Another dismal day of house hunting.

Honestly, I am getting really frustrated with what we are seeing out on the market and frustrated with the fact that if we could spend just a little bit more (and by little bit I mean at least $25k) we could probably find a house really fast. Heck, if we could drop $400-500k on a house we could find one this hour. But reality bites and we can't afford that much house so here we are.

House #1 was bank-owned. I probably would've skipped right over it, but Glenn wanted to check it out. It was a great location and very cheap. When I drove up my first impression was that it wasn't nearly as ugly as it looked online. Then I pulled into the driveway and saw the gutter laying (or is it lying...my grammar skills have escaped me) in the front lawn & the fence falling over. I texted Glenn, but still opted to look inside. Think seedy bar restroom. Yes, that's right, there was writing all over the walls. Sharpie writing everywhere. Nothing a little paint wouldn't fix, but there were holes in the kitchen ceiling and wall. I didn't look any farther.

House #2 was a short sale. We had originally skipped over short sales because of the time it can take to hear back from the bank. Now that we're in temporary housing (or will be as of next week) we decided to look at them if they were in a good location, looked okay on the inside, and were a steal. This one met all the criteria but it still needed a lot of work. The roof was tar with wood gutters, something our realtor pointed out would need to be fixed.

House #3 was another bank-owned. Too pricey for my likings, but Glenn had added it to the list. Yea...too pricey and too. much. work.

House #4 was the one I was most excited to see. The pictures were beautiful. Well, they obviously had a really good photographer because our realtor and I both drove right by the house. It was nice (although not nearly as nice as the photographs made it seem), but it was right on a busy street. Judging by the stack of business cards on the counter (but no pending offers) I think a lot of people probably did a double take when driving up to this house.

The last two we decided to skip. One short sale that was too trashed out and another 3bedroom/1.5 bath that Glenn & I decided was probably just too small to even bother looking at.

So, back to the drawing board. I really want to stay close to where we are now, but it is depressing looking at such disgusting houses each time we go out. Sure, there have been a few charmers in there, but they seem few and far between. I am starting to wonder if its time to reevaluate the area we are searching.