Something New

Well after sitting at home wondering how I can bring meaning to my day, I've decided a blog is the way to do it. The decision to write this was the easy part...picking out the design, font color, etc. somehow kept me busy from 10:45 until now (3:10)! To make me sound a little less obsessive about the details I want you to know that I took some time off to eat lunch and talk on the phone. PLUS I'm new at this and it took a while to find websites with templates I liked. Now I'm ready to start this adventure of documenting the day to day goings on of my life.

So...what to write about today's excitement?!? Well, Daniel and I are set to have an inspection and appraisal done on "our" house this week. I use the term "our" loosely because these two events are hurtles to jump over before we can completely take ownership of the house. I did learn something about searching for a home that might be useful for those of you who didn't go to the class "Home Buying 101"...oh wait, I didn't go to that class either, which is why I gathered this piece of advice the hard way. Daniel and I began looking at homes on the Internet. Dinner and online house shopping was almost like our idea of a date. Neither of us had set foot in a real estate agency before, so the Internet proved to be a safe place to start. Once we found a few houses we liked we contacted the agents in charge of the listings. As we became more serious and had a better idea of what we were looking for, we stuck with one agent. However, it is apparently unethical to use multiple agents. This seems pretty obvious to me because the idea of leading someone on is a difficult pill for a relational person like myself to swallow. Yet, at the time Daniel and I were trying to get our feet wet without committing ourselves to something we weren't ready for. Unfortunately along the way might have come off as untruthful or not taking serious the job of a real estate agent. I have a feeling that for business minded people out there this bad feeling of possibly doing something wrong is slightly silly because after all, selling property is a business and making assumptions about what first time home buyers might or might not know about the process is a dangerous step to take. Still, the idea of disappointing someone or acting in a way that might call into question my character, justifiably or not, is difficult for me. Therefore, it is with all sincerity that I offer my advice...If you are looking for a house, be up front with every agent you contact. Simply let them know that you're looking around, trying to get a feel for the process, and not committed to any one agent at that particular time. I enjoyed getting to work with a a few different agents because you want someone you feel comfortable with. Once you've figured that out, you can let everyone involved know that you appreciated their help and have found the agent that will work best for you. This might not be what they would've taught me in "Home Buying 101" but I think it makes for helpful advice.

As a funny side note, my need to not disappoint and act in good character led me to want to buy houses we looked at based on the sheer fact that it would help someone...had I followed through with this desire, Daniel and I would be the proud and bankrupt owners of 5 homes :-) How was I able to refocus my logicless (<-- not to be confused with real word) tendency??? I thought about what would best meet the needs of Daniel and I...and what house would allow me to put my own decorative spin on it without needing to win the lottery.

I think that's all for now. The external processor feels satisfied that I was able to share my thoughts on finding an agent. More house news to come soon!