Adventures In Real Estate

So with the economy in a slump, and the housing market at its lowest in years, Jess and I thought we'd see what the proverbial "water" was like, and dip our feet into the real estate market. We had no experience in this crazy world of 30-year loans and escrows, so we wanted to acquaint ourselves with how it works.

We started working with a great real estate agent out here in Valencia named Tricia LaMotte who has been an incredible help to us, and showed us the ropes of this complex industry, if you're thinking at all about getting into the SCV, I highly recommend her! She and Jess talked often, and combed the listings of sales, foreclosures, and short-sales to see if there was anything we thought we could afford.

We went to look at a number of places, and decided to put in some offers on some of the ones we liked. Tricia said that making an offer is sort of like asking someone out on a date, the worst that can happen is that they don't accept, but there's no "rejected offer penalty" or anything, so we thought we'd throw a few out.

Wouldn't you know, that a couple of our offers got accepted! This was an interesting development, and we found ourselves in escrow for a great little 2 bed/2 bath place in Valencia. When all was said and done though, we decided not to take it. A number of factors played a part, but a monthly "housing" increase of 44% was part of it. It wasn't going to break the bank, but it would have made the bank a lot smaller, and our loan guy agreed with us in saying "you don't want to be house-rich, and cash-poor."

So it was quite an adventure, with some pleasant surprises, and later on, when we're really ready to buy, we feel pretty confident that God will provide the right place at the right time, for the right price. But for those of you who, like us, thought that there was NO WAY you could ever get into a house, you may want to take a closer look at what's out there!