We’ve only been searching for our first house for around 2 months now. About 2 months ago, we were pre approved for a home loan using the USDA Guaranteed Loan and we’ve found a great house already.

Finding The Right Location

As I mentioned in a previous post, since we’re using the USDA Home Loan, we have to find a house in rural areas. That doesn’t mean out in the sticks or anything, but those are included too.

We were living in Vancouver, Washington which is right across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon. So we decided to look into LaCenter, Ridgefield, Yacolt, Hockingson, Battleground, Woodland and other nearby areas for our first house. Staying close to Interstate 5 would help keep commuting costs from going sky high for my honey.

Buying Houses in Our Area

I don’t really know anything about the real estate market, so I won’t pretend I do—I’ll just tell you what’s been going on since we started looking for our first house.

It’s really crazy around here right now, because the houses are getting multiple offers the first couple of days they are on the market. Some are even selling for $10k-$20k above the asking price. Why? Not a clue.

This has made things really hard for us because by the time we can go check out houses, they’re already pretty much gone. The cheap, crappy places are going the fastest. It’s like they’re almost sold before they go on the market. Silly investors snatching up all the crappy houses and flipping them.

Finding Our First House

My honey actually found the house online, but it wasn’t listed in the MLS for our area yet, BONUS! Our realtor was really excited that we were able to find it before everybody else could. Finally, we were ahead of the others.

Basics about the House:

• around 1,200 square feet (fits our needs)
• ginormous backyard
• 3 bedrooms
• 1 1/2 baths
• fireplace
• 2 car garage
• new roof, windows, paint, carpet, wood floors, fixtures, kitchen…pretty much new EVERYTHING

It’s a really cute house and the neighborhood seems nice too. It’s pretty close to I-5, just like we were hoping for.

The house was purchased earlier this year by an investor and flipped. He did a great job, but there are still a few things that I wish he would have done. But financially speaking, he did what needed to be done for a fair price and got it looking great.

Curious about the financial side of things? I’ll be posting about those on Wednesday, so come back and check it out.