Project home ownership has begun.

And I’m terrified.

I was fine until we talked to the mortgage broker. Devon was anxious until we talked to the mortgage broker.
We have a really, really good mortgage broker.
Now I’m anxious and Devon is perfectly at ease.
We love the house we’re renting.
But we’d have to have a conventional loan, more money at a higher interest rate, as it doesn’t qualify for FHA.
The great First Step program I found last month that would have really, really helped us-is completely out of money.
We gross too much for the excellent Next
Step program. So that limits some of our options, even though we do qualify for the $8,000 federal.

The old house we’re in needs a LOT of work. But it’s structurally sound with a good foundation and a good roof. I figure if it’s lasted over a hundred years, they must have built it right.

But lousy insulation.

The houses we’ve looked at aren’t even close to compare for character or location (at least to me).

We live in a neighhborhood, with trees with branches over the street, and extremely walkable. When we went to the suburbs, whoo it was HOT from the asphalt and sidewalks and no coverings. The only trees were up against the houses.

We live near a railroad track and 565 and still the noise pollution was so much worse by Research boulevard at the suburbs we were looking at. 2 of those houses needed as much maintenance as ours, built within the last 20 years, but they were $60,0000 more expensive. So no go.

But we don’t want to be trapped in an endless money pit if we buy where we are at, either.

But while the other house we look at, the 3 bedroom ranch houses have 3 bedrooms, they’re really, really small bedrooms.

But that could save us a lot on insulation. Then we have a storage problem.

We found some really good deals in the Merrimack area. But every one of them is still a fixer uppere with a ton a maintenance needs. But lots and lots of storage space. Great if your an investor, but not so much for a first time home buyer.

We were happy with our realtor until we realized he wasn’t going to be doing much negotiationg for us as buyers. So looking for someone else. Nice enough guy, but not a good fit for us.

I’m mainly just writing these down so I can find the information later when I need it.

We knew this part would be difficult. Now instead of Devon freaking out, I’m freaking out. There’s so many varaibles going into this.

AAAAAAUUUUUGHHH!!!