The House Hunting Begins

Life has been busy for me lately. Playoffs have started for Micron's Intramural basketball league and we had two games this week and have two next week. We play games after work (which cuts into my normal blog writing time). In addition, I have decided to re-enter the housing market in search of a humble abode I can call my own. And that has also taken a considerable amount of my time.

Initial Search

I started looking for a house last year about this same time of year. I figured, since interest rates were so low (they are lower now) and the market was so depressed that it would be an excellent time to get a deal on a nice house. After looking for about a month, I decided that I didn't have the money for a decent down payment and it would probably be cheaper to just rent and pile up savings and buy in a few years. Also, I was looking for a house to raise a family in and decided that it would be silly to purchase a home for a family before having a wife to voice her opinion on what would be good for a family. I figured if I picked what I liked, chances are a future wife would hate the house and then where would I be?! So, the housing search died -- for the moment.

Dream Revitalized

Fast forward to this month and after reading several great books and talking with some wise folks (aka my parents) I have decided to buy a house. But this time, I am looking for something much cheaper and plan to use it as a future investment property. My current plan is to pick up a cheap property, live in it until I pay it off, and then -- hopefully I'm married at this point -- buy the home to raise a family. Once the family home is purchased, I would like to rent out the first house and dive into the landlord profession. It's not really that I have always dreamed to be a landlord or anything, but I'd like to give it a try, and I think I might even enjoy it. Plus, the income from the rental would help to pay off the second house even faster. 

Building the Empire

Once I have two paid for homes I'll decide if I want to continue landlording. If so, I will most likely save up and pay cash for a second investment property. At that point in my life I have no intention of taking on any additional debt. But at the moment, I think a little debt may be necessary to jump start the process of building my "evil empire" bwahaha!

If only they had these sort of perks in Boise!

Realtor Hunt

So, lately I have been talking with lenders about getting preapproved and in search of a good Realtor. Last week I received my preapproval for my loan from a local Idaho credit union. I have interviewed two Realtor's so far and will be talking with a third tomorrow. The first two were excellent and this third one sounds like he's not going to make the decision any easier. I suppose it's nicer to have more options then fewer, but making a decision between three great candidates will be difficult. I plan to make my decision by the end of the week so I can start looking more seriously. 

I'm very excited to become a homeowner and will keep you updated on my search!