We've been looking for houses to buy for about the last year. And it's a scary, scary thing, this 'house haunting'--pouring over the Saturday real estate section, stealing furtive glances at the MLS web page hidden beneath emails to return and layouts to proof, hitting the streets on the weekends in seach of open houses then begging our steadfast realtor to 'meet us there in half an hour' only to wander about the place, finding cracked windowsills and ratty carpets--anything to justify not buying that particular property. Because we're scared. Scared of money pits, scared of 'getting in over our heads,'scared of shakey foundations, scared of change.
And now, fittingly, with Halloween creeping up behind us, we're entering escrow on a bank-owned property with no appliances but one hell of a view from the pool. We've found a mortgage broker we like, who is actually going to be a neighbor (down the street) if we make it through escrow. Although I must admit, it was a little unsettling to learn that he just sold his house and is now renting on the same street. "In this economy? We're downsizing!" he said with a bright smile, as he pushed a mound of papers toward us demanding that we sign our lives away. "Congrats on the new house! It's a big one!"
We just had the inspection, which came out fairly good for a bank-owned property. The only big "uh oh" was when one of the fans in the huge 2-ton air-conditioning units on the side of the house refused to come on. "Could be the fan motor," our intrepid inspector said. "Or could just be a fuse." Either way, it needs to be checked out prior to signing on the dotted line.
I'm going to try to post throughout this process, if only to provide a resource to dissuade us from doing this again in the future.
For the next month I'm going to try to check in with updates on the process.
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