Wo's of house hunting

(I apologize ahead of time for how long this is)
I knew that house hunting/home buying would be stressful, but I didn't know how stressful. We aren't moving back to Utah until the end of the summer but while we were in Utah last month we decided to look and see what was out there. We did a find a couple, one was already under contract by the time we were able to put in a bid, another wasn't in the best neighborhood, and the other one, well, we put an offer in and then realized that the bank wouldn't accept a VA loan (which we are doing) so we decided to pull the offer. Well, the one thing that did become clear to us is that we needed to look at getting a house now. With a closing the end of June it would be good timing since we are moving back in Sept. My mom said that she could go over and paint and take care of the lawn for us in those two months that it would be vacant.

So we decided to keep looking. We found one that would be perfect for us, one that we wouldn't have to do any renovations to right off but that we could update little by little to match our tastes. Most of the rooms all we would need to do is paint (some not even that because we like the colors that are currently in some of the rooms) and we could move right in. The kitchen and bathrooms could be updated as time goes on and we decide what it is that we want where. For example the kitchen, we would live with it the way it is for awhile which would then allow us the time to figure out that it would be nice to have a cabinet in this area, or the stove would go great here and so on. Well, we put in an offer, the seller counter-offered and we accepted the counter offer. Fast forward to today, our home inspection. If there is one thing I have learned from my love of HGTV shows it's never, ever buy a home without a home inspection, they cost a few hundred dollars, but they can save so much money in the long run. Case in point, most of our inspection didn't find anything major. There is a door that seperates the kitchen from the basement, the striker plate is missing, easy fix. There is no gutter plate to catch the rain coming through the gutter from the roof, another easy fix. The report goes on and on with simple and easy fixes. Easy fixes aren't deal breakers, some of the not so easy fixes weren't deal breakers. We could live with most of the report and just fix them after we move in.

Now here is where getting the inspection is a good idea. The roof...... Now this house is a mostly flat roof (reminds me a little of a lot of the homes down here in New Mexico). The roof has a slight pitch to it, but not much. Roofs like this are supposed to be tar and gravel or rolled roofing. This house however has a 3 tab shingled roof. Not good. Not only that but it appears that there is only one layer of said shingling which is not up to code. The inspector can tell you how many years you have left before you have to replace the roof. If he had said a few years, we would have been good. But he said a big fat resounding ZERO. That's right, the roof needs to be replaced like, yesterday. So we are going back to the sellers and asking them to replace the roof (to which the inspector said that it has to be a professional job because of the type of roof it is). If they don't agree then we will have to withdrawl our offer and cancel the contract. We don't want to cancel because this house, even with all the other flaws it has, would be perfect for us. I mean, there is no such thing as a perfect house. Even newly built homes have issues. But we can't buy a house knowing that we would have to pay close to $10,000 dollars to fix the roof before we can even move into it. Not to mention, VA probably wouldn't approve it with the roof the way it is anyway.

So if the sellers don't want to fix it then it's back to the drawing board for us and we go in search of a different house. Here's hoping they say they will fix it. But even if they don't, I know the right house will come when the time is right whether it's this house or not.