like North East Texas). Carrie is from San Antonio which is central Texas.