wannabe homeowners

So I'm assuming you may be wondering what that list to the right is?  Well maybe you're not, but I'm going to explain it anyways.  

It's sort of my list of goals I have right now.  They're things I need to start, work on, and/or accomplish. I'm not going to call it a bucket list, as that term is out of style if you ask me.  The title is what it is because these couple items have caused stress-even havoc-to my psyche as of late.  I just can't keep ignoring them.  


buying a house

We currently rent a house.  The house itself is too small, its in rough shape and I like to say its in the ghetto of our lovely town-plenty of suburban drug activity and Section-8.  The cops drive the streets often, which is a good thing.  As you walk up to our door, it has pry marks on the frame.  Could be from attempted burglars during the time that the rumored meth-heads lived there or the firemen who came to put out the small fire that happened a couple months before we moved in.  Our previous landlord was a modern-day slumlord, owning 15+ rental homes in the large university area in the metro plus our twinhome in the suburbs.  He never took care of anything or fixed anything, but he is in his own special kind of hurt now, he lost many of his properties and is now renting himself and had to give up a lot of properties to his partner, our now-current landlord. Karma's a bitch.

Ahem...anyways, we have cleaned it up and made it presentable and livable.  But now with a baby and all the baby gear and toys, it is getting increasingly smaller.  And I don't want my son growing up in the neighborhood.  I do know that the local pot and prescription drug dealer has moved out, as we are acquaintances with them.  I know right?  Don't be too judgey, we like to be friends with our neighbors. We're also getting old...well, not that old, but we're at that age where we probably should have bought a house by now.

I have actually made some progress on this goal; I met with a mortgage broker.  I just wanted to "see where we are."  He understood and was actually happy that we are doing that.  He said most people don't and are surprised when they think they can just up and buy a house and then they realize their credit is horseshit or they need a lot more money than what they have-or don't have.

We're sort of stuck.  The short of it is, my either my husband needs a slightly better credit score or I need to make more money.  Or he can make a lot more money himself real quick and wait for his credit to go up from having a car payment and get himself a secure credit card.  There's no real quick fix.

So we're being smart.  We're working on paying down credit card and student loan debt and the rest of our medical bills.  My husband is working hard this summer, hoping to cash in on the good sales commissions.  I am going to keep my job for a while longer, as a solid work history is sometimes worth more than a larger income.

But get this.  Our current (new) landlord is selling our house.  He's selling both sides separately, so since they're cheap as hell, ours has a giant patio and a nice yard, I'm thinking at least ours may go pretty quickly.  The other side's occupants are slightly trashy and very messy, so it's not the most desirable.  We've already had one showing.

So we may have to move again.  I was hoping the next move would be into our own home, but I guess it might not be so.  I hate moving.