got the application package in the mail yesterday -- that's a lot of stuff to fill out!
at my age, with my historic temper, i am being over-the-top civil with my neighbor. the dog crap is just one of a list of things that i could complain about. my across-the-street neighbor sides with me b/c he has to mow the lawn and dodge those bombs. not to mention avoid frozen newspapers when he's clearing the snow. like i said, it's all just motivation to get the heck out and stay out (of rentals).
the beauty of the USDA Rural Development loan is that you can look for houses in sparsely-populated areas. now, i still have to get to work, my wife still goes to school and work, and my kid gets shuffled to school way across town, so even though i wish i could live waaay out in the sticks, i'll just be looking in the semi-sticks. and as much as i am meh about Connecticut, it has good public schools and part of my wife's family is close by. i was partially joking about the prerequisite of having accommodations but with what i just payed on my last tank of oil and how that damn furnace is going to be serviced for the third time in about as many weeks, i may bump it up on my list of wants. i'll look out for the HOAs, though.
fabrosman: my landlord and i came to an agreement last year that a stove could be installed if it was inspected and signed-off on by whoever does that sort of thing in my town. he stipulated that he would keep the liner, but the stove was mine and i was fully responsible for the costs of everything. that's when the woodstacks went up, and the meowing started shortly thereafter. i stopped collecting wood for myself after that. i'm bartering away the wood right now and hope i get some working lawn equipment or something else useful now that Neighbor Dave won't be around. gonna miss him and his splitter hehe.
Most of that is really good news.
Regarding the accommodations for a wood stove, etc., do not joke around about that stuff. We are probably saving $2k to $3k a year in heating costs. Defintiely $3k if we still had the oil furnace, and around $2k with the new natural gas furnace (i.e., only used natural gas once so far this heating season). That adds up. If you stay in a house for 20 years, that is $40k to $60k in savings, and that is after tax savings.
Selling and moving also costs a good amount of money. So, choose your area and house wisely and try to stay put as long as possible. We chose our area first. My wife changed jobs to be in this area with better schools. After she changed jobs, we knew we had 4.5 years until our oldest at that point would start public school, so the house search was on. We spent almost 3 years looking at houses. We laugh about it now. I wanted to stay in the $500k range, but we started to get a little ansy and put offers on homes in the $575k to $650k range. I could not sleep at night. Then, everything came together. We found a foreclosure listed at $395k just on the edge of our dividing line of as close to her work as possible but not too close that I felt claustrophobic. On top of that, it was in a neighborhood that we had looked at two other houses we were interested in and almost put offers on. We were a day late putting an offer on a POS at the top of the street that sold for $425k. My wife had really wanted that house. I told her everything would work out. In hindsight, we did much, much better. There were 7 contracts on the house we bought and we actually had to all bid on it. We were the second highest and then the highest one backed out of the house after their inspection (guessing they noticed the water problem and the age of the furnace and A/C). I already knew about all the problems with the house. So, we ended up getting it for $435k. It needs some work, but the possibilities that are here are pretty awesome. First thing that is getting done is the infrastructure. Heating, cooling, plumbing (e.g., all grey polybutylene piping replaced), and water treatment. After that, probably a stand alone garage and/or a french drain with some dry wells to cure the water problem on the front wall. When we were looking at houses, I was always looking to build a stand alone garage/workshop and to complete the basement the way I want it. This house gave me those possibilities better than most and certainly cheaper than most that we looked at. I have 10+ years worth of projects here.
My dad bugged me for the entire 3 years, telling me that we needed a house with a yard so the kids could play, etc. Now, I have the cheapest house out of all my siblings with the most land and almost as much square footage in the 3rd richest county in the nation and with some of the best schools in the nation. Now, I am brilliant and my dad is bugging me about other stuff. lol You would think my dad would understand by now I am in everything for the long haul.
Our total vehicle mileage has dropped from 40,000 a year to 15,000 a year. Just that there is a huge savings in gas, car repairs/maintenance, and car replacement.
Gist of the story, take your time making a decision on a house purchase while saving every dime possible to put use as a down payment.