housing update

we definitely didn't get that blocker house. the list price has since come down to $348k, still well over our offer. we just weren't willing to spend more on a house that didn't have a garage or even a family room.

shortly after the those negotiations broke down, we found another house we liked. it's fifty blocks farther north, practically on the county line. it's more suburban than I had intended to look, but we like the house. while it's smaller than the previous one, it feels bigger, with a better layout. it's three bedrooms but only 1.5 baths, a smaller kitchen but a bonus room and a two car garage. the backyard is big enough that we could eventually knock out a wall in the main bedroom and add a full bath there. it's also a few blocks from a transit centre, so while the commute wouldn't be ideal, it's possible to bus to and from work fairly easily.

the downside is we found out it was a short sale when we offered. it was originally listed at $388k, and dropped to $348k. we knew the sellers were motivated, but were caught off guard by the short sale status. we offered two weeks ago, and it was accepted, but we're waiting on the bank. this can take weeks. the house was appraised by the bank currently holding the paper on the house, and they need to make a decision soon. they'll write off whatever the difference is between what's currently owed on the house and what we're offering ($315k), but it will still be less of a hit than if it goes into foreclosure.

currently there's an auction for the house set for feb 8, but we're trying to get that canceled. if it goes to auction, we're definitely screwed. we couldn't front the cash for it, even tho it'd sell for $100k less than we're currently offering, because we don't have everything up front.

the waiting has been really annoying. we're going out looking at other houses tomorrow night, on the off chance we find something else we like that isn't a short sale. at this point, I'd rather pay a bit more to get that certainty, these past couple weeks have just been brutal.

househunting sucks.

we made our second offer last weekend. the first house we offered on we weren't sure about, and we rushed into it because we thought we'd lose it. we ended up losing it anyway, but we were relieved. we weren't ready for the commitment or sure about the house. in hindsight, it wasn't that great... new floors would have been expensive, and fixing up the kitchen would have been more trouble than it was worth.

the second offer was a different story. I even had my parents up for the weekend to look at a few, and they approved of it. they've hated everything we've sent them pictures of. so that's big.

it's a really nice house in shoreline, kinda small but in a great location. it's a "block" house made of concrete cinderblocks, but is still cute. the downsides are no second "living" space, so no nerd den or rec room, and that there's no garage or carport. otherwise it was really nice. gorgeous kitchen, three bedrooms, cute little woodstove... yard was perfect size for us, and we liked the neighbourhood.

problem was, the list price on it is $355k. while we COULD pay that much (we're pre-approved anyway), we don't want to take on that much of a monthly payment. we set a self-imposed cap of $325k just to keep the monthlies under control. we offered $300k hoping to meet in the middle, but they spurned us. said they'd only drop $10k and they were willing to wait out the recession to get their money out of it. not sure how they figure that works, but oh well. we walked away, but we're not-so-secretly hoping they change their minds and come crawling back to us. it's a flip, and at some point they need to face the fact that they picked a bad time to flip a house and they probably over-did the house for the neighbourhood. our $325k offer was reasonable, what they are asking is not, at least not for this economy.

so we're still looking. but nothing we've seen before or since has held a flame to the one we like. we've looked at over fifty houses now, and only a handful have been what we'd consider a good fit for us. a couple have gone off the market. at least the one we really like is still available, only because it's priced too high.

we'll keep looking. the idea of being in a house by presidents' day is no longer viable, so using the long weekend to move furniture up from nana's house is pretty much out of the question. if we find something else, great. but realistically, we're just waiting out the house we want, waiting for the sellers to blink in this game of financial chicken. they're paying a mortgage and HELOC on it, and losing money every month. we're sitting on a downpayment earning three percent interest and paying the same rent we have been for a couple years. unless someone else comes along and is stupid enough to pay what they want, we should win this, they'll have to blink first.

even so, I'm tired of househunting. I just want to find something we like, make and offer and move in.

best of 2008 recap

was a bit of a down year, both for music and film... we just didn't get out as much this year as year's past. we'll see how 2009 shakes out. with a sizable mortgage payment looming, I doubt it'll be much better on the entertainment front.

albums

1. vampire weekend - vampire weekend
2. ode to j. smith - travis
3. oracular spectacular - mgmt
4. viva la vida - coldplay
5. golden delicious - mike doughty
6. narrow stairs - death cab for cutie
7. the odd couple - gnarls barkley
8. með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust - sigur ros
9. accelerate - r.e.m.
10. dear science - tv on the radio
11. way to normal - ben folds

honourable mention: boxer - the national (discovered way too late, fave album of the year)

movies

1. forgetting sarah marshall
2. dark knight
3. iron man
4. pineapple express
5. be kind rewind
6. hamlet 2
7. tropic thunder
8. hellboy 2
9. zach and miri make a porno
10. wall-e
11. role models

sorry I missed: slumdog millionaire, let the right one in, rachel getting married, frost/nixon, milk