I met our realtor on my lunch break today and toured two more houses.

The first house left me with a sad pit in my stomach. It left me feeling actually quite hopeless as crazy as it seems – the energy there was just so bad! It was a bank owned foreclosure. The home owners had moved out so it was empty. The outside was cute although they had put in astro turf instead of grass. I’m all for water-saving landscaping but the turf looked awful.

The inside needed a ton of work. The home was built in the late 1980s and it was clear that nothing had been updated since. The downstairs had a strange flow to the floor plan – it felt very compartmentalized. The master bedroom had a cut out in the wall that looked out over the living room below. That seemed very odd. This property was definitely a no for us but it will make some “flipper” very happy!

House #6 – I fell in love. I have to admit, the location isn’t perfect. It’s about 5 miles out of our desired area. The home is off of a rambling street and it has a rural feel to it. The lot is almost .5 acres and the home is 5 bedrooms, 3 baths. If this house were located in our preferred city, it would easily be $300K more expensive. As it stands, it’s at the very top of our budget but the bright side is there aren’t any HOA fees or Mella Roos taxes – so it makes it do-able.

The inside is beautiful – spacious, sunny and totally move-in ready. The kitchen is gorgeous, the backyard was large but didn’t feel unmanageable. I could see us putting a play house out back. The lot is also very private with lots of trees.

It’s crazy but I saw our lives unfolding there. I can see two kids playing in the back yard. I can see us hosting friends and family there. Maybe even – eventually when the children are older – a dog??!!

I’m taking the hubby back to see it tonight and our realtor is drawing up an offer. If hubs loves it as much as I do we’ll put in our offer and see what happens.

Yet again, trying not to get my hopes up…