What Do You Think?

"DON'T WORRY INSIDE A DOG BUT IT IS SAFE IN JAIL"

If you were looking at house listings and saw this in the remarks, you'd be completely confused. Right?
Then you would realize that this poor-english speaking lister is trying to tell you that there is a caged dog on the property. Right?
Then you would wonder what agency would allow such horrible english on their listings. Right?
And shake your head in disbelief. Right?
Then you would wonder if it is a series of sentence fragments that accidentally got smashed together. Right?
Then you would give up because you aren't interested in that stupid property anyway.
Good, 'Cause that's what I thought too.

Matt wants to know what the poor dog did to get thrown in jail.
Drunk barking?
Barking and Entering?

Wow! House shopping is apparently taking it's toll on our sanity...

REALLY?

After all that hemming and hawing - all the anticipation - the bank lowered their price by $1000. REALLY? All that effort FOR THAT? Huh.

Remember how I told you that I don't do well with this game playing business? Yeh, so now I'm just irritated. If that's all the effort they can put into this "relationship", I do not feel the need to stick around. Seee - ya!

I guess my feelings about this place were all wrong. Oh-well, onward we shall go.

We found a few other places that Matt is going to look at this week and report back to me. One day, maybe one day, we'll have a real live home to call our own. Unfortunately, we are now becoming short on time and I'm becoming short on patience. We only have 3 weeks until we have to let the apartment complex know whether or not we're moving out in January - which is also just about as long as my last big nerve can hold out.

Anyhoo...go check out my honey's site to see the "Weekend in Pictures, Part Deux" that I promised a couple of weeks ago.

AAAAND! (this is my favorite part) WE'RE GOING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS / NEW YEARS!!! HOO-RAY!

Dear Friends in the warm weather I-miss-it-so-much state,

Please have lots of alcohol ready as I will be very cold and oh-so ready to drink!

Sincerely,
Me

Did I mention that it is unaccepatbly cold right now?

Tag! You're it. Wait...

I forget. Is it our turn to counter-offer or yours?
I'm so confused...

We haven't counter-offered the bank yet. We've been working out our next move with our agent when a surprise phone call came. Apparently, the bank wants to counter their own counter offer next week before we counter and asked us to "sit tight". (confusing, right?)Basically, the lister says the bank knows they're offer was unrealistic.

Huh! I thought my "let them wait and sweat it out" was only making me feel better. I guess it may have actually made them a little nervous. It probably didn't hurt that our agent sent the lister pics of the roof damage and the latest "going rates" for townhomes in the same area.

This might turn out to be an interesting game after all. I love watching players dig their own hole, especially when it benefits me.

TAG! You're it....AGAIN!

The Game is Afoot

Update on the house situation.
We submitted an offer on the "the gem" and the bank has replied with a counter-offer that made Matt, myself and our agent say, "Puh! Not in this market!"

We are giving it a few days, then we'll come back with another offer. I'm sure they will counter then we will...yeh, the game is on. Matt and I have decided what our max is and our agent is gathering information as well as running some numbers.

We'll see how far it goes. I don't do well with these types of games, I dislike them. My patience is already wearing thin.

Anyway, I'll update as things happen.

Stay tuned for another "Weekend in Pictures" post in the next couple of days!

A Diamond in the Ruff

Back to the house shopping drama.

We were out bid on the PINK carpet townhouse. Which to me, is fine. I liked it but wasn't willing to pay THAT much for it. Not with all that work that Matt and I felt it needed.

We found another that was sold 2 days after being put on the market - before we could put an offer in. Yeh, it was that nice.

BUT! I have spied a gem. A gem that is sparkling just for me.

When Matt and I started our search, I found a property that had been on the market for well over a year and was very obviously over priced. This property immediately intrigued me. I had to know why its been there, empty and lonely, for so long. The lister told our agent that it was overpriced from the beginning and no one has shown any interest in it, but that nothing was wrong with it - as of the last time she'd been in it.

So Matt and I added this to our list of properties to visit. We did. I liked it. He didn't. We had just seen a fantastic property before that we both really really liked and I think we both dismissed this particular property. I've talked Matt into looking at it again.

You know how you get that feeling? The one you can't ignore? I've had it about this property from the day I found it on the internet.

Now that we're a little more seasoned as house shoppers, I feel we've overlooked a real gem here. We know that it has some water damage in one bedroom - which I'm assuming is a roof issue (we're having an inspection this Saturday) But there is nothing else wrong. It has new kitchen appliances, fresh paint and the flooring is in great condition. Considering the time that its been on the market, with no interest, we are considering making a "low-ball" offer with documentation of the damage. The worse they can say is "No", right? If we get this place at the right price - at the price I'm tossing around my mind - it would be easy to fix the roof/water damage and land ourselves a nice home and investment property. (Assuming the financial and housing market ever - even kind of - recovers)

Maybe it won't work out...maybe it will.

Contractual Obligations

Dear Bugs of Virginia,

Apparently, you are not aware that there was deal made between myself and your bug-friends in Florida. The deal was this: stay out of my house and I will NOT mess with you in your "house" - in other words, stay out of my house and live. I was assuming that this deal was nationwide.

My bad.

I am now offering you the same deal - no strings, no hidden obligations, no surprises. Just stay out. Simply put, if you refuse to abide by this contract, you will die.

So, assuming that you were unaware of this deal - I have spared your little friend a horrible death by way of cat(s) and released him to his natural environment. Please do not let this happen again. Next time, I will NOT be so kind.

Sincerely,

Lori

P.S. Do you always send the biggest bug you can find to welcome a new resident? I mean really...

House Shopping Drama

Ok, so remember the last post where I told you we found a place that we were considering making an offer on? Yeh, well we did. No. We didn't get it. Someone beat us to it. Huff.

So back to searching we went. We looked through 5 or 6 places last week and found one we liked. Not as much as the last one but it was good...except for the PINK carpet. Yup. Pink. On all 3 floors. For those of you who don't know me - I have a great dislike for that color. I think its just plain ugly.

Anyway! The price was right and carpet can be replaced, right? So we submitted an offer today. Want to know what we found out? According to the listing agent, the bank wants everyone to know that in the 5 days this property has been on the market they have recieved 8 offers. So we need to get our best offers in by Wednesday at 10am. Hmph...sounds like a tactic to start a bidding war to me. I'm not playing this game. If its meant to work out, it will. Plus, this property needs other upgrades to make it acceptable and I don't see that its worth raising our offer any higher. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but if it doesn't work out, we'll just keep looking.

I'll keep you updated.
Stupid house shopping....

Hungover House Shopping

Yep. It was exactly what the title says it was.

Note to Self and a warning to all my internet friends:
Do not drink waaaaaaaay too much the night before you have to get up early to start house shopping. It's a very stupid -STUUUUUUPID - thing to do.

Oh Sweet Jeeebus. Sweet sweet jeeebus. Yesterday was NOT a fun day.
See, Matt and I went to a local establishment the night before with some of my co-workers to watch the USF v Kansas football game (We won. Go BULLS!) and because of this, we did not enjoy the house shopping experience as much as I thought we would. I just wanted to lay in my bed, in my comfy clothes with a cold towel on my forehead, my eyes closed and my mind blank. Matt just wanted to be in his recliner sipping a huge glass of cold water in a very air conditioned apartment. Alas, we could not. We had made arrangements for the explorations into a future home. So there we were - all red eyed and snarly tailed - taking notes, asking questions and snapping pictures. By the time we were done, Matt had begun to bounce back. Me? Not so much. Although somehow, I managed to hold it together the entire time, (pure force of will my friends, pure.force.of.will!) and completely fell apart when we got home.

We managed to make it through all 10 properties and actually found a few prospects. There is one location that we liked best and considering making an offer on. It needs flooring (right now a good steam clean will work for our needs), painting and a good scrub, but I can see us happy there for several years. I'll keep you posted on how things go. Wish us luck.

Oh! and if I ever get all tanked up the night before house shopping again - I hope one of you will come slap some sense into me and remind me that I am old enough to know better because apparently, I forget.

Long Lost

Hmph.
I see its been a day or few since I've been here.
I apologize.
I have neglected you so.

Apparently losing track of time is what happens when you work long hours, have sore feet and heavy eyes.

Nothing new has really happened so you haven't missed much.
Or maybe lots has happened and I missed it. Huh.

Anyway, we start entering houses, taking pictures and making notes this weekend. I'm excited and too tired to decide if I'm nervous or not. Either way, I am sure I will have all sorts of things to say about it. I promise, we'll get together next week and discuss our findings - or lack there of.

Right now, I hear my bed calling.
Speaking of heavy eyes...................

Labor Day Weekend in Pictures

Saturday:

Farmers Market

Where I filled up my new bag (all the way from Russia) with fresh yummy fruits and veggies.

House Hunting:
Where we actually found something we love... lets all cross our fingers that this works in our favor!

Out for exercise with:

Sunday:

Wisked off to a cabin in West Virginia where

we enjoyed lunch at this park

we wandered through a quiant town that apparently has a problem with alcoholic beverages, with an emphasis on BEER (I take offense...)I sat around my very first camp fire**and made my very first S'mores
with some very cool people
and dog...
**It's comforting to know that misquitoes in WV love me just as much as the ones in Florida.

Monday:

Slept late then went to this park

where I went hiking for the first time

Where I learned that these are not hiking shoes because I did this** while climbing down here

but I saw this

and this fine specimen too

**and other various bruises and scratches