House Musings

[BHope]

At this very moment we have lived in this home three years. For those who don't know, we bought this home through the officer next door program and got a fantastic deal. The stipulation, though, was that we live here for the designated three years. (I think technically our three years isn't up until July because they gave us six months to remodel. :rolleyes)

So, as the time is nearly drawing to a close, Dh and I have talked about what our plans will be.

Personally, I like it here. This house is everything (and more) that I have ever wanted in a home. Plus, the homes in this neighborhood just. don't. sell. (They don't call it "revitalized" for nothing.) Our neighbors home was on the market for 18 months. They finally foreclosed and the bank sold it.

Dh is fully confident that we'll have better luck.

Assuming he's right and we are able to get close to market value for our home, then we'll walk away with a sizable chunk of money that we can use to put down on another home. For a very long time Dh has talked about building our next home. (He wants new, I want land.) I think his idea was to find something while we're selling this one.

Anyway, yesterday I was looking at the officer next door homes (New ones every Saturday are listed and their listing expires in five days. Obviously these homes are not the same ones that would be available to us... but it still gives you a good idea about what type of homes are coming available.) The stipulation to the OND homes is that you cannot have owned a home in the previous 12 months. So, assuming we sold our home this fall, we'd have to live in temporary housing (apartments probably) while we wait out the year before we can bid on another OND home.

Theoretically with the money we made selling this home, we could essentially purchase in cash another OND home.

Then we'd be debt free. Totally completely debt free. Not even a mortgage. :heart I like the idea so much I'm on a campaign to sell it to Dh. :giggle

He thinks I'm nuts for entertaining the idea of living in an apartment after having done home-ownership. I think he's nuts for not seeing the possibility of living debt free. :shifty

[abh5e8]

wow...what an awesome program!! i had no idea. dh and i have been throwing around the idea of moving within our towh...this would be prefect!! do you have a link where i can search for these houses?

oh...and btw...i would TOTALLY rent in order to then be able to buy a house outright. awesome!!

[BHope]

Resurrecting this piddly thread to update.

We actually looked at an apartment this a.m. Just to see what's available for what price. We looked at something close to here that would allow DD1 to continue in her current school.

Can I just say... :nails I'd forgotten how much space we have here in comparison to what we'd have in an apartment. The place we looked at had carpet floors. Gulp. The master-bedroom had weird double doors that were not sound proof and did not have a lock (where is the privacy!). The kitchen was small. There was almost zero storage. Literally I'm feeling anxious.

I know it would be only for a year. I know I need to get over these little things and just think of it is an adventure. An opportunity to purge and an opportunity to do something different.

The littlest girls were with us when we looked at the place and they were THRILLED. All they could see was the pool. They were WAY excited about the pool. :giggle

Anyway, it's ironic that it was me talking Dh into this idea and now it's me biting my nails and worrying.

[crunchymum]

:pray4

[abh5e8]

:pray4 i'm sure it will/would be an adjustment but i would still jump at the chance to have no mortgage. :rockon

i've been checking the site every couple of weeks, but i hve never seen any OND homes in our town...its pretty small. does your husband's dept have any residential placements for officers? our city has a couple of spots where the officer lives in a local apt complex FOR FREE and then is the first responder to any calls in that complex. i would LOVE one of these spots but they are hard to get. that would totally solve the problem of not owning for a year. :)

[BHope]

There are quite a few apartments where Dh works that offer free or reduced housing for officers. We've considered it. There are two stipulations, however:
1) We refuse to live in "shaddy" apartments. So that limits us to one specific area of his city which is a highly competitive place to live for officers.

2) Moving there means taking DD1 out of her school. Considering we're likely to end up right back in this area of DFW after our year is up... I don't know if I want to cause that disruption. :think

On the upside, the apartment we looked at today will offer a percentage off for officers. Even officers that are not from that same town. So that's pretty cool. :tu