Well, we were approved for a home loan (It’s actually been a few weeks now…I told you I was behind). After we were approved, our realtor took us out the next day to look at two houses.
The first was an adorable little cottage in our favorite Denver neighborhood, Edgewater. It had a great yard with lots of curb appeal, and was completely updated with cork floors and a remodeled kitchen. The problem? It was small. Like, 600 square feet small. And, at the top of our price range. Our realtor assured us that we didn’t need to compromise on size, and that that house would never sell at that price (it sold a week later for $25k less than it was originally listed).
The second house she showed us was about 10 minutes away from the first, in the suburbs, on the cusp of what I would consider an area “in transition”, to put it nicely (Denverites: it was just off of Colfax and Wads). The second house was much bigger, had a big yard, hardwood floors and an updated bathroom. It was foreclosure, listed for $30k less than the first house, and needed a good amount of work (something we’re not scared of). We actually liked it more than the realtor had expected, but she assured us that we could do better, and that we didn’t have to settle for living in the ghet-to.
Does this scenario sound familiar? House #1 was nice and updated, at the top of our price range, and in our favorite neighborhood. House #2 was farther away from the city, needed a lot of work, but had good bones and a great price tag. Sounds like an episode of Property Virgins to me. We’re glad to finally be house hunting, but we were less-than-pleased about being shown two houses that didn’t meet our needs.
Stay tuned – I’m going to post a list of what exactly it is that we think we need.
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but, if this was an hgtv show, you all would have put an offer in on a house that wasn’t a good fit way above asking price.
can’t wait to hear more about all of this!