Homeless! For a Week!

We just found out today that our seller's [edited to correct]
brokersreal estate company does not allow "pre-settlement possession" of its clients' properties, which is what we were trying to obtain so we wouldn't remain homeless.

That's devastating because it adds a whole other layer of stress to the already stressful task of packing and moving all our possessions. As I was telling my husband on an online chat yesterday, "moving involves many living things, like people, children, animals, and plants." Right now I'm most concerned with the animal and the plants (some of which needed to be planted right away since they can't stand their pots anymore, or placed near a structure for climbing, like my morning glories -- [I can't live without them])... and the child who's supposed to start school. I'm almost persuaded to stay at our friend's house (the one whose husband is allergic to cats) so Kelvin can go to school (this is subject for a post of itself).

I wrote most of the things below in a post meant to be posted yesterday.

Assorted Comments on Homes and Real Estate (former post title)

First, a correction to my previous post. I forgot to link to Aliki's post in which she explains why they chose their current home (in the next to last paragraph).

Second, I've enjoyed your responses about the neighborhood choice. A few comments about old versus new homes: I don't have anything against new homes, but it's just that I wish they weren't built in cookie-cutter fashion. This current way of real state development is what keeps them affordable in the first place, though... I sadly realize.

We couldn't possibly afford a new single home in the area where we're going to live. The cheapest ones cost a minimum of 350K, and to make matters worst this is a nice area which tends to have tons of new developments, most with really big cookie cutter homes that are probably 400K or more. For you to have an idea, most of the homes we looked at were townhomes (newer, quite spacious townhomes). Many of them were priced 270-300K or HIGHER (and most with 100 dollars a month of association fees -- which adds up 15K to the price of the house in the end) -- can you believe that? The cookie cutter development in "Exhibit A" in the previous post is older -- 15 years old, that's why some of its homes are still a bit affordable.

Home inspection...
When I say that the home inspection went well I don't mean to say that the house passed with flying colors, only to say that its problems are the ones that we already either knew about or anticipated. If we were to fix every single little thing that needs to be repaired, the costs would be close to 30K!!! The biggest problems right now are the roof (the "newer" one was installed over the original one and it's just not good) and the right stucco wall with its buckles. There are some cracks between the blocks in the basement walls, some moisture and some other issues. Many of the other repairs are cosmetic. Our home inspector does an EXTREMELY thorough inspection and looks at every single detail, taking plenty of photos for evidence. If you live in the Philly area and need an inspector I would strongly recommend him. (He's so thorough that he suggested that we do an almost unnecessary repair to the air-conditioning system of our current home -- brand new, only 2 years old back in 2004 -- and we spent 900 bucks for this technician [found by our former realtor] to spend like 40 minutes in here -- I almost cried when I wrote the check -- so I know we don't have to do every single thing he recommends.

Anyway, this is probably boring everyone to tears, but I wanted to make these comments. I hope to be able to post some more photos of the house soon and write about my son's school, but now I have to go pack some boxes, OK? See you later.