Potential in podunk?

The house hunting continues this weekend. I'm sometimes sad we'll be leaving our the place we're at but at the same time am looking forward to having a place to call home. The dilemma is finding a house in our budget, in a nice neighborhood, that isn't miles away from work.

I've fallen in love with a house already, it has a pool and potential, and is in what appears to be a stellar neighborhood. It is overpriced and at the top of our budget, is built on a slab, and needs work to boot, so probably not the best house to fall for.

Tim has his eyes set on a short sale. It is built on a standard foundation, and needs a lot of work but is much cheaper. The house has potential, the front yard is concrete and it was a bit dark to tell how the interior of the house looked, so we're going back this weekend to see it in the daylight. Both homes are further south than we're used to, which means more of a commute for me. So we'll see... We're meeting with a realtor Saturday to look at a few more houses (In addition to the ones I've scoped out.) so maybe we'll find something even better out there.