Looking For a House

So I am off looking for a house. As this blog is named - looking for a different trail - again. We moved from Rio Rancho, New Mexico to Bedford, Kentucky this past August. We have been living with my son and his girlfriend since we moved and we are now looking for our a house to call our own.
      I find it amazing at the different house that are on the market. Some are really nice and others are real dumps. Even though we are qualified for a decent size house we don't want to get one so expensive we have a heck of a high mortgage payment each month. We have been looking for one in the lower end of price ranges so we don't have a high payment but those are the ones that seem to be in the worst shape. In Kentucky and most of the states near us and east of us, many homes have basement. (In New Mexico a basement is really rare in a home.) But every house we looked at that had a basement had a leak of some kind in the basement - either from the frequent rains here or from the natural seepage of water here. Don't the people that own these houses realize that no mortgage company with let someone buy a house that leaks? Putting a leaky house on the market means no sale unless a person comes along that can pay cash for the house. Thats not going to happen very often.
    Another big problem with people that put there homes up for sale is that they don't think about cleaning the house up before they try to sale it. A house that is full of junk is going to be harder to sale. I have looked at some houses that would be a dream for a hoarder, but sure wouldn't pass any kind of appraisal for a mortgage.
     Of course an empty house doesn't have this problem and many of the houses I looked at were empty. But then you can see every little flaw in the flooring, the paint, the chips in the cabinets, the handprints on the windows. A word to the wise - a clean house, fresh paint, and no clutter will help sell your house if you really want to sell it.
   Which reminds me of the first house we put an offer in on. It was an empty house on an acre of land with a large garage and nice yard. Price was a bit higher than we wanted to pay but it had everything we wanted and was fairly close to my son's home. It had been on the market several months. We made an offer for close to what they were asking for it. They turned down our offer and pulled the house off the market. So why had they put it up for sale in the first place if they didn't want to sell it?
   Of well. I will keep looking and hope we find something similar in the near future.