Homeowners* in Life in General

So my in-laws bought us a house....

Like wow… I mean they did finance it and plan to have us cover the mortgage after a short period of moving back but the fact that they’re giving us a grace period and also taking care of the down payment is seriously so nice. We definitely didn’t ask for it… I was looking into apartments and cheap rent houses in other areas but I guess they want us to be closer to them so badly they’re willing to buy a house for us haha.

So the plan is for us to cover the mortgage until Jessica has the baby and spends some time with her for a while. Then she’ll hopefully find a nice pharmacy job nearby and I’ll start working as well (or go back to grad school, something I’m considering). And by then, we’ll either keep the house and put it in our name, or leave and her folks rent it out.

Of course we were involved in the house buying process, we spent Jessica’s weekend off driving down to Dallas to go on house tours with them.

It’s weird going down there right now. They are getting their house renovated so they’re staying in a rent house about 8 miles away (which is down the street from where we used to live actually haha) but there isn’t room for us at the rent house so we’re using their guest house. It’s really small but very very nice, newly built. That was another one of my plans actually, for us to just stay in that for a little while until we got our feet planted and could afford something. But Jessica was firmly against it because it really is very small and would feel cramped. I’d be like “I know it’s not ideal, but it’s also free vs spending $2000/month anywhere else. 6 months there would be $12K we’d have saved up.” But again, she didn’t wanna do it.

Anyway so they come over and pick us up from their house (BIG MISTAKE, I’ll explain later) and we start touring houses. Honestly a lot of the houses were nice but some of them had some serious flaws, like a backyard with like 4 different ledges that Lily could fall from, or just needing a lot of serious renovations. One of them, the master bedroom and bathroom weren’t full separated… like the wall didn’t extend all the way to the ceiling. So if I’m on the toilet dropping a fatty, there is nothing stopping the sounds/smells from just filling the whole room. I cannot fathom designing that and being like “yeah… that’s good”. In the photo below, I’m standing in the master and right below that wall, is the fkn toilet haha.

One of houses that was an obvious no, was actually really hilarious. It had this old timey black and white tile in the foyer, like an old school diner or something. The dining room was, and I’m not exaggerating at all, covered from ceiling to floor with mirrors. Not one square inch wasn’t a mirror haha. The people who lived there were obviously very eccentric. They had statues of naked babies all over their swimming pool, just weird stuff like that haha. I called it the GCWOK house (gay couple without kids… a himym reference), and that it was going to make someone very happy (just not us…good god).

There was one house that Jessica really really liked, and honestly, I liked it a lot too. It was built in 2009 and definitely had a more modern look to it. Everything was very open (as opposed to the old style of every room being separated by walls) and it had a huge garage and a really nice backyard. But it had one major major flaw.

It was on the very edge of the residential zone, so directly across the street was a commercial building, which included some loading docks and a pawn shop. At first her parents were very against it, and so were the realtors, but me and Jessica were jazzed about the place being so nice that we were willing to overlook it. But as time went on, I kind of thought about it and realized it would make reselling the place a fkn nightmare. Jessica took a lot longer to come around, as that stayed her top pick for a long time. But eventually she came around.

My number one house (the one we ended up going with) was also really nice! It’s older, built in ‘99, but it’s got a more open design and it’s in a culdesac. 2 car garage, 3 bedroom, 1 office (that will be a baby nursery at first since it’s connected directly to the master) and a decent sized kitchen. Definitely smaller kitchen than what I’m used to, but I’m going to make it work.

Side not, you’d be surprised how many really really nice places we looked at that had the world’s tiniest kitchens. Like it was just an after thought or something. Nah bro, I need my kitchen space.

Anyway the backyard is a mixed bag. It’s really really small, barely any grass. It’s a nice thing for maintenance because I hate mowing grass, but it’s not ideal for bear. We’ll have to figure out a way to let him out into the front yard more often. Speaking of maintenance though, it’s got a small salt water pool! I’m honestly not looking forward to how much work it will be to maintain it, but I’ve never had a pool so I’m honestly a little excited to learn about it (and use it obviously!).

So yeah… the price. The market/rates suck right now right? It’s literally the worst time in history to buy a house. We know that, but there are no signs that things will improve so it’s just one of them things where you gotta pull the trigger and take the hit. Hopefully rates will go down soon and we can refinance before we pay too much interest. Fingers crossed!

The house is $450K. For a house under 2K square feet and built in ‘99, that’s crazy crazy to me. It hurts even worse if you scroll back 10 years on Zillow and see the house sold under $200K. But it’s honestly a really good deal when you look at the other houses that are available. It needs a new roof and probably an AC unit swap at some point soon, and we’re trying to see if the seller can help with that at all. But it’s a seller’s market so they could honestly just tell us to fk off and we’d have to accept it as is. That’s just how it is…

So our mortgage is likely gonna be around 3300/month. That’s definitely the most I’ve ever paid for a place to live, by a lot. Our current rental is 1950/month and it’s way bigger. But it’s in Nowhere Oklahoma so that makes sense I guess. Jessica was worried about that much money for rent and I told her “we can make it work, but we’re not gonna be those people who go on vacations, buy boats or jet skies, or even go out to eat 1-2 times a week.” lol it’s sad but I mean you gotta do what you gotta do.

But the best part? It’s 2 miles away from her parents place, and both of them are retired. Free babysitting. #win

Anyway I’m really hoping we can full close on this house soon so I can start moving things soon because with my surgery coming up I want to get as much done as possible now.

OH I forgot, the reason it was a mistake that they drove is her stepdad is in his 70s and he has no clue how to work technology. He has a nice Acura but doesn’t understand carplay (I tried to make it work, but it needs a software update I think), so her mom was navigating him and HOLY sht did they bicker the ENTIRE TIME. Like nonstop fighting. It was so uncomfortable. And her dad drives like a total a**hole. Like legit, slamming his brakes and slamming the accelerator constantly. Just a really really rough driver. He also hit every possible curb he could, like I’d be surprised if that car has any suspension left in a year. Plus the car is smaller, it would have been way better to just take our SUV and have me drive, because navigating is a piece of cake for me.

Last updated May 25, 2024