The House Hunt Ramps Up AGAIN!!!

I CAN"T LIVE IN THIS APARTMENT ANYMORE!!!   I've been feeling this way for awhile....  the last time I reached my breaking point was in February and with the CFA looming and the big water conference ahead of me, we thought it best to put off any decision for the time being.  Well, now the conference is over, I'm not sitting for the CFA (a whole other story -- have I mentioned my workload recently?), AND we are getting slapped with a $300/month fee for being month-to-month.  Time to move.  I'm sick of the noise, the location, hassles with the loading dock/security people... It's over..... AND, with summer upon us, we're going to be dealing with the lack of A/C - incredibly hot summer air that suffocates us - we're already starting to feel it.

So, we decided we would start looking at places at Open Houses.  IF, we found a place we liked, in PA, on our own - Adam's dad, who is a lawyer and has his realtor license, could act as our buying agent and save us the 3% fee.  We (well, I) ended up feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of finding open houses to go to.  The newspaper was awful, and didn't provide MLS #s or addresses, so you had to track the listings down online.  Online, it wasn't easy to distinguish what houses were hosting Open Houses. 

Also, we've been going back and forth between renting in the city for another year or buying in the burbs - PA or NJ.  Tons and tons of options - almost overwhelmingly so.  We decided to just bite the bullet and get a realtor.  There's a reason they get a fee and it would be helpful to have someone tracking down stuff for us... 

Murphy's Law - today, I'm procrastinating at work (REALLY SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN!) and I stumbled upon a phenomenal townhouse that is hosting an Open House on Sunday and is only slightly above what we are willing to spend.  In a perfect world, Adam checks it out at the Open House and falls in love with it, we ask his dad to help put a low bid in on the place, and we get it!!!  I'm dreaming - I know... No way things will go that smoothy - with our luck?  It doesn't hurt to dream - actually, if I'm going to dream, I wish we could have THIS house that is just a "SMIDGE" out of our price range (yeah right!).