The story of buying a condo
Aug. 4th, 2008 09:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bolsonIt'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 (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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.
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.
