[yellowS2K]

No line at Sage when at 1:30pm (well, had to wait about 30 seconds for one person in front of me). The principle at Sage said at the orientation last week that for kids signed up during the “first wave” (which ends June 15th), they haven’t had to turn anyone from the geographic boundary ever during the past 7 years. The only time they’ve had to is when kids are signed up in late summer. So I would interpret this as follows: move in and register by June 15th and you are almost (but not completely) guaranteed to get into your geographically assigned school, but after June 15th your chances go down as time goes on. By August you’ll likely get stuck wherever they still happen to have room in the district.

They do let you register without immunization being up-to-snuff – my kid’s immunization card isn’t up to date (I forgot it last time we went to the doctor, so kid IS up-to-date, but just the card isn’t). They photocopied the yellow card as-is and took all the rest of my paperwork with no problem – they just noted on my sheet that I was missing the last round of boosters. I headed over to the doctors office and I’ll have the updated card in about a week – but they said I had until school starts to get it in. I also didn’t have the medical form from the doctor or the “oral health” from the dentist. Again, they said we’re fine as long as I get them in by the time school starts.

I also didn’t have the exact items required for proof of residency. The sheet says they need a phone bill (not cell phone either) or water bill + lease or deed. We just moved in a couple weeks back (yes – we’re one of the apparently very few people who actually bought a new construction house in February). I had a copy of my deed and only a Time Warner Cable Internet bill printed out from the TWC website. We don’t have a land line (well, we have Vonage, so sort of a land line, but no bill yet), and first water bill hasn’t come. They took the web-printed TWC internet bill + copy of the deed with no problem.

So it was relatively painless – in and out in 10 minutes including the separate “line” (one person ahead of me) for the after school program registration. Of course filling out all the forms and hunting for birth certificate and immunization card is a bit tedious and you’ll want to have done that in advance.

[yellowS2K]

No line at Sage when at 1:30pm (well, had to wait about 30 seconds for one person in front of me). The principle at Sage said at the orientation last week that for kids signed up during the “first wave” (which ends June 15th), they haven’t had to turn anyone from the geographic boundary ever during the past 7 years. The only time they’ve had to is when kids are signed up in late summer. So I would interpret this as follows: move in and register by June 15th and you are almost (but not completely) guaranteed to get into your geographically assigned school, but after June 15th your chances go down as time goes on. By August you’ll likely get stuck wherever they still happen to have room in the district.

They do let you register without immunization being up-to-snuff – my kid’s immunization card isn’t up to date (I forgot it last time we went to the doctor, so kid IS up-to-date, but just the card isn’t). They photocopied the yellow card as-is and took all the rest of my paperwork with no problem – they just noted on my sheet that I was missing the last round of boosters. I headed over to the doctors office and I’ll have the updated card in about a week – but they said I had until school starts to get it in. I also didn’t have the medical form from the doctor or the “oral health” from the dentist. Again, they said we’re fine as long as I get them in by the time school starts.

I also didn’t have the exact items required for proof of residency. The sheet says they need a phone bill (not cell phone either) or water bill + lease or deed. We just moved in a couple weeks back (yes – we’re one of the apparently very few people who actually bought a new construction house in February). I had a copy of my deed and only a Time Warner Cable Internet bill printed out from the TWC website. We don’t have a land line (well, we have Vonage, so sort of a land line, but no bill yet), and first water bill hasn’t come. They took the web-printed TWC internet bill + copy of the deed with no problem.

So it was relatively painless – in and out in 10 minutes including the separate “line” (one person ahead of me) for the after school program registration. Of course filling out all the forms and hunting for birth certificate and immunization card is a bit tedious and you’ll want to have done that in advance.

[yellowS2K]

No line at Sage when at 1:30pm (well, had to wait about 30 seconds for one person in front of me). The principle at Sage said at the orientation last week that for kids signed up during the “first wave” (which ends June 15th), they haven’t had to turn anyone from the geographic boundary ever during the past 7 years. The only time they’ve had to is when kids are signed up in late summer. So I would interpret this as follows: move in and register by June 15th and you are almost (but not completely) guaranteed to get into your geographically assigned school, but after June 15th your chances go down as time goes on. By August you’ll likely get stuck wherever they still happen to have room in the district.

They do let you register without immunization being up-to-snuff – my kid’s immunization card isn’t up to date (I forgot it last time we went to the doctor, so kid IS up-to-date, but just the card isn’t). They photocopied the yellow card as-is and took all the rest of my paperwork with no problem – they just noted on my sheet that I was missing the last round of boosters. I headed over to the doctors office and I’ll have the updated card in about a week – but they said I had until school starts to get it in. I also didn’t have the medical form from the doctor or the “oral health” from the dentist. Again, they said we’re fine as long as I get them in by the time school starts.

I also didn’t have the exact items required for proof of residency. The sheet says they need a phone bill (not cell phone either) or water bill + lease or deed. We just moved in a couple weeks back (yes – we’re one of the apparently very few people who actually bought a new construction house in February). I had a copy of my deed and only a Time Warner Cable Internet bill printed out from the TWC website. We don’t have a land line (well, we have Vonage, so sort of a land line, but no bill yet), and first water bill hasn’t come. They took the web-printed TWC internet bill + copy of the deed with no problem.

So it was relatively painless – in and out in 10 minutes including the separate “line” (one person ahead of me) for the after school program registration. Of course filling out all the forms and hunting for birth certificate and immunization card is a bit tedious and you’ll want to have done that in advance.

[yellowS2K]

No line at Sage when at 1:30pm (well, had to wait about 30 seconds for one person in front of me). The principle at Sage said at the orientation last week that for kids signed up during the “first wave” (which ends June 15th), they haven’t had to turn anyone from the geographic boundary ever during the past 7 years. The only time they’ve had to is when kids are signed up in late summer. So I would interpret this as follows: move in and register by June 15th and you are almost (but not completely) guaranteed to get into your geographically assigned school, but after June 15th your chances go down as time goes on. By August you’ll likely get stuck wherever they still happen to have room in the district.

They do let you register without immunization being up-to-snuff – my kid’s immunization card isn’t up to date (I forgot it last time we went to the doctor, so kid IS up-to-date, but just the card isn’t). They photocopied the yellow card as-is and took all the rest of my paperwork with no problem – they just noted on my sheet that I was missing the last round of boosters. I headed over to the doctors office and I’ll have the updated card in about a week – but they said I had until school starts to get it in. I also didn’t have the medical form from the doctor or the “oral health” from the dentist. Again, they said we’re fine as long as I get them in by the time school starts.

I also didn’t have the exact items required for proof of residency. The sheet says they need a phone bill (not cell phone either) or water bill + lease or deed. We just moved in a couple weeks back (yes – we’re one of the apparently very few people who actually bought a new construction house in February). I had a copy of my deed and only a Time Warner Cable Internet bill printed out from the TWC website. We don’t have a land line (well, we have Vonage, so sort of a land line, but no bill yet), and first water bill hasn’t come. They took the web-printed TWC internet bill + copy of the deed with no problem.

So it was relatively painless – in and out in 10 minutes including the separate “line” (one person ahead of me) for the after school program registration. Of course filling out all the forms and hunting for birth certificate and immunization card is a bit tedious and you’ll want to have done that in advance.

[yellowS2K]

No line at Sage when at 1:30pm (well, had to wait about 30 seconds for one person in front of me). The principle at Sage said at the orientation last week that for kids signed up during the “first wave” (which ends June 15th), they haven’t had to turn anyone from the geographic boundary ever during the past 7 years. The only time they’ve had to is when kids are signed up in late summer. So I would interpret this as follows: move in and register by June 15th and you are almost (but not completely) guaranteed to get into your geographically assigned school, but after June 15th your chances go down as time goes on. By August you’ll likely get stuck wherever they still happen to have room in the district.

They do let you register without immunization being up-to-snuff – my kid’s immunization card isn’t up to date (I forgot it last time we went to the doctor, so kid IS up-to-date, but just the card isn’t). They photocopied the yellow card as-is and took all the rest of my paperwork with no problem – they just noted on my sheet that I was missing the last round of boosters. I headed over to the doctors office and I’ll have the updated card in about a week – but they said I had until school starts to get it in. I also didn’t have the medical form from the doctor or the “oral health” from the dentist. Again, they said we’re fine as long as I get them in by the time school starts.

I also didn’t have the exact items required for proof of residency. The sheet says they need a phone bill (not cell phone either) or water bill + lease or deed. We just moved in a couple weeks back (yes – we’re one of the apparently very few people who actually bought a new construction house in February). I had a copy of my deed and only a Time Warner Cable Internet bill printed out from the TWC website. We don’t have a land line (well, we have Vonage, so sort of a land line, but no bill yet), and first water bill hasn’t come. They took the web-printed TWC internet bill + copy of the deed with no problem.

So it was relatively painless – in and out in 10 minutes including the separate “line” (one person ahead of me) for the after school program registration. Of course filling out all the forms and hunting for birth certificate and immunization card is a bit tedious and you’ll want to have done that in advance.

[yellowS2K]

First factor you must think about is how long you plan to stay in the house. For each option, multiply the total monthly payment by the # of months, add the up-front costs, and then find out what your loan balance will be as of that time (a little harder to calculate, but most likely your loan officer can tell you, or better yet give you a table showing loan balance vs. life of loan assuming you don’t make extra principle payments). Knowing how long you’ll stay in a house can be tricky – for some it’s easy (you know you’ll need more space if you are planning to have kids, or to downsize if kids are leaving the nest, or maybe this is your dream house and you’ll be there for the life of the loan). But for must of us you need to just take a reasonable stab at it, perhaps by estimating what’s the minimum time you’ll be there and work from that even if it might be longer.

Second factor is when do you think you’ll be able to get enough equity to no longer have to pay PMI? If you can swing extra principle payments and get there faster, that might influence your decision. BUT… ask about if/when you can stop paying PMI for each option. I was told that for FHA you must continue to pay regardless of your equity position for the first 5 years. I looked around to try to confirm that just now and found only this on the FAQ for fha.com: The PMI cost “is borne by the homebuyer, but the insurance cost ends approximately five years later, or when the FHA mortgage balance is seventy-eight percent of the property value, whichever occurs last.”

Note the bit about “whichever occurs last” – so I think that confirms what I was told: minimum of 5 years regardless of equity position. That’s $17760 over 5 years that you are forced to pay unless rates are still low when you get to 20% equity and you can refi.

[yellowS2K]

First factor you must think about is how long you plan to stay in the house. For each option, multiply the total monthly payment by the # of months, add the up-front costs, and then find out what your loan balance will be as of that time (a little harder to calculate, but most likely your loan officer can tell you, or better yet give you a table showing loan balance vs. life of loan assuming you don’t make extra principle payments). Knowing how long you’ll stay in a house can be tricky – for some it’s easy (you know you’ll need more space if you are planning to have kids, or to downsize if kids are leaving the nest, or maybe this is your dream house and you’ll be there for the life of the loan). But for must of us you need to just take a reasonable stab at it, perhaps by estimating what’s the minimum time you’ll be there and work from that even if it might be longer.

Second factor is when do you think you’ll be able to get enough equity to no longer have to pay PMI? If you can swing extra principle payments and get there faster, that might influence your decision. BUT… ask about if/when you can stop paying PMI for each option. I was told that for FHA you must continue to pay regardless of your equity position for the first 5 years. I looked around to try to confirm that just now and found only this on the FAQ for fha.com: The PMI cost “is borne by the homebuyer, but the insurance cost ends approximately five years later, or when the FHA mortgage balance is seventy-eight percent of the property value, whichever occurs last.”

Note the bit about “whichever occurs last” – so I think that confirms what I was told: minimum of 5 years regardless of equity position. That’s $17760 over 5 years that you are forced to pay unless rates are still low when you get to 20% equity and you can refi.

[yellowS2K]

First factor you must think about is how long you plan to stay in the house. For each option, multiply the total monthly payment by the # of months, add the up-front costs, and then find out what your loan balance will be as of that time (a little harder to calculate, but most likely your loan officer can tell you, or better yet give you a table showing loan balance vs. life of loan assuming you don’t make extra principle payments). Knowing how long you’ll stay in a house can be tricky – for some it’s easy (you know you’ll need more space if you are planning to have kids, or to downsize if kids are leaving the nest, or maybe this is your dream house and you’ll be there for the life of the loan). But for must of us you need to just take a reasonable stab at it, perhaps by estimating what’s the minimum time you’ll be there and work from that even if it might be longer.

Second factor is when do you think you’ll be able to get enough equity to no longer have to pay PMI? If you can swing extra principle payments and get there faster, that might influence your decision. BUT… ask about if/when you can stop paying PMI for each option. I was told that for FHA you must continue to pay regardless of your equity position for the first 5 years. I looked around to try to confirm that just now and found only this on the FAQ for fha.com: The PMI cost “is borne by the homebuyer, but the insurance cost ends approximately five years later, or when the FHA mortgage balance is seventy-eight percent of the property value, whichever occurs last.”

Note the bit about “whichever occurs last” – so I think that confirms what I was told: minimum of 5 years regardless of equity position. That’s $17760 over 5 years that you are forced to pay unless rates are still low when you get to 20% equity and you can refi.

[yellowS2K]

First factor you must think about is how long you plan to stay in the house. For each option, multiply the total monthly payment by the # of months, add the up-front costs, and then find out what your loan balance will be as of that time (a little harder to calculate, but most likely your loan officer can tell you, or better yet give you a table showing loan balance vs. life of loan assuming you don’t make extra principle payments). Knowing how long you’ll stay in a house can be tricky – for some it’s easy (you know you’ll need more space if you are planning to have kids, or to downsize if kids are leaving the nest, or maybe this is your dream house and you’ll be there for the life of the loan). But for must of us you need to just take a reasonable stab at it, perhaps by estimating what’s the minimum time you’ll be there and work from that even if it might be longer.

Second factor is when do you think you’ll be able to get enough equity to no longer have to pay PMI? If you can swing extra principle payments and get there faster, that might influence your decision. BUT… ask about if/when you can stop paying PMI for each option. I was told that for FHA you must continue to pay regardless of your equity position for the first 5 years. I looked around to try to confirm that just now and found only this on the FAQ for fha.com: The PMI cost “is borne by the homebuyer, but the insurance cost ends approximately five years later, or when the FHA mortgage balance is seventy-eight percent of the property value, whichever occurs last.”

Note the bit about “whichever occurs last” – so I think that confirms what I was told: minimum of 5 years regardless of equity position. That’s $17760 over 5 years that you are forced to pay unless rates are still low when you get to 20% equity and you can refi.

[yellowS2K]

First factor you must think about is how long you plan to stay in the house. For each option, multiply the total monthly payment by the # of months, add the up-front costs, and then find out what your loan balance will be as of that time (a little harder to calculate, but most likely your loan officer can tell you, or better yet give you a table showing loan balance vs. life of loan assuming you don’t make extra principle payments). Knowing how long you’ll stay in a house can be tricky – for some it’s easy (you know you’ll need more space if you are planning to have kids, or to downsize if kids are leaving the nest, or maybe this is your dream house and you’ll be there for the life of the loan). But for must of us you need to just take a reasonable stab at it, perhaps by estimating what’s the minimum time you’ll be there and work from that even if it might be longer.

Second factor is when do you think you’ll be able to get enough equity to no longer have to pay PMI? If you can swing extra principle payments and get there faster, that might influence your decision. BUT… ask about if/when you can stop paying PMI for each option. I was told that for FHA you must continue to pay regardless of your equity position for the first 5 years. I looked around to try to confirm that just now and found only this on the FAQ for fha.com: The PMI cost “is borne by the homebuyer, but the insurance cost ends approximately five years later, or when the FHA mortgage balance is seventy-eight percent of the property value, whichever occurs last.”

Note the bit about “whichever occurs last” – so I think that confirms what I was told: minimum of 5 years regardless of equity position. That’s $17760 over 5 years that you are forced to pay unless rates are still low when you get to 20% equity and you can refi.

[yellowS2K]

[quote=applejack]Thanks for all of the comments! Regarding my personal feelings towards the house — well, initially I liked it. Then I started to think about all of the impractical things about it, mainly the layout and the schools in the neighborhood. Also, the finishes in the house aren’t “perfect”. (Meaning, eventually I would like to redo the bathrooms and paint the house and change the trim.) My husband never thinks about the practical side of things, lol! My husband really loves the house. My family feels that it is really expensive, and they don’t see the appeal of living in the urban neighborhoods. They think we could get more for our money and find a more practical house in the suburbs. I was really shocked when my family had the negative reaction to the house. I thought they would walk in and be really excited about the “uniqueness” of the house, but instead they were opnely negative and it really shook my confidence. The problem is that I don’t know what I want anymore, I am sick of thinking about house buying and want to focus on getting this baby out and into the world![/quote]

Trust your instincts about what you and your husband liked about the house. Seems like your family’s concerns are about the value and maybe the neighborhood if they have a bias towards suburbs. But they aren’t buying the house and living in it – so what they value or think is or isn’t worth paying for is apparently NOT aligned with you and your husband.

Buying a house and having a baby are two of the most emotional things you can do in your life (I know first hand as we are going through both right now too – baby due in the spring and on track to close escrow in 30 days). While I don’t advocate settling on something because your are too tired to deal with it (again, a sentiment we know all to well), it does NOT sound like that’s what you guys have done: you have looked for a long time, you have found a compromise that works for both of you.

I have not looked at the house other than the listing, and I don’t know much about that neighborhood in particular, so I’m not going to try to offer opinions on value, etc – looks like folks far more knowledgeable than I have posted on those issues. The photos looked very nice to me, and SD Realtor said they don’t even do it justice.

My other 2 cents: you are buying a house to live in and raise a family (so will be settling in for awhile), and that presumably you can afford. So don’t get too focused on if this is the right time to buy or if you are getting a good value for your money. Those things matter, but they are not the only things that matter, and you can only make perfect decisions on those fronts in hindsight.

Best of luck!

[yellowS2K]

[quote=applejack]Thanks for all of the comments! Regarding my personal feelings towards the house — well, initially I liked it. Then I started to think about all of the impractical things about it, mainly the layout and the schools in the neighborhood. Also, the finishes in the house aren’t “perfect”. (Meaning, eventually I would like to redo the bathrooms and paint the house and change the trim.) My husband never thinks about the practical side of things, lol! My husband really loves the house. My family feels that it is really expensive, and they don’t see the appeal of living in the urban neighborhoods. They think we could get more for our money and find a more practical house in the suburbs. I was really shocked when my family had the negative reaction to the house. I thought they would walk in and be really excited about the “uniqueness” of the house, but instead they were opnely negative and it really shook my confidence. The problem is that I don’t know what I want anymore, I am sick of thinking about house buying and want to focus on getting this baby out and into the world![/quote]

Trust your instincts about what you and your husband liked about the house. Seems like your family’s concerns are about the value and maybe the neighborhood if they have a bias towards suburbs. But they aren’t buying the house and living in it – so what they value or think is or isn’t worth paying for is apparently NOT aligned with you and your husband.

Buying a house and having a baby are two of the most emotional things you can do in your life (I know first hand as we are going through both right now too – baby due in the spring and on track to close escrow in 30 days). While I don’t advocate settling on something because your are too tired to deal with it (again, a sentiment we know all to well), it does NOT sound like that’s what you guys have done: you have looked for a long time, you have found a compromise that works for both of you.

I have not looked at the house other than the listing, and I don’t know much about that neighborhood in particular, so I’m not going to try to offer opinions on value, etc – looks like folks far more knowledgeable than I have posted on those issues. The photos looked very nice to me, and SD Realtor said they don’t even do it justice.

My other 2 cents: you are buying a house to live in and raise a family (so will be settling in for awhile), and that presumably you can afford. So don’t get too focused on if this is the right time to buy or if you are getting a good value for your money. Those things matter, but they are not the only things that matter, and you can only make perfect decisions on those fronts in hindsight.

Best of luck!

[yellowS2K]

[quote=applejack]Thanks for all of the comments! Regarding my personal feelings towards the house — well, initially I liked it. Then I started to think about all of the impractical things about it, mainly the layout and the schools in the neighborhood. Also, the finishes in the house aren’t “perfect”. (Meaning, eventually I would like to redo the bathrooms and paint the house and change the trim.) My husband never thinks about the practical side of things, lol! My husband really loves the house. My family feels that it is really expensive, and they don’t see the appeal of living in the urban neighborhoods. They think we could get more for our money and find a more practical house in the suburbs. I was really shocked when my family had the negative reaction to the house. I thought they would walk in and be really excited about the “uniqueness” of the house, but instead they were opnely negative and it really shook my confidence. The problem is that I don’t know what I want anymore, I am sick of thinking about house buying and want to focus on getting this baby out and into the world![/quote]

Trust your instincts about what you and your husband liked about the house. Seems like your family’s concerns are about the value and maybe the neighborhood if they have a bias towards suburbs. But they aren’t buying the house and living in it – so what they value or think is or isn’t worth paying for is apparently NOT aligned with you and your husband.

Buying a house and having a baby are two of the most emotional things you can do in your life (I know first hand as we are going through both right now too – baby due in the spring and on track to close escrow in 30 days). While I don’t advocate settling on something because your are too tired to deal with it (again, a sentiment we know all to well), it does NOT sound like that’s what you guys have done: you have looked for a long time, you have found a compromise that works for both of you.

I have not looked at the house other than the listing, and I don’t know much about that neighborhood in particular, so I’m not going to try to offer opinions on value, etc – looks like folks far more knowledgeable than I have posted on those issues. The photos looked very nice to me, and SD Realtor said they don’t even do it justice.

My other 2 cents: you are buying a house to live in and raise a family (so will be settling in for awhile), and that presumably you can afford. So don’t get too focused on if this is the right time to buy or if you are getting a good value for your money. Those things matter, but they are not the only things that matter, and you can only make perfect decisions on those fronts in hindsight.

Best of luck!

[yellowS2K]

[quote=applejack]Thanks for all of the comments! Regarding my personal feelings towards the house — well, initially I liked it. Then I started to think about all of the impractical things about it, mainly the layout and the schools in the neighborhood. Also, the finishes in the house aren’t “perfect”. (Meaning, eventually I would like to redo the bathrooms and paint the house and change the trim.) My husband never thinks about the practical side of things, lol! My husband really loves the house. My family feels that it is really expensive, and they don’t see the appeal of living in the urban neighborhoods. They think we could get more for our money and find a more practical house in the suburbs. I was really shocked when my family had the negative reaction to the house. I thought they would walk in and be really excited about the “uniqueness” of the house, but instead they were opnely negative and it really shook my confidence. The problem is that I don’t know what I want anymore, I am sick of thinking about house buying and want to focus on getting this baby out and into the world![/quote]

Trust your instincts about what you and your husband liked about the house. Seems like your family’s concerns are about the value and maybe the neighborhood if they have a bias towards suburbs. But they aren’t buying the house and living in it – so what they value or think is or isn’t worth paying for is apparently NOT aligned with you and your husband.

Buying a house and having a baby are two of the most emotional things you can do in your life (I know first hand as we are going through both right now too – baby due in the spring and on track to close escrow in 30 days). While I don’t advocate settling on something because your are too tired to deal with it (again, a sentiment we know all to well), it does NOT sound like that’s what you guys have done: you have looked for a long time, you have found a compromise that works for both of you.

I have not looked at the house other than the listing, and I don’t know much about that neighborhood in particular, so I’m not going to try to offer opinions on value, etc – looks like folks far more knowledgeable than I have posted on those issues. The photos looked very nice to me, and SD Realtor said they don’t even do it justice.

My other 2 cents: you are buying a house to live in and raise a family (so will be settling in for awhile), and that presumably you can afford. So don’t get too focused on if this is the right time to buy or if you are getting a good value for your money. Those things matter, but they are not the only things that matter, and you can only make perfect decisions on those fronts in hindsight.

Best of luck!

[yellowS2K]

[quote=applejack]Thanks for all of the comments! Regarding my personal feelings towards the house — well, initially I liked it. Then I started to think about all of the impractical things about it, mainly the layout and the schools in the neighborhood. Also, the finishes in the house aren’t “perfect”. (Meaning, eventually I would like to redo the bathrooms and paint the house and change the trim.) My husband never thinks about the practical side of things, lol! My husband really loves the house. My family feels that it is really expensive, and they don’t see the appeal of living in the urban neighborhoods. They think we could get more for our money and find a more practical house in the suburbs. I was really shocked when my family had the negative reaction to the house. I thought they would walk in and be really excited about the “uniqueness” of the house, but instead they were opnely negative and it really shook my confidence. The problem is that I don’t know what I want anymore, I am sick of thinking about house buying and want to focus on getting this baby out and into the world![/quote]

Trust your instincts about what you and your husband liked about the house. Seems like your family’s concerns are about the value and maybe the neighborhood if they have a bias towards suburbs. But they aren’t buying the house and living in it – so what they value or think is or isn’t worth paying for is apparently NOT aligned with you and your husband.

Buying a house and having a baby are two of the most emotional things you can do in your life (I know first hand as we are going through both right now too – baby due in the spring and on track to close escrow in 30 days). While I don’t advocate settling on something because your are too tired to deal with it (again, a sentiment we know all to well), it does NOT sound like that’s what you guys have done: you have looked for a long time, you have found a compromise that works for both of you.

I have not looked at the house other than the listing, and I don’t know much about that neighborhood in particular, so I’m not going to try to offer opinions on value, etc – looks like folks far more knowledgeable than I have posted on those issues. The photos looked very nice to me, and SD Realtor said they don’t even do it justice.

My other 2 cents: you are buying a house to live in and raise a family (so will be settling in for awhile), and that presumably you can afford. So don’t get too focused on if this is the right time to buy or if you are getting a good value for your money. Those things matter, but they are not the only things that matter, and you can only make perfect decisions on those fronts in hindsight.

Best of luck!

[Author]

Posts