Whirlwind

So...house shopping. It has been interesting. We have been looking since July, if I remember correctly. We narrowed the search down from PA (where we could not afford much) to NJ (where we can afford more house, a bigger yard, and save money and time commuting). In the beginning of August, we found a house we liked in NJ and put an offer on it, even though it was a short sale. As it turned out, the seller's agent was very unprofessional and we never heard back from him! I guess he didn't want to sell the house that badly! So, we took it as a sign and went out to look again. This time, we took Abby with us, which proved to be more distracting than we expected. During that outing, we looked at a cute little ranch, with the inside nearly completely redone. Since we were focused on keeping Abby from jumping on the couches and chasing the cat, we walked away from the house without much of an opinion on it. That was Thursday. Over the weekend, we thought more about that house and decided to see it again on Monday, this time without our little "helper".

As we walked through the house on Monday, we realized it really had most of the things we had been looking for. We went home and talked further about it. On Wednesday, we made an offer. We went in low, hoping we could negotiate a bit. As it turned out, we ended up on the phone making counter offers during our anniversary dinner out. Nothing says romance like real estate transactions! By that Wednesday night, we had already reached a verbal agreement. Wow!
When Thursday rolled around, we found out the sellers wanted to close ASAP, and the closing date was set for Sept 30th. Less than 30 days! That was totally unexpected. Today was Friday, and we met with the realtor to sign the contract and with the lender to sign the mortgage papers. So, all of this happened within a week! Our heads are spinning!

It has been a looonnnggg week, and we are beat. We're going to try to relax and enjoy the 3 day weekend. I don't think we'll hear much on the house, since it's a holiday weekend, but we will be right back to it next week with the home inspections. Wish us luck!