Wednesday, March 12, 2008

This is what passes for a post around here

This buying a house shit is ALL CONSUMING. Please forgive me for not doing anything blog related and being silent as a church mouse on your blogs. It’s just that I’m obsessed and I am pretty sure you do NOT want to hear about it. Here’s how it’s going:
look at a house in our price range
determine owners are either blind or crazy
look at a house outside of our price range
feel at home
cue call to lender, promise first born
lather, rinse, repeat.

BORING.

I don’t remember being like this the last time I bought a house. I guess it’s just that last time I actually liked the apartment I was in. Now I feel like our apartment is sucking the life out of my soul every moment I spend in the darn thing. Brett and I have both determined that the apartment is ruining our lives, one popcorn ceiling kernel at a time. (Can you say “built in the 80’s?”)

15 comments:

LoriD said...

House hunting IS all-consuming.

I was watching a show called (I think) My First House where they took one person/couple through the process. One couple had preapproval for $105,000 and no downpayment - they were looking at utter crap. My god, I wanted to donate to their cause.

Good luck with it - the right one will come along.

Pickles and Dimes said...

With my ex, we must've looked at hundreds of houses. Hundreds. Nay, thousands.

With Jason, we were bike riding around our apartment neighborhood, saw the house for sale, called the realtor on a lark, toured the house, called the mortgage place, put in an offer, and DONE.

Good luck. I hope the next house you see fits your budget and is beautiful.

Ok, Where Was I? said...

I love your explanation of house hunting! I remember you said something about NIU--well, I'm twenty five minutes away and there's a house across from me for 1.5 million. You know, if that's your price range. (and no, the neighbors aren't in that range either)

Banana said...

It took FOREVER and a lot of crappy houses and condos for us to find our home. But I sort of like Big Life Decisions to take a while and present a bunch of options - I think it makes me feel more confident in the final selection.

Good luck!

The Dutchess of Kickball said...

Buying my house was by far the most time consuming and stress inducing thing to happen in my entire life.

artemisia said...

House hunting is terrible. I am not looking forward to it - but I can't wait to get out of this house and town...

Welcome back! I, too, have been missing for nearly two weeks...

Good luck!

Anonymous said...

I was just thinking about you guys on my way into work. My exact thought was: Flib & Brett better have updated their blogs by the time I get to work or I'm EMAILING THEM. Heee!

Sorry things suck regarding house hunting....chin up, you'll find something.

I seem to remember you saying you're looking in the burbs, not the city, right? Are you looking north of the city? If so, I'm pretty familiar with most of the cities along the lake between Chicago and Wisconsin (Lake Forest, Evanston, Gurnee, etc..,)... let me know.

Anonymous said...

I just read ok, where was I's comment...if you're looking in/around NIU, try Marengo. One of my best friends lives there - great place to live. Do NOT move to Rockford. For the love of GOD, don't.

Tess said...

I'm with Lori on that My First House show. It's awesome. Um, not that you need to invest even MORE time on house stuff, but you know.

We were so disgruntled with house-hunting that we actually GAVE UP and decided to wait for a while.

Jess said...

I am soooo not looking forward to house hunting. It will just be an exercise in the temptation to live beyond our means. Gah.

Anonymous said...

Yesterday I was in the car with my boss and I asked him for a $10,000 raise so I could painlessly buy a house. He thought I was kidding. Oh well. Good luck with yours!

Emily said...

Ha! Ceiling popcorn, my parents house has that. We had bunk beds as kids and I would totally knock that stuff off all the time.

Good luck on the house hunting!

Anonymous said...

I hate house hunting, but oddly enough I like the show.

Sarah said...

I find it all-consuming too. Especially when you have perfectionist tendencies and want to make sure you have seen every last house before you can really commit to the one you looked at and liked to begin with.

Penny said...

I know what you're going through all too well.

As a seller, I can tell you to IGNORE your realtor's warnings and UNDERBID, by a drastic, drastic lot. You have the upper hand. Buyers used to feel like they got a good deal if they accept bid within 5% of their offer price. These days, with the housing market dropping, it's common to see a bid about 20% under the offer. Do the calcs and see if that helps. Good luck. It's stressful and sucky.