Leimamo’s Life

After months of diligent researching, we’ve finally took the plunge and flew to Washington to actively look for a house. We had only 12 days to find something we both agreed on. The first day was spent traveling so we didn’t get to view any available homes that day.

Our second day there we met with the realtor who I’ve been in contact with over the last few weeks prior to flying to Washington. Our first stop was a few mile out of town so I knew it wasn’t going to be the one we’d settle on. It was listed as being much larger than it actually was. It wasn’t too bad but the lot was on a hill and all I could think about was our van rolling back and ending up in the neighbor’s living room. It was a scary visual. The next six houses weren’t any better. They were all in town and they were all older homes that I preferred but dang, I was sort of expecting it to be in better shape. There was one that was way overpriced. The roof had mildew growing on it, there was a parked car in the driveway that also had mildew growing on the windshield and roof. It was just nasty. Most of the homes smelled of dogs or cats. We don’t have any pets and Meg is allergic to animal dander so we said no to all of them.

Things were looking pretty bleak for a day or so. We ended up driving around on our own and came across one that I would’ve loved to have but not for the price the owners were asking for it. When the realtor asked if they were willing to work with a realtor and pay the 3% commission, they declined. Then the following morning, they called to tell me that they thought about it and decided they would pay the commission but they’d need to raise the price of the house. Now the original asking price was $203K before the 3% commission and they wanted to raise it by an additional 9K. I’m not that good at math but I know that 3% of 203K is roughly 6K not 9K. I told her I could never go that high and told her I’d need to move on. The little old lady wished me well on our house search. I was starting to feel stressed out because we only had a small window of time to work with. We drove back to the realtors office and told him to start the search from scratch to see what new listings he had for us. By some small miracle, we hit on a house. We immediately left the office to look at it and I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. It wasn’t too old and it wasn’t too new. The outside had some character and didn’t look anything like the newer mass production homes that are popping up everywhere. It wasn’t as large as the other house but that just means we won’t need to sell it in a few years to purchase a smaller home that we can maintain when we’re older. We skipped that process and moved straight to our quaint home to grow old in. We’re so close to everything and yet we’re not smack in the middle of town. We drove back to his office and made an offer. We weren’t the only ones to put in an offer that first day it went on the market. There were two other offers but ours was accepted. Hooooray!

The next step was to hire a house inspector. The realtor was happy to set it up for us but I had read enough about finding the right home inspector, one who will be looking out for our best interest and not one who is referred to by a realtor because chances are, they just want to pass the inspection so the sale will close sooner. The realtor told me that he uses this guy who brings along 2 helpers and they can get the inspection done within 1 1/2 hours. From everything I’ve read, a really thorough inspection took between 3 to 4 hours. So I called someone from a list of ASHI Home Inspectors. I asked all the questions I had and his answers satified me. He told me that he likes to take his time with the inspection and preferred that my husband accompany him throughtout the entire inspection so he can point out concerns or ways to prevent future problems. I was very impressed with his detailed report when the inspection was over and it gave my husband some clues as to what to expect as a new home owner.

We reviewed the report and there were no major concerns but he did point out a few things that he thought we might want to have the owners rectify before we close the deal. Since we we had to fly back to Japan, we asked a friend to do the re-inspection with Quenten after all the repairs were completed.

Now we’re just waiting on the loan papers to get here and we’re shopping around for home/hazard insurance. We’ve learned a lot more in the past two weeks than I’ve learned about in all the research I’ve done prior to flying out. I’m glad I did though because it made it easier for me to understand the process and it made me aware of some important steps in making sure we’re covered. I called friends and family more than a few times and I’m sure I was driving them crazy with my million and one questions but I do appreciate all the advice and help they gave me.

I’m just glad we’ll have a home to move into after he retires. The pictures are up at the gallery for everyone to see. I’m still giddy about it.