26 June 2008

Home Buyer Blues

This week we embarked on a new and really scary adventure: Buying our own home. OK, so we're not at the "buying" stage just yet, but we wish we were! This month was slated as a homework month. We had planned to check out some houses in different neighborhoods to get a better feeling about what's out there, what we can afford, etc.

And then we found it. 2680 Ash. Look it up. It's a cute little house, with a great yard, a spacious basement, and enough room for a small family like the Struckman-Brown family.

When we saw it, we figured that we'd have plenty of time to mull it over. After all, isn't the country in a recession? Haven't we all heard of the housing slump. Apparently, the people who toured 2680 Ash have not. We scheduled for another tour with our realtor and before we could even tour the house again the owners received TWO bids. TWO BIDS! This house was on the market for all of a week and a half.

So, we did what any unprepared buyer would do: we scrambled. We scrambled to decide just how much of a house payment we could afford. We scrambled to get a pre-approved loan for that amount. We scrambled to get the offer in on time. In the end, we were too late. All of the offers were fairly close to equal (according to our realtor), so the owners of the house decided to sell to the first bid. Oh, the injustice!

I'm convinced that if the owners had met us, they would have chosen us hands down. After all, we can be a fairly charming couple and we have the cutest bear in the world. But, that's not the way this game is played. Next time we find a perfect place we'll definitely bring out our A game. So watch out!

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