Mrs. Rattlecan's House

Nothing horribly exciting today except to say the owners were amenable to our requests resulting from the home inspection, they wanted to know if we wanted any of the remaining items ( I'm saving the exact contents as a surprise) and would we like to move the closing from May 28th to the 12th?   WELL HECK YES WE WOULD!   Could this magnificent player piano be in our future? Well, it would make a great bar! This might be a good time to talk about a couple of the factors we think helped get our offer accepted: 1. Cash is King- we've been busy little savers over the years and have amassed a pile of cash solely for purchasing a home. With a cash offer you remove the biggest pain in the home buying process- the BANK. You remove an appraiser that may think you're paying too much for your home (not to protect you but to protect the BANK). You negate the need for super-expensive PMI insurance that protects the BANK.  You forgo all of the fees associated with financing,...

One of the conditions of a home sale is the home inspection. If you are financing a home it is a requirement (along with an appraisal and perhaps some additional hoops to jump through). Even with a cash offer like ours, unless you're VERY comfortable with assuming all the risk on the knowledge of yourself or a buddy, you're wise to have one done. This gives you the opportunity to get a more detailed "snapshot" of the condition of the house in a time frame that allows you to request repairs/a discount or to walk away from the deal based on the findings.  We've been involved with home inspections from both sides: as a buyer and a seller. We take the view that the home inspection is the chance to see if there are any conditions present that would affect our ability to occupy the property: mold, structural, electrical, plumbing, roof, etc. We're looking for items that are safety-related.  Some people look at this as a way to get the small items fixed that norm...

OK, we're TRYING to buy a house. This will be attempt number THREE in the past 5-6 weeks. The market is tight here in Dayton. Actually a suburb of Dayton, but the school's are good, we like the vibe of the place, and the houses are older and have that charm that seems so elusive on TV as well as in real life. We move pretty frequently so trust us when we say there are worse places to live in the world than Dayton, Ohio. I guess I should introduce us: I'm James and I build, repair, and restore stringed instruments. My wife is a nurse. We've decided we've had enough of moving every 2-3 years (she's done it for almost 30, I've done it my entire life) so we're putting down roots. We've lived in enough different styles of houses to know what kind of place we want: a ranch with a basement (partial is OK but we prefer full), 3BR+ 2BA+, a fireplace, 2 car garage and "some place" for me to put my workshop that doesn't involve co-habitating wit...