So from randomly creeping on the real estate sites to actually doing something...
We noticed a for sale sign go up on a cute lil house down the street. About half an acre, 2+1 bedroom, one bath...and on the side of town hubs does enjoy.
Not that much above our initial "budget" either. We're kinda moving forward, gathering documents the lenders will need and seeing what we can do.
Pros: yay flat usable land, fully fenced yard...city water and a well (that's not working but oh well. Handy hubs.
Cons: hot tub. (Yes I consider hot tubs and pools a con. Maintenance and power suckage and all that). One bathroom. No garage.
May have an odd layout too. It's hard to tell with the pictures. Welp. Told hubs we can look but we don't need to "settle" for anything - we still got a nice roof over our heads and such.
His friend who we're unofficially at the moment using as a realtor also suggested another property - bigger, more land, other side of town though (hubs isn't a huge fan of that side of town) for about $20k less - but where it is turns into an absolute quagmire when it rains...so hubs may have issues getting out in the service truck and I'd for sure have issues in my wagoon. (Think he's just trying to give us options as well - hubs isn't afraid of a fixer upper but this one is currently bank owned and could be an absolute mess inside too - there's only the one outside shot.) I wonder though about bank owned ones - for closures probably means property taxes were in arrears (not paid for a while). So how much extra would you have to pay to get caught up - I know that's a factor in Canadian real estate. If I was a naughty monkey on paying my property taxes, it would fall on the next owner of the house (or we'd adjust the closing payout accordingly) since the taxman always gets his money.
Oh questions aplenty when we finally get to sit down and chit chat with this guy face to face. Thus far it's been hubs talking on the phone/texting but...
The lender is also asking for tax returns going back to 2014. Lol I'll have to confuse the heck out of em and show them my Canadian tax returns. Mwahahaha.
Well, you asked!
hubs was all "oh I'm not sure if it's for you too"
Silly rabbit. Any extra income we have will help the cause.
