Housing

Now that J and I are parents, it's easier to get more interested in getting our own home. Renting can be tiring especially when you can't do anything in the property besides clean it. I've been thinking about getting myself a bag hanger and I instantly think of the type attached to the wall. Since we are not allowed to make holes in the walls, my only idea left is to get a coat rack, which will cost us more.

Anyway, we have been looking on TradeMe and several real estate websites. Last Monday we went to visit a house on sale. It was a good house - sun all day, great heating system, glazed windows, nice neighborhood - but it was a bit small. It would not allow us to re-arrange because of its compact built. We were also asked to possibly make an offer the next day. As if.

We slept on it and the next day we realized certain things we didn't like about it. You could say we talked ourselves out of it. For one, it had 2 bedrooms and the smaller one was only half of the other. We are not talking big here as the house is only about 70sqm. Now it would be fine to have the baby sleep in the smaller room but it would not be comfortable for when he's a teenager. It has no bath and J has been enjoying baths more, and our baby is showing signs of love for the water as well. It's a townhouse and I'd feel much better buying a detached unit.

While we are still looking at houses we are also looking at our current financial status. Realistically it is not feasible because we don't have enough savings for a down payment that would save us from huge interests in the long run. I'm appalled to have found out that a 25-year $350,000 mortgage on 9.5% interest could mean around $480,000 interest we'd pay should we opt to get 100% financing! Ack!

I also looked for mortgage financing online apart from banks and found Fundit - a site for borrowers to receive bids from lenders who would want to offer financing. We've just submitted an application and heard back from them today. We'll see what happens.