And you may say to yourself: "this is not my beautiful house!"

So my house hunting has begun in earnest. Man are there a lot of crappy homes out there! There are also some nice ones, too. I count myself lucky because, being in the biz, I'm used to reading and analyzing listing sheets very quickly. Thus, I've been able to process a lot of data and weed out homes, areas, etc online. That being said, at some point you just have to walk into a place and decide if it is a good fit. Some random thoughts on my search so far:

I'm basically looking in two different price ranges: "the fixer upper" price range and the "nothing more needs to be done with this house for a while and it's a damn good thing because after I buy it I won't have any money left in the bank" price range. I have been house poor before and I'd rather not revisit that state.

I cannot stress enough the importance of driving by prospective properties before a buyer considers purchasing. I've saved myself a lot of time by eliminating properties based on a "drive by." Now you have to know what to look for: a home could be beautiful on the inside and just need some new siding or tuckpointing. I'm also looking at the neighborhood and asking myself "is this the block I want to raise my daughter on?" If that answer is "no" then I don't care how nice it is inside.

As for safety, I find myself referring to the CPD's citizen I-cam site. It has proven invaluable for seeing what (if any,) crimes are being committed on certain blocks. Note: I'm trying to post the link to this site but the server is busy. Check back later...

And one more thing...Ever since I started blogging about my own homebuying experience, I seem to be inundated with friend requests from mortgage/real estate myspace cites. Coincidence? I think not. I guess if you use a few keywords like "I'm gonna buy a house," you can expect to get that kind of solicitation. If any of these people seemed reputable that wouldn't be bad but they all look pretty shady.