Welcome to house #11.

Welcome to house #11.

• Saturday, October 27, 2012

So after we left house #10, our realtor said

"I want to show you something."

He pulled out his iPad and pulled up a house.

He said "it's a little bit smaller than you wanted but I think you might like it."

Because our search is set to only send us homes 1200 sq ft and above

this one would not come through to us.

He just happened to come across it and thought of us.

Let me tell you, that's a good realtor.

[his name is Tim Pantle if you are ever looking for a home in the Sacramento area]

He showed us a few pictures on the listing

and we agreed to go see it.

So we headed to house #11.

Welcome.

City: Rancho Cordova

Price: $139,000

*just dropped from $169,000 three days ago

3 bed/2 bath

1063 sq feet

Living area.

Nice laminate floors.

Ceiling fan.

So far, so good.

[living area from other side of room]

Kitchen.

Newer cabinets and they're white

which is my favorite!

Dining room

These cabinets are in the laundry room.

Yes, they need to be painted. But the storage!!

Laundry room.

That wall is unfinished for some reason

and the cabinets need to be painted.

Besides that...a laundry room in a house built in 1964!

[it's an addition]

yay!

Kitchen.

Granite counters.

Gas range.

Guest Bedroom #1

Guest bedroom #2

...with a solar system light.

HAHA that's got to go!

Master bath.

Completely updated.

I love the sink.

Master shower.

We think we'll re-do it eventually.

Get rid of those horrible floral tiles.

Cedar-lined closets.

I didn't know this was such a prized feature of a home.

Apparently it is.

Huge backyard!

...with a huge mulberry tree.

Guest bath.

Completely remodeled.

We like everything except for the shower.

Sailor tiles have got to go.

One of the few problems we noticed was rust on the ceiling of the master bath.

But it's easy to fix with paint.

I can't decide if I like these closet doors or not.

PROS

Everything expensive has been updated already.

Nice laminate floors.

Granite counters in kitchen.

Cedar lined closets.

White cabinets in kitchen.

Big eat-in area of kitchen.

Although the kitchen isn't completely open to the living area, you can see it from the kitchen.

Tons of storage.

[there are two super long closets right outside the master bedroom in the hallway]

Whole house fan.

Newer roof.

New AC unit.

Ideal city.

Fannie-Mae home. This means we don't have to pay for mortgage insurance.

That will save us $180/month.

CONS

Bedrooms are minuscule.

We aren't sure our king bed will fit in the master.

If it does fit, it will be awfully squishy in there.

Ginormous yard.

Maybe some people would see that as a pro

but I see it as lots of time in upkeep.

Plus, what am I going to do with a big yard?

I would rather have a patio and a park nearby.

Chain link fence in back.

No fireplace.

So itty-bitty. 

We really didn't want a place less than 1200 sq ft.

It doesn't feel quite as tiny as it is

but it still feels small.

Overall, we liked this place.

I can so much easier picture us in an updated house.

We were hoping to live in a newer construction

in a newer neighborhood

but we just could not say no to saving $180/month in mortgage insurance.

So we made an offer.

$143,000 with seller assist in closing costs.

Signing the offer.

Our realtor seems optimistic that we will get this one.

I'm still a little bit sad about house #7

but we feel good about this one.

How could it be chance that our realtor

just happened to come across this house

10 minutes before he met us at house #10?

And it just happened to be 3 days after they brought the price down by 30,000.

It's probably not luck.

I really think we could be happy here.

One of my biggest pieces of advice to house-hunters

is to not decorate your home in your head before you actually get it.

I have not been following that advice.

This is our list of fixes/additions we want to do:

Add a real fence to backyard.

Paint cupboards in laundry room.

Paint the whole interior.

Paint exterior.

Replace carpet in bedrooms.

Trim mulberry tree.

Remove solar system light.

Buy a fireplace from Costco. Add to living room.

Shelve the hallway closets.

Replace doors on hallway closets

[they are falling off]

Re-do showers [eventually].

Re-sod front/back yards.

And guess what?

Because this house is so affordable

and we don't have to pay mortgage insurance

we can actually afford to do those things.

We can also pay off our student debt faster.

and save more money for our next house.

We plan to be in our first house about 5 years.

and then move on to bigger & better things.

This might be the last house I welcome you to

until 5ish years from now.

Perhaps the hunt is done.

Update: We did not get this house.

It sold for $149,000.