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I decided to stop looking for a condo... My house is 40 miles from my office. One a good day, I'm commuting more than 2-1/2 hours. Time lost, , tolls wear & tear on my car... it's getting to me. For a few years now, In previous blogs, I've been professing to move closer to work in exchange for a better lifestyle. With months and months of on and off searching, I couldn't find something I really liked. My new agent sent a text that a few new listings came online. She wanted to see if I had time to look. Of the ones I was interested in two to three weeks ago, they already received offers and sales are pending. It's the season. Northerners are here and units in the development I've been shopping at get scooped up quickly. I'm told many of the offers are so there's no wait for loan approval. A long-time friend and coworker asked if he could join me in the search. He's got a friend already living in that community and is looking to help out a couple he knows who will be looking real soon. One unit we saw looked nice as we walked in. The wall surrounding the kitchen was cut away and they created a breakfast counter at bar height. The only problem was the workmanship was rough. The bar top wasn't level and the patching on the wall was uneven. Skip that unit. A few were overpriced simply because they had the original kitchens and asking the same as units with renovated kitchens. One unit was in shambles... water was dripping from the a/c unit and a puddle on the laminate floor. There was a strong chemical smell and the agent said "Stop... don't go inside!" I had asked why and she said she recognized the smell... someone had died in the unit and they were treating it to remove to odor! Yeah, skip that one! There were a few more to see and I was getting tired. But, I persisted. The realtor said another one came available and she got the 'go ahead' we can get in to see it. The outside of the building had been recently painted, the landscaping was the best around, the ugly 'fake tile' fascia was replaced with smooth panels. Less than 5 minutes of a walk-thru and all of us agreed it was the cleanest one we had seen in our search. I left the agent with a 'this could be the one' and she called me back later to say other agents had shown the unit after we left. Was it a sales ploy? Possibly. But with the exception of the asking price, all the conditions had been met. This place was clean enough to move in tomorrow and not have to tear out the kitchen and baths to make it livable. I decided to make an offer and she came back with the owner's counter. I went up and they came down and we struck a deal. I cut a check for a small deposit and signed an agreement to proceed with the purchase. All week, I've been filling out documents and getting quotes on mortgage rates. I found one company. I met with the home inspector to confirm that there aren't and hidden problems. Now that I'm buying this condo I decided to stop looking for other ones. . |
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Everything appears to be working as scheduled and the closing will get us into the condo before the end of the year!
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