> Well, we've taken the plunge. We are now
> homeowners. We closed on our new house
> on Tuesday, and only now is the realization
> starting to sink in... we're BROKE!

Congratulations! I'm so glad you and family are moving into a new place.

The wife and I are starting to look for homes here, so we're at this step:

> Looking at houses was a long and tedious
> process, although I'm certain that it could have
> been a lot longer and more tedious than it
> turned out to be.

Someone gave us the Dave Barry home-buying book. We're a bit apprehensive about the whole project. The wife keeps telling me we're okay money-wise, but I get a little antsy when I'm buying anything that costs more than a hundred dollars.

>When the sellers accepted it after a few minor
>changes, we were ecstatic!

If you don't mind me asking, what changes were altered from your original offer? The price, the portions of the closing costs they would pay?

> In
> our case, the sellers paid part of our closing
> costs, and our down payment was made for
> us by the AmeriDream first-time home buyers
> gift program, yet we still paid over $1000 in
> closing costs out of what we had saved.

I've just looked over a website that features the AmeriDream program. I see that it is only good on a select group of houses that are part of the program. Did you limit yourself to houses that were only offered in the program when looking, or did you look at a variety of houses then inquired if the seller was interested in the AmeriDream program?

> Gri"now, who wants to come help us
> move?"shny

I'll help you if you help me. Our stuff weighs 5984 pounds.

-FP