I honestly don't know why our realtor insists on putting in a contract deadline of less than 24hours when that makes it difficult to get an answer back by the deadline.  So, we thought we would hear by 5pm today whether or not the developer would accept our offer.  Well, the seller's agent can't pin him down until tomorrow morning, so we are still waiting to officially become homeowners.  Technically, since we didn't hear back by the stipulated deadline, we wouldn't actually be on the hook if he accepted and for some reason or another we had a change of heart. 

I guess I will have to save my jumping up and down for joy until tomorrow.... 

We plan on spending this weekend "playing" at Home Depot learnings about paint, granite, and fixtures.  How quickly things have shifted gears from "home shopping" to "shopping for the home". 

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After work today we went down and spoke to the developers (its a father and son), after listening to much boasting as they walked through the place and told us why they made the decisions they did, Adam finally said, "look what will you throw in at this price?"  We talked about things and ended up getting them to agree to exted the kitchen cabinets to the ceiling and give us some say, and possible upgrades (for cost) on appliances, granite, and fixtures.  We will also get to pick out paint.  It was a bit unnusual because the father & son didn't seem to be on the same page, but the son is the one that is on the job site day-in and day-out and he seemed to get where we were coming from.  It't not that we are trying to squeeze them on every item, but if they are choosing between two fixtures that are around the same price, and we have a strong feeling one way or another, w'd like our input to be taken into account.  As the son said, we want "to put our mark on the place - make it our own" -- EXACTLY.

So, we went back with our realtor and rewrote our contract.  There isn't anything in there that should come as a surprise to the realtor, but nothing is official until they get back to us.  they have an open house on Sunday, and it seems to be in the their best interest to walk in to that having a sale under their belt.  It looks like things will go quick if they sign off on things.. they already stalled putting in the granite kitchen counters so we could negoiate.  I will need to pick some fixtures/granite/paint colors before the end of the week - wow, that's quick.  Looks like we will be spending some time at Home Depot this weekend.

If all goes according to plan, we will close on April 13th and be moved out of this place by the end of the month.  Time to start packing!

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I don't remember who it was, but someone suggested I start watching Alias.  I have never fully recovered from losing Xfiles and have been missing a not-too-sci-fi show to fill that void.  I was distracted for quite awhile by 8 Seasons of West Wing, but have still felt like something was missing.

So, I was introduced to Alias.  Jennifer Garner, big fan.  Girl-power spy show - what's not to love?

Well, I only made it 5 episodes in before I couldn't take it anymore.  If she and her partner are such good spies, why do they have to constanly fight their way out of situations?  And why, do they have nothing more than a couple of scrapes on them afterwards?  If she's an undercover agent and her friends don't know who she works for, how can she explain all these business trips that come at the drop of a hat?  In one episode, spanning about a week, she's in Malaga, in Eastern Asia, and New York, all from her homebase in LA.  And if SD6 is such a global bad-guy network, why don't they send someone from the Asian branch to Hong Kong and the European branch to Malaga -- why is she doing all this travel from LA if they are this huge operations? 

Alias - The Complete First Season

Listen, I'm not saying that X-files is exactly grounded in reality either.  These things just bothered me enough (and I'm not very vested in the show) that I am walking away.  Also, I'm not a big fan of violence and the fight scenes were too often and too noisy. 

Next up, I'm going to try The 4400 - I've been recommended this by a true X-files fan, my old watching buddy, my uncle.  I LOVE NETFLIX!!!

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Would you believe I am still looking at new places?  At least now it is easy to assess and move on without overanalyzing what we want.

#25 (I've lost count - this is my best-guess).  This was s 3BR/2.5Ba a stone-throw from the Kimball place.  It had a garage, but it didn't throw off the layout much, which was nice.  When you walk in, the garage was to the left, and you walked up just 4 steps to get to the main area.  The kitchen was a good size, but the living/dining room was very compact b/c the garage has taken up some downstairs room -- although I prefer this to the kitchen being on the second floor.  The basement was carpeted (it would have been the main TV room).  The bedrooms on the second floor were a good size, and the full bath on this floor was large, (with a double sink), but the layout wasn't very well thought out.  It would have made more sense for the developer to take some of that wasted bathroom space and made the closets larger (they were freakishly small given the place's size).  The master bedroom was a decent size, but again, the layout was stupid, with wasted space by the back porch that had a countertop/sink/fridge, instead of a walk-in closet.  This place was listed 10K higher than what we could negotiate out of the Kimball developer.

#26 - Since J had me in the car, we went to another place he had thought we would really like - he was really off the mark with this place.  The place was also a 3BR/2.5Ba and was in Bella Vista.  It was quirky, eclectic and didn't really suit our personality.  I didn't like the staircase, which reminded me of my grandmothers (break-your-neck) staircase in Germany, which had very narrow steps.  They were also carpeted - yuck.  There was this weird rock-sink in the bathroom, a choice I didn't understand, and no shower in the master bedroom.  It left me underwhelmed and comfortable negotiating on the Kimball place.

Long story short: We have decided to sit down with the Kimball developer tomorrow after work.  We are bidding on the unit to the right of the model unit.  The seller's agent told J that the developer was really nice and we could probably get more out of him in person - whatever that means. 

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I'm getting tired of posting only about the house hunting saga, so here is something complete different.....

Photo depictions of my two favorite ways to enjoy a Sunday morning:

Favorite #1:  Unfortunately, there are only 4 Sundays a year where I can watch a Grand Slam Tennis Final.  Check out this breakfast spread though!  I am one lucky wife to have a hubby that enjoys cooking so much.  We took this photo when we were watching the Australian Open in January.... next up, the French Open... I think. 

Great way to enjoy the weekend

Favorite #2: Reading the NY Times on the couch with Adam.  This is a relatively new tradition we started since Adam received a Sunday subscription as a Xmas present.  We normally do this from the time we get up until Meet the Press starts at 10:30am - I know, this just screams DORK, but hey, that's us.  I normally continue reading the paper while Adam watches the show.  I can only stomach politian's avoiding answering questions for so long, before I need to find something to do in another room. 

Our new Sunday morning tradition...

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Still not sure if we are making the right decision by sitting down with the developer to negotiate.  If these townhouses are so great, then why aren't they selling?  I think we are over-analyzing this and need to stop soliciting other peoples' opinions and just do what we think is right for us. 

Not so easy.... 

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The developer came back and said that he couldn't go any lower than 10K above our offer (did that make sense?).  We learned this on Friday afternoon.  We immediately thought that meant that we should just walk away.  In the meantime, we have become amenable to sitting down and negotiating.  We learned that the comp (those 18 units being built close by) are being done with wall-to-wall carpeting, which isn't nearly as nice as the hardwood floors throughout the place we like, and with all likelihood, tha also means that the other detail work won't be as nice either.  So, we think we are willing to negotiate.

On Friday, I did some realtor homework and came to the very sad conclusion that our realtor isn't any worse than anyone else's realtor.  Three people who recently bought places in Philly said they would not recommend their realtor and they weren't really pleased with the service they had received.  Ugh.  Apparently, customer service isn't a big focus for realtors.... It's crappy that the interest of the buyers agent isn't aligned with the buyer.  For them, they want to sell the house as quickly and at as high a price as possible - how does that incentivize a realtor to work in the buyers best interest?  Sounds like a project for Ellliot Spitzer - too bad he's no longer Attorney General. 

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Turns out I wasn't very in the loop, I'm going to blame the stomach bug. Our plan for last night was to revist the townhouse to decide whether or not we want to negotiate with the developer on one of the mid-sized units (not the model unit and not the smallest one).  My mom and her friend L, tagged along, since my mom was in town for a trip the two were taking. 

We didn't spend very much time in the units last night, just long enough for my mom to get a feel for them and for me to measure the width.  Would you believe the width difference between the model unit and the other units is only 10 inches?  We were shocked - glad we had our tape measure with us!  The smallest unit, the one that we could afford (at the top of our price range) with the funny staircase (from now on I am just going to refer to it by its address - 1925 Kimball)..... So, the only difference between 1925 Kimball and the other units was the wacky staircase.... All are the same size - even if it doesn't appear that way.  Hope that made sense...

So, our broker told us that the contractor would be willing to negotiate an offer, with upgrades, 10-15K higher than our offer.  We only saw this place in the first place because we thought we could talk down 20K or so from the 1925 list price, now we are talking about another 10-15K higher instead?  I don't think so.  Our offer was already at the top of our range, and he was trying to tell me that "what's another 10-15grand if you really like it?"  Listen buddy, this is our money, and our financial health, and we are already at the top of our comfort-limit, so back off!  (can you tell we are sick of our realtor? - I didn't get to actually say any of that). So, we made no decision last night and decided to think it over. 

Pros: we really like the block (new construction surrounding us), the construction is well done, its a good size that we can grow into, and we can move in soon. 

Cons: The price "creep" that is going on, the construction noises we will hear over the next year, the financial strain it could put us in, the comps that don't make this a clear deal. 

Perk to not taking this place is that we would find ourselves a new realtor.  It was a tough call.  We really like the place, but do we want to overextend ourselves?  We are already well above our initial price range.  Just how much higer are we comfortable going?  This morning we decided to stick with our initial bid and not cave in to the "creep".  We told our broker we were willing to negotiate at our previously stated price (with upgrades) for one of the smaller units (actually one of the non-model units).  We'll have to see what the developer says. 

In the meantime, I have done more homework on the development in the area.  The closest comp in the area is a block and a half away.  18 units are being sold, with the same BR/BA figures, an additional 800 square feet, AND a garage, and are listed only 10K higher than our offer....  so, well below our developers list price.  This makes me feel like our offer is right on the money.  We like this townhouse, but decided we were prepared to walk away if the developer didn't want to talk at our price point.  The obvious question is, "why not put in an offer to buy one of those places?" - Well, surprisingly, we aren't too keen on having a garage - it throws off the house layout.  We're going to look into it anyway -- gotta be open-minded. 

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I was in DC on Monday/Tuesday, where I got a stomach bug -- since then, I have been curled up in bed feeling miserable.  This is the first time in two days I have felt well enough to sit in front of the computer.  Still haven't been able to keep any food down - not fun.

ANYWAY.  We FINALLY heard back late on Monday night that the developer would not accept our offer (SHOCKER!).  He is, however, interested in negoiating with us for one of the smaller units.  We will be doing this tomorrow night after work.  We feel like we really have nothing to loose.  We have been checking out the other developments in the area (actually, they are all within 3 blocks of this place), and we believe that this guy has priced his stuff too high.  Either he gives us what we feel is a reasonable offer, or we walk.  We are confident that we can find something just as good, if we continue looking.   

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It is noon on Monday and I am on a train to DC for an exciting two day utility conference. The developer had until noon today to respond to our offer.... The waiting is a little nerve-racking. And since I'm not home, and won't even be reachable for a couple of hours this afternoon, I feel even more out of the loop. Our realtor spoke to Ad around 10:30 and said he hadn't heard anything yet... Waiting.... Waiting.....

As a side note, this is the first time I am posting to our blog via an email from my blackberry - I hope this works. 

Update - looks like I won't be able to post from the blackberry again, since it automatically adds my firm's disclaimer at the bottom.  Oh well.

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