The middle of January we met with a mortgage company to discuss our loan options. He told us what we needed to do in order to be able to get a loan. He also told us that it would take about 4 to 6 months to be able to do what we needed to do. So our plan was that by May/June we would be ready to find a house, get a loan and move. The main thing that we needed to do was get dh's credit score up at least 10 points. We are still dealing with the aftermaths of his ex never refinancing the house and then always being 3 months behind on payments. We first realized this was going on when dh went to buy a car and the salesman comes back and says your credit is bad because you aren't making your house payments on time. We then realized that his name was still on the loan and that for the past 10 years his ex never refinanced. The house for the past year has been paid off so slowly his score is improving as that disaster gets further in the past.
Yesterday, I decided to check his score to see how far we had gotten by taking care of a few things that he suggested. In a month and a half, his score has jumped 60 points. I was shocked. Mainly because the guy at the mortgage company said 4 to 6 months.
So what does this mean.
(1) We could go get approved for the loan we want right now. Now let me say that our budget is very low. The mortgage company was like here is what you have to do so that we can get you approved for a $90,000 to $100,000 loan. Both dh and I looked at him and said, "Nope. We are only looking at about $70,000 $80,000 at the most." Yes we do understand what kind of house that will get us. I am looking for an older home that has character and that I can fix up the way I want.
We have found a few houses in our price range and have slowly been picking through them. We go on Thursday afternoon to look at our first house. I have fallen in love with the neighborhood and the outside of the house. Now all I have to do is see the inside. The problem of course is I don't want to buy the first house we see.
(2) We do not have much time as we thought to be ready to move. That means that I need to step it up in going through every room and closet and getting rid of stuff that is not going with us. I need to step it up in making the minor repairs that we were going to make. I need to set it up in painting the rooms that we were going to paint.
The process that we thought would not happen until May/June has the potential to happen now.
