Tuesday, November 21, 2006

House Shopping

We have decided that we want to buy a condo/townhouse in the next couple of months. Today was our first day of checking out the local real estate, and we also went to get pre-approval for a loan. We are in the market for a 2 bedroom/2 bath condo or townhouse that is $450,000-$500,000 in the area of Studio City, Toluca Lake, or Burbank. We could move up to Valencia, but this would be a 40 minute commute (w/o traffic) and we do not want to face the commute (not only for work, but other factors as well). We are also taking into the consideration that we may only be living in the condo for 5 years (once the baby is older and ready to start school) and then we will move to an area with better schools and larger homes (welcome to suburbia).


It went pretty well today- we met with three different real estate agents and liked the last real estate agent. We may go with her- she sat down and explained more to us and seemed friendly and knowledgeable. We went to our local Bank of America to apply for a pre-approval for a loan. After numerous questions looking at our credit reports, credit score and annual income it looks like we will have pre-approval for a $475,000 loan. It's crazy to think of a loan that size, but it's a reality out here in LA. I hope that this is something that we will be able to manage financially.


In two weeks we will have our first pre-natal visit. We will be able to find out the sex of the baby then, but then again, we may want to wait until the baby is born. There are so few things in life that are totally a surprise and waiting to see the sex of the baby is one of those. So, we may just be sticking with green and yellow until then.


Until next time, Becky

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