A few months ago Justin and I decided to start looking for a house to buy. On the recommendation of Justin's mother, we contacted John Chrisney, who had helped her buy all three of the houses she has purchased in the metro area. Apparently, he used to be the unofficial Realtor for everyone at the Guthrie, so he's very understanding of our nutty rehearsal schedules. I went to Wells Fargo and got preapproved for an FHA loan and then we met with John to tell him what we were interested in.
The initial meeting was good, though it became clear that we were going to be pushing John outside of his comfort zone, given both the price we were working with and the locations we were interested in. He seemed excited about it, though, especially when he realized that we were serious about staying as close to the urban core as possible. We left the meeting feeling pretty confident that he understood our situation and would show us what was out there. Justin and I had already been doing searches online, and had come up with a list of houses we wanted to see. John said he would start vetting houses and make arrangments to show us the ones that would work with our budget and would pass an FHA inspection.
One of the houses Justin was particular interested in was a Victorian in the Powderhorn neighborhood. I wasn't thrilled with the two exterior pictures on the website, but the price was good and the size of the house was huge. It was the second house we saw, and Justin was almost immediately in love. It took me a little longer, but we both were really interested in it. We saw a few more houses, and then asked John to take us back to the Victorian for a second look. It needed some repairs, but we thought that with a renovation loan, we'd be able to purchase the house and get the repairs done, at least to the point of making the house livable. It was the kind of house that we could see ourselves in for a very long time, so even if it took awhile to get the entire house up to the condition we wanted it in, that would be okay.
(to be continued...)
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