I have found myself in a position where I am purchasing a home. My fiancee and I have calculated that it will be approximately the same price to buy this home as it would be for us to rent a home. I never understood why people talked about this process being long and drawn out. I understood that there would be paperwork, signing things, scheduling inspections, tests, you name it. I knew all these things had to take place, but again, didn’t understand the magnitude of all of them.
Now I would tend to ask myself; “Why would you go through all this hassle?” I ask myself this over and over. Nevermind the fact that I hate cold weather, or the fact that the Midwest has got to be one of the worst places in the world for enjoying motorcycles. I’m just overall not in the mood to deal with things like this. Not sure if that should be classified as a fault, or what, but it is what it is. I guess there had to be something attracting me to actually buckling down and purchasing a house. I think something that spoke to me was this:
Now I know that all the property in the back won’t be mine, but I gotta say that it is quite rad seeing a river (ok a creek) flowing in the background, and the sunset falling across the tree line was surreal. On top of that (and less spectacular looking), the place has a very large garage :-). Finally a place to store my motorcycles and still fit my car (and in the future Kim’s). But here I go forgetting about the insanity that is known as purchasing a house.
I’ll spell it out quick and simple. If you can and really want to. Buy a house 100% cash. I say this because I’m not doing that. Want to keep your sanity? Buy a house cash. Cut out all the middle men. Get rid of all the people trying to get their money out of buying a house. I mean no discredit to the people working all these different institutions. However, it is so insanely transparent that there are 50 hands grabbing into the money pot you are selling out, that it will drive you mad.
Oh what’s this I see. Oh I have to pay for someone to tell me what the house is worth? Interesting. I can tell you what I’m paying for it. That right there is how much it’s worth. You don’t need to look into it any further. Done and done. I need an attorney? I’m buying a house, not trying to get myself out of jail. 50 dollars here, that’ll be another 300 dollars here….Don’t worry I only charge 85 dollars. Where the crap does all this come from? Like I said, everyone wants their piece of the pie and when the economy is in the crapper…they’re gonna do all they can to get every last drop out of you. Have no fear, you won’t pay a dime for it now. “We’ll add that to your closing costs.” haha you gotta be kidding me. Closing costs. What a joke. Closing costs = thousands of dollars for paperwork. I wish I were joking, but I’m not.
So now you are probably thinking I want to go out and shank anyone who is involved with this home buying process. I don’t. I can’t say enough good about my real estate agent
Jim Starwalt, or all the individuals he has helped me with making sure that all of this process has gone as smooth as possible. They understand the insanity of all this, and have left me comfortable (but yes a bit stressed) about the entire process. I can’t say enough positive about them. (Hopefully those reading will read the entire thing ;-))
And with that, I am off and on my way to look into costs for doing floors, walls, etc. I’ll leave you with a picture of the toilet 🙂
Andrew