Funny thing the way times and situations get you down in life. How one minute you have what seems to be the world on a platter, and the next you realize how far off you are. Talking to my dad on fathers day brought a few insights to light for me. The world isn’t the nicest place to live in, and even though we are in the “greatest country in the world”, there are folks out there looking to take advantage of us every second of every day.

Examples?

This house Valerie and I bought and live in. The previous occupants were renters, maybe the previous three occupants before that were renters. The landlord who sold it to us, came in, slapped a coat of paint on it, threw down some cheap tile and dressed it up to sell it. Valerie and I were not experienced home shoppers. We saw what looked to be a house in our price range, with the space and location close to where she worked, and gave a nibble. They sold us the house and we were, at the time, happy. Now however we find a lot of things wrong with it. The rotted wood in the window sills, the ducting in the A/C unit, the termite damage, the faulty wiring and substandard plumbing. Basically the home we have been living in is as close to a condemned structure as I want to deal with. It’s as energy inefficient as living in a cardboard box in a rain forest. Couple that with the destruct-o-matic 18 year old I raised and we’d almost be better off living in the street. We paid a lot of money to get this house, and now we are stuck with problems we never counted on. Worse, the guy who sold us this dump has moved on with our money.

Safety net?:

When you are spending tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, there should be some kind of a safety net for you. Unfortunately the old adage, “Buyer beware” is about all you have to go on. Home insurance and financing “home improvement projects” are supposed to pay you back when you resell the place. But what if you like us are in a market where the real estate bubble has popped? What if when you moved into the house, it was represented as worth more than it turns out it really is? What can we as home owners do to protect our investment? There are two main factors to consider:

1. Location
2. Condition

Okay, so we bought in what was at the time one of the “top 5 places to live” in Texas. We bought in Sugar Land. It was close to most major shopping and schools of the area, in a better tax rate, and close to where Val worked. All these things, to us at that time anyway, meant great location. What we didn’t take into account was the area’s number of rental homes versus number of owned homes. We did some checking through the net and a few of my local contacts to find out the crime rate wasn’t all that bad, but we didn’t check the school’s reported incidents. Nor did we talk to any of the folks who already lived in the neighborhood.

Location:

So as I said, we chose our current home based on school district and how close it was to Valerie’s work. I changed jobs after we moved due to circumstances with my prior job that were… lets just call them unexpected and leave it at that. But for our next search there are a lot of other things we need to consider;

1.)Economy= Local businesses and shopping as well as the overall neighborhoods. Are they places people are moving to? Is the cost of living equivalent to the local job market? Are the shopping areas convenient and competitive?

2.)Schools= What does the local school district offer? Is it close to the house? Are they rated well educationally? What is the security like for their students? We don’t have any kids moving in with us, but how the community treats its kids is a way to see what they are doing for the future. Also, the larger the school district and more kids attending the school tells you a lot about the density of the population in the area. Is there just one school? Is there several? What was the last couple of graduating classes numbered at?

3.)Taxes and or HOA dues= What are the basic costs built into the area that you will be stuck with? This kind of thing can vary quite considerably from area to area and needs to be looked into. Real Estate agents will give you the information if you ask, but for my money its better to find out from neutral informational sources. Check the government websites, look into the HOA (Home Owners Association) and what your dues pay for and why. Make sure the cost to benefit ratio meets with your approval.

4.)Other services= Speaking of government stuff, how close is the local DMV or DPS. What days are garbage pickup and is there any special requirements such as recycling bins or things they won’t pick up? Is there a fire department close by, police, hospital? What about courts? Or if you are Valerie, where is the closest public library (j/k sweetheart)?

5.)The local neighborhood itself= How well to do is it? Is it surrounded by other nice neighborhoods or is there a degree of “less desirables” in the area? Is that a growing population or just one or two folks? Homes on the street that are in disrepair like mine , can reduce the value of others in the proximity. The curb appeal of all the houses in the area are reflected in the value of each, not just the one you are interested in buying. Also if your neighborhood backs up to a major freeway or really busy street, sounds of traffic and folks cutting through your streets can reduce its desirability for sale later. Not to mention the problems getting a good nights rest when trucks and such are passing close enough to vibrate your house walls.

Condition:

Well as you read above the laundry list of things to repair just to make this place livable is longer than my forearm… and I have very long arms. So what we are trying to do is tackle the projects in order of priority. That is to say what does the home have to have to make it a place folks would live in, followed by what the home could have that people would be attracted to live in. Necessity versus luxury so to speak. And they are not mutually exclusive either as I have recently discovered. Air conditioning is really getting a top billing for us right now. The last several days we have been up in the low 100′s for temperature outside. This causes your AC unit to work twice as hard to keep your house cool enough to live in. If your insulation is crap, your house so old it leaks air from every major and minor port of entry into or out of the place, and the ducting hasn’t been dealt with in 12 to 13 years, not to mention the fact that you live in a 2400 sq ft home with only a four ton unit servicing it for A/C… well you sweat at night, and try not to be home during the day. Plus your electric bills are astronomical numbers that almost match your mortgage every month.

Our average electric bill would pay for a nice air conditioning unit if we could afford to get it started. The problem as many folks in America have found is that we are way over our heads in debt already and not able to take on another payment yet. We have a plan to help that, but its not the quick fix most hope to find in such cases. And its going to cost me dearly to make it happen. I’m going to sell my prized possession. My 2008 Harley-Davidson FLHX (Street Glide) with loads of extras. We are going to take a part of the money from that sale and buy the AC unit. the rest we will pay the bike loan way down. The remainder of the loan, we will attempt to refinance at a low APR and pay it off as fast as possible. This will serve three purposes:

1. lowers our monthly debt owed giving us more money to pay other debts.
2. helps the credit with the debt to income ratio.
3. gets the AC unit to save money on electric.

Overall, the profit versus the loss works quite well on paper. Its a big step for me though. I have not gone without a bike in some time and I’m not looking forward to losing this one. Its just about the perfect Harley. I can’t think of anything else it needs other than a few chrome trinkets and such. But for the greater good, I have agreed to let my baby go. But what you need to think about is;

Comfort versus Needs:

You need solid shelter with strong foundation. You need good plumbing and heat/cooling that stays where you want it and doesn’t get outside where you are paying for nothing. You need secure doors and windows that work properly. You need locks and hot and cold running water, you need clean food storage that is critter resistant. A decent kitchen to prepare your meals in. Closets and decent storage areas. You need electric service that is reliable and not too costly. You need tubs/showers that don’t leak. Flushing toilets that work. Floors that feel strong enough to support you and ceiling/roofs that don’t look like they are going to come down or drip water on your otherwise solid floors.

Comforts include, paint on the walls, padded carpets or good looking wood/tile floors, a shower head that doesn’t force you to lean so far over your back hurts when washing your hair. A nice view out your windows. A decent yard to play in for your friends, family and pets if you have any. Fence around said yard to keep said pets from straying too far and to keep your lawn furniture in your yard. Maybe a fireplace for cold nights, or a ceiling fan for hot days. If we decide to move to Colorado, I want a nice deck where I can grill food and a jacuzzi to relax in after a long day. These are comforts, not needs, I know this. But they could also increase property value. I want a nice garage with a shop for tools and such that can be secured. Again, do we need it? No. Will it improve the overall desirability of the property if we should ever decide to sell? Yes.

To to recap:

Prioritize your needs versus your desires. Fix the stuff that could create more trouble later first. Once that’s done, seal the cracks and holes up and paint the place or if its nice wood, treat it, seal it, and take care of it. Finally if there is money left and you have wants, pick the ones that might pay you back in the long run. Buy with a thought to what you would like, but also what others will like too. Build your home for comfort, for security, for value, and for life. Don’t stop dreaming, but get your head below the clouds long enough to see the whole picture, then build towards that dream with the big picture in mind.

Life happens, enjoy it responsibly.

The part of our 5 year plan that is the most fun is thinking about where we’d like to live. The possibilities are endless! New England? Deep South? Pacific Northwest? Rocky Mountains? My biggest problem is that I like them all!

Bill and I have discussed at length what our ideal location would be. As you might expect, our criteria aren’t exactly the same, so some compromises will have to be made, but there are a few places that we think will work for us.

Criteria

• Climate – we are really looking for a place where we can enjoy being outside for much more of the year. Warm, but not too hot in the summer, not too cold in the winter, and beautiful scenery.
• Cost of Living – Although our climate description might immediately make you think “California,” it is unfortunately way too expensive to live there. Neither of us have jobs that will allow us to buy a home there, so unless we win the lottery – it’s pretty much off the list. So, cost of housing is an important consideration. Wherever we go has to allow us to buy a house – we don’t want to go back to renting.
• Job Market – We’re not likely to be able to quit working anytime soon, so being able to get a decent job is going to be key.

Resources

As a starting point, I searched the Internet for “best place to live in the US.” As my friends know, I’m a major Internet geek. When I get a new bug (like, say, selling everything I own and moving to another state), I can and will spend hours scouring the Web for every bit of information I can find.

Here are some of the resources I’ve been using to compare locations:

• The CNNMoney.com Best Places to Live 2008 list. I wonder when the 2009 list comes out?
• Sperling’s Best Places
• City-Data.com
• Weather.com

Sperling’s Best Places has a great rating that I haven’t seen anywhere else, and I think it’s really helpful. It’s called their “Comfort Index” and it rates how comfortable it is to be outside during the hot months. Having grown up in the desert (Hemet, CA) and now living in hot-and-humidville (Sugar Land, TX), this is a big one for me. I want to live in a place where I’m not miserable in the few minutes it takes me to go from my air-conditioned car to an air-conditioned building!

The Comfort Index is a scale of 1-100, with higher being more comfortable. Guess what Hemet’s comfort index is? A whopping 18 out of 100! Yikes! No wonder I disliked it so much. Sugar Land isn’t much better, rating a 23 out of 100.

On the other hand, Bill doesn’t like it when it gets *too* cold. He’s willing to put up with some weather, even a bit of snow, but neither of us really wants extreme winters.

Contenders

Based on these criteria, the places we’re currently looking at are:

Colorado - A bunch of cities in Colorado look like they would work – Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, even Denver. Although they do get snow in the winter, the daytime temperatures tend to average in the high 30s to mid-40′s.
Photo Source: Wikipedia

 

 
Washington State – Spokane or Tacoma. Seattle is too expensive, even though that’s where more jobs are.
Photo Source: Wikipedia.com

 

 

 
We can’t wait to go visit some of these places. There seem to be very few other places that have the beautiful locations, pleasant temperatures and decent home prices that we’re looking for – but we’re still looking!

Do you have any suggestions for research resources, or comments on a great place to live? Let us know!