The House Hunt Continues!

Jessica and I have come a long way. I would say that our house hunt began about 6 months ago when I randomly looked at a homes for sale website and realized that buying a place to live would cost about as much as renting one. I looked at the price of condos and townhomes and got really excited when I realized that for not much more than we were paying in rent right now, we could have a nice condo like this one:


I continued searching online on my lunchbreaks and got really excited about the idea. I was getting pretty set on the idea of a condo until I spoke with my sister and brother-in-law and other "grownups". I learned about how condos don't hold their value as well, are harder to sell, and so on. . .they suggested a house. They also planted the seed of the "duplex" idea in our heads. We weren't too sure of it at first (although I did like the idea of being called "landlord" and having nearly ultimate power over tenants lives. . .can you tell I've been renting for too long. . .)

I crunched some numbers and started looking at what was available online. . .the numbers started to add up. . .("In exchange for sharing a wall with some people and taking their money every month they are going to pay how much of our mortgage?!??!") Soon Jessica was on-board the duplex train too.

And now the search is on. We have looked at a few possible winners, and a bunch of losers, and as an added bonus got to tour a demolition derby graveyard/duplex. . .

We also have found some really good ones! We might be making a move soon. We are thinking of maybe something that needs a little fixing up. I must admit, taking a distressed property and fixing it up into something really nice sounds very rewarding and fun. However, if a duplex comes along which is immaculate, extremely low priced, in a good neighborhood, and rented by ultra-rich obsessive compulsive clean freak nuns. . .we would probably take that too.

This is one of our possibilities. . .although I don't think it is rented by nuns: