Stories of My Life

It’s been over a week since my last post – amazing how busy you can get beachcombing, swimming, chasing iguanas by day and frogs by night. Ahem, such is life here.

But – back to the major task at hand – finding a permanent place to live. This has proven to be a rather tricky task. We have seen some very interesting properties this past week and to keep them all straight, we name them.

There was the “bird home” with at least 20 birdcages in the garage – it was so loud in there you couldn’t here anyone talking.  

And then the “iguana home” – no birds, but 2 huge green iquanas were perched up in the garage. As I have yet to come to the same appreciation as Scott for these (or any reptiles for that matter), I was a bit freaked out. Did I mention this house was vacant – these were not pets.

Then there was the rabbit…and cat…and dog home. All living in the backyard together. Doesn’t seem quite right, does it?

And then there was divorce house 1, 2, 3 and gosh, I lost count. Sadly enough, it seems some of our best options for good deals come as the result of a divorce.

The housing market here is in bad shape – and homes are selling for incredibly low prices – at least the homes that are selling. Problem is that people who don’t have to sell - simply aren’t selling. Homes that have been on the market for over a year will still be listed at the same price that they were a year ago.

Earlier in the week we made an offer on a home that had been on the market since April and the owner called twice to tell us she was very interested in selling and willing to negotiate. We liked the home and thought it might be our opportunity to get a good deal. However, after 3 back and forth negotiations…she came down a whopping 1%. ONE PERCENT? Are you kidding me? Nope.  Clearly we have a very different interpretation of “willing to negotiate” here.

The next day we started negotiating on another home – problem here is that she bought it 2 years ago and the market has gone DOWN from 2005. Not good for this seller at all and really not good for us because she isn’t willing to take a loss on her home.

And so that brings us to house number 3 (well, the 3rd one this week, it’s our 5th attempted purchase). It’s the first and only house I walked in and said, “I love this house.” It’s also out of our price range Go figure. But, the realtor showed it to us because the owner “needs to sell” as he has already moved and is making 2 house payments now. I called it the “closet house” because one entire bedroom had been made into a closet for the wife. As Ana, our realtor says, “So, now, you make offer and he decides.” And she is right – he’ll probably say no…but he might just say yes. You just never know.

Oh, and btw, the owner said everything in the closet room comes with the house too. Not sure if they are my size…or my style…but man, there were some NICE shoes in there!