Excuse me while I have a little breakdown

[muckefuck]

It's not as bad as all that, but I am feeling anxious. Last night, my buyer agent surprised me with a second viewing of my first-choice property. Afterwards, he was like, "Tomorrow I'll pull sales data on other units in this tier and then we should start putting together an offer."

Whoa.

I bothered monshu all night with my churning head, but the real emotional distress didn't hit until I tried to sleep. Imagine if I had put an offer in! It's a nice place. But is it nice enough to pay thousands of dollars for and live in for 3-5 years? That's harder to answer.

I had looked forward to making a decision at leisure, but circumstances are conspiring against me. My lease is up at the end of August. I negotiated a two-month extension, but I haven't signed it and sent it in yet. The seller wants to move. He cut the price last week and, yesterday, his agent was asking us what the price was of the cheapest unit in the building. (The unit's been on the market a month with no offers.) If I start the process now, I'm almost guaranteed to close and move in before my lease expires.

The place doesn't have everything I want, but no place I can afford will. I'm looking to settle for 90%. It faces the park (it's just down the block from you, rollick); public transportation could hardly be better; it's light and airy; no actual lake view, but much greenery; it's in move-in condition--everything is in good shape and it would only take a little paint to make it livable; it's in a good, established building.

And yet, and yet...something prevents me from feeling totally relaxed when I'm there. It feels lopsided, with a long common wall on the west side and all the rooms in a row. I hate the heavy structural beams above the dining area. I want...the warm feeling I get from viewing places I can't afford, like caitalainn and Bedbug's condo, or Nuphy's townhome, or the new conversions we saw on Gunnison.

sigh

Comments

[bunj.livejournal.com]

Do you feel ill-at-ease in this place because you just don't like it, or because the thought of buying something scares the shit out of you? If you really don't like the place, then don't go for it. If, instead, the commitment is getting to you, well that's completely understandable. I know what got me through buying our house, besides -e's comforting hand, was the knowledge that I could probably turn around in a few months and sell it, getting most, if not all, of my money back. The market isn't that robust now, but it's still pretty good. If it doesn't work out, you could probably sell pretty easily.

This place does sound like a good deal, and you may not find better. You may be worried about standing it for 3-5 years, but how long have you stayed in your current place, which is less than ideal? Or the Roach Motel, for that matter? As always, if there's any way I can help, just let me know.

[rollick.livejournal.com]

Down the block, as in, on Carmen? Which way, toward the lake, or toward Sheridan? I'm wondering if I know the building.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

NW Corner of Carmen and Marine. Right on the Park.

(Can you believe that, writing this, I'm paranoid it could get back to the seller. Yes, LJ is small, but still...)

[rollick.livejournal.com]

Ah, El Massivo building. I've long been curious what those places are like. How high up is the place you're looking at, and which way does it face?

I'm sort of a mixture of envy and sympathy here. I want to buy a place myself. Cass is not interested. He hates moving and doesn't want to go through the hassle and the debt. So I sort of wish I were in your shoes with the buyer's fear. And at the same time, I'd be just as nervous committing to a place. It's a big decision.

On the other hand, our neighborhood, near to us. Score!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Sixth floor, second tier, southern exposure. I don't have Lake, but I have a healthy slice of park. It seems relatively tranquil, but your stories about trucks blocking Carmen and provoking a firestorm of honking are much in my mind.

[rollick.livejournal.com]

Of course, if you have air conditioning, and you don't have all your windows open like we do, you're far less likely to notice. And that isn't a daily occurence, though it's just about a weekly one. I have no idea why Carmen is so appealing to trucks.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I will have a unit, but part of the reason the place appeals to me is that I do want to have my windows open. That's why I'm concentrating on that stretch rather than Sheridan in the first place.

No Garden of Eden

[(Anonymous)]

Let me give you some perspective. When bunj and I bought our house we thought we were getting exactly what we wanted and other than some painting did not need to do anything. 3 major remodels and LOTS of paint later, I realize that nothing we had seen was going to match what we wanted once we moved in.

So, the question to ask yourself - what do you like about the place and are the things you don't like items that can be changed down the line?

As always - happy to listen/participate/pour good coffee on/ any fretting you might need to share around.

-e

Re: No Garden of Eden

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid what I may not like may be the basic layout, which is fundamentally unchangeable unless I were to buy the adjoining unit and pay a buttload of money.

Re: No Garden of Eden

[(Anonymous)]

If the structural layout is bugging you, take a pass. That is something you can't change, and if it grates after a couple of brief visits, it is going to bug you a whole lot when you move in.

Unless this place is a fabulous deal, affording you much more than comparably priced units, sign the 2 month extension on your lease and keep looking. I understand your urgency, but you've waited this long, why not wait a few more weeks or months to get something closer to what you want?

I also second the suggestion that you take someone else along to view the place.

-e

Re: No Garden of Eden

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Are you free Sunday morning?

I'm going to view it and another unit in the same building which is presumably a mirror image. I figure if I have the same reaction, then it must be the layout and not any other elements.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a perfectly normal breakdown to me. Did we know each other when Bedbug & I were buying the condo? I was a complete BASKET case. The same thing happened with this house.

Buying a house is a pain. I'm not sure there's any way around that. But it's A Good Thing to get out of the rent cycle. And like bunj said, your apartment now isn't ideal, and you've been there for ages.

!!! You just don't want to leave Neo. You teenybopper goth wannabe.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Just to clarify, no one needs to sell me on buying a place. In fact, I feel like a dork for having waited this long. However, I'm not convinced I need to buy this place. I meant to start looking long in advance specifically to avoid a situation like this, but my plans, they ganged agley!

[rollick.livejournal.com]

They oft dae, I hear.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

Oh! Well, carry on, then ...

[prilicla.livejournal.com]

I can't really add much to the advice everyone else has already given, but I want you to know that I sympathize. You know how some people have a really hard time making a commitment to one person because an even better one might be out there somewhere? I've never had that issue with people, but I sure did have it with condos! (It didn't help that what I really wanted, somewhere deep in my heart, was not a 2-bedroom condo close to public transit but a giant 20-room mansion with a full staff of robot servants.)

In the end, we got pretty lucky. The condo we finally bought was much nicer than anything else we'd seen in our price range, so we were pretty sure we couldn't do better without spending a lot more money. We still spent a lot of time agonizing over the decision, though.

Would it help to take someone with you to look at the place again, so you could discuss your reservations while you were actually looking at the unit?