Engineer's Report

The engineer came about 90 minutes before he was supposed to, so I completely missed going into the house with him.  Also, he woke up the chemo ridden owner.

His biggest thing was the lack of banisters.  Since the house is 4 subfloors, we'll decide if we want to put them in.  right now, the stairs are between walls so they're narrow already.

He also found a drip in the wall behind the tiles in the bathroom.  On the other hand, when we checked their water meter which is super sensitive - even to leaky faucets - it wasn't moving.

Their neighbors recently found a leak in the wall (same wall is shared) so it's possible he was picking up that leak. His moisture meter said it was a teensy one so we're not worrying about it for now.

Moving right along

Here's where we're holding:
We are planning to sign by Monday (since we leave Tuesday morning).  S called an organization of building engineers and got an estimate of about 2000 NIS to come and check out the house.  He will be doing it on Sunday and e-mailing us the results immediately.  He will then mail them on Monday so we have official record.
S talked to E about the fact that we're going to be away for a month so we won't be able to start mortgage hunting until after we get back, and E said it won't be a problem.
Debating using a broker or talking to the banks myself.  The broker costs and extra 1% of the price of the house, but might get us better deals.

Got a House!!

E called back.  They are willing to sell for 1.26.  Called lawyer - who is S's aunt's brother in law - in short, family - to start process.  We're leaving for the US in 3 business days, so we'll see how far we get before that.

They will probably vacate at the end of August.  Since Rosh Hashanna is Sept 4, this will be interesting.  Very possible that we will cook all the food here and freeze it before we move.  I will also eventually ask the sellers if I can come by one evening with measuring tape so I can go furniture shopping.

Decisons, Decisions

B called back and told us that the owner is being stubborn and wants 1.15.  At the same time, E called and said that they are willing to leave the house in January and pay 1.25.

S and I sat down and started to compare the houses.  Here's what we came up with

Pros of New House
Redone (plumbing and all) - can move in as is
close to clinic
close to schools
close to friends
more spread out - won't grow out of it
covered in porch
at the end of the greenbelt which was budgeted to be extended and the new mayor wants to show his clout before the public election next year

Pros of Old House
huge kitchen
big yard
guest bathroom on ground floor
can design to my specs
close to synagogue
closer to shopping
playground just down the alley
further from cars
nicer view

We recrunched our numbers and decided that 1.26 is manageable for that house.  We won't get the other one for less than 1.135 and it'll cost us more than the difference to fix up the old place.  Waiting to see if they bite 1.26

New Offer

B called 2 roofers and had them come and give an estimate on what it would cost to scrape and re-tar the roof.  He was told 10,000 NIS with 7 years guarantee and 7,000 NIS with 5 years guarantee.  He asked me what I want to pay for the house, and I said that given the amount of renovations I would be doing, as close to 1.1 million as possible.  He said he'll talk to the seller and get back to me.

Good Things Come to One Who Waits

Saw some more houses today with B, the last realtor.  He showed me one house for 1.3 a little farther from everything than I wanted. It was beautiful, on a super quiet residents only, parking lot-style street, but it didn't speak to me.
The next house was between the mercaz and shul.  It's one of the original houses built in Ariel, so about 30 years old.  Hasn't been fixed up, but the kitchen area is HUGE!!!.  It has 2 yards, 4 bedrooms and a large-ish downstairs area.  They want 1.15, but B is sure it'll cost us 1.1.  I did see some water damage upstairs, so going to have a roofer give me an estimate on fixing it up.
It's been vacant for a while, so we could basically buy it immediately and start fixing it up.
Upsides - I get to design my own kitchen, yard, proximity to shopping and shul, price, option to expand out 2 extra rooms upstairs, guest bathroom on main floor, a well built house. 
Downsides - a little smaller than the other places we saw, distance from Rova Bet, needs work, 30 year old house

Oh, and did some preliminary searching - for what we're saving by getting this house - about 150,000 NIS - I can almost turn it into my dream house.  Kitchen, downstairs floors, AC in rooms and more.

Going to ask B for number of roofer today and get the ball rolling.

Oh, and heard back from E - they're not dropping below 1.27. Another house on their block just sold for 1.35.

The Negotiations Continue...and we look some more

Got a call back from E - sellers want to go down to 1.27.  However, I've done the math several times and as a paamonim advisor, http://www.paamonim.org/englishmain.php I cannot advise myself to go that high.  The monthly payments will be more than we can safely pay every month.
I explained to E that we simply cannot go above 1.25 and even that's stretching it.  In the meantime, I called every other realtor in Ariel.  Here are the results.

The first one said she didn't have anything.  The next one was very nice but didn't have anything near the shul and the third one tried to show us something we had already looked at.  The fourth one has 2 houses that I don't think we've seen yet.  One is on Hashikma and one is across from the electric company.  Both are in pretty good locations.  Meeting with him on Monday to look around.

We also checked out a house on HaHagana on our own, but felt boxed in.  It was a nice house, but small.  It was suggested by the Rabbi. who had also looked at it, but as I realized, he's a foot shorter than we are, so has more room to move.
Over Shabbat I was given some advice from a mentor - an Israeli mom here in Ariel, A.  A used E, the realtor 18 years ago and worships the ground he walks on.  She told me to trust him, he'll get the job done.

We shall see.  Will post report on houses I see in 2 days.