I met with the mortgage broker today to give him the records he requested.  The only downside is that I waited so long to get into the game that rates have started back up.  I won’t be getting the really good rates that we saw earlier this year.  However, it still looks like the numbers will work out (I’ll just be paying a few dollars a month more).

After leaving his office I went out driving around to look at some neighborhoods.  I’d previously done a search on Realtor.com for houses in certain areas that met my criteria.  I didn’t get the agents involved, though.  I just went to the houses and checked out the area.  Along the way I also stumbled across a couple of houses that weren’t listed when I did the search (but that should have been).

The house that I was really interested in (4 bedroom, 2 bath, a little over 2000 sq. ft. for $108K) was somewhat of a disappointment.  The house itself looked fine.  Unfortunately, the neighbours didn’t seem so good (there was an old rundown house across the street and the place behind it had an old decrepit bus in their back yard).  I guess the neighborhood is the reason it’s not a lot more expensive.  However I did find a nice place about four blocks down (and the whole area around it was better) that wasn’t on the listings.  The only thing that might bother me would be living near a middle school and a huge church.  It looks like the street might get a little crowded in the morning (the church also has its own school).

I’ll probably go check out a couple more areas tomorrow.  Next week I’ll contact the agents to arrange some showings after work.