Last time on Star Trek Homebody: Captain's Personal Log, star date 051220.1. After months of looking at listings, Lindsay and I felt pretty confident that we knew what kind of house we wanted, and what neighborhoods we liked. Still, we decided to be open-minded about other possibilities, and we set out to look at a bunch of houses. They weren't what we wanted, most of them smelled bad, and it was a little discouraging.
One week later, we were finally able to see a house that had been unavailable on our first tour of homes, and we liked it so much that we decided to put down an offer. It was an older bungalow on a quiet street in Gladstone, OR, and while it was in disrepair, it seemed like it would be perfect for us. Unfortunately, the day before we looked at the house, a Ferengi investor submitted their own offer. We were delegated to back up position, with little hope of ever owning the home. However, just when defeat seemed imminent, the investor backed out, leaving us in the first position. In a rare move of kindness and generosity, the investor provided us with the results of their inspection report. The house needed copious repairs to bring it up to the minimum standards required by our lender, and we couldn't afford it. We were forced to retreat to Starbase 22 (our apartment), more discouraged than ever.
In the ensuing weeks, we again convinced ourselves that we should be open-minded about homes that we hadn't yet considered. We knew that we loved older homes, that we preferred to be close to my work, and that we wanted to be in a charming neighborhood. Still, we thought that maybe if we compromised on the location, we might find something that was overwhelmingly good in other ways. In the end, the houses weren't what we wanted, most of them smelled bad, and they were far away from where we wanted to be.
We learned a valuable lesson for each day we spent out touring homes. For the first, we learned that we know what kind of house we like, and we don't want to compromise. For the second, we learned that we know what kind of neighborhood and location we like, and we don't want to compromise. With a mixture of both sorrow and relief, we finally realized that we would just have to sit and wait until a home came along that matched all of our criteria.
Even though home prices are very low, and people are still struggling to sell, competition among buyers for less expensive houses has been fierce, which has made the inventory in our price range sparse. We felt as though we would need to prepare for a war of attrition, quietly saving money for months or years, waiting for the right house to come on the market so we could spring into action.
It took less than two weeks...
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