Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The House Search Continues

So I know I promised Clemson pictures, but those are going to have to wait because I have a Lost episode calling me from my DVR.

First, though, I wanted to express some excitement, and some frustration. As some of you may, or may not know, I've been looking for a house for about the last month or so. Florida was one of the worst hit areas in the housing crash, and there are some great deals to be had. However, with my scant few months of full time employment and a correspondingly scant amount of savings, the houses that I can pick from are still relatively limited. Hey, a $500,000 house can only drop so far, right?

The excitement is because I have been able to find several areas near the center of town that satisfy my quite picky tastes. You see, most houses in Florida, especially new houses, are built in huge subdivisions with approximately 3.5 inches of space between them. Most of them also have no character, and if you replaced all the pictures in the housing magazine with a picture of the same stucco house, I'm not sure anyone would notice. I want something much different. I'm willing to put in the work on an older, unique house with a lot of potential.

The frustration is because the houses that I've found so far fall into two categories: houses where I love the design, love the lot, love the area, and it's just slightly too expensive, or houses where I can afford it, but the house is just alright, the area might be a bit hillbilly, and the lot is fair. That, or the house backs up to the interstate. Or the house that was perfect, but was also still listed in spite of being closed on tomorrow (anger!).

Anyway, that's the long and short of it. The search continues and with any luck I will be in the house of my dreams (or at least what will become the house of my dreams) in the next 6 months or so. $8,000 federal tax credit here I come!

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