Keeping Me Up At Night

There is a house I love in Ely. This is a problem for me, because I have this tendancy to set my mind and heart on something and get it--regardless of whether or not I should.

The house is unusual, which is what I love about it. In Las Vegas nearly every house looks the same--white stucco and a red tile roof. It's hideous. There is no character. The house I love (I'm struggling not to type 'my house') has a pink 50s kitchen, seriously just out of I Love Lucy with metal cabinets and a turquoise formica counter. It has this weird living room that currently resembles a car show room--huge and cold with three big sliding glass doors facing the front of the house. With some work it will be an amazing room. The backyard is magic to me. It's totally unexpected--a half acre yard that you can't tell is there from the front of the house. It has a barn, inside the barn is a wagon! It has another building, perfect for a chicken coop. It's utterly overgrown, wild. I love it.

Also the house has a history that I like. The same couple lived in it for sixty years, and loved it. It went into disrepair over the last ten years, without anyone taking care of it. It has a good vibe, if you know what I mean. It needs someone to love it again.

No one has made an offer on the house, or even looked at it seriously, since it's been on the market (about seven months.) Two years ago the owners had it on the market for $80,000, and were unable to sell it. Now they want $189,000. It's way over priced, considering how much work it needs (a new furnace, some wiring work, carpet in one room.)

So I was up until 2 a.m. tossing and turning and thinking about this house. I want to offer $80,000 and see what happens. Or maybe $100,000. The housing market is in decline, and I don't want to buy the last overpriced home sold before it tumbles. I don't want to spend $160,000 or $170,000 on a house that in two years is going to be worth $80,000--even after all the work we'd put into it.

The positives about this house are:

1. It's one block from Adrienne and Nick's grandparents and their school.

2. The yard is huge, plenty big enough to grow a lot of food, and utterly private. No one would know what we were doing back there, or even that we could do anything back there, from looking at the front of the house. There is also no way into the backyard from the front of the house.

3. It's an unusual house.

4. It's two blocks from Kevin's work.

The cons:

1. It's not in good repair and needs significant work, including major landscaping in the back.

2. It's overpriced by quite a lot.

I want to be sure. I want a crystal ball that will tell me whether or not this house is a good house to be in when TSHTF. Will we be able to hold on to it, afford it, when worse comes to worse? Will I feel sick knowing we paid too much when the prices come back to Earth, or will I not care because it's my house? If we can get them to lower the price significantly, will we be able to keep up with the declining market by making the house more desireable? Does it matter, since the bond loan we're getting requires us to stay in the house for nine years or face a stiff tax?

Honestly, this stuff is enough to drive a girl crazy.