Still trying to buy the house

Ok, I’ve been waiting to update when we actually bought and have the keys for our new house…but that’s proving to take a bit, so here’s a quick update until that happens.  :)  

We (the future community, about 12 including kids) found a house and a duplex right next to each other, have reached a price ($65,000) that has been accepted on the house, have run into problems, and are still trying to sort all of that out and close on the house so that we can make an offer on the duplex. Problems have included but are not limited too (hee hee):

• Finding an underwriter who will loan us the money for the house, since the house is in considerable disrepair and doesn’t appraise well
• The title is fishy. I’ll just leave it at that, because it’s all very complicated and we’re still trying to uncover the truth and figure out whether or not we can get title insurance to protect ourselves
• Figuring out whether we should do a conventional loan and pay for the improvements out of pocket or do a contrustional loan that includes monies for improvements on the house

Note that none of the problems have been with our goals, our relationships, or our continuing to figure out what our community is going to look and act like. We are all still very excited to get this paperwork done and move in as soon as we can. In fact, we’ve bought a stove, a table top, and a community guard dog so far….we just have to get a house to put them in. 

For right now, Jason and Stephani will be the mortgage holders on one house and Amanda and I will be on the other. We will determine each person’s rent based on what percentage of the entire community’s income they bring in, and our surplus rent will go to pay the initial investors (Jason, Steph, Amanda and me) back for our initial capital expenditures. That way, once that is all done, we will all be equal as far as what we’ve invested financially so far. (It may be, if we can get a construction loan, that there’s not much difference in what everyone invests initially.) It was going to be quite difficult to put everyone on the titles, so at a later point we plan to develop some kind of legal entity that will allow us to transfer the houses to multiple ownership. Also later, as we continue to deepen relationships with each other, we plan to constantly evaluate our community’s finances/incomes and move towards an Acts 2/4 economy.

That’s all I’ve got for right now, but I promise that as soon as we get these properties bought I will have PLENTY to say and show.  :)

Peace,

Daniel