Saturday, July 11, 2009

It’s Saturday night and I am pondering the decision of finally buying a home.  I met with Michelle this morning and I signed the papers making her my official real estate agent.  We talked for about an hour as I asked many questions about the process.  I guess I never really thought how much goes into it.  Signing those papers did not make me too nervous.

After that we went to HomeTown to take a look at the place again.  If you have not been following my blog lately, I am trying to find a home to buy.  No more renting, so some (those unknown people again) say that this is a great time to buy, and definitely have equity.   I guess it makes me more of a responsible adult to have a mortgage.  Although, a few years back, I figured I was a responsible adult when I opened my mutual funds account.  Some (again those people) may say that my mind has always been like a responsible adult.

Anyways…for the last month I have been looking for a place and getting approved for financing to buy this home.  And after all this, I believe I will end up at the first place I looked.  Let’s recap…

June 13, 2009 – wow! I’m back in the US and looking for a home.  This new place in Arvada looks really great.  There townhomes are roomy and things look good.  The Z’s went with me to take a look, and I like some of the places.  However, they were starting pretty high, and I was not sure if I liked it enough to commit.  The salesperson, Maggie, told me that the places came without A/C and there was a $12k incentive, which would cover the A/C cost.

The Z’s and I were pretty shocked that there was no A/C, I thought it came with the build.  But oh well.  So, I was looking at the low end of the homes and they began in the mid-200′s.  According to Maggie, I could stay under $250k.  But boy, that was a lot of money for a place I was just okay with.

SIDE NOTE:  Michelle says that she usually has clients who buy with emotion first, then logically.  However, she saw with me that I thought through it logically before I let my “emotions” rule the decisions.  You know who you are, “I just LOVE this place, and I got to have it.”  Even though it was way over their price range.

Anyways…I did not look at anything else there because I thought that if I could not afford the low end, how would I expect to afford the mid-end? So, I continued to look, work, work, and look, and work, and look.  Somewhere in the middle was where I went back to the place where I was going to commit before I left for England.  So, that was an option, but they were pretty high also.  This takes a few weeks, so my last effort of looking Michelle told me, by the where, HomeTown lowered their prices.  We may as take a look at it and see what they are offering. 

So, after looking at some places where they were a few years old, we went to HomeTown.  The discounted floor plan, the Avignon, was reduced.  Now, this floor plan was one that I saw before, but the base price was $251k, so I did not consider it because it was too high, and now it was in my price range.  I took a second look and kind of liked it.  At least it was definitely more appealing reduced by $21k. 

So, I had to think and think and finally I told Michelle to bid. Maggie came back with something else, we countered, we countered back, and it went back and forth a couple of times.  Now, I went back today and looked at it again, and the more time I spend looking at it, the more I like it and plan where to put things. So, I have a contract in my hands, and I am hesitating to sign it.  Why?  Who knows now.

Anyways, of course, Maggie is saying that a lot more people are looking and in order to take it off the market, when I sign the contract, I have to give $3k in earnest money.  So, I would definitely be committing. {sigh}  Maggie and Michelle both say it’s normal to feel this way.  My hesitancy and my discomfort of this.

I guess, I should just plow through this and see what happens.  If I sign and give the check tomorrow, more than likely by August 13 I would be a homeowner. Holy cow.  Things kept going through my mind, and I finally had to put them down on paper.  There is so much I still would have to buy, and decisions made on the TV, subscriber, Internet, etc. and all the stuff I would have to buy, like curtains, and then figure out how to put them up. {sigh}

Okay, I think I am freaking myself out again.  The biggest thing is where am I going to put all my souvenirs and books.  Does it look/sound weird to put bookshelves in the dining room?  I don’t want to put them in the garage.  The third bedroom will have the UK couch and desk for my “office” and the second bedroom would be a guest room.

I will probably sign, I just have to do it.