[fabsroman]

Val,

We went and looked at the house today, and it is decent. Not my dream house, but we can live in it pretty wll and I love the lot (i.e., 3 acres) with a view out the back of the house of rolling hills, all trees and grass fields, and a farm house off in the distance. Did I mention that it is 5 minutes from one of the farms I hunt on, and about 20 minutes from another, with the possibility of hunting farms all around it?

Our real estate agent said that banks are usually willing to take 80% of the asking price, which would be $368k on this place. I would feel like I was stealing it if I got it for that much, so I am thinking about offering $400K for it. Might think twice about that after sleeping on it and offer $380K instead.

The current problem is getting a mortgage. I spoke to our mortgage broker, and he didn't even want to try to quote me a rate today because they were all over the place, and rather high. He wants me to wait to see if the bailout bill passes, and then he will give me a rate. What really sucks is that our current mortgage is $280K, and we would only have to borrow a tiny bit more to buy this place and we can easily afford our current mortgage. Talk about frustrating. I might have to try to find some wealthy investors to give me a mortgage on this place in lieu of a mortgage company.