Still on the hunt

Since our last foray into buying a home, The Husband and I have seen numerous homes. Purchasing a home is a tedious, stressful and frustrating process. You find so many homes that look great on paper and in pictures, but then you see them in person....and everything is not as it seemed. So last weekend, we spent 3-4 hours looking at homes we'd found on both Saturday AND Sunday. We found 2 houses on Sunday that had great potential. One was completely updated and was in a great location (just a few houses down from the one we put an offer on the week before), but it layed out a little weird and had smaller bedrooms. The second one was gorgeous and had great spaces, but the location wasn't as desireable. Either way, we LOVED the second one and wanted to put an offer in. While we were looking, the homeowner came home from a run. She came into the house, we talked for a few and then...this is so weird...she went upstairs to TAKE A SHOWER! With strangers in her home. A little disturbing, right? Anyway, the point is, she took time to answer our questions and talk about the neighborhood and the house. After she went upstairs to shower (!!!), we left a few minutes later and told our agent to call the listing agent to find out any other information and what was going on since it was a short sale. An hour later we get a call from her telling us that the house already had an offer! Son of a...!!!

Our agent was so mad, she told us she really lit into the other agent about how unfair it is of them to not tell us about the other offer and to keep showing the house and get people all excited. So...no house.

We looked at more on Sunday, all the while still thinking about the first house we'd seen the day before (great location, smaller bedrooms). Then we looked at another house in an amazing subdivision with beautiful streets and well-cared for homes. The outside of the house was just what we wanted. All brick with an attached 2-car garage, a nice porch and nice landscaping that just needed some work, a beautiful backyard with a very nice deck. The inside had some great qualities as well. Separate living and family rooms, big bedrooms, hardwood floors, a huge basement, a big main bathroom with double sinks, a big kitchen and a fireplace! The kitchen was hideous, but had lots of potential. The cupboards could be easily painted, the appliances were newer, lots of cabinet space. Plus, The Husband lays floors for a living, so we could easily (and inexpensively) replace the awful laminate flooring. Hideous kitchen and bathrooms (also outdated, but liveable) aside, we LOVED it! After looking at a few more homes, we left the agent and came back to this house and sat in the driveway looking at it (don't worry, it's a short sale and no one is living there! LOL!) and just talked about the house and what we could do with it.

I asked my husband "Which house do you like better?" He was silent for a while, really thinking about it. He finally answered "This one" and I immediately said "Me too!" I, of course, am always worried about fixing up a house. From the start, we'd both said we could handle fixing up a bathroom or two, but not a kitchen. They are so expensive and I worry we won't have the funds to make it the way we'd like. I don't need top of the line and I don't need it right away, but I still worry. But sitting there, in that driveway, we both felt it. It felt like home. So, the next morning we called our agent, ready to put an offer in. She tells me she'll meet us at her office that afternoon and that she'll place a call to the other agent to make sure there's no problems. She tells me that she'll call me back if there's anything wrong. An hour or two later, my phone rings. I whisper "please don't let it be our agent, please don't let it be our agent." It's our agent. Calling to tell me that there's already an accepted offer on the property. I was so angry, I had to get off the phone as quickly as possible. I couldn't believe our agent had taken us to another house that already had an offer on it!

I called The Husband and cried and vented and snotted all over the place. He was just as angry and called our agent. He firmly, but gently, told her that this would not happen again and that we were tired of falling in love with homes we couldn't have. He also she'd better come up with some other houses for us to look at. She came up with three more that evening (Monday) and now we are seriously debating putting an offer on one of them. It's such a hard decision, though. The location isn't as good as the other one, but it's got great potential, inside and out. It's a really great space and I think it could be a wonderful home. I guess we'll see...