I have house fever

elannis

I really, really want to move out of our apartment, but I have been handling it perfectly fine until FI brought home a listing yesterday that one of his coworkers showed him. We weren't really impressed, but I got on their website and did some searching and we did find a property that would be perfect for us.

We're definitely waiting until after the wedding before we get serious about buying a house, but I got so excited yesterday thinking about the possibilities, lol.

My mom for some reason still has hope that we'll change our minds, find new jobs and move to where she's living. I don't know how many times she has asked me, "Are you sure FI can't move here and work?" lol. I know she wants us close, but that's not really a possibility for his job. And that'd put us 3 hours from his family and friends instead of just under 2.

There isn't really a point to this ... but seeing Lunar's new house and watching CCO get into looking for a house has really stirred up the house fever. I should just be happy it's not baby fever I guess, lol... although the puppy fever is still there too.

I want one!

tuarceatha

FI and I have started to look at house listings in our area. Our lease is up in April, and we hope to move into a house before then/right about then... But I have two friends that just moved into their new homes and each of them house hunted for over a year. They both had really stressful times finding a house they could afford that they didn't lose to someone else who offered more money. Their experiences seemed really stressful.

I'm worried that trying to buy a house and plan this wedding next year will be a lot to take on. One thing at a time though. We probably won't find a realtor until January and the wedding is in August...

My point being I want a house too!

Swazzle

Ely, a couple weeks ago I had house fever.  I started looking online and found some houses that I really loved, talked to FI about it & it seemed really doable, we were both excited.  It seemed like it would be cheaper than what we're paying now & so we'd even be able to save more money for the wedding if we moved this spring.  

And then my mom mentioned a little something called property taxes and burst my bubble.  The houses I loved had property taxes that were around $7000 a year (most were even more) which (to me) is absolutely INSANE. Damn you New Jersey!!!!!!

swhite2012

I am right there with you. I have a bad habit of browsing Realtor.com. I just want to have a space of our own. But I know that's not possible until. We both have stable long term jobs and we know we're going to be there awhile. Right now our life is pretty up in the air. It's not going to help that FI is probably getting a part time job as a realtor's assistant, lol. At least he'll learn lots of good info for when we are ready. And yes, the puppy fever does not help with house fever!

Pretty Please???

elannis

Well, at least I'm not the only one, lol.

Jen: Anything with money tends to be stressful, because usually we're on the end of not having enough, lol. I'm hoping it won't be a nightmare, but we shall see. I just need to find a house that has been on the market for years and nobody wants ... and then hope it's not a total fixer upper, lol. Actually, the house isn't a huge deal to me as long as I get counter space in the kitchen. We are more concerned for location and what we want on our property (trees, and lots of them). We want wide open spaces where we can see the stars at night and not hear any traffic too. (I'm just rambling now because I've drifted into la-la land).

RDR: we're still figuring out our budget for a house, so I'm sure that will probably burst my bubble too, lol.

Swhite: I just melt when I see puppies! I love the kind you put up too. We had a dog that was part wolf, part husky that looked like those puppies and he was such a sweetheart, but he loved to get loose and run around the neighbors' properties. We think he finally got shot by some farmer because he didn't come back one day. : ( I was little then, so one of the times he ran off, I put a milk bone outside in hopes that it would bring him back. It did that time, lol.

I think if I got a puppy, it would settle my house fever quite a bit, but unfortunately we need a house before we can get a puppy. So I just have to wait.

msuprincess04

Haha. I got this about a year ago. Of course, my bf owns his condo about 45 min away, so he doesn't plan on moving any time soon. I want a house, a yard (for my little pooch), and a garage.  Anything has got to be better than my 500 sq foot one bedroom basement!

Beads921

I started researching homes and the housing market in our area almost 2 years before we took the plunge. I figured it would be longer - we ended up buying almost a year sooner than we originally planned. Things just happened that way.

We feel that totally lucked out on the house. Becuase I'd done so much research, I knew it was going to be tough to find a decent place in our price range. I also knew what we should be able to buy for that amount of money. Doing some research can't hurt. It's good to be knowledgable and not 100% reliant on your RE. Just don't fall in love with something you can't afford and aren't ready to buy. Be objective at this point.

elannis

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_house-fever?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:9fec1658-5a07-4f39-b7bb-c5ff1657597fPost:6610862d-b9ad-4cb5-b8da-a5478583f499">Re: I have house fever</a>:
[QUOTE]I started researching homes and the housing market in our area almost 2 years before we took the plunge. I figured it would be longer - we ended up buying almost a year sooner than we originally planned. Things just happened that way. We feel that totally lucked out on the house. Becuase I'd done so much research, I knew it was going to be tough to find a decent place in our price range. I also knew what we should be able to buy for that amount of money. Doing some research can't hurt. It's good to be knowledgable and not 100% reliant on your RE. Just don't fall in love with something you can't afford and aren't ready to buy. Be objective at this point.
Posted by Beads921[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I feel like researching isn't going to hurt anything at all, even if we aren't planning on buying in the next year. I did really like one property I found ... if only it was 100,000 cheaper, lol. I'm not getting my heart set on anything just yet, but even just in searching around yesterday, I found out a lot of what I want vs. don't want. And when we do finally buy, we want it to be the place where we stay forever, so we definitely won't be jumping into anything quickly.

CCO2012

Ely, as exited as I am to buy a house, it can become all consuming. So, be careful looking before you are ready to buy.

I just noticed that the house we are waiting on just was taken off the market, but not because it sold... Hmmmm... My realtor is having a baby tomorrow, so I will have to contact her partner agent soon to find out what's up with that.

elannis

Yeah, I have no idea what it will be like when we actually get into it, which is partly why we are waiting until after the wedding. FI's mom used to be a realtor, so hopefully she can help us with it a bit. She's going to try to get us to buy more South though so we're closer to her, lol.

I wonder why they took your house off the listing. Does that happen often?

CCO2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_house-fever?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:9fec1658-5a07-4f39-b7bb-c5ff1657597fPost:d64d3aa0-f75b-4d45-b029-ee3050b26262">Re: I have house fever</a>:
[QUOTE]Yeah, I have no idea what it will be like when we actually get into it, which is partly why we are waiting until after the wedding. FI's mom used to be a realtor, so hopefully she can help us with it a bit. She's going to try to get us to buy more South though so we're closer to her, lol.<strong> I wonder why they took your house off the listing. Does that happen often?</strong>
Posted by elannis[/QUOTE]

 I have no idea. It super weird but I don't want to bug our realtor or her mom (they work as partners) right when she is about to have a baby. lol So, I'll call her mom next week and see what's up.

thejucheidea

Having a house is awesome, but egads it's a lot of work. If something goes wrong, it's not just calling the landlord and having it dealt with -- you have to research who you want to use, find a time that works, make sure you have the money on hand to pay them, et cetera. If you get a house like ours, you also have to deal with all the fun renovation stuff and triage your repairs/renovations to figure out how you want to proceed. It's crazy.

leia1979

I have house fever, too. I like our (rented) condo, but I'd like a yard and more space. We went to a party at my friend's house, and it was humongous and beautiful! I was so jealous. But she lives kind of far away (about an hour commute each way) to afford that wonderful house. I think I'll wait for us to afford something smaller with a shorter commute.

SopChick

I love that puppy, and I want one too!

I had a bit of house fever before I got accepted to grad school. BF and I were (still are) paying out the a$$ for rent, and started talking about how it would make so much more sense to be paying that money into a mortgage instead of having no equity to show for it. Now with me being a full-time student again, we'll have to wait. I'm glad I'm in school though, even if it does mean I need to be patient.

Also, houses in our current city are super expensive, so I don't think we would ever be able to afford one here. Even a small (2brdm) house is just over a million where we're living.

elannis

I'm hoping we'll eventually find something in our budget that we won't have to pay on forever, but we also won't be doubling what we spent in repairs either. I think it'd be worth it though. I grew up out in the country and I feel like a caged bird living in an apartment, as dramatic as that sounds.

Privacy is very important to me, so it was a huge adjustment to move to college and live in dorms and then to apartments. I'm happy we don't live on the ground floor where people could see in, but I still feel the need to close curtains and I am not a fan of adjusting my workout time to suit the neighbors and then have to put up with their smoking and all that. He's not allowed to smoke inside, but I smell it if I open the windows or we walk outside because he's one of those that smokes like every five minutes. I'm just too much like my dad, he doesn't like being around people either, lol.