I'm screaming inside (and a little outside too)

When a couple makes the decision to live together it should be a happy time. I was looking forward to selling our places and house hunting with my boyfriend. But the economy sucked the life out of our happy time and we had to start tapping the breaks.

The economy sucks. Thankfully we still have great jobs. There are hundreds and hundreds of homes on the market, but when you add in our list of requirements that list dwindles down to NOTHING. Well, very few homes.

The homes that we love either fly off the market (we still have one home to sell) or they're priced too high. So many people leveraged their homes in a over stated market and now have two choices, find someone who can afford their over priced home or give it back to the bank. We don't want to pay too much, but we also don't want to deal with the mad tangle of short sales and foreclosures.

It's frustrating. It's exhausting. It's sooo not romantic. But at least we have a break, we're going to enjoy the holidays and each other and our kitties and try again in the spring.

And we're passed the inspection...

Although the inspection wasn't required (there was never paperwork submitted that the offer was contingent upon an inspection) the couple took the time to have one done Monday evening and it went off smoothly. Of course, I wasn't very surprised, because my place is 2 years old, but in the back of my head were "what if" thoughts.

What if one of the dimmer switches I installed is faulty?

What if the outlet I replaced is faulty?

Oh yeah, I also replaced the light fixtures in the dining room and both bathrooms.

And in two closets and the hallways and both bedrooms.

I also replaced the carpet in my dining room with ceramic tile, reset the moulding, and installed a chair rail.

I replaced all the mini blinds with faux wood blinds and curtains.

Whew! The inspection went off without a hitch.

New house that I love

Okay, so we've continued the house hunt and we have a list of wants. I love the craftsman style home and I think I may have found another house, but he doesn't like it. This is hard!

My list:

2500+ square feet

at least 1/2 acre, fully landscaped and fenced yard

garage on the side

3+ bedrooms, 2.5+ bathrooms

office/den

open concept / kitchen open to a family room

front and/or back covered deck/patio

move in ready

15-20 minute drive to the Everett train station

His list is the same as mine, except he wants 3000+ square feet, a bonus room for movie watching, and 3/4+ acres

30 more days...and I'm freaking out!

In 30 days I'll either be moving into my boyfriend's place or (please please please) we'll be moving into our new home. I'm freaking out. I'm screaming on the inside. Why in the world am I NOT celebrating this huge milestone in our relationship?

I'm a complete neat freak. I have no idea where all my stuff is going to fit in his place. He has every inch of his 1700 square feet covered. What if I don't like it there? What if I can't watch my TV shows? Will my cats be happy? I'm a huge planner, can I live with someone who is so casual about the To Do list? I have a ton of clothes and shoes - where will they live?

My boyfriend isn't even remotely concerned. Or he doesn't seem like he's concerned. I'm freaking the &^%@ out! I do want to live with him, but our original plan was that his place would sell, I would rent my place out, and then we'd move in together. My place sold, his is still on the market, what the hell do we do now?

What makes it even scarier for me is that we don't even have a house in mind. We used to, but then it went off the market; of course, before that the owners were being so wishy washy (and delusional about the house's value) that we weren't certain an offer would even be entertained. Now my boyfriend is showing me homes that are 30 minutes from the train station in Everett. Do you know what that means? 1.5 hour commute to work, 1.5 hour commute from work - on a good day! He doesn't think that this is a problem. The cop who is AT work the second he turns on his car.

I will not cancel my contract. I will not cancel my contract. I will not cancel my contract. I know that this will all work out just fine, but the Type A person in me is surrounded by casual-hippie minded people and I want to demand that they join me in making lists of things to do so that we can check them off as they are done.

Oh hell!

An Offer!

This morning, I was settling in for my lazy Saturday when I got a call from an agent to show my place. I cleaned myself up and skedaddled, I needed to run errands anyway. When I got home, I noticed the card was a repeat so I wondered if it was someone returning to see it again. I went on with my day...

An hour ago I got a call from my agent letting me know that an offer will be coming through in the morning. I can't believe it! I'll be moving in with my boyfriend now.

We meet tomorrow to go over the offer and my counter (if there is one).

Real estate agents & miscommunication

The dream house that I loved so much, the most recent one, has been sold. It's been under contract for nearly 2 months. So when an agent met us so that we could tour the house, it had already been sold to someone else. And for a fantastic price (because it's bank owned).

I'm astounded that one real estate agent was so clueless about the status of the home and that the agent that broke the news to us was so sarcastic and rude about it. "Didn't you notice that there wasn't a sign in front of the house?" Yes, Lady, I did notice. The other agent told us it was because the bank had taken it off the market and was planning to re-list it in a month.

I finally told my boyfriend that I can't look for houses with him anymore. This has always been my stance, because we can't do anything until at least one of our places sell, so why get our hopes up. But his motto is "forewarned is forearmed."

We're having a stand still right now. Not a fight, just silence. I'm exhausted from all of this and we haven't even gotten started yet. What's most interesting is that we're really learning a lot about ourselves and each other.

My boyfriend wants to talk things out over and over and to everyone. I just like to take things one step at a time, focusing most of my attention on the current moment.

My boyfriend wants to be prepared for all possibilities; I don't think that is possible, because the possibilities are endless.

At least we respect our differences and even appreciate them (sometimes). But it's unnerving and I love the peace of my place. Oh well. I think I should go to the beach today.

Stay tuned...

Our dream house is off the market...

The house that sparked the movement towards putting our places on sale has been taken off the market. Can't say that I'm surprised, because it has been on the market for nearly a year. The couple moved to Oregon and have a house down there. I'm thinking that once our houses are under contract, we can contact this couple and ask if they're interested in selling. I doubt that they're going to pay two mortgages until the market improves.

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Update: Our agent contacted their agent to see if they'd consider a contingent offer and the answer is "Yes, but....". Famous words that are sure to drive us away and ensure that we will not be buying your home. We've only had one interaction with the agent for this property and it involved her screaming at us, because although we told her we had an agent, she chose not to believe us and then had a screaming fit when we showed up at the house with our agent in tow.

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Because we loved the house so much, we chose to overlook her momentary lack of professionalism and we dusted off our homes and listed them for a parade (not quite) of would be buyers. We would have loved to move forward with purchasing this house, but the conversation with the agent (as relayed to us by our agent) left us feeling a little skittish. The last thing we want is a battle royale with the sellers when trying to negotiate a fair price (they're listed at $599+, we'd like to offer $540k).

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So off we go to look in greener, less spending, pastures - the pastures of Aspen. A gorgeous neighborhood in Marysville and in a much more acceptable location. Stay tuned...

Hey, where's the fire sale?

So we've settled on Marysville for our new home (well, my new home), but we're open to other cities as well. This weekend we discussed houses so much that I feel (1) like an expert on everything and (2) I feel like I don't know a thing about real estate.

My boyfriend has been lured by the temptation of purchasing a short sale or a foreclosure and I have to admit that it is very tempting! There are homes that are gorgeous and some that are brand new and they're sitting on the bank's books collecting dust and costing these financial institutions a ton of money.

I haven't been able to confirm this, but read this little tasty bit of info imparted to us by a real estate agent. For every foreclosed home the banks have on their books, they have to keep 7x that amount of liquid assets. That's 7x the assessed value of the home. So, for every $400,000 home on their books, they have to have $2.1 million dollars to cover it. Now doesn't that sound a little nuts and unreasonable? If this were really the case, you'd think that banks would be having a fire sale, bu they're not.

Potential home buyers who are wrangling with the banks are spending weeks waiting for responses and months waiting for closes that may not happen. This is making resales a lot more tempting. And the idea of jumping into this fray not so much. But I'm trying to keep an open mind.

One interesting development - I've received 3 viewings in a week and my boyfriend received 2 on this first listing day!

Stay tuned...