New house!!

Hi friends,
Jared and I had quite a revolutionary day yesterday! We began the day by meeting our realtor, Robin at a condo complex. We looked at a really crappy 2 bedroom, 1 bath upstairs unit that was for sale for $86,000! While it was not somewhere we think we would be able to spend 3-5 years, the price got us thinking. While we were driving home, I said to Jared "What if we bought a super cheap condo like that one, rent it out, and then we can rent a house somewhere that we actually like? That way, we still get all the benefits of home-ownership, someone else is paying our mortgage, and we don't have to live somewhere we don't like! We can still sell the condo in a few years and put the money down on a real house." He thought it was a great idea, so now we're in the process of applying for a different loan and saving enough for a 10% down payment rather than a 3-5% one. Exciting!
Meanwhile, when we got home we started looking on Craigslist at rentals to see what comparable condo's were going for and we came across the perfect rental house for us! It's probably less than 2 miles from where we're living now with my parents. It's in a very quiet, private neighborhood, has a garage for laundry and storage, plenty of parking, a deck, views like you wouldn't believe, and a fireplace! AND (those of you who know me well will understand how much I love this part) we can paint!!! The owner is planning on renovating, so she doesn't care what we do with the inside!!! This is a good thing, too, because every inch of the walls are covered in dated gray-ish wood panelling. Once we paint it cream or something, the whole place will be so much brighter and happier. The wall where the fireplace is is all brick so once the walls are painted it's going to look so cool! Also, the owner doesn't want a traditional lease. We're going to be renting month-to-month which is also perfect for us because that way if one of our offers is accepted we won't have to break our lease.
I'll be sure to post pictures!!


love.