I put up a wall not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break it down.

Mar 1, 2009

I know it has been quite some time since my last update, however I have been quite busy with school, work, and most recently house hunting. After a lot of thought, Robby and I have both decided that the market is right and it just makes the most sense to buy right now. We started looking at houses online and found a house that was 4bdrm with a loft, 2^1/2 bath, and a 2 car garage for 119,000. I contacted the Realtor, Sandy Hamilton, and we set up a time to view the home that weekend. Unfortunately the home was not what we had expected and while we loved the kitchen the layout was just completely odd so we decided that while the price was right, it just did not feel like home to us.

Sandy decided to show us some new houses built by a builder who he thought quite highly of and we looked at 3 different models. We ended up loving the first model that he showed us which was a 4 bdrm, 2^1/2 bath, fully furnished, with tons of upgrades (granite counter tops, centralized system, with speakers built throughout the entire house) for 172,000. We ended up doing the pre-qualification and found out that I don’t have a credit score, so they weren’t able to finance me, which meant that although Robby‘s credit was financiable he didn’t make quite enough on his own to qualify for the loan. Now, I am sure you’re all wondering how it is that they couldn’t include my income even though we are married. Well apparently do the crash in the housing market, lenders are cracking down and no longer taking non-traditional items to establish credit. Basically what that means is although the FHA requires the spouse be included on the loan, the lender was unwilling to include my income because I don’t have a FICO score. Stupid, I know– but that’s how things are now. A year ago, he and I would have had no trouble getting a builder to finance us, but at the same time the house would have been an extra 100,000, so all this means is we have to look for a house that’s around 100,000 to 120,000.

Now I am willing to wait a few months to establish credit, being as the tax credit is good until November 30, 2009– but Robby is insistent we look for something now. While I understand why he feels the way he does, it is a bit frustrating for me because I would rather wait an extra 4-5 months to establish credit and be able to work with both our incomes, rather then just one income, but Robby is pretty set on what he wants so I figured I can be as supportive as possible. I know he feels as if it is his responsibility to try and buy us a house, but that is not how I view it as all. We are in a marriage, equal to each other, we should work together to try and buy a house, but Robby has the archaic notion that it is his responsibility to take care of me. You would think given the fact that we have been together for almost 4 years he would know that is not how I operate, but nope he still thinks that as a man he should be the one who takes care of everything. It’s cute and I love him for wanting to take care of me, but it can also be frustrating as well.

In lieu of the new month, I have a new layout which I hope you all like. I thought it was appropriate for the holiday season and I really liked the image. Hopefully I will have the time to actually update more often, but work and school are keeping me busy as is. Throw house hunting in there, with a possible move– well I have no time whatsoever. I feel horrible because I have been neglecting Flourish, but I really just don’t have the time right now to try and keep activity up and keep thinking of new ideas to implement. I am hoping that tings will start to slow down a bit, but time will only tell. Alright, I am off to start my homework. It is a pretty long assignment and since I have been out all day I haven’t had the time to actually work on it, so I will probably be up late tonight. Oh joy.