Saturday, April 05, 2008

chelle's guide to buying, selling and moving in less than a month

Part One:  Buying
  1. Randomly think that it might be nice to live somewhere where you have neighbours that don't play music 24 hours a day.  Or at least it would be nice to live somewhere that your neighbours played good music 24 hours a day.  Become an MLS junkie, if only because you love seeing what other people's houses look like on the inside.
  2. Find a cute, very recently renovated 650 sq foot house that is in your price range.  Go see said house thinking "if it has a basement, it could work."  Realize instantaneously that there is no way you can even imagine living in less than 900 sq feet, and that by 900 you mean 1000.
  3. Have your boyfriend's landlord sell his rental property, thusly evicting boyfriend in 31 days.
  4. Feel stressed.  Schedule a lunch meeting with the boyfriend to discuss housing options.  Spend over 30 minutes talking about random things, 10 minutes discussing various housing options, and another 15 minutes off topic.  Wrap up the lunch once again on the subject of housing, realizing you have decided nothing.
  5. The next day, find an okay looking house listed privately online.  Make an appointment to see the house for fun.  
  6. Walk around the house feeling lost, doing a perfunctory opening of closets and cupboards.  Make awkward conversation with the seller, including awkward conversation about what one would do if they were potentially maybe interested in making an offer.
  7. Get in car and commence conversation with the boyfriend.  Realize you both like the house.  In fact, you really like the house.  No, you really like the house.  Hypothesize what to do.  Look at other houses out of obligation?  Seems like a waste of time.  Make an offer on the first house you've looked at?  Seems crazy.  Decide to call in a realtor uncle for a second opinion.
  8. Go winter camping!  Leave your boyfriend with all the responsibility and enjoy yourself for a day and a half before you let curiosity as to what is happening in regards to your potential house offer get the best of you.  Turn your phone on.
  9. Become bombarded with text messages. 
    "Uncle said house is way overpriced...by about 50K. He gave me the history of it. I told him what we're looking for and he's on it."
    "My lawyer aunt is writing up the offer
    ""We offered ***. They countered ***. We said okay. They accepted! Omg as you put it."
  10. Commence crazy texting.  Officially lose your shit when you realize you have a) put an offer on a house and b) can't get real details until you get home over 24 hours from the current time.
  11. Arrive home to a to do list a mile long.  Top of the list - sell condo in less than a week to secure financing to remove conditions.  Thank a random deity that in the current housing market this should not be an issue.
  12. Tell no one what is going on, lest something not workout...

1 comment:

Chris said...

That's pretty awesome. And crazy. But you pulled it off. When will pics be posted?