1/27/06: Home Is Where The Heart Is
It was early 2004, and the better half and I were living in sin at our third residence. This place was a duplex that had more things going wrong with it than going right. Among some problems included an insect infestation, no central air and drains that refused to do their job; we weren't enjoying our stay at this place. The final straw came when the spring rains arrived and we heard a dripping noise above us as we went to bed one night. We soon discovered that the roof had several leaks. Realizing our landlord wouldn't get around to dealing with this problem until the roof resembled Texas Stadium, both of us agreed it was time to look for a house of our own to buy.
We had talked about getting a house for a while, but we had always put it off until "later." That dripping noise, among the other hassles we endured while being tenants in this duplex, told us that "later" was "now." Before we began our search we decided on what we wanted out of our new home. We weren't that picky in what we deemed "necessary." We wanted a house with several bedrooms -- not because we were going to pop out a litter of kids, but rather we heard/read from several sources that houses with at least three bedrooms have a higher resale value than those that don’t. Central air was also a necessity for us, having stayed in several places that didn't have this feature, we realized its value when we lived in a townhouse that had it running during the summer months. The third requirement was that we didn't want to move into a different county. We live in Westmoreland County, which is in southwest Pennsylvania and next to Allegheny County, home to Shittsburgh and a horrendous property assessment system.
Once we established these parameters, we found out how much money we would be pre-approved for when applying for a mortgage. When we got this figure, we began looking at local houses for sale on several Internet sites. After about a week of looking at a variety of homes, we called our realtor and arranged a tour of about a half-dozen houses that matched our criteria. In a few days, we set out on our house-hunting excursion.
If you're house shopping for the first time, it's important not to set yourself up for a deadline. Just keep looking until you find something that interests you. As we went from house-to-house, nothing was really doing much for us. One house had a backyard that required you to go up several flights of stairs access; the better half also thought the place was haunted. Another house hadn't been kept up for a while and had that white-trash odor of pee mixed with spoiled food. Visiting this house actually angered me because it was a fairly large structure and in a nice neighborhood. The rest of the homes we toured were nice, but they just didn't have everything we were looking for. If one looked good on the outside, it was too small for our liking. If another had several bedrooms, it was located in a bad area, such as a busy intersection with no driveway. However, instead of getting frustrated, I was enjoying myself. With every passing "For Sale" sign, I began getting a better picture of what I wanted in my eventual home.
The better half and I didn't find anything that really interested us in our first two tours with the realtor, and we were batting 0-for-4 on our third trip. Then we went to this one house we originally weren't planning on looking at because its ad said it was 50+ years old and didn't have central air. But since it was on the way from one house we were looking at to another we were heading toward, we figured what the heck. After all, if it really tickled our fancy, we could always get the central air installed. However, the other thing that worried us was the house’s age: it was at least 30 years older than every other one we had seen. As we pulled up to this house, the first thing that caught my eye was a central air unit planted to the right of the house. I thought to myself this could be interesting.
Even though this house was the oldest we had looked at, it was by far one of the sturdiest and nicely kept out of the dozen-plus we had previously viewed. As we went from room-to-room in this four-bedroom colonial, we said to each other that this was the one for us. After looking at the rest of the houses on our list for the day, we ultimately decided to pursue this one.
A few months later, after a credit check, some minor home improvements and a LOT of paperwork, the house was ours. It's definitely more expensive to own a home than it is to rent, but so far the investment is worth every penny. Even though there are more expenses, including property taxes and insurance, the fact that you are spending your money on a mortgage instead of a landlord gives you a greater feeling of independence, even though this "freedom" means that you will be living in the same place for 15-30 years. Thinking of the approximately $700 in rent we paid every month for five years, I cringe when I calculate how much money was flushed down the toilet instead of being put into equity.
Home ownership is another sign you are maturing, at least in society's eyes if not your own. You are no longer living in a room or basement while your parents pay for everything from food to utilities. And instead of renting, where you pass off problems to a landlord or maintenance crew, with your own home you're responsible for all repairs. Heater on the fritz? That's your problem. Leaky roof? Too bad. Basement flooded? Get a bucket and start scooping.
But even with these added responsibilities, I wouldn't trade my little piece of Americana for anything. Owning a home really makes you feel like you've "made" it, and that feeling will continue until you sell it or your local government takes your property for some public works project or hands the deed over to some private developer for the "greater good."
And for those wondering, here is the result of my house search.
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