Buying a House - Making an Offer

So now you’ve looked at a bunch of houses and you’ve found one you really like.  Now comes the money part.  You’ve already got your preaproval from the bank, so you know the maximum limit you CAN spend.  What you need to do do now is sit down and figure out what you will be willing to pay FOR THIS PARTICULAR HOUSE.  Take any work you are aware of into account.  The house we made an offer on needed a halfbath on the first floor, so going in, we new we were going to be looking at dropping between 6 and 10 thousand dollars.  This affected how much we were willing to pay.
Try to get a feel for how the house is priced.  Your agent should be able to pull a list of “comps” or comparable houses that sold recently in the same area, of the same condition and what was payed.  Now you should have an idea of the fair value of the house.  It will now be your job to get the lowest price for the house while the seller will try to get the highest price.
There are many schools of thought about this and it is really more of an art then a science.  You want to get the lowest price, but if you offer to low a price (ie “lowballing”), the seller may not even respond to the offer as it wouldn’t be worth it for them.  Once you an offer, you will submit it though your agent, They will usually then submit a counter offer and you can accept or counter that offer.  Hopefully the end result will be a price you are both happy with.
Things that I’ve learned when making an offer:

• Generally there will be a counter offer so take that into account when making your initial offer.
• Asking for closing costs is generally expected, but it doesn’t always mean that they will be included in the final acceptance.  So make sure you apy attention to them when getting an good faith estimate from your lender.
• When your agent writes the offer letter (if you ask for closing costs to be paid) make sure they phrase it for $X dollars to be paid toward closing costs, fees, etc…  This means that if your closing costs are $2000, and you asked for $3000 in closing costs you can use that leftover money to pay for other fees, buy down the rate, etc.
• If you have $1000 left over from the closing costs (like in the above example), most lenders and possible state laws will not allow you to get that money as cash, so make sure you can put it toward something (points, fees, etc).  Your lender will be able to help with this.
• This will generally happen pretty fast, so don’t go out of town or anything during this time.
• Most importantly, remember.  You are in control.  You are not legally obligate to do anything, so if the seller will not meet your price or requests, you can walk away.

Setting Up a Kitchen

When I first started cooking, I was kind of overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I thought you had to have. But as I got more into it, there are really just a few essentials that you need to get going. Two of my culinary heroes talk about this and it is really good advice to share.

The first is Alton Brown of the Food Network show Good Eats. His advice, repeated over and over again, is not to by anything that only has one specialized purpose in the kitchen. No unitaskers! The one big exception to the rule is a fire extinguisher. No cook (and especially one just starting out) should be without one. Every kitchen should have one.

Mark Bittman a while ago posted a great piece on how to equip a basic kitchen for around $200. He shows you how to use restaurant supply stores to get you up and running. It is a really great article and I am not just saying that because I think Mark Bittman is a god among mortals (How to Cook Everything has been my bible since I started).

I am going to go one better. These are the 5 things, that I believe are absolutely essential and will allow you to cook 80% of the food you are going to make. Here they are:

• A large saute pan (12? or so). I use this for almost everything from making sauces, to frying and sauteing. I got it for 15 bucks at Target and use it almost everyday. Make sure you get one with a metal handle so you can place it directly in the oven for roasting.
• A small paring knife. I get these at a restaurant supply store down the street. It’s ugly as sin, but does the job just as well as the $65 Wusthof paring knife I got for a gift. Just make sure it has a good grip and a sturdy blade.
• A large cutting board. We actually have kind of gone cutting board crazy, but if you have a good large one, it will double as a workspace for seasoning meat or any other messy sort of prep work.
• A large stock or soup pot.
• A pair of tongs. I prefer silicone ones since my girlfriend fiance enjoys melting anything that is not heat resistant to the temperature of the sun

Now by no means is this a complete list and if you are looking to tackle some baking this list will not work, but for day in day out cooking, this is what I find myself going back to. The most important thing is to actually start cooking. The gear will follow.