So Much News

Thursday I can't remember what the heck I did except that I wanted to post something and forgot.

Friday the boys and I went over to Kel Bel's and Kel and I tanned (her hubby made fun of my whiteness *pout*) on her volleyball court - the boys watched movies and played their gameboys and I so did not care - I was going to get some sort of color if it was the only thing I did that day.

Her hubby had been out of town all week and surprised her by coming home on Thursday night so Brando met us out there later and we stuck around for dinner. Kel and I went to the grocery store and got an education on beef. Did you know the t-bone has both the new york steak and the filet mignon on it? The first is the top, longer part, and the latter is the bottom smaller part - hence the bigger the filet, the better the cut. Interesting. We had t-bones, rib eyes, new york steaks, pan fried asparagus, garlic bread, and strawberry, yellow bell pepper, red onion, and spinach salad with strawberry viniagarette dressing, and hung around until 11:30pm or so and then headed home.

If you've been following our house saga you kind of know the ups and downs we've been through lately, if not here it is in a coconut shell.

We found a rental down south but the price was too high, they lowered the price for us and we thought on it for awhile but they offered it at the lower price and it was snatched up. I was bitterly disappointed. I so want to be in a house.

Good thing that came out of that? We started talking about buying instead of renting. So we started looking. We checked out a few homes and a few fixer uppers in the area we want to be in and they either already had a contract on them, didn't work for us, or were way too much work

Then one of Brando's clients found a community that we had overlooked because they don't sell to investors whom Brando works with. His clients signed a contract for a lot with the house to be built and we saw what an awesome opportunity it was. There was an opportunity to buy the last decent lot in Phase 1, read: least expensive equals least mortgage and most appreciation. So we took the time to make our decision, walked into the office and said we wanted it and the guy had just gotten off the phone with a lady who he'd given his word to hold the lot for. I was disappointed.

Good thing that came out of that? Well, I started to think twice about living down south. I started to think about the traffic coming up the highway, Mopac, I started to think about the fact that it is south not northwest which is where we live now. Even though we'd be in a house, the southwest part of Austin is as pretty as northwest but south is not so much. I realized I love my friends up here and even though I'd have opportunities to foster new relationships down south, I decided that was okay if that didn't happen. I decided that I'd be okay with having to live up here if need be. I stopped being so greedy about having to live down south.

Then? His clients had to back out. Their half a million dollar Florida home had gone down in value $100,000 since they bought it and they weren't going to be able to get the equity out of it they needed to put the money down on the new place, besides being upside down. So? We had the opportunity to get their lot.

Talk about being confused!!!!!!!! Why all the nos then the yess? I couldn't think straight with this new information! I talked to a friend and she said it was like a roller coaster, that you'd almost have to look at it as a clean slate, a fresh start. Such good advice! That's exactly what we did and all of a sudden it seemed so much clearer. It's a BRAND NEW home, in a BRAND NEW community, as close to downtown Austin as we are going to get with our price range, there are homes across the street that are five years old that are the same price OR MORE, there are 4 bedrooms, a yard, a beautiful kitchen, and it's an excellent builder. The highest quality of the mid range. For an investment opportunity, this was a screaming deal. Even if we just live in it for two years, we rent it out or sell it and put the equity down on another rental property so we have instant cash flow. Things seemed so much clearer now.

Saturday we signed the papers for the house!! It's to be built in the next 4-6 months so we have time to get our stuff together. SO excited. Strangely I feel quite a peace about this decision - like it's a very wise one if it works out and if not, that's okay too. God has better plans in mind for us.Tomorrow we check with their loan officer which we have to use to get an extra 3% in incentives and make sure we're okay with working with them and then we start the process of getting approved for the loan via their loan company - we're already approved with ours, unfortunetly we can't use them. SOOOO EXCITED!!