Buying a House!!

Jeff and I have officially begun the process of buying a house. We've been talking about it basically since we got here and started paying crazy rent. We figured that since we're in the financial position to do it, buying seemed more practical. And we realized we could live in it for 3 years or so and when we have 1.5 kids then move into a bigger place in the 'burbs for the kids and keep this place as a rental. So after doing some research on our own, we've settled on the West Seattle area. We like that it's close but still feels casual. Far enough away from the bustle but still good sushi. Jeff was originally against it because of the bridge, but we've now been back and forth enough to realize it's not that bad and if we were ever to need to cross it during rush hour then we'd probably be on the bus anyway.

So we chatted about it with Grandpa Ron when we were in CA for Britney's wedding (since he's a realtor and knows things). And he hooked us up. Called a few people in the Seattle area and pre-interviewed them for us and found us a really nice guy. So we met with him last Friday. And talked about what we're looking for and he actually suggested instead of looking for 2 bedroom condos we should look at 3 bedroom houses - which works out a lot of the time to the same space (1000-1200 sqft). And he said it was much easier to rent out a house rather than a condo which could have building restrictions. This got us thinking and we actually decided we really liked that idea. It would be a different experience for sure (yard work!) but it would mean that if we wanted to we could stay longer than 3 years. It wouldn't be a "we have to move now!" but rather "well the kids get to share until we decide we're ready" or a "Jeff's office is moved to the basement/another room."

So anyway, the realtor sent us a filtered MLS search and we spent 2 hours on Saturday going through different options. We flagged 4 of them as "love" and about 10 that are "like" and we're planning on going and looking at a bunch on Wed. This is my favorite so far. But we talked to the realtor a lot about the hotness of the Seattle market and the guarantee of doing a bidding war, so be prepared for a little frustration. And of course you never know until you go stand in a house if it'll be a good home for you, so we'll see if I like it on Wed.

The other ball that has to be rolling for this is money. We contacted a mortgage lender and filled out some crazy application that told our entire life story. Now we know the fact that we're self-employed puts some weird parameters on what we can do (for instance we had to wait until now to start because we needed two years of showing we owned the business and were working), but when outlining our situation to people, they've said we really shouldn't have a problem. The only wrench is Jeff's credit sucks from when he was sick and wasn't working for a year so we might not get as awesome of an interest rate as we would like, but we know we can always refinance down the road if we want.

The other crazy thing is the realtor told us that if our offer is accepted, the whole process takes about 30 days. So it's crazy fast because of the crazy need in the market. But we're excited to start this process. Jeff is sitting in a corner saying "Oh boy" Jackson style* but I keep reminding him of all the cool stuff we get to do with our own place - and we can always hire someone to do the yard work :]

*also I'm fully aware that Jeff will be exactly like this when we have kids as well, but I love him anyway