The story of buying a condo

[bolson]

It's a long story, that starts back in January 2008 when I randomly decided to look up open houses one weekend and I went and saw one that was pretty awesome! I spent a couple weeks looking at other places to give myself something to compare to. I was right, the first place was pretty awesome. They were asking too much. I put in an offer a bunch lower. They wouldn't come down. Haggling failed. They wound up taking it off the market without selling it and last I heard they were trying to rent it.
Despite failing at that one, I got it in my mind that this was something I could really do and I should start looking more seriously. So, I made appointments with my real estate agent (surrealestate++) to look at things, I went to open houses almost every weekend, and this mode lasted through February, March, April and May. I started out just looking at standalone houses, but at some point added condos to the list and that opened up a lot of possibilities. A standalone house comes without certain complications of owning part of a building through a condo association, but I decided that for the right space and the right price, I could live with that.
Some time in May, the right condo came along. Right location, right size, good condition (freshly remodeled!), decent floor plan, good enough price. After just a couple cycles of haggling we agreed on a price! Then there was the inspection, writing up a list of things for them to fix, getting those accepted, getting a mortgage (my own bank failed, my agent's mortgage broker won), and a bunch of periods of just waiting for lawyers and lenders to shuffle paperwork. Then, last Tuesday I signed all the papers and on Wednesday the deed was recorded!
Now I'm half way through moving in, trying to buy a fridge narrow enough to fit up my stairs, getting a washer-dryer delivered, and discovering that I hadn't noticed before yesterday that the place has no phone or cable tv connections in any of the walls.
I'm sure I'll have more stories of homeownership to tell soon.

Comments

[fengshui.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the landed class.

[purplebean.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!! House hunting was probably easier on that coast than this one, so there's another good thing about the move :) Enjoy your new condo!

[magickalpony.livejournal.com]

Congrats =)

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Woohoo!

[notoriousrh.livejournal.com]

Congratulations, and good luck!

[dancewithmemore.livejournal.com]

Oh, congrats! That's definitely exciting! What is it with banks? My own banks failed on the mortgage front, too. I went with a recommendation from my buyer's broker. Good luck with the moving adventure. May you have many wonderful, happy years in your new place.