Back on the saddle

Last February, we started our search for that elusive home. Ten rejected offers later with much frustration and disappointment, we threw in the towel and called it quits. The bidding wars and outrageous asking prices left a bad taste in our mouths. We just could not compete with the overbidding! We agreed to sit back and miss out on the "great" housing market. Great for sellers, but not for buyers. After the real estate craze of 2005, and the market returning to "normality", my husband and I decided to shop around again for a house.

Now, a year later, in 2006, things have started to slow down and the market seems to be favoring the buyers. Inventory of homes on the market is up and demand is lower than years past. Great for buyers, not so much for sellers. So my hubbie, John, and I started our open house tours during the weekends in mid January. Three weekends and several homes later, we found two properties we considered submitting offers to. One was a townhome in the same community we are renting in, with a list price of $689,000. We like the community, but not that much. The other property is a single family residence priced at $720,000, about 18 years old, with a nice backyard. It had some upgrades. It had potential though.

My brother forwarded me an e-newsletter from one of the builders in the new development he lives in. The builders were offering incentives on some homes and announcing the open model homes of the new communities for sale. My brother convinced us to take a look at the model homes before putting an offer to the ones we were considering. John and I drove 45 minutes to check out the models in the Gable community on a Saturday, three weekends ago. We were impressed at what we can get for almost $2ooK less! We left with a positive feeling, a handful of brochures and a mental note of the floor plan we liked. Sunday rolled around. Monday. Tuesday.... John was sold on the idea and trying to be patient with my indecisiveness. Somehow, I wasn't quite sold. Why? Three things:
1) It would mean moving even further away from San Francisco. Living where we are now in Fremont, it's about a 35-45 minute drive to the city (depending on traffic). The new house would be an hour and 10 minutes away (barring rush hour traffic). The added commute to San Francisco, for John, is a pain because he will now have to drive to the BART train station 20 minutes from the new house so he can get to work.
2) Our son, currently a sophomore in high school and a JV basketball player, will have to switch schools, find new friends, and try out for the varsity basketball team where he doesn't know anyone. A difficult choice to make: upheaval and have an affordable new house or stay in Fremont and buy a more expensive, older house with less to offer.
3) I liked the house, but not that much to make all the sacrifices.

The week was coming to an end and I did not or could not or refused to make a decision. Saturday morning arrived. John and I took another road trip back to the development and looked at more model homes in a different community, Terra Bella. We, flat out, fell in love with floorplan 5! We drove home excited about what we saw. John pretty much said the decision was mine to make. Stay or go, it would be fine with him. That night, before we went to sleep, I told him we should buy the house. He nearly fell out of the bed! So, after the Sunday morning church service, John and I drove the kids to the development, showed them the model home we liked and told them we are buying! We put a $12000 deposit, took home some paperwork to fill out and made a return appointment for Thursday morning to sign the purchase agreement. Our son grumbled about having to move throughout the 45-minute drive back home.

We returned to the sales office and signed the purchase offer last Thursday. Then on Sunday, we went drove back again to see the model of our future home this past weekend. Started picturing our furniture in the house, the color palette we want, etc. Gave the news to my parents and brother. They're happy because they live in that development also. They moved in September 2005 to their huge 5-bedroom house. Spoke with the loan agent yesterday. Now just waiting on our loan approval. Will know more mid next week. This is what I call the "pins and needle" waiting period. Fingers will be crossed all week. Stress factor up ten-fold.

Until my next post....