Real Estate
So I was just looking at MLS listings on this one realtor's website and the real estate agent we met a few weeks ago at an open house was on CRACK!!!!!!
Backstory: Dan and I have been together almost two and a half years now and it was about when I moved in with him back in August of 2004 that talk went from him wondering when he'd ever be able to buy a place to us thinking about eventually doing it together in the next few years. Well, the "next few years" is becoming now. Chances are 99.9% that I will stay in Chicago for law school (the only way I wouldn't is if I got in NOWHERE in Chi-town and that's pretty damn near impossible) and if we do (yet again 99.9%) we have decided to buy. We kept saying oh, we'll do it in the spring, but that's creeping up pretty fast. I think we're going to visit a mortgage professional in the next month or so to sort out the money issues and possibly get pre-approved so we can just go in and do the deed as soon as we see something we like.
Furthermore, Dan and I have been fond of going into open houses to check them out pretty much since we've been dating. We live in a "hot and happening" neighborhood in Chicago and there are always tons of open houses every weekend in our neighborhood year round, every Saturday and Sunday mornings signs sprout on nearly every corner pointing towards a new Open House. New construction, gut rehab, condos, lofts, single family, you can find it all and just about for any price imaginable. The weekend before Christmas we were doing some last minute shopping and decided to follow an open house sign to take a peak at the property. We had no idea the property would be a brand spanking new million dollar plus 5 bedroom 5,000 sq ft extravaganza of traditional details and dark moulding. Needless to say, not remotely in our price range nor our style. The realtor guy seemed nice, if a little pushy and got us to tell him our range (miniscule) and what we were looking for (2 bedrooms, preferably 1,000 square feet or more, deck for the grill, parking for the car etc.) Then he started off on how weren't going to find anything in our neighborhood or other areas we told him about and told us to look in Edgewater and Albany Park. Dammit, I don't want to live in Albany Park! I want to live on the outskirts of our current hood, probably much more in the ghetto but if the place is brand new and beautiful then I can overlook ghettotastic-ness. (You think I kid, come to Chicago. I live in a "nice" neighborhood and I see drug deals go down outside my apartment building on a near daily basis. I lived in Hyde Park by myself during college, I fear not the ghetto.)
And then today I finally got the inkling to look on the realtor's website, well lo and behold, there are quite a few places within our price range in areas where we would consider living, sure it might end up being Humbolt Park but its definitely "up and coming." And sure a lot of the properties were one bedroom but a 1 bedroom + den is cool or a slightly smaller 2 bedroom is cool too. We're willing to compromise space for location, I'd rather live in a smaller place in a neighborhood I like than live in a big apartment in a neighborhood I dislike. Kind of like we are doing now - great hood tiny apt.
So the bottom line is that pushy realtor dude was on CRACK and we WILL be able to get something great in our price range in a place we'd actually like to live. I am SO excited!!!! I know it will be a few more months but let the real estate games begin!
Backstory: Dan and I have been together almost two and a half years now and it was about when I moved in with him back in August of 2004 that talk went from him wondering when he'd ever be able to buy a place to us thinking about eventually doing it together in the next few years. Well, the "next few years" is becoming now. Chances are 99.9% that I will stay in Chicago for law school (the only way I wouldn't is if I got in NOWHERE in Chi-town and that's pretty damn near impossible) and if we do (yet again 99.9%) we have decided to buy. We kept saying oh, we'll do it in the spring, but that's creeping up pretty fast. I think we're going to visit a mortgage professional in the next month or so to sort out the money issues and possibly get pre-approved so we can just go in and do the deed as soon as we see something we like.
Furthermore, Dan and I have been fond of going into open houses to check them out pretty much since we've been dating. We live in a "hot and happening" neighborhood in Chicago and there are always tons of open houses every weekend in our neighborhood year round, every Saturday and Sunday mornings signs sprout on nearly every corner pointing towards a new Open House. New construction, gut rehab, condos, lofts, single family, you can find it all and just about for any price imaginable. The weekend before Christmas we were doing some last minute shopping and decided to follow an open house sign to take a peak at the property. We had no idea the property would be a brand spanking new million dollar plus 5 bedroom 5,000 sq ft extravaganza of traditional details and dark moulding. Needless to say, not remotely in our price range nor our style. The realtor guy seemed nice, if a little pushy and got us to tell him our range (miniscule) and what we were looking for (2 bedrooms, preferably 1,000 square feet or more, deck for the grill, parking for the car etc.) Then he started off on how weren't going to find anything in our neighborhood or other areas we told him about and told us to look in Edgewater and Albany Park. Dammit, I don't want to live in Albany Park! I want to live on the outskirts of our current hood, probably much more in the ghetto but if the place is brand new and beautiful then I can overlook ghettotastic-ness. (You think I kid, come to Chicago. I live in a "nice" neighborhood and I see drug deals go down outside my apartment building on a near daily basis. I lived in Hyde Park by myself during college, I fear not the ghetto.)
And then today I finally got the inkling to look on the realtor's website, well lo and behold, there are quite a few places within our price range in areas where we would consider living, sure it might end up being Humbolt Park but its definitely "up and coming." And sure a lot of the properties were one bedroom but a 1 bedroom + den is cool or a slightly smaller 2 bedroom is cool too. We're willing to compromise space for location, I'd rather live in a smaller place in a neighborhood I like than live in a big apartment in a neighborhood I dislike. Kind of like we are doing now - great hood tiny apt.
So the bottom line is that pushy realtor dude was on CRACK and we WILL be able to get something great in our price range in a place we'd actually like to live. I am SO excited!!!! I know it will be a few more months but let the real estate games begin!