Buying a House

Don't ever let people tell you that buying a house is scary. Don't let them tell you that getting approved is hard. Especially if you have a steady job, and aren't a complete basket case with your credit. Getting pre-qualified was about as easy as breathing, and I was a basket case ( back in college - still hanging with me, though ).

Now, finding a house is an entirely different matter. Looking over different neighborhoods, realizing what you can get for your dollar, trying to decide whether to buy a ready-to-move-into house or a fixer-upper.

My gf and I live in Richmond, VA. We looked at some historic neighborhoods, we looked at up and coming re-development neighborhoods, we looked in the suburbs, we looked in the boonies. We finally settled on a nice quiet neighborhood close into town on the north side called Bellevue/Ginter Park. We made an offer on a house and the owner accepted.

Now we go through the process of getting the Inspectors and Appraisers in. See, the house was For Sale By Owner ( known to our Realtor® as a Fizbo ), and the owner didn't want to contribute to closing costs or agent commissions, so we had to inflate our offer to compensate for these factors. Now the house has to appraise at our inflated offer price or more, or we can't get the loan.

Actual Work Stuff

Not much going on here. Been Zoping still. Writing a data validation module in Python to handle lots of form stuff. It's fun.