Houses are better than Easter eggs

And so our house hunt has really begun in earnest now. In the beginning, before we'd met with a broker, we (I) had conservately estimated that we could afford a house in the $180-190,000 range. We met with Ray, our broker, and he said we could easily afford $250,000 - and this on a conservative 28/36 ratio (morgage should be around 28% of gross income and total monthly debt around 36%). Needless to say, it took me a few days to actually believe the calculator. I didn't really believe it until I plugged in all our bills, etc. into my monthly budget, using all conservative numbers of course, just to be on the safe side. And lo and behold, Ray was right - big house, here we come!


We just got back from looking at houses around Bartlett in our new price bracket. All of them were nice, and of course we liked the pricier ones best, but none of them screamed "I'm yours; take me." If I'm going to be spending this much money on a house, I have a difficult time "settling". That, and the drive to work for both Aaron and I would be fairly hefty; we're not too keen on that.

We saw a house in Cordova this past Saturday when we first looked at houses. Purely coincidental, as the only reason that we stopped at this house was so that Tommie could set up the keybox. The home isn't officially on the market until tomorrow. Everything about this house is perfect; except that although it's technically only paying county taxes now, whenever it's annexed into Memphis (could be 6 months, could be 5+ years), the taxes will double. Basically, we'll have to make the decision if an additional ~$83/month and a shorter commute is better than the Bartlett alternative of longer drive and less taxes. Plus, houses are cheaper in Cordova. The house that we like in Cordova would be $30,000 more in Bartlett. All things to make you go *hmm*.

But, whatever house we end up choosing, I know that we'll be in hog heaven. When we're looking at all of these pricier houses, we're pickier than an OCD chimp combing for fleas; but truth be told, we'd be more than happy in any of them if it came right down to it.

On a side note, I'd just like to share a wonderful site with everyone: http://mobile17.smashsworld.com Basically, it allows you to take any .mp3 file on your computer and send it to your cell phone FREE OF CHARGE. You can have literally any sound or song (or animations and graphics) and select which part of the song you want as your ringtone. All you pay is internet access - and that's usually only $1 or so (depending how long you're on there)- or free if you already pay for internet service. And that's just so much cheaper than buying ringtones the traditional way. Everybody, give me a call so I can jam out to InuYasha theme music! :)