The Great House Hunt

I think we might need a new photo. I kind of feel like this isn't a good representation of me anymore - like maybe there are a few grays now or something. Anyways, to the point of my post today: Home Ownership, aka the American Dream. It was recently brought to my attention that I do not own a home. Yes, I've been paying rent on time now for several years, but apparently that rent is doing nothing but badness to me and my future well-being. It's flying out of my checking account and directly into my landlord's hands and leaving me with nothing but a roof over my head and a very low level of stress in my life. That is not good. I can no longer hop from home to home, refusing to decorate my dwelling, not having to deal with lawn maintenance, and just being an overall lazy arse. I have now entered the "why don't you buy a house" phase of my late 20's. As we all know, there is a checklist in life. Whether you like it or not, ignore it or live by it, there is a checklist. It starts at 18 and gradually builds up as you approach 30. Once you round the corner at 25, people start taking notice of how far you're getting on the checklist. It goes something like this (I'll use mine as an example):

Graduate high school - check

Go to college/graduate - check

Get a job - check

Relationship time/marriage - TBA

Buy a house - TBA

Kiddies - TBA

Don't get divorced - TBA

Retire comfortably on your 401k's and IRA's - TBA

Now of course this is different for everyone as we are all unique and have custom checklists. But I would guess that everyone has a checklist ingrained in them from birth, whether it was parental or societal pressure forming that list...doesn't really matter. My point is that I have entered the "Buy a House" phase of my checklist. Our readers might notice that I kinda skipped over the "Relationship time/marriage" part for now, which makes "Buy a house" even more adventurous (In my experience, if you skip one of the phases and enter the next phase, things are probably going to get stressful - and don't forget to start saving for retirement ASAP!).

Ok, so. I've been looking at houses. I've been through 3 (looking at 2 more today) and nothing has really jumped out at me and said "THIS IS IT!" like everyone says will happen. (So many parallels to dating, but I digress) Before you get overly concerned that I'm only doing this because I feel checklist pressure, allow me to assure you that I remain fully in control here, despite a total and complete meltdown last week. Yes, I agree that now is the time to buy. I am thrilled about the First-Time Home Buyer tax credit ($8000 bucks), I would enjoy my own walls for once and I have been itching to actually decorate something. I'd love for my dog to kill grass that I own so that I can stop worrying about replacing it when I move, and it would be nice to build equity even though I have no idea what that means. Basically, I'd like to invest in my future, aka my retirement accounts are never going to do anything so I need to make bucks off of real estate.

I see the positives and I am weighing the negatives and I do feel that a house would be cool. At the same time though, it's basically majorly stressful. As a single person, I have one income and don't really have a back-up plan if everything goes bust and I am suddenly broke. My accounts are only going to stretch so far before I join the ranks of the foreclosed. Yes, I am looking at the worst possible outcome, but I like to be prepared for all possibilities. No, I'm not going to buy more house than I can afford and I am going to pray every night that the roof is the best roof ever and the furnace loves nothing more than to keep me warm and if all goes well I will come out of this a proud and unscathed homeowner. We shall see.

If nothing else, this gives me some solid blog material, so expect some updates on my house-hunting adventure. Until then I will be taking lawn-mowing classes and will try to come to terms with taxes. Wish me luck.