SOLD!

We drove by the house this weekend to see if there was any storm damage and look what we found! If the seller's realtor thinks it's ours, we're joining in.

Our thoughts ran to the large tree out front during the insane storms. Fortunately it and the rest of the house were fine, even though every other yard between here and there was covered with a large fallen branch. With threats like these, we are speedily beginning to understand what it means to have a serious investment.

So far so good.

Our next step is easy: waiting to hear back from the mortgage agent on estimates of the window painting required for the loan to close. We'll take those estimates (currently running $600) to the sellers and get them to do the work. Once that's done, we can begin to close. In the mean time, we're transferring our down payment out of stocks (A hubby and a home! Gee thanks, Starbucks!) and dreaming of tomato plants and bushels of basil.

The God-forsaken 2008 housing market

You'd think we'd have the pick of the litter in a market like this. But we went out with our wonderful realtor, Ms. Carol Chapman, and looked at 10, count 'em, 10 houses in a single day, finding just a single one we could even consider buying. Sadly, many of the houses people couldn't afford to keep weren't affordable to maintain either. After starting a bidding war with our last losing offer, we're jumping on this one with a smidgen of hesitation. It needs some work, but it's solid and meets our primary requirement of being highly sellable in 5 years when we leave Michigan.

Next step is to qualify for a subsidized Michigan first-time homebuyer's mortgage. With just 3% down and a 5.625% interest rate in a market that lists more like 6.5%, we're glad to be able to get this special loan.