Jay Gaulard Blog

We Signed the Real Estate Contract

Monday, March 17th, 2008

Well, we visited the house again this afternoon with the realtor. We liked what we saw and headed back to the office to sign all the paperwork and give a deposit. Before we did, both Laura and I took lots of pictures and even a video of the road the house is on.

Just a few minutes ago, as I was resizing the pictures, I thought to myself, “How would I like it if someone posted pictures of the inside of my house on the internet?” I mean, I know the realtor posted them in the online ad, but still, we took pictures of all the bedrooms and stuff. I don’t think it would be too cool if I posted them. After thinking about it, I decided that I will just post the outside shots and then the video of the road. That way, no one will get mad at me if they ever come across them. Hey, you never know.

So, without any more fluff, here you go.

This is obviously the front of the house. The master bedroom is over the garage and is pretty big. It also has that nice dormer to let in the sun.

This is the back of the house, looking up from the woods.

This is looking into the woods from the back porch. There are 4.25 acres of land.

This is looking into the woods from the backyard.

This is me asking, “Where’s my room?”

What’s My Home Worth?

Saturday, March 15th, 2008

I found a cool little tool to help you get a rough picture of what your home is worth. It’s an internet tool, so you have to take it with a grain of salt.

My neighbor is in the home appraisal business and she says that people get really excited when they see their house value online. It’s usually pretty high. What you have to remember is that the website I am talking about doesn’t know the condition of your home. You also have to take into account what time of year it is and what people are willing to pay at that moment. Remember, your home is only worth what you can get for it on the market.

So, if your home is in decent shape, take a look at its estimated value. You can also see what your neighbor’s houses are worth and what they last sold for. That’s the really interesting part. They paid WHAT???

House Offer Was Accepted

Saturday, March 15th, 2008

I thought I would give you a little update on the house. The homeowners accepted our offer. The real estate agent is drawing up the contract and we are going to visit it once more on Monday. We are going to walk up and down the road for a second once-over. I guess it would be called a twice-over. If everything is cool, we are going to head to the real estate office and sign the contract. I will be sure to take photos of the neighborhood and post them.

I already called the mortgage company and gave them the revised numbers and I have an appointment on Tuesday morning to get everything done. He says that we could have the closing before the end of the month. I would say that’s pretty fast. He told me that he had a closing in four days, a few weeks back. That is just nuts.

Needless to say, I am a little nervous. We are going to be swimming in the house, but at least Laura will get her own office and so will I. There will also be another bedroom with a bathroom, so if we ever have guests, they will be hooked up. We can then have another whole family living in the finished basement. Also, the two car garage is something I have always wanted. No more scraping ice off the windshields. Ye haw.