Week 4: House Hunt

So we have been looking for houses. Our idea is that if we're here for at least 5 years we should be trying to build some equity. We've gone out with our Realtor, he seems pretty cool, he's not pushy and he emails me properties that fit into what I've asked for 4 bedrooms, at least 2 bathrooms, has to be more then 1700 square feet, and on more than a 1/2 an acre of property. The prices don't usually go over $190k. I send him a reply back at the homes we want to look at. He meets us there and opens the doors. We basically walk through and he just gives us pointers on things that they've upgraded on. He's given us cards for pre-qualifying banks. We're going to try and go through our Credit Union here. As we've been looking at homes I've noticed that they don't have basements out here. When I mentioned this to Dave he said, oh yeah we do. Then he took us to a home that "had" a basement. It didn't, the bottom level is above ground and the entryway is on the second floor. Kind of weird, but the more we thought about it, it would be normal for here, we're at sea level. I'm sure basements aren't the best idea out here. We've seen a few homes, nothing that's popped out at us yet, but we do want to be closer to the hospital. Most of the homes out here come with usually close to an acre of land. Tons of room for the kids to run and play. Also the homes here use Well water, and you have a septic tank instead. So usually there's a black pipe that sticks out of the ground and it has to be so far from the well water which is usually the white pipe that sticks out of the ground in the front or back yard. Everyone has that here. It's nice though when we're taking showers and such, the water seems to go farther here. And the tap water doesn't taste like chlorine, it's more like.....sulpher LOL. We've noticed in our place that when you first run water it smells kind of like sulpher. Good thing we have a reverse osmosis water system in the kitchen luckily. The kids don't notice the fart smell when you put your nose in your glass to drink, but I DO. And I'm saving money on not having to buy bottled water. I have it on tap now. I hope we can do that when we find a place. I love the reverse osmosis water here. Needless to say we're still looking, but even if we come home after 5 years, we will have a summer home to come to. Or we can rent it out later. You never know how it will pan out.