More House Hunting

*sniff* someone else bought my dream house. bastards. oh well. chad and i offered them $104,000 for it, but there were two other offers on the table, and they aren't allowed to tell everyone how much the other offers are. our realtor called us yesterday morning to tell us that all three offers were really close and that we'd hear something after lunch. it was way after lunch (like, 4:30) before we heard that they went with another offer. by that time, chad and i were already flipping through this week's local real estate guide, checking out other possibilities. so, we're going to look at some more houses (7 of them) this morning at 11. we drove around last night checking out the outside of a bunch of houses we were considering. i'm glad we did, because it helped us eliminate a lot of places. actually, by the time we came home from that, we only had one possibility left out of the 11 listings we were originally interested in (it's a good thing our realtor sent us almost 20 more listings to mull over last night). two of the houses actually looked really nice, but the neighborhood looked kind of sketchy (as in, we did not see one single white person in the whole neighborhood, and we saw quite a few people driving around). i don't have anything against black people. i have at least a few black friends, but i really don't think that being a different race in a one-ethnic-group neighborhood is the best idea in the world (not to mention that it hurts the resale value).

the other places we eliminated were in really sketchy neighborhoods. as in, we're pretty sure there was a drug deal going on down the block at this one house we drove by. there were mixed races in that neighborhood, but it was still pretty ghetto. most of the houses weren't in very good condition. i kind of expected it with that house because it was super cheap (3BR/2BA for $68,000). another one wasn't really in the ghetto, but it practially shared a lot with two car dealerships on airport blvd, right near schillinger rd (for those who know the area).

then there was the house in irvington. i didn't know anything about irvington before we drove over there, other than it's in south mobile county, about a half hour from mobile. so we checked out a house over there that was reasonably priced (3BR/1.5BA $80,100 - pretty typical for that area). it was kind of a long drive. and then we hit the dirt roads. and chad said, "this is too country for me." those of you who know chad will realize that it would have to be a pretty hick, totally back-woods place for even chad to think it's too country. and it was. the nearly mile of red clay road was a little much for us. there is an alternative route that takes you on paved roads all the way (which we took out of there), but the house is still on a dirt road, and it is not close to anything, except a few other houses. it's not even really a neighborhood. it's more like a hit and miss collection of run down white trash trailers (i have nothing against a nice, well kept trailer, but these were anything but that), really shitty houses that are falling apart, and cute houses that are well taken care of. we were disappointed to note the blue tarps still plastered on the roof of that house, which was so not alluded to anywhere in the listing. so yeah, we want to stay far away from that house, for many reasons. yep. staying far, far away from the hurricane damaged houses. because, you know, the house is damaged (and i refuse to mess with a house with roof damage) and there's the small fact that getting house insurance in that area is going to be a bitch. so, from now on, we won't be considering any houses south of theodore.

my favorite house (from the outside) that we're going to look at today is off of azalea road (just south of cottage hill rd), in a cute neighborhood. the only problem with it is all the freakin trees, man (bad for the satellite dish and the whole hurricane issue). otherwise, it's a good price (we plan to offer $98,000 for it if the inside looks nice), the house has been completely remodeled (but we still need to see the inside), and most importantly, it is not in the ghetto (or the soon to be ghetto). but there are two other good possibilities. one is in a neighborhood right near hillcrest and cottage hill (where chad's ex-boss lives), and the other one is in theodore. the one in theodore is the biggest of the houses we've looked at so far (2100 square feet!). hopefully, we'll be able to get our realtor to talk to some of these sellers and find out their bottom lines. as in, what price do we need to offer to get them to sell us a house today? the waiting to hear something after you've made an offer is excruciating. i'm all about the instant gratification, man. i'm impatient, so this waiting crap sucks for me. plus, i don't want to waste my time making an offer that the seller has no intention of accepting.

wish me luck...again.