Like many others, my husband and I desired to be home owners. We were not sure what kind of home we could afford or how we would come up with money for closing costs and the down payment. We were in our young twenties and my husband was the provider for our then family of two.
We found a mortgage broker who we trusted and were pre-qualified for a home around $100K. We searched the Portland metropolitan area for something that would be habitable (and believe me, not all homes we saw were!) and in a neighborhood that didn’t require bars on the windows. After a couple months of searching, we found our home; a 1979 townhouse style condo. It had 1250 square feet, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It was highly outdated costmetically, but nothing we couldn’t fix as we were up for the sweat equity. We went with an FHA loan and were approved for assistance from the Nehemiah program for our down payment. We got into our home with no money down.
We had new carpet installed prior to moving in as well as some minor repairs done in the bathroom where there was some water damage around the tile. Really all we had to deal with was the fudge colored cabinets, the pumpkin orange counters and the brick colored flooring.
So the day comes when my brother is going to help us move in. Preparing him for the worst cosmetically, I was really hoping he’d tell me it wasn’t all that bad. I flip on the light in the kitchen and roaches scurry all over the place! It was awful. The exterminators took care of our unwanted house guests and all was good for a couple months…
Please check out Part Two of Our Condo Story to learn more about what lived in our home with us.
(Melissa is a Families.com Christian Blogger. Read her blogs at: http://members.families.com/mj7/blog)