Trying to find a house

We've alluded in a couple of posts that we are looking around to buy a house out here on the plains.

We have been looking, on and off, for months. I never thought how difficult this process would prove to be, we got qualified with a good lender, we know our budget and we have a good idea what we want. Given the very soft housing market we figured it would be a snap.

Oh, how wrong we are.

I know we have some conditionals when it comes to the house. It has to be big enough, 1,700 square foot or bigger. It has to be a ranch style house because we don't want Sean having to negotiate stairs, it has to be commutable for me to get to work. but more importantly, it has to be commutable for Doc to come and pick up Sean. I am willing to commute quit a distance but we do have to take into account Sean's travel and transportation needs,

The house also has to have land - we want our horses with us - and, if it does not have fencing and a barn then we will need to be able to afford to put the necessary stuff there which reduces the overall amount we can pay for the property.

Well OK - we have been searching. I guess I should put in a plug for our realtor - her name is Sarah Sell and she works for Look East Realty in Bennett Colorado. Sarah has been with Nancy all over this area arranging showings, taking us to properties - this lady has worked hard for us. If you ever have a need for somone to work with out on the Eastern Plains - look her up.

Anyhoo - Nancy has searched the various listing services, identified likely places and gone out on many, many visits with Sarah. We have looked at places as far south as Kiowa and as far north as 128th avenue - as far east as Deer trail and west to Watkins.

Now that may not be familiar to all of you - but its a big area.

And I have learned some things about real estate .

Some advice for sellers - free:

1) If you are planning to sell a house that you live in - clean it. Nothing kills interest faster than the first thought you have on entering the house is that you are going to need a shower. Yes, this has happened.

2) If you have done some extensive Do-it-yourself on the house - get it inspected. It may be a good idea to find out that you have installed stuff backwards or done stuff that does not come up to code. Most mortgage companies require inspection reports. And yes this happened to us.

3) If you say that it is a horse property it had better be fenced or the horses wont be on it long.

And for the banks out there that currently have a boatload of foreclosures on their hands.

Learn to negotiate on price. There are tons of properties out here that have been on the market for a year or more.