I bought the farm!

Draco said:

Congrats!!

Seeing how cheap the houses there, compared to here in NY.. I am in the wrong state!

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Go upstate!  It's prettier and cheaper! 

Natalie_ca said:

Houses where I live are so expensive.  That land, and the 2 houses would go for about $750,000 here.

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Yikes!  It's not that steep here; but I know prices here are quite a bit higher than where either DH's family or my own live in other states.  I think for about that price you could get a town house or a small house in a less desirable neighborhood.  

MoochNNoodles said:

Go upstate!  It's prettier and cheaper! 

Yikes!  It's not that steep here; but I know prices here are quite a bit higher than where either DH's family or my own live in other states.  I think for about that price you could get a town house or a small house in a less desirable neighborhood.  

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I live in Manitoba Canada and we have the highest cost of living in Canada! It's insane.  It's a seller's market here for houses. Houses frequently go for as much as $50,000 or more over the asking price. People bid; the agent goes offer to offer seeking a higher amount. Basically it's a bidding war.  Houses go up for sale one day and are frequently sold that same day or within a day or two of being put up for sale.

A small, and I mean small (900 square feet) home with an unfinished basement in a low to mid level neighbourhood will go up for almost $200,000 and often sell for more than that.  The price of homes have more than doubled in the last 10 years.

I know a couple that bought a 2 bedroom home for $85,000 and a year later fold it for more than double that. And they didn't put a single penny into fixing it up or anything.

Natalie_ca said:

I live in Manitoba Canada and we have the highest cost of living in Canada! It's insane.  It's a seller's market here for houses. Houses frequently go for as much as $50,000 or more over the asking price. People bid; the agent goes offer to offer seeking a higher amount. Basically it's a bidding war.  Houses go up for sale one day and are frequently sold that same day or within a day or two of being put up for sale.

A small, and I mean small (900 square feet) home with an unfinished basement in a low to mid level neighbourhood will go up for almost $200,000 and often sell for more than that.  The price of homes have more than doubled in the last 10 years.

I know a couple that bought a 2 bedroom home for $85,000 and a year later fold it for more than double that. And they didn't put a single penny into fixing it up or anything.

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Wow!  We were fortunate enough to get our offer on our home accepted right away; with all the conditions we asked for, a warranty, etc.  DH and I used to watch the realty shows on TV in amazement and fear when we were house hunting.  It's all in where you live I guess!

Acreages around here are fairly inexpensive right now. There's one nearby with 7 acres and a real fixer-upper house for only about $50,000. If anyone wants to move to nowheresville, they can do it real cheap! :lol3: Finding a decent job within reasonable commuting distance would be the biggest problem. . .

I LOVE it! Congrats! oooooo - so exciting! I hope all goes smoothly with the purchase. :cross:

Grrr. . .trouble with the financing. Apparently they don't like places with 2 possible living places at the same address. But a lot of rural properties have an old house nobody's bothered to take down yet! The realtor recommended another mortgage agent who knows how to handle rural places so hopefully that'll work out.

I don't want to live off the highway or I'll never get to work when it snows :tongue2:. And it'll probably be awhile before another place on the highway is for sale. So this better work! Or maybe I can convince the seller to bulldoze the old house. . .:lol3:.

Fingers crossed!!!!
 

Good luck!!  I really hope you are able to get it!

I know what you mean about the snow now!  DH and I refused to buy in a neighborhood because it seems they are almost ALL HOA run.  Yuck.  Especially for what you pay around here!  We also didn't want a postage stamp size piece of land!  We love our little half acre property that is on a country road; but actually has a school farther up and a county park as well.  That first winter here we got hammered with 2 back to back blizzards (we don't always get a lot of snow here) and learned that they do a much better job of plowing our road than any of the side streets near us!  A few days after that last blizzard we were headed up the road and noticed some of those side roads still hadn't been plowed at all!     We were evacuated during the first blizzard because our power went out and DD was just 4 weeks old.  It was actually one of our Pastors that picked us up in his truck because he had authority from the state and was out getting nurses to and from the veteran's home nearby.  I hated that winter with a passion!!

I'm just astounded at how cold it gets over there.  We don't get anything like that kind of weather, unless you live up a mountain!  It snowed once that I remember in my home town, Hobart, which is about as far south as you get.  And up here it's far more about catching the breeze to keep cool in Summer.  I can't imagine what it must be like to be snowed in!

Big fat fingers crossed for the finance to go through! 

Willowy said:

Grrr. . .trouble with the financing. Apparently they don't like places with 2 possible living places at the same address. But a lot of rural properties have an old house nobody's bothered to take down yet! The realtor recommended another mortgage agent who knows how to handle rural places so hopefully that'll work out.

I don't want to live off the highway or I'll never get to work when it snows

. And it'll probably be awhile before another place on the highway is for sale. So this better work! Or maybe I can convince the seller to bulldoze the old house. . .

.

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Could you sign an agreement that you'd be willing to raze the old place say, within 2-3 years from the date of the agreement? Around here, when somebody wants to build a second house on the same property (most of the time we make them prepare a land development plan to show both residences), but they're willing to tear down the first house, we will stipulate so on the zoning permit and they'll sign a paper to that effect. I did that when I was a zoning officer and, most of the time, it worked out well. There was only one time that I had to threaten to revoke the permit when the first house wasn't torn down within the specified time. And I didn't have to do it, thank goodness, just the phone call was enough to get the house down. But yes, municipalities don't like two residences on one property.

As for snow, I know! I dread the winter because of the snow and ice. One year I drove back and forth to work for one solid week in ice storms. It was nasty. It was one of those years when I appreciated driving only 7 miles to work. Usually once we get out onto the main highway, we're fine. But even though we're on a state road, they don't do that great of a job plowing the road. I remember that year, they got to us pretty much last and couldn't get all the ice off the road. Because everyone had to drive on it the way it was, the plow couldn't get all the ice off and it was rutted for a good month or so til it warmed up enough to start to melt. We walked up and down the driveway for a good month anyway because we couldn't get the ice out of the driveway, so we couldn't get the vehicles through. And then it snowed. And snowed. And snowed. We ended up with about a 3-foot path through the center of the driveway and, because of all the drifting, the driveway was almost waist-deep in snow. Honestly, at night with the moon shining on the snow, it looked like the moon's surface. We have a 4-foot picket fence around our pool and you couldn't see the top of the fence in places because of the snow drifts.  That was the Winter from Hades and I never thought we'd ever see warm weather again.

Rick has always said that people who love winter don't have to drive in it.

Good luck - it looks SO amazing.  Hope you find out soon, it must feel like everything is taking forever to sort out. 

I don't think it's the municipality (county? Township? IDK who deals with rural properties!) objecting to the houses. And I don't think rural properties are zoned. I mean, he's had it this way for a few years now and if the county objected I think they'd know by now. Unless the bank objects because they think the county might object? Eeek, I don't know enough about this kind of stuff. Thanks for the good thoughts!

Willowy said:

I don't think it's the municipality (county? Township? IDK who deals with rural properties!) objecting to the houses. And I don't think rural properties are zoned. I mean, he's had it this way for a few years now and if the county objected I think they'd know by now. Unless the bank objects because they think the county might object? Eeek, I don't know enough about this kind of stuff. Thanks for the good thoughts!

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I think it has something to do with the bank and mortgage and insurance.  Two residences might mean a mortgage for 2 homes and insurance for 2 homes.

Can the real estate agent tell you more? It is their job to know about such things.  If they don't know, they aren't a very good agent.

Obviously there wouldn't be 2 mortgages if it's the same price for the whole property, right? I suppose insurance might be a thing but that would be my problem, wouldn't it? The realtor says he's never had a problem with 2 houses on a rural property. He thinks my lender is just being overly picky. But I was trying Navy Federal, not a local lender. Hopefully a local lender will be more understanding of how rural properties are kept. Still waiting on the local lender to call back. . .

I'm thinking it is your lender and they are doing it because a) they can and b) they haven't a clue about rural areas and have no desire to learn. Even here, two houses on a rural property, if the RM allows it, are not a problem and the mortgage goes to the one whose name is going to be on the title and not to tenants but a secondary resident will have to get a renter's insurance policy for the second house. .

We had a situation around here where the lender wasn't that familiar with the two-house thing. They actually made the owner subdivide the property so that each house was on its own lot. The guy didn't want to go that route, but the bank wouldn't approve the loan otherwise.

It's weird the way lenders think sometimes. I really hope you can get it all cleared up and you'll be able to buy that property. 

Lucky you!  It's an awesome place.    And it's also lucky for the cat who got put into the contract.  It's almost as if it was meant to be.  

Good luck getting the financing worked out!

The new credit union guy I talked to is pretty sure he can get it worked out. . .he thinks he can make the appraiser ignore the barn as a living area, either totally ignore it or just look at it as a "man cave" or game room/party barn or something like that. It's a federal thing so any mortgage underwritten by Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac can't finance 2 houses on the same property. He says if that doesn't work the credit union can underwrite the loan themselves, because they have full discretion as to who they'll finance, but the interest will be higher :/.

And I was chatting with the seller today (I went out there to meet the inspector---yay, everything is structurally sound and in basically good condition, even the old house), and he says he'll take a Contract for Deed if the bank won't do it. But that makes me kind of nervous. And he would want 30% down, which I could do but I would rather keep the cash for updates and furniture and fences and stuff. So it appears we can make this happen one way or the other, just depends what I'm willing to do.

Grr. Buying houses is complicated. It shouldn't be this hard for someone with excellent credit (819!), why does the bank care so much what kind of place I want to buy as long as I make the payments? Bah.

Ooooh, sounds like you're getting closer.    Why is life so complicated   At least the credit union guy is sounding hopeful too so with luck you won't have to go with higher interest rates and big deposits!!!  So wishing you luck, it looks amazing.