House Shopping

This weekend Mike and I headed to our new hometown to look for a house. We were super excited, and relieved that everything came together. You would not believe how hard it is to get a loan in the state of New York. Mike and I talked to at least six loan agents before we found one who got it done. New York does not offer doctor loans, and to get an FHA loan, you HAVE to have two pay stubs. They don't make it easy. I'm actually very grateful that we found the right loan agent. I really think we were being watched over and taken care of.

Now might be a good time to talk about the TAXES in New York. (Lori- maybe I'm supposed to learn something and change my more liberal political ideas.) The taxes there are crazy. Really. On a $150,000 house, they are at least $4000. That is a nice car payment. Every month. New York also has the highest upfront fees and taxes when buying in house in the United States. Let's just say we were very surprised at how much we had to have upfront. It's amazing anyone in New York can buy a house.

We dropped Bailey off in Cleveland on Thursday, and continued on our way to Syracuse. Avery was a dream. She is turning into a car riding pro. On Friday, we looked at the nine houses that met our criteria. There were some very interesting houses. My particular favorite was a four bedroom house with one of the bedrooms off the middle of a staircase. It had obviously been built there after the fact. Also, it advertised a two car garage, but there was literally no way to get to the garage. It was purely for storage. Another bedroom was actually in front of the master bedroom, and you had to walk through it to get to the master bedroom. It was hilarious. I was laughing for about an hour. Other awesome houses had carpet in the kitchen, laminate squares in bedrooms, and awful "new" bathrooms and floors. I'm amazed at people's taste. Avery continued to be the perfect baby. She didn't slow us down at all. I was very impressed with how easy it was to have her along.

On Saturday, we made an offer on this house:

This house has four bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a fenced backyard, and an unfinished basement. This house is in move-in condition, only a block away from a playground, and walking distance from the amazing grocery store Wegman's. We made our offer, and they didn't get back to us until this morning with a counter offer. Now we are just trying to decide what to do...