House Hunters

Day one of house hunting is complete and this is exhausting. We saw seven houses yesterday and only 3 of those have potential. One, while very well kept and a good lay-out inside, is smaller than we would like and has a big out-growability factor down the road. Plus it had a tiny yard and two barking dogs next door. The second favorite is a tad higher than we are comfortable spending, which we would totally have just offered less to see what happens, however we found out from their agent that the couple of already underwater in their mortgage and bringing money to the table at closing so we are thinking that asking them to lose a little bit more is probably not going to be acceptable. Our very favorite house is a bargain because it's a foreclosure and we loved it. It's sitting empty and the entire interior has been freshly painted, has all new flooring, and besides the overgrown yard because no one lives there it is move in ready. But the seller has two more offers on the table, and it's an investor selling, so most likely not only will he reject us because we have a contingency but being that it is already at the top of our price range I'm thinking we will be outbid anyway because it's way under market value. So I'm not holding my breath, even though we submitted our offer last night.

We had a good system going for house hunting though. I carried the MLS report that our agent printed for us, and Nick carried these sheets that I had printed with a picture of the house, the address, price, size, and space for note taking. He's the note taker in the house - and as you can see, he did a fine job.

So today we go out again and start fresh. Last night the idea of starting fresh had great potential when I sent our agent a list of 11 houses, assuming a few of those would already be under contract or bank owned or something, but fully expecting to walk away with 5-7 to see. Imagine my surprise when she emailed us this morning to say that TWO are available and we can see. WHAT??? Glad I got up early because mild panic set in and I sent her about 6 more, fingers crossed, and hoping for the best.

We're nearing the 30 day deadline for getting a contract set. Our closing is May 30. I really really really really really really don't want to have to move somewhere temporary and then move again. Like REALLY.

This is stress.