Karen, how is it going?

Karen, how is it going?

Any news about the hob opportunity?

Phyl - interview on Monday

Hi Phyl;

I have an interview on Monday as a follow up to a really good phone interview. All indications were good that the job offer will be forthcoming so assuming that the terms are right we'll be heading to LI to live.

We're meeting with a real estate agent on Saturday to look at some houses. That's going to be the tricky part since no one's going to want to be moving right around the holidays! I'm hoping we can find the perfect house that's empty, or where someone else is being relocated away from LI so they have to move.

I'll post an update next week.

ok fingers are still crossed then

for both the offer and the house hunting

Karen H.

I`ll be keeping my fingers crossed for you too, but I just wanted to share with you our house story. We went out looking, and found something rather quickly 2 years ago at this time of year. Luckily, everything moved along pretty quickly, and while we weren`t in for Christmas 1999, we did move in Dec. 28, 1999! Just in time for New Year`s. Originally the owners did want to move to their new Florida destination before Christmas, but they changed their minds and decided to stay to celebrate with family. Anyway, point being, there is always a chance people will be looking to get to their new destination before the holidays. I couldn`t wait to get in and celebrate the holidays in the new house, and leave the old apartment behind! Good Luck!!

What areas will you be looking at?

Kel

Welcome to this side of the boards and thanks for the encouraging words.

The job I'm interviewing for is in Bayport. Hubby will need to find something and he wants to avoid a commute into the city so LI is the primary focus of his search. We are starting our search in a wide area, from Patchogue, north towards Port Jeff, and moving west towards Nesconsett, Lake Grove, East Islip, Happauge, etc. If you have any recommendations please let me know. I'd love to find an area that has somewhat of a town center, as opposed to subdivisions and strip malls.

I'll be posting an update next week on the interview and my initial house hunting expedition.

Karen H

I`m not really all that familiar with the towns you`re looking at, but I wish you all the best.

Are you going out with an agent? We found that once we learned which towns were basically well within our price range, there were so many more options, and we didn`t feel like we compromised anything. Our house was nicer and seemed years newer than many of those we saw selling for lots more money. And it certainly helped to relieve some of the frustration in feeling like we wouldn`t find anything.

Just remember to be patient. It shouldn`t feel like you`re settling. However, be prepared to make compromises. With our house, we purchased it knowing we needed to refinish the hardwood floors, and stain all the new interior doors they had replaced. These were definitely worthwhile sacrifices. Consider what things you might be willing to do without. Use your initial walk-throughs as learning experiences, you`ll want the practice, and don`t let agents or sellers go too fast over any part of the house. We also never felt comfortable telling the sales agents exactly what we had pre-qualified for, because we didn`t want them taking us to the max with our money and we wanted some negotiating room to go higher on an offer if needed.

With our house, I basically got a good feeling when we pulled up to it, and we both pretty much knew we wanted to make an offer before we even saw the best parts of the house .. plus, we saw the house for the very first time at night! Sometimes, you just get that feeling!

Let me know if I can help with anything! Try to keep the house hunting fun because when it comes down to the legalities and paperwork, it gets nervewracking .. your heart just hangs on that house you`ve fallen in love with, which is not yours until all the lines have been signed. I was a mess in the weeks leading up to our closing, because I was so afraid something might cause a setback or worse, the failure of the sale.

The wedding was cake compared to the house! :)

Kel

Thanks for all the good advice. We're meeting with an agent this Saturday, just to get a feel for the current market and area. Hubby and I have already talked about what is a 'must have' and what is strictly 'wish list' that we can do without.

The tough part right now is that I'll know where I'm working (if I get the job) but we don't yet know where he'll be working. Makes it hard to find a central location. That also makes it hard to pre-qualify for a mortgage right away too, since he'll need to get a new job first. Right now, we're just trying to get a feel for things so when we have all the ducks in a row we'll be ready to make a decision.

You're absolutely right about knowing it when you see it. Once you've gotten good at recognizing the losers, you know the winner right away.

Karen H

Hope you don`t mind a few more things I thought about, which could help your mortgage process go more smoothly. Make sure to have paper trails of your money. If you don`t already, start keeping your monthly bank statements and any paystubs. It may turn out you don`t need them, but you may just want to hold onto them. Also, if you are paying rent, make sure to keep your canceled rent checks. I forget all the things our mortgage company requested from us, but I was glad that someone had told us a few years prior to when we were ready to househunt that we should keep all our canceled rent checks in order, and that we would need to show the 12 prior months. He was right.

Kel

Thanks for the head-up. I printed some info off the internet on what paperwork is needed but I haven't read it yet. We did get our credit report from all 3 of the major companies to make sure they are clean and accurate and fortunately the things you mentioned are easy for me to pull from my files.

Tomorrow we'll be meeting with a real estate salesman so we'll get to do some of the fun part - actually look at houses. I just hope he doesn't show us the perfect house tomorrow - I don't even have the job offer yet!!!