"So which house did they choose?"

Well Brady and I went out with our realtor Kurt this past Saturday and had a great time looking at about 10-12 houses. We even snuck in a lunch on the go from Long John Silvers, which I haven't had in YEARS. Gotta love the hush puppies. We love our greasy house hunting lunches :)

Each house we saw had a completely different feel to it. Some had interesting paint choices, some had teeny backyards, some needed TLC pronto. We saw a few we liked quite a bit, but the downside of the current market for buyers is that more than half the houses on the market are short sales or foreclosures. At first it sounds great, like you can get a deal, but really, they're a big ol' pain in the you know what because we found out that #1 the bank can take their sweet time. We're talking months for an answer. #2 The price listed isn't set in stone. That doesn't mean you can get it for less. The bank can actually demand MORE. In one case, the realtor set the price about $16K lower than what the bank would even consider. Yeeeah.

After looking on Saturday and running into the dilemma that short sales would not allow much negotiation and could take a loooong time, we expanded our search and also looked back through the houses we had seen, just to be sure they were short sales. All but one of the houses we saw on Saturday was a short sale. That one house turned out to be the one we liked the best out of everything we've seen, but the reason we didn't jump on it when we saw it was because we assumed it was a short sale. So upon seeing the "free and clear" status of the existing loan, we got Kurt by email (me) and phone (Brady). Poor guy was tag-teamed...and we were sitting a foot apart from each other.

Yesterday, we met up with Kurt to take a look at 3 other houses, just to be sure, before we went back to the one we liked. The 3 houses really didn't impress us and we moved through them quickly and back we were at the 2 story on the cul-de-sac. I'm not sure how long we were there honestly. Probably an hour. I took approximately 476 photos. Not really, but close. Because of the disappointment of finding only short sales and the ridiculousness of the one house where the bank wanted more than the asking price, we were supposed to be cautious in our attachment to this one. Brady did well, though he did participate as we were figuring out placement for things and eventual updates we'd like to make. I, on the other hand, fall easily for houses. The difference is the other houses we liked I ignored any negative aspects. With this one, there's really no negatives. It's fantastic. Move-in ready. The house has such character and it's had the right updates (ex: granite counters in the kitchen and all the bathrooms). So I wasn't really hiding my enthusiasm for the house, thus the 476 photo ops. Hey, at least I didn't pose with the lighting fixtures and countertops ;)

So we discussed with Kurt what offer we should put down and then he called the realtor to feel them out as far as how anxious the owner was to sell. (A company relocated the owner and bought him out of the house.) Kurt's impression was that they are very eager so he thought what we decided to offer was a perfect starting point.

With this being our first home purchase, it's a little nerve-wracking, but when Brady asked Kurt if we should get our hopes up (in hopes he'd tell us to keep our heads so I wouldn't go all out and get really excited), Kurt said absolutely get your hopes up! Since Kurt gives it to you straight, I take that as a good sign. Cautiously optimistic is my current feeling on it.

So you might be wondering...where are the pics? Well, call me superstitious, but every house I've posted pictures of hasn't worked out for one reason or another. Trust me, as soon as we have an accepted offer and a close date, I will overload this blog with pictures!

Please pray this house works out for us! :)