House shopping

Our latest project has been finding our own home. We have already pre-qualified for a loan and now it's just a matter of finding something that we like. I feel really sorry for our poor real estate agent. He is trying really hard but we are sooooo picky! But you know what? If we're going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on something, we damn well better LOVE IT.

Last weekend we ended up out at a new development in Renton that is being built by Quadrant Homes (wasn't THAT a flashback to the Washington Insulation days!). They had several different models open. We walked through them and totally loved them. They start right at the bottom end of our price ranges, but we don't know how many options are already on the models and how much higher the price is going to jack up once we are done doing our add-ons. We have an appointment to meet with them on October 8th, so I guess we'll find out. The downside is we will have to wait for the home to be built and they have the development already separated out into 4 phases. The first phase was 150 lots, which have already sold and they have started to build. The 2nd phase only has 30 of 75 lots left and phase 3 has just finished being cleared out for an additional 150 lots. Phase 4 will probably be just as large, since their "Intent to Purchase" list (which we have just joined and is basically a waiting list) has topped 250. So, judging by that, if we can do it once all the options are added and decide to go ahead with it once our lot becomes available, it will be 9-12 months for construction, etc, since they have such a huge backlog. We really really love them and really really want one, but I don't know if we can hold out that long since we are pretty anxious to get into our own house and out of our apartment. The idea of having our own house built just for us is very appealing, however.

Needless to say, it is just an option at this point and we are still looking at other homes as well. We just received 2 more listings from our agent that were interesting so we'll be checking those out as well. It's definitely been a process so far. As our loan officer says, "The LOAN is easy, it's the SHOPPING that sucks!" I'll give him that one, but it's kind of fun at the same time.

I'm going to go for now, though. I've had this stupid headache for 3 days now, which turned in to a migraine and left me throwing up this morning and in bed for most of today. Wonder where this came from?