Sorry I haven’t been as active posting here lately. We all know how busy this time of the year is. But on top of working diligently on my websites and at my full-time job, my wife and I are purchasing our first home. We are closing on the property December 18.

After a month or so searching, we found a winner. We got an amazing deal on the property – we paid about 35% less on this house then the person who bought it in 2006 did. The reason we got such a great deal is because the house was a short sale. This means the bank (seller) agrees to discount a loan balance due to an economic or financial hardship on the part of the mortgagor. Their economic hardship was my gain. The house was going into short sale because the previous owner was one of many millions of victims of the mortgage crisis, not because it was in bad shape.

The house is 1898 square feet. Has 3 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, a study, formal dining room, laundry room, large kitchen, family room, 2-car garage and a fenced in backyard. It’s a much larger house then I thought we would have found in our price range. Homes in the southside of Jacksonville are much more expensive than any other side of town. That’s because the southside is the most desireable location and very close to the beach.

We already have a couple projects planned for the house. We’re immediately painting the entire house and adding new hardwood floors throughout (except tile in the kitchen and carpet in the 2 guest bedrooms rooms). Those are the only projects that need to be completely before we move in, everything else we’ll do slowly over time. We have to move in by December 31 because our rent at our current place will be up.

Here’s a picture of the outside that was put on the realtors website. Once I get a hold of it, the landscaping will be 100x better. I’ll be sure to take many pictures to show you guys in the coming weeks.