u/Infamous-Falcon-5914

HCOL in northern Chicago suburbs. 1800 sqft. 800+ credit score, 20% down. Listed at $495k, reduced to $475k. We got it for $430k after 2 months with no offers. Reasons this worked out for us:

1. Saw a house over our budget and put in a lowball when we heard there hadn't been any offers in 2 months (don't be afraid to put in a lowball offer... your realtor should also present any offer you want to make).

2. House needs some immediate repairs and some fixes/updates that aren't as immediate. The day after close we're paying for;

--New roof

-- Minor foundation cracks

-- Refinishing damaged hardwood floors

-- Windows (doing these sort of piecemeal as needed)

-- Removal of unsafe fireplace and skylight

-- Paint

-- Various cosmetic issues

--New fridge

-- Realtor bought us a dryer as a closing gift (we've been working with them for 2 years)

We didn't ask for anything despite flags on inspection (inspector said he'd buy the house and just fix it up if it were him). Getting into our top-choice neighborhood was worth eating these costs for us, but the number of issues explains why the house wasn't selling at their listed price. Many houses in this area sell move-in ready or get bought "low" (for the area) and flipped or rented out. We're planning to live here for decades, so it's worth the investment to us.

Anyone have a landline for your kids to use? Anything you can recommend that doesn't require an account with a phone carrier (tincan, etc)?

I just received a message from my clinic with a day 1 fertilization update. We had 8 retrieved, 7 were mature, and they said, "5 oocytes exposed to sperm show signs of normal fertilization and will continue in culture. In addition we will also follow oocytes that may show signs of delayed or possible fertilization." Anyone ever have delayed fertilization? Just wondering what the likelihood is of that.

My husband and I are doing IVF because I have a dominant genetic disorder. We had a mmc at 10.5 weeks back in September from our last euploid embryo from 6 years ago (we have a 5 year old daughter from that same time period of IVF). I was put on CoQ10 for our cycles this year, but had a really bad reaction to it, even in low doses (nausea, headaches, fatigue, severe stomach upset, lost 10+ lbs because I couldn't eat without it going through me or feeling like I was going to vomit), so I had to stop it. Our last retrieval yielded 0 blasts, as 3 arrested before they reached that stage, which the doctor says suggests poor egg quality. I have an AMH of .83 at the age of 36, with no explanation as to why (no history of fertility issues). We're about to go for our duostim retrieval on Wednesday, and while my number of follicles looks much better (double last time), I'm having a really hard time being optimistic. I feel like between my genetic disorder, the mmc, my poor reaction to CoQ10, my low AMH, and poor egg quality, we're not going to get another baby and it's all my fault.

My husband's loans are up for recertification before the 17th. We're closing on a house a few days later. Our housing expenses will roughly double once we've closed on the house, but this won't be included in his recertification since we don't have closed yet. We can't move the close to before recertification. Can we recertify again after closing even though it won't be time yet? Also, if the mortgage is only in my name (because of his student loans) , but we're both on the deed (and we're both still paying our mortgage), will this still count on his IDR recertification?

We're in the appraisal phase of buying our first home in Illinois. I was looking up some stuff on our county assessor website and see that the county labeled an area of the home an "open frame porch," but it's actually a whole room they added in the early 1990s. I don't see a permit for that, nor do I see any updated documentation for that being an actual room and not an open frame porch. We had an inspection already and nothing about this room set off flags other than the fireplace not being functional (it's a gas fireplace that we're going to remove...no chimney or anything) and the poorly installed skylight, which we're going to replace. Is it possible the county assessor website just isn't updated from this early 90s work? If it was unpermitted, are we screwed?

We're closing on a home soon with a great sized backyard. It is fully fenced with a chain link fence, which I don't love, but can't replace any time soon as the house itself needs work. I was thinking about trying to cover the fence in climbing plants (vines, etc) and I'm looking for advice/ recommendations for this.

Facts:

Suburbs of Chicago, so extreme temperatures on both ends of the spectrum.

Lots of sun exposure with some areas of tree shade.

We have a young child and hope to someday get a dog, so consider toxicity as well.

Looking for perrenials that will last a long time.

Thanks!