House-Hunting....Online?

We are at sort of a crossroads in military life. We just moved here to FLW and we already know when and where our next PCS will be. I'm pretty sure this is the first time in the history of the Army that this has happened to someone. ;) D is only here to attend a 6 month long course, we we will be moving on most likely before 2010 is over. Yep. We're moving twice in 7 months with a baby. Sounds fun, huh?

Well, I think it will be fun! Our next post is more than likely going to be our "home" for the rest of D's time in the Army. We have lots of friends who are stationed there or will be stationed there about the time we get there. We can settle in and raise our family there. We can move there and probably never have to move again with the Army (there might be one more move in there, but we'll always end up back at the "home" base).

We decided to buy a house there.

Eeeek! D and I have been grateful renters for our entire married life, me for several years before that as well. I love renting. If something goes wrong, you call maintenance and they come fix it for you. For free. You don't have to deal with broken AC units or plumbing problems. You don't pay property taxes of HOA fees. All that will be thrown out the window when we buy a house!

Even though I'm silently freaking out about this change, I am also really, really excited about it. I feel like we're ready for it and we will finally be able to make changes to suit our tastes. We will be able to paint the walls, put up a fence, or plant a garden and we know we will be around to tend to it next year.

We have moved 4 times since D commissioned in May 2007. Yep. That is 4 times in 3 years. We're not talking about cross-town moves here, either. We are awesome at packing up all our worldly belongings, driving across the country, baby and dog in tow and sleeping in hotels for weeks on end. I am also excellent at looking at rental houses online and finding our newest temporary lodging home from more than 2,000 miles away.

This time its a little different. We are looking at houses to purchase online. Obviously I will make a trip to our new base before we buy a house, but the bulk of our house hunting is being done on a MacBook from more than 1,000 miles away. It just seems different from all the rental searches I've done in the past. I feel like I should be there looking at these places instead of sitting on my sofa. In due time, I guess.

Looking at houses online can be tough. You are dependent on the pictures that are provided to you. There is always a lot more to the house than you can see in pictures. I think that freaks me out a little bit. In the past the mindset has been, well, if we hate it, we only have to live there for a year. When purchasing a home though, the mindset is there that, if we hate it, we have to still continue to pay the mortgage for another 29 years! Yes, we can change things, but that costs money! What if the neighborhood looks great at first viewing, but once we move in we realize that everyone who lives there are actually swingers?! Okay, so that is unlikely, but you get my point.

What are your thoughts on this? Any other milspouses (or civilians) "house-shopped" online before physically viewing them?