Home Shopping Updates

Ok, so the picture of Teenie in this posting doesn't have anything to do with looking for homes today (besides the fact that she's the main reason we'll need a small yard area), but I thought it would be fun to include with the story anyway.

You can follow along with this story in the Gallery of the pictures we took today.

Today we met with a realtor in Brentwood to go through a condominium in the $250k price range. It was definitely affordable, but it was much too small. Also, the small cement pad outside wasn't very attractive. It was in good shape though, and in our price range.

After we looked at the condo the realtor was good enough to show us around parts of Brentwood and talk to us about general home prices in the area. It seems that he was on the "You better just buy a home in Oakley or Antioch for that price range" bandwagon as well.

If you couldn't tell from the previous paragraph, we were more interviewing realtor's today than looking for specific homes. This person was nice, but seemed distracted much of the time and not too optimistic about finding us the place we like. Scratch that fellow off the list.

We were then going to meet someone else in Discovery Bay to check out the condos on the water that we're interested in. Unfortunately, the one we were going to look at got an offer the seller accepted yesterday, so they didn't want to let us go through it.

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise though, because we ended up going through open homes in Discovery Bay, and met a really nice realtor at an open house. Friendly, knowledgable, and optimistic yet grounded in reality. The running is now between her and one more realtor we're going to meet in person in the coming week.

Whew! That was a mouthful, but thats whats been happening so far. I guess I should add that we've already been pre-approved for a good amount, at a good rate. 100% financing (Not interest-only, 80-20 with an 30yr ARM and 15yr fixed). Borrowing for the full cost of the home worries me a bit, but I think it will pay off in the long run.

If you've read this far, thanks! Let us know what you think in the comment section below this story. Just type in your name and your thoughts.

Thats all for now....