The Great House Hunt begins!

It's time to put a stake into our own patch of earth.


It officially began October, 2008. We finally came off the sidelines and got ready to take that leap. Foreclosures were popping up like daisies in the dropping economy and the price temps were finally nearing just right for us. We had (and still do have) full faith that it would all get better so we thought we had better do our best to find something we could afford before we couldn't again.

We had been looking at houses way before that though. For a couple (dare I saw, few) years, we'd stop in at open houses if we saw a sign while on the way to nowhere in particular. We got to know real estate websites. (redfin is so cool!) We narrowed down the neighborhoods we liked best and fantasized about living in the ones we couldn't afford.

Then, we met our agent and we were off on the long (long) saga, er, journey to our first house.

THE CRITERIA

Target area: We went into this very serious about being realistic. So, when we met our agent, we told her we wanted to look mostly in Highland Park and didn't immediately rattle off additional nabes. She asked why. We said price. Essentially, we had years of "research"behind us. We really wanted Eagle Rock, Mount Washington, Silver Lake, Atwater -- but knew they were just out of our wallet-comfort zone. Map

Needs:

1. We can comfortably afford it without having to survive on ramen alone
   
2. Two bedrooms
3. At least one full bathroom -- read: has a tub
4. Off-street parking for two cars
   
5. 1000 sq. feet home
6. In one of our target areas

Wants:

1. Two bathrooms (this would make getting a roommate easier, if needed)
   
2. Garage
3. View
4. Walking distance to "stuff we like"
5. Outdoor entertaining space
   

Pie-in-the-sky want:

1. Move-in ready - we began our hunt knowing this was near impossible in our price range with our other criteria. But hey, it doesn't hurt to dream a little.