crossthreaded

I suppose that there are very good reasons for FHA loans to have the maintenance and care standards that they do. For one thing, if a house is dilapidated, a person who is a first-time home buyer likely won’t have the money to fix it up. That can bring property values in the area down.

Something I’m learning, however, through the process of our home buying experience is that houses that first-time home buyers can afford are ones that need a lot of work. We keep running into the worry that FHA won’t approve a loan on a house that we like because the paint on the house might have lead in it, or the roof or heating systems need to be replaced/significantly repaired. I don’t want to move into a dump, granted, but it’s still frustrating that we can’t find a place to live that’s our own that we can afford for having to worry about whether or not our loan will be approved.

I work at a non-profit and my husband isn’t a corporate climber, either, so we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, it seems. Houses in the price range we can afford in this state are generally in need of a lot of repair and in, to quote our realtor, “dicey” neighborhoods. We lived in Texas before moving here, and it’s amazing the difference in what you can buy for the same amount of money between the two states.

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