Vail Life

I looked at my first house yesterday.

$255,000; 2 bedroom; 864 sq. ft. It was not kept in very good shape, it would have needed new carpet, paint, possibly the floor upstairs by the bathroom redone a bit, and the window sills had some serious rain damage from the windows being left open. All of this could be fixed and repaired by me for the most part.

The biggest reason I will not get it is because it is small. My goal is to get a house and a roommate. That place would be ok for one person but not two. And at 255K asking price it is just not worth the money to me. I figure I might have been able to easily knock 5000 off of the price and maybe even go as low as 240K but even then I felt it was not worth that amount of money. Now if I thought they would take 230K for it then maybe I would consider it but that is so far below their asking price I would not want to insult them by offering. Besides I think they probably will find someone to buy it for 240+ and that is just more then I feel it is worth.

Today at 12:30 I am going to Eagle to look at a single family stand-alone pre-fab house. Right now with out even looking at the place the biggest thing going against this house is the fact that it is in Eagle. The house was listed for 249K on Monday and on Tuesday it dropped to 229K.

The distance from us is about 30 minutes. The drive doesn't deter me but that distance does come into play in making my decision. Not because of gas mileage or time traveled to get anywhere but because the re-sell value of the house is less because it is so far out of the way. If I buy it and then later find a great house/deal in Avon or Edwards where I would rather be I think I might have an issue with selling this place just like the people who are selling it now are. It has been on the market for 5 months so it is not moving very fast when places in Edwards are on the market for only 4 days.

I will let you know how the viewing turns out later.

Edit: 1:50 PM

Definitely not the "new hotness." No, it can only be described as "old and busted."

Posted by Coign at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments

On the main site on Friday I mentioned that I would post some news here. I remember I had like 3 to 6 things I was thinking of at the time that I wanted to post here. Right now I can only remember 1 or 2 of them. I think one of the news items is that I am getting old and losing my memory but I forget.

Anyways the biggest news is that I am planning on getting a house agent this week. It is about time I sat down and seriously considered getting myself a home. So this afternoon I will make the big call and find out what I need to do to wrangle me an agent and start looking for a permanent (or at least as permanent as anything is in this life) place to live.

Second I actually got a small bump in pay when I wasn't expecting it. Because my hiring agreement had a 6 month bump written into it I didn't expect to get any annual raise this year. I was pleasantly surprised and thus I decided I better get a house before my living style increases to eat all this money piling up in the bank.

Third I found out I can legally sell a car without a title. That means the Porsche is going into the paper. I wanted to clean it up this weekend, take photos, and have it in for this week but my weekend got filled up with god knows what and before I knew it I was waking up this morning for work. I will try and get it washed and photographed this week and call the paper Thursday or Friday to get it in classifieds.

And finally the latest on my MINI is that it is awaiting transport in England for shipping overseas. Another 2 months and I will be cruising in style.

Posted by Coign at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments

I haven’t dropped a note in here for almost a month. I suppose I better update on the life happenings a little bit.

I am still waiting on the MINI. Their website tells me it is Awaiting Transport. So it is sitting on their completed lot somewhere in England. Ooooo, soon now, it is going to be so cool to get a new car! I figure a few weeks of transport and then a couple weeks of dealer add-ons and then about mid-October I will get the call that it is ready for me.

On Tuesday this week a friend called me about a house going for 240,000. I called the next morning but it seems the house had been posted the week before in the paper. The return call told me it was under contract. The very next day I saw a second house for 240,000 and I called on that one. After being in the paper for only 4 hours it was under contract by 1 P.M.

I did some number crunching and at current interest rates I would pay about 1300-1400 in mortgage payments on 240,000. Add in 200 dollar HOH, 100 dollar utility, 100 property tax, and 500 dollar car payment. I would be paying about 2300 a month in bills and have about 400 dollars a month left to live on. Tight but doable. In my youth I certainly lived on less.

But I am looking at two bedrooms so now add in a roommate who will be giving me another 500 dollars a month in rent. Now I am living on 900 dollars a month. Much more comfortable. My goal is that I can afford to pay for the house on my own for a 3 month stretch. I can easily find a roommate within a three month period so if I can afford that I am in the money.

Of course my bank, when I last looked, only approved me for 220,000. But now I am making about 5,000 more and when I last looked I only checked with my one bank. I still have the option of money brokers or a different bank. I think I can get approved for 240,000 fairly easy.

Now the barriers in my way are down-payment assistance and finding a two bedroom house for 240,000. What I am thinking about at this point is to get an agent; someone to find all these 240,000 houses that are going into the paper and then being sold out 4 hours later.

The things I really have to think about if I get an agent is what is really important to me. I know I need two bedrooms. But how much do I care about where I live, the neighborhood there, the parking, the add-ons like garage and laundry, the view, and the shape the house is in. I am not sure if these are questions I should have answered before going to an agent or if these are things I should discuss with an agent.

And even if I do talk these things over with an agent my roommate keeps reminding me, "When it comes to buying a house, no one is your friend."

Posted by Coign at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments