Thursday, February 27, 2014

The Search is On


After 9yrs of making the hour drive to the barn, my parents have begun to search for a place where we can live and bring the horses. Spurred by a call from my brother, who will need a place to go when his rental sells, my dad finally went to the back to see if it was even a possibility. Our current house is upside down and would be hard to sell. My brother is willing to rent the house, but that means finding a place before he needs to move. Otherwise we would have to live with his family moving into our house. Did I mention he has two girls under the age of four and 3 cats? Sharing can be done, but not easily.
So armed with a small budget and a bank letter, my dad met with a realtor recommended by Peggy. Of course he also had some locations that Peggy had already found. One place seems to be under contract already, while another one we would need to get for a song to make all the renovations needed worth it. The best place she sent was in her neighborhood, just a couple miles from her place. Huge house, plus another townhouse, deck pool and a garage. Blah, Blah onto the important stuff. Though no longer there, the barn used to be a four stall with wash rack and a tack room. The owners took it down so it would not be part of the foreclosure. The cement pad is there though along with water and electric. Although some of the fencing is wire, the rest is wood. There is one big run in with two gates in one of the fields. Temporary stalls, possibly. There is another field, which means we can separate the boys and the girls. Kind of important due to Roscoe. It also has a very small blue stone arena. I would definitely miss our open fields, but to have my ponies in my backyard I would live with it. The arena could also serve as somewhere to put Winston off the grass, but still close to the other horses.
The only problem is that the house is not totally in foreclosure yet, so it is not in the banks possession. The realtor called the owners and found that the bank kept kicking back offers they had previously received with additional $100,000 tacked on. With our budget that could be the kiss of death. Our high end is below what they say the bank wants. Hopefully my dad will still try for this place because the location is so great. He may even see about adding my name into the mix to see if that helps.
We really don't want to go too far away from work, unless the place is totally worth the drive. One place my parents looked at did not meet that standard. For my dad, it has been a good learning experience to see that paying a HOA may be worth it to get certain amenities or that long drives are not that great. He had to see that just because a place did not have a barn did not mean it was not a workable location. We won't have what the barn gives us now. That is a million plus dollar property, but eventually we will find our place.
Feed room cabinets serve as cat condos :)

Fingers crossed and pray for housing miracles :) Maybe by this time next year we shall all be together.

3 comments:

  1. Wow! That's a big deal! I hope it all works well for you and the family. Ponies on the property would be awesome!

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  2. Having your ponies on your property cannot be beat. Best wishes in finding the perfect place for you!

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