Meanwhile, on the House Buying Front

We had the inspector out two weeks ago. Everything but the roof was pretty much OK. And to show how desperate the owner is to sell the house, he agreed to pay half the cost of the roof repair.

So, here's the rundown:

We're buying the house for $116,950. The owner is giving us $3,500 toward city Point of Sale (POS) violation repairs. He's paying our closing costs and points, another $4,000. And his giving us $2,000 toward roof repair, as well as another $200 to pay whatever water/sewage bills are left after closing. In all, he's giving us back $9,700, bringing the real price of the house to $107,250. Further, he still has to pay about $7,500 to the realtors, bringing his grand total to just under $100,000 for the house.

I think we got a pretty good deal. We will have a budget of $5,500 ($3,500 for POS and $2,000 for roof) to fix the things that need fixin', and some of the things are going to cost far less than estimated because the damage wasn't as bad as originally thought. Anything left over goes to us, not him.

We also managed to lock in a rate of 5.875%, which is pretty good considering our debt. Our monthly mortgage payment should be about $550 per month. Add the $360 for property taxes and paying for water and sewage, and we're saving over $200 by no longer paying rent!

More as it happens...