The 2 Step

So our Realtor is chomping at the bait and waiting with baited breath for us to make a bid! Make that bid! But we're making her sweat it out, my husband doesn't want to call her for about 2days. ha I find it funny. Not even to say thanks, nope don't call not even as courtesy. Oh well, I know that the owner might not go for the price that we will throw, so whatever - keep it moving, seems like our realtor wants a fast sale, quick closing and boom get her check, but I've a feeling she's gonna have to work for this money.

Everything we're seeing are just NOT 2 or multi families. In the desireable neighborhoods - nope! They're all uneven, huge space on one level and practical servants' quarters on the other. Nope! don't want that. And the ones that do fit the bill; well they are tore up from the floor up and and need so much work they'll turn into money pits. The most promising so far is 605 Broad but he'd have to drop that price from 489k to about 400k for me to even consider 'cause that upstairs needs so much help!

So we press on, lets get the next batch or head for Middlesex! Stay tuned!!

Found It!!???

Ok ok ok, so we're kinda hyperventalating! We think we've found the place that we want in Bloomfield Township! The nice part of the township, not what we'd seen on Saturday! Whew, I was beginning to think that was a wrap for me in Essex county! Hi ho Bergen here we come, but we think we found it - BUT - with tenants!

Seems to me that all the so called 2 families are one families carved up and scotched together. So we seemed to've found one and at 489K this is a bit of a stretch. We've to really see what we'll be paying and not be house poor aka working to just keep the bank from off our backs and tossing us out. So thank God I'd been socking those checks away in the savings. My husband is talking fixing up the condo to get ready for rental so his mind is already gone! Hey looks like we did better on our own driving around and all. We'll see how this plays out with the bidding and all, this house could be hot property so don't want to low ball too much - Stay tuned!

House Hunt

We're officially in the market for a house. Yes the housing hunt has begun and we're out the gates and down the straightway. We've made up our minds to look for a multi family home since we're going to be buying along with the in-laws. Its a good way to keep connected and offers them an opportunity at home ownership.

Ok so here it went, last week, we got our feet wet by going on and really definining to the realtor what multi family is. It is not "a finished basement" or something that was once a one family with a kitchen in the upstairs 3rd bedroom and the 2 "bedrooms" downstairs aka living room!! Since that one, well we've seen some doozies! Today were a few. Ok We saw one that was it, perfect - on paper and in the plans. We got there and what a disappointment. Just 3 blocks away from East Orange in a bit of a sketchy eh neighborhood but it was on Ampere Blvd and it was a tree lined street so, promising is what I thought, and from the photos, somewhat of a go. We got inside, the house was all mismatched, a little rough around the edges and showing wear. New roof! the owner proclaimed, yes new roof, 10 years ago! The rooms though impressively large and promising if I was in the mood for a project, were a bit dingy and too too much work would be needed for this one. No way! The husband was getting a divorce sleeping all over, the attic was great but it was just a dizzying mess. My husband didn't like the smell and well - kaboom done. Next up - tenants.

Off to the next location where we realized there was a shared driveway and that was a no no, plus it looked like a foreclosure - pass! 41 Pitt St - tenants, and not happy ones. We saw on cramped level, the tenent didn't want to show the upper level and truthfully, I was more than happy to pass on that. Next we were on to another of the realtor's suggestions and this is what we called, the blue house. Owner - Trinidadian. The land that the house sat on was enough to build a 2nd house on, the home, a confussing mess of mishaps and bedrooms that Y shaped off the kitchen and more like a multifamily afterthought - big NO on that one!

I pressed to go to N. 15th Street and boy was that worth it. The first great thing we'd seen in our searching. Neighborhood - ah not too too sure, but looked quiet. Amazing rooms and we could fit our visiting families all into the 3 levels and big attic with more storage than you could shake a stick at! Next winner was on Charles Street where, the owners were headed to the Carolinas. Again another winner but the house was a gem in the middle of what seemed like rough cuts. The block was not impressive, now it was not tore up but looked like there were a tad bit too much on the rough patches. There were 2 multi tenent buildings next door and the comings and goings of a few unfavorable types were enough to put me off. But the interior was everything we were looking for. Why couldn't this be where that ugly blue house was - that was all I could think about. I was so angry that it had to be here on this street, while blue house was an eyesore in a gem of a neighborhood. So on we press, Bergen County next and lawn, backyard with grass and maybe some deer bounding through. So stay tuned, the housing hunt, continues!

Jurassic

My husband and I were in yet another discussion about this strange life and its elusive meaning. He believes strongly the the Bible is indeed the word of God. God in essence speaking to man via a conduit - the conduit being some guys in the Middle East about 2 or 3000 years ago.

My questions to ponder are these.

Why would God create man, place him on the planet for thousands, and thousands of years, only to speak to only one set of people. These folks he entrusted with the meaning to and beginning of life. Only speaking to them and leaving it up to them to spread the good word. No other groups of people down here on this massive earth did God want to or bother to communicate with, just the Jews in Israel at that time.

Also, why would an all knowing, all seeing and obviously omnipotent God create us mortals allegedly built to live forever, then take it away - due to Eve and that story. Then dangle immortality back to us again under the premise that through his "earthly" son we will again be able to see all our dead loved ones, we will be reanimated and come again and live in paradise. This too is subjective because this depends on how good we are and if we accepted Christ and even though we are without sin, we've to be sin free to gain access to timeless existence. Then the rest of bad folks will burn in the lakes of hell forever.

So why bother with having us live out a torturous life, die and go through all that just to judge the entire human race from ends of earth to ends of earth, the ones that existed before the Bible was even a thought. What about those people, the people of the Jurassic and all the other "assic" ages, where do they go. And if they get a free pass - well because they were before the Bible and seemed to live life quite ok - why do they need to be judged. They didn't "accept Christ" so what gives. I always seem to get the most infuriating and stupid answers to all these questions by the way. They really make me nuts. And this is why I view the Bible and just another philosophical book, a good one and a historical chronicle of an enlightened and radical man, Jesus. He made a lot of sense but its too bad that most of the book's readers don't and will never get it.