Craziness

Right before it was time to close on our refinance, I panicked and decided to house hunt. I just hadn't fully realized until then that with interest rates so low, we could probably get into something bigger. And even if I suspected as much, I thought the whole process would be too stressful with a new baby. But when it came down to it, I wanted to see what was out there.

So the last five days have been a little insane.We've seen hundreds of houses online and several in person. We even found a house in Orem that we love. I would buy it in a second. But it's a foreclosure, so they won't accept an offer that's contingent on the sale of our house.

After doing the numbers every which way for the last 10 hours, talking to mortgage brokers, realtors, Provo city, etc. we came to the conclusion that we could swing buying the foreclosure before selling this house. And right after that we decided that doing so would be neither financially responsible or smart (for various technical reasons that I won't go into, but I will say that mortgage insurance royally sucks).

Instead, we've decided to put our house up for sale by owner and see what happens. If we get a decent offer on it and the Orem house is still on the market (or if we find another house we like as much in the meantime), we'll go for it. If not, we'll stay here and enjoy our very low house payment.

I feel like I'm just coming up for air after 5 very intense, stressful days of running around and decision making (not one of my favorite things to do), and it's so nice to feel at peace again. All of this house hunting has really made me appreciate our cute little house and our wonderful neighborhood. We are blessed to be here.

Side note: money aside, many people have interesting choices in furnishing and decorating their houses. Wow.

Next project: general decluttering, organizing, and deep cleaning to get ready to put the house up for sale. I'm actually excited about this. Even if we don't/decide not to sell the house, our house will be so much nicer to live in in a "ready to show" state.

I'll post pictures and info as soon as I have it ready, but in the meantime if you know anyone looking for a cute 2 bedroom house with a huge backyard in southeast Provo, let us know! Their mortgage would be as cheap as rent . . .