House Hunting

So we’ve gone back and fourth about getting a house the last few months partly because we are both in between jobs. Since we both got new fancy (and one not so fancy) jobs, we are back to hitting the webs for houses! Nope, no lake houses with infinity pools, but a fun fixer upper sounds perfect-o. There are definitely pros and cons to buying a house… lets start with the obvious pros:

Pros:

• Umm, you have a flippin house! Awesome!
• Complete design freedom (i cant wait to knock down some walls, build porches, and paint the crap out of it)
• Equity – you’re putting your money into a mortgage instead of someone else’s pocket
• Most mortgages we are looking at would be around the same price as apartment rentals in Austin
• PRIVACY! We can hear our neighbors newborn baby crying all night. We also probably annoy our current neighbors with our loud music and movies – not a problem if you own a house!
• Space – We are fo sho crammed in this apartment. Its a decent sized apartment but just my stuff alone filled the place up – add another person stuff and whadya get!? Cramped. Not so much in a house!
• Yard! One of my favorite parts – my sweet pup would be able to run around at her hearts content
• Art Studio! – Ok this might be my favorite part… I cannot wait to have an entire room dedicated to creativity, painting and pure awesomeness! Anyone wana come over and paint?!
• Guest room – right now everyone who stays over has to sleep on the couch. Which, we have people stay over quite often. and our couch is horribly uncomfortable to sleep on.
• Garage – i dont care much about protecting my car as much as i want a workshop! Building furniture on our little porch gets really old really fast. Also garages are great for storage. No more christmas trees in your hall closet. Woot!
• Stairs – i definitely wont miss three flights of stairs anytime i forget my phone upstairs
• Tax incentives

Cons:

• $$$ – not only the mortgage but also buying more furniture, paint, updates, etc. are pricy.
• Repairs & Maintenance – No more maintenance workers at a simple phone call. If something breaks you have to fix it. (or pay someone else a lot to)
• Utilities – heating a one bedroom apartment vs. heating a 3 bedroom house – expect prices to go way up!
• Mobility – with owning a home, you don’t have it. Unless you want to deal with long term renters, you’re probably not going to go anywhere for a few years. But i love austin – why would anyone want to move?!
• Amenities – bye bye pool 😦 this is a big downer – i love the gym and the pool here! I guess i could tan in the backyard. Kiddie pool anyone?
• Location – the better location the more expensive. The further away from central, the better the price and the better the house. But we want to be as central as possible… its definitely true: “Location, Location, Location”
• Down Payment – You’ve gotta have a lot of cash saved up. Banks require about 5% down which is $10,000 on a $200,000 home. Yikes!
• Property taxes – eww

We are definitely flexible – if we stay in this apartment for another year (or three) we are completely content. We have so much and so much to be thankful for. Someday we will most likely buy a house… I’ll keep you updated on if its sooner or later!

-Rach