Sunday, Sept. 12, 2004
I'm buying a house, posted at 12:21 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I'm bummed out because I wrote a long entry earlier today about how I've decided I'm going to buy a house soon, but it's not here. Anyhow, here's the quick version:Went to Live Baltimore event today. Took trolley ride. Talked to tons and tons of realtors and mortgage companies. Got my credit report - it's not bad. It's a 636, which is above their 620 cutoff, and that's exciting. It once was very bad. It's still below average, but I could get 100% financing with what I have. The woman was fawning over my ability to pay off debts. I now have none except for car and student loans.
So I've started looking. I'm gravitating towards the Waverly/Ednor Gardens/Charles Village areas, and not looking to spend over $100K. I think that Ednor's Garden area bordering on Waverly is a nice one and will be a good investment with the new Giant and YMCA in there. I looked at this house on 37th street that I liked. It appears I would be the only white person on the block, (not using the word "but") which would be interesting. The block had nice little homes and seemed like a very happy place.
I'm not that close, though. I looked at a house in Charles Village on 28th Street that was in my price range, and I liked that one. I'm also considering the Teacher Next Door Program, which allows teachers to purchase any HUD Home for 50% off, but am unsure if I could get a home through them that it would be feasible for me to fix up. We'll see. I'm in the process of looking for a realtor and will probably be called over and over again in the next few days.
I'm excited, though. I looked at rent charts and am embarassed how much I've paid in the last three years in rent. I need to start investing in myself for a change.
Anyhow, that's going to happen, probably sooner than I had originally expected. Epiphany might be a homeowner by 2005. And I would place money on it happening by, say, St. Patrick's Day.
I'm still pretty ignorant, though. I don't even know what a broker is.
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Tomorrow will be a long day. I'm working from 10-4 at the restaurant and 4-close at the Ukrainian Festival. Hopefully I'll have a little time in between the two to get ready to get to work selling pierogies at the festival. And by "get ready," I mean, well, "get a little drunk."