Coincidence? You Be The Judge

For those of you as yet unaware of the situation, I have recently joined the ranks of the unemployed.

Along with the job, of course, goes the house we were gearing up to close on. Hard to pay a mortgage without an income.

I – and many others – have noted that it’s a very big ‘coincidence’ for this to happen JUST as we were about to tie ourselves down for a great many years. Better now than a couple of weeks AFTER we closed on the house and moved in.

We are doing our best to treat this as an opportunity rather than a loss. Obviously there is sadness (mostly regarding the house), and there is stress (mostly regarding the lack of income and health insurance), but we are looking forward and taking this chance to see what is out there. The money we had saved to cover a down payment and closing costs is mercifully still in the bank, and as such the situation is not dire.

It is almost certain at this point that we will be leaving Rochester, likely going quite a long way. California and Florida are both possibilities, and we are also thinking (to varying degrees) about the DC area, Oregon and North Carolina.

So yeah. Haven’t blogged much, and that’s why, but I wanted to make sure folks knew what was up.

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Alternate Realty ;)

If you’ve been reading for a while, you may remember that a couple of months ago, we were buying a house.

If I hadn’t been a giant slacker about posting it, you would also remember that the deal fell through because the sellers’ attorney was trying to play games with us.

As it turns out, that was for the best. We looked at another house – more space, equally convenient, lower price – and had an offer accepted last night.

So in contrast to the typical sentiments, I (well, we) had a pretty good Monday.

HOWEVER.

Yesterday morning, when I stopped at the realtor’s office to drop off our deposit, my pants decided that they were having a case of the Mondays. I stepped out of the car awkwardly and PING, off came the button.

Once I got to work, I addressed this situation by using a paperclip to hold them together, because I absolutely exude style and sophistication.

EDIT: While all you can see in there is shirt, it has been called to my attention that this picture should have a “mild NSFW” warning. So:

Warning: Mildly NSFW picture above. View at your own risk. 😛

All told, though… lose a button, gain a house… I think I got a pretty good deal.

…

…

Sweet buttery Jesus, we’re buying a house!

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Back 2 Life, Back 2 Realty

Yes, realty. That’s not a typo.

Had I gotten off my rear and posted in the last few weeks, you would know that we are working on buying a house. I’ve never bought a house, and as such there were a number of unexpected variables in the equation. </mathgeek>

The real killer, however, is the waiting between submitting an offer and receiving word back from the seller. Now, I know about offers and contracts and the like. I have been a frequent player of soccer management simulation games. So I know that when you submit an offer, the typical turnaround time is between three and four minutes. So why the hell it takes these people a day or two at a time is baffling to me.

So we’ve played the game, gone back and forth. The house is (atypically) listed below its assessed value, and perhaps that’s part of why the sellers have been clinging to their original list price. And I do mean clinging, with some serious tenacity. Like, if you can imagine a Doberman humping your leg, and if you so much as twitch it gives you that look of “I am SO gonna fuck you up if you move before I’m done here”*. But they have at least come down by roughly the price of the dishwasher we will be wanting to put in, and they’re going to take care of the couple of items we wanted dealt with as conditions on the offer.

Having said that, it’s a great house, and we can afford it at this price even if we’d have preferred to get it for less.

Here’s the kicker. After I got off the phone with the sellers’ agent to confirm the deal they were offering – and told him I’d get back to him – I walked into the cafeteria at work and saw this:

In any case, we appear to be nearing an agreement of sorts. Fingers crossed!

*Comparison pertains to tenacity levels only. No actual resemblance to any person(s) should be inferred.

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