House - long post

As many of you know, last May we moved into a house, we lived in apartments for the last 5-7yrs. I was renting a townhouse when Jessie and I met, but there is nothing that comes CLOSE to being in a house. It's been wonderful having the space for the kids and the family in general to stretch out. I don't think I'm the only one that loves having the large back yard that we have to play in either.

I have loved having a garden last summer, and look forward to having it again this summer. Yes, there is a TONS more maintenance being in a house then an apartment, but honestly, the benefits for us outweigh the negatives. They are time consuming, but I have loved every minute of it.

When we entered the lease last spring it was the intention of us entering a contract for deed (C4D) for the house this year. What is a C4D you ask? Basically you purchase the home from a seller without the traditional mortgage, the seller is your mortgage company. This is usually a great opportunity for people like Jessie and I who are not able to go the traditional route and take out a conventional mortgage. You put a small down payment on the house, usually 5-10% of the asking price, and you enter in to a contract for a period of time, at the end of that time, you will then have to get a conventional mortgage to finish purchasing the rest of the house. The time that this C4D goes is between the seller and the buyer. I have seen it as little as 2 yrs and as long as over 20yrs(which I personally wouldn't recommend going that long). The buyer gets all the perks of "owning" the home as any other buyer, and the seller does not retain any of those perks. The advantage for the seller is that if the buyer defaults, he/she not only gets all the monthly money the buyer has paid, but the deposit as well. There are negatives for the seller as well, but I'll get into those later if you want.

For our situation, the seller, our landlord, already knowns how we take care of the house, we have been tentants in the house for almost a year. I feel like we've been taking good care of the house. Granted there have been a few times that he has gotten annoyed with us, because we haven't immediately taken care of what he asks, but it is done in a reasonable amount of time (Usually within the week/weekend). (Heck - take the shoveling off part of the roof this past winter. There were several times that I went up there and got it done, because he wanted it done, and Jessie was gone away at work. I know, I know I shouldn't have because I'm pregnant.) So for him the risk/cons are really: the risk of us defaulting on the loan. NOT destroying the property. He knows how much we love this house.

So a couple of weeks ago, we had mentioned that we wanted to talk more seriously about the C4D option, since the government has that 1st time homebuyers credit of $8,000.00 which we wanted to use as PART of our downpayment. So we met with him and we came away with several mixed emotions. That 1st meeting he/the landlord was not prepared at all. Which everytime he has come over he's always prepare, and very critical about the smallest thing out of order. So that took us back by surprise. And then last weekend Jessie met with him, and was blown away. The man asked for 20% of the asking price down as our down payment. WHAT!? People - that's 30,000 dollars. If we had 30grand, we wouldn't be looking at a C4D, but a conventional mortgage. Needless to say we will not be doing the C4D.

We came away with a lot of mixed emotions. I'm not sure what or how Jessie felt. But I was floored and angry about this, not to mention sad and disappointed. If the man didn't want to do a C4D - all he had to do was say he changed his mind. We would be disappointed, not left with the feelings that we have now about the whole situation. So we now could careless, if we get this house or not. We will stay for another year, because the weekend that we would need to move out of the house, is the same weekend the baby is due to arrive. So moving this year is really not a good option.

I'm sad at the prospect of not getting the house anymore, because it fits our needs SO well...but I know now that this isn't the house and/or the timing isn't what GOD has in mind. Otherwise things would have worked out without a hitch. Just like how this house, fell into our laps last spring when we started looking. It's still disappointing...but there is a reason why that GOD will show if HE so chooses.

So now instead of a housewarming/meet the baby party in the early part of June, it will be just a meet the baby party. Which isn't all that bad either.

God Bless
Carlena