What it took to get here . . .

Here it is May; I'm enjoying my new position with Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, I've found a decent extended stay motel where I can actually cook without the use of a microwave, I look out over the valley and the San Pedro river to mountains, clear air, clouds, and rain in the distance, and think - Wow, what a great place to be!

Unfortunately, I'm enjoying this by myself. Back in heat-quenched Phoenix, Darla, Davin, and the girls are huddled indoors to stay cool, preparing for a pending move that none are exactly sure when it will occur. At this point my plans were to just find a decent place to rent, scope the place out for a year, then finally buy. At some point I realized, duh - this isn't Phoenix; it's not going to take a year to scope out. I was also fortunate to stumble across some information about the 2008 & 2009 tax credits for first-time home buyers. Since we've been renting after we sold our last house - hoping to find something more rural and not controlled by an HOA, we would qualify for this tax credit. That's pretty good incentive. Also, my new employer will pay a good portion of the fees involved in either selling or buying as part of their relocation package. Another good incentive.

Now if only I could find some way around having to make a down payment - since almost all our savings was used up over the last four months of unemployment. Enter the USDA National Rural loan program. Since we were locating to a rural part of Arizona (tip: most of AZ is rural), the USDA provides 100% financing for families as an incentive to help grow these rural areas. It's not necessary to be a first-time buyer. One just has to be within their income range per number of household members, and the property has to be within their very generous price caps. An additional plus is that NO mortgage insurance is required, since the USDA is guaranteeing the loan. Well that was enough to convince me that I should probably be looking to buy instead of rent.

The next step was to locate a lender familiar with this loan program. It just so happens that the USDA has a list of "Approved Lenders". Its' even been revised for 2009. Use it, but don't trust it. It would be interesting to find out what it takes to be an "approved lender". I suggest one should qualify not just the lender, but the loan officer you'll be working with, to verify that they have recent experience funding one of these loans. If you don't, the mortgage road is sure to be a bumpy one - with more potholes than the dirt road to that beautiful rural oasis you find. Ask me how I know.

In that mistake I violated one of the core principles I strive to operate from - always go to the source. It turned a month to six-week process into more than double that. We also wasted time looking at properties that didn't even qualify. Not because of price, but because they were used manufactured homes. USDA only funds new manufactured homes, or used ones that it has previously funded. Out here in rural Arizona there are a lot of manufactured homes. The "approved lender" I chose didn't have clue that such a requirement existed until after the appraiser submitted their info to the underwriters. But hey - that's OK. Life's about learning, and I'm willing to give some time to allow someone else an opportunity to learn.

Suffice it to say this was not the first snag in the process. Darla and I had to backup on a couple of occasions during our four-month process and re-focus on our primary goals. Thankfully the sellers were accommodating, our realtor was pro-active, and my employer was very supportive.

The trick for us was to not get attached to a particular house or the "possibilities" that would emerge with each one we liked. We had a goal of buying before Dec. 1st, staying away from freeway traffic, being within 20 minutes of Benson, having at least an acre of usable land for horses, and using the USDA Rural financing so we didn't have to pay mortgage insurance.

Refocusing on our goal helped us realize that there was more than one house that would be a good choice, so we didn't get too hung-up on any particular one. We even had the option of buying land and either building a home or buying a new manufactured home.

That way the whole process becomes more like the ideal relocation. You're making your decisions and choices (based on your goals) and letting others do the work (their job) to bring it all together. The lesson we learned there is to try and find others who are proactive in how they do their work. If they are not, then the process can take a little longer, but it usually gets done.

At one point we asked ourselves if this particular house was worth the additional time it was taking to complete the closing. The answer was yes, but only to a point. We set that point in time, and fortunately everything came together in time. If it hadn't - no problem - we had found another house that had possibilities too.

Settled in - at home in Benson, AZ

Greetings all,

Well after more than four months in a motel, the family and I are initially settled into our new home in Benson, AZ. Since my recent hiring on at Arizona Electric Power Cooperative in May, I was doing the preliminary house hunting and then having Darla come down to help choose the most desirable. The first house we found was a very nice manufactured home with a huge RV garage in addition to a two-car garage. Unfortunately it took the mortgage company a month to determine that the loan program we were using (USDA Rural) doesn't fund used manufactured homes, only new ones.

So we changed our criteria to only site-built homes on acreage. Fortunately it didn't take too long to find this one. It was built in late 2007, and finished in 2008. It's not the typical southwestern style, which was fine with us, we've had our share of constantly cracking stucco.




One of the real pluses is porches front & back. Front faces east, and back faces west. Since we're in a flood plain, the house was built elevated nearly 3.5 ft above the natural grade. This makes for some great views.






Since its elevated, the floors are built on joists with a crawl space underneath. They used an Australian Cypress hardwood throughout the house, with tile in the bathrooms. Never seen this type of flooring before, but it sure looks great.

That means all the vents are in the floor instead of the ceiling - much like it would be in a mid-western home. They also went to the trouble of insulating the garage and finishing it.

The house is located on just one acre, but that will be enough to manage a couple of horses. With open BLM range land about 1/2 mile east and the San Pedro river about the same to the west, there's plenty of open areas for riding. That's Ashley's plan anyway - should be doable.










Darla and the girls have been watching these home design shows on HGtv during our stay in the motel. So I see some accent wall colors and creative wall designs in our near future. We'll be sure to post the progress here as well.

Now I'm just waiting for my car and engine to show up. Ooops -I better get rid of some of these boxes in the garage.