Oh, The Drama...

As I mentioned last week, Blake and I are buying a condo.  This sounded so simple when we decided to do it.  Rent an apartment (where I would most likely murder him within the first 6 months due to lack of personal space) and lose any money we dumped into rent OR buy a condo with room to spare and this lovely little thing called equity?  No brainer.  (PS-I wouldn't really murder Blake.  But I do like my space.)

So off we went to our financial advisor who set us up with a Private Banker who set us up with a mortgage originator.  Then we had to get a realtor who set us up with the website, viewings, the comps, and iPhone app (there really is one of those for everything).  Week one of the condo search wasn't so much a search as a big meet & greet of all the players we needed to make this happen.  And then finally the search!

This was the part I was most excited about-the big search.  Roaming through other peoples' houses and imagining what my life and my furniture would be like there, picking out in my head the colors I would paint the walls...only these condos were TRASH.  Dogs had chewed the molding from knee-height and lower in one place.  Another had amazing granite kitchen countertops...but they had awful shag carpeting EVERYWHERE.  Some had no living space, some had tiny kitchens, some had no parking, and all of them were painted a dingy white.  It was depressing to walk through them.

I finally found one I liked and brought Blake along to look.  It was smaller than we had hoped for, but it was one of the largest we had looked at in our price range.  In 2 weeks I looked at over a dozen condos and knew that unless something absolutely amazing came on the market, this condo was our best option.  Plus it had a kick-ass kitchen.

Then the drama.

First came the inspection report.  Oh boy.  There was a lot of things that needed to be fixed.  Then the realtor for the seller told us that the current owner was very close to a short sale and was hoping to have someone assume the loan.  Which meant we could either assume her loan or get our own, but either way there was very little negotiating room.  Then, after we agreed to another visit, had our realtor bring a contract, got pre-approved for our loan, and figured out all the details...someone else made an offer on the condo.  My heart broke.  I already knew where all the furniture was going!  Blake had promised me a new sink and countertops!  I was going to paint!

As if that weren't bad enough, our realtor hit us with the worst news yet: she had pulled comparative sales for the area and they were selling for almost $7K less than the asking price for this condo.  Oh man.  We knew right away we didn't want to be anywhere near this situation.  With sinking hearts we agreed to go look at a condo I had been saving as a backup.  It was larger condo but at the very high end of our budget.

And of course we fell in love with it.

So the good news is today we are signing the contract to put an offer in on our first home together!  It's so true that when God closes a door he opens a window.  This new place is big enough and nice enough that should anything happen-we lose a job, we have a baby, the economy tanks (again)-we will be able to live there comfortably and happily for several years.  All our stuff will fit, there is a nice 2 car attached garage, and the neighboorhood is a nice suburb centrally located between both our families.

Wish us luck, friends and family!  Today the bidding war begins!