First, let's recap. You've made an offer and negotiated a deal.  You're now under contract to purchase a house. You've submitted earnest money to your Realtor and she has deposited the check. You're watching your spending and not doing anything to  jeopardize your mortgage . You've gotten insurance quotes and provided the information to your lender. You've completed your inspection and negotiated repairs with your Realtor's help. You've contacted your landlord or put your current home on the market. You've started packing and scheduled movers or a moving truck and friends. You've started mentally preparing and making lists of what needs done in the future. Now you're in the home stretch, and it's just down to the nitty gritty. 1. Your lender will schedule an appraisal.   An appraiser assesses the value of the house to make sure it's a good investment for your lender.  Odds are your Realtor had a pretty good handl

With a (mild) wheat allergy, pizza has to be really  good for me to be willing to deal with the inevitable side effects, but Strong's Brick Oven Pizzeria is totally worth it.  There are a lot of good pizza places in Batesville, many of which offer gluten free (no, I'm not gluten free, but gluten free means wheat free) options.  I'm sure there are some I haven't tried yet that may rival Strong's, but at this point, when I'm willing to deal with the wheat headache, Strong's is the best and most worth it I've ever had. I do try to eat local, but having grown up in Bright, Indiana, I will always consider Lawrenceburg to be local, no matter where I live.  Because of that and the fact that Strong's is locally owned, it's an "eating local" favorite for my family, and definitely worth the drive! Bonus - because Strong's has four Greater Cincinnati locations, no matter where you are, you're not too far from a Strong's to consid

We're talking next steps in the buying process.  Last week I shared about the first steps after your offer is accepted.  By now you've gotten you earnest money to your agent, heard from your lender on their next steps and scheduled your inspection.  Your lender and closing agent are doing the heavy lifting right now and they, along with your agent, will lead you every step of the way.  In addition to following their instructions, you've got a few jobs. 1.  Get an insurance quote Your lender should have given you some directives on this by now, but don't forget.  Make sure to call around to compare rates and coverage.  Check if they offer a multi-line discount, it may be worth changing your car insurance to get better rates on your homeowner's policy, too. 2.  Maintain your credit Yes, we talked about this last week, but it warrants repeating.  Curb your spending and don't take on any new debt that could jeopardize your mortgage.  Don't

I try to feature restaurants that I believe are #worththedrive no matter where in the Greater Cincinnati area you're from but with the current social distancing and more people cooking and eating at home, I thought now was the time to go a different direction. Who among us hasn't watched Cheers (oops, my age is showing!) and wanted that special place where everyone knows your name?  Would you believe I have that at a butcher's shop?  I grew up going to Stehlin's with my parents and to this day I think it's the best around. There are some very good meat markets closer to home, including a really good one right here in Batesville, but no one's smoked meats and sauerkraut compare to Stehlin's Meat Market on Colerain Avenue in Cincinnati, Ohio.  I know I'm a bit biased because of my experience, but everyone I have sent to Stehlin's says the same thing, so I'm thinking I may be right on this one. Stehlin's Meat Market started as a meat wa

House hunting is so much fun, but let's be honest - the real thrill is when you make an offer and we're all waiting with baited breath to see how the seller responds.  Today, you got that response and your offer was accepted!  Congratulations, you're going to be a homeowner! And now you're terrified because you're going to be a homeowner.  So now what?  I'm glad you asked. First, get your earnest money to your Realtor.  You will have already agreed on an amount and a timeline, so make sure you stick to that.  The sooner you get it to your agent the better, because she may need time to then get it to her office or the listing agent. Your Realtor should deliver your contract to your lender and your closing agent, who is most likely an attorney.  Check with your lender to make sure she received it.  Then watch for communications from both of them with instructions on next steps.  They'll be reminding you to obtain insurance quotes, schedule your inspec

Remember last week when I shared my opinion of what Coronavirus is going to do to the market ? First, let me tell you I still fully believe everything I said. Second, let me tell you that doesn't mean I don't still have my moments of despair. Truth time - I'm feeling it today. I'm over this quarantine, I'm over my business taking such a hit, I'm over the "funny" memes of people making light of something that sucks so bad. I'm just over Coronavirus. I had a couple showings scheduled for this afternoon that got cancelled because my client isn't feeling wel, cue me panicking because I just saw her last week and she isn't giving me any details on her illness. I needed to stop and collect myself, so I started going through a few pages I follow and found this: Just what the doctor ordered, I'm breathing again. When we moved back in October, the house needed so much work we didn't take the time to get to kn

So here's the deal - Feature Friday is late this week.  I started writing around 10:00 this morning and here it is 9:10pm and I'm just now sitting down to finish my article.  Want to know why?  It had been a while since we'd been to Sushi Samurais, so I was having to dig for pictures.  And of course, each one looked more delicious than the last.  The more I wrote and the more pictures I found, the more I wanted sushi!  So, Hubs and I finished work for the day and started our 52 mile, 50 minute (each way) treck to Sushi Samurais.  You're probably also wondering why I haven't found a sushi place closer to Batesville when I always talk about eating local.  Trust me, I've tried.  But Sushi Samurais truly is #worththedrive Hubs and I do not celebrate what we call the Hallmark Holidays, but on Valentine's Day 2014 we actually went out to a nice dinner.  We were both working in the same part of town, which happened to be almost an hour from home, so we rode to