> Congrats!
Thanks, Bob.
The appraisal process has completely changed too. They are far more
stringent than before. No more fudging things to get the numbers to
work. We probably had one of the more hard-nosed ones around too.
(definitely one of the hardest to work with).
Just to give an idea of how depressed the prices are, to rebuild the
house (materials and labor, not including land) would cost about
$70,000 more than what we bought the whole thing for. The lot itself
is valued at $35,000. So, we did pretty good, I think. The three new
houses built right around the corner are all selling for
$100,000-150,000 more than this one and they are all about the same
size.
I was really concerned about buying in this town because non-urban
Iowa is pretty dependant upon the local employers. The railroad is a
primary employer in town and there are three large manufactures, a
college and a regional hospital. It's also the business district for a
fair chunk of an hour radius. Oh, it is also a major grain
hub/transfer point for the region. In otherwords, it's a pretty stable
community. Ownership is always a risk, but I find it doubtful that the
entire area would implode to the point where our neighborhood would go
to the dogs.
In the end, if we just get out at the same price we bought it for,
with the extremely low interest rates, it's far less expensive than
rent.
The place does need some work, but that's OK.
AG
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