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Frustration of buying a home.

April 5, 2010, zaianne

As some of you may know, Tom and I are trying to buy our first home. And let me tell you, buying your first home is hard! It just takes so much time and work, and worst of all is the heartache! No seriously!

It really is heart-breaking and torturous! I mean as much as I love looking at potential homes, and imagining what it would be like to live in them…it is just torture. The process just hurts by brain! The decisions, the things we need to take into consideration (i.e, if we can afford it, is it the right home, are the schools good, can we see ourselves living there, does it require a lot of fixing up), the fact that we always find a house that’s nearly perfect but not quite, that we HAVE to keep looking, and oh don’t forget finding the perfect home but knowing there’s no way you could afford it! If you don’t call that heart-breaking and torturous I don’t know what is! Then of course… there’s the waiting process…that’s the worst part of all! This part breaks my heart into tiny little pieces

Especially when you’ve found a home you love and the bank/sellers takes a million freakin’ years to get back to you on your offer (yes, it’s a short-sale home). What’s worst is how they seem to string you along, and make you think they might have an answer for you in a few days; just so you WILL wait, and wait and wait…and at the end of the day you’re still waiting! Because they decide it’s not time for them to get back to you yet (for reasons unbeknown to us)! So they tell you something different to make you wait a little more, and worst, say things that make you think you might have a glimmer of hope of getting the house, and think well a couple more weeks of waiting isn’t that bad”. We might have an answer soon.

Except, it isn’t soon! It’s been MORE than just 2 weeks. It’s been almost over 2 months! We knew trying to buy a short-sale home wouldn’t be easy. We knew it would take more time than if we had decided on purchasing a non short-sale home, but we both loved the house, and the sellers/brokers pretty much reassured us, everything was ready to go. It wouldn’t take long, they said. We should have an answer pretty quick, they said. Alas, those were just words. Sweet words to make us trust them. To lure us into thinking we could actually own a little sanctuary by the lake.

Anyways, it’s already the first week of April, and we still haven’t heard any concrete answers from the sellers. Positive or negative! It’s frustrating, because time is definitely not on our side. We really want to get the first-time home buyer tax credit and at this rate, we’re not sure we’ll get everything sorted out in time to qualify for it. Sometimes I wish I had the power to freeze time! Things would be so much easier for us. Urgh…especially for me!

Tom is really patient. I’mm NOT. I think ITP’s (my grad school) rigorous schedule combined with living in NYC might have made me worst, but then again I think I’ve always been this way. I want things done fast. I’m always in a hurry, and he’s always well not. He can wait, I usually can’t. I’m always worrying about not having enough time to get things done, he’s more of a take his time, everything will get done eventually type of person. I mean yeah, I procrastinate…who doesn’t, but Tom takes it to a whole other level I tell you! LOL. Nevertheless, I still love him.

Well that being said. It’s because of Tom, we’ve managed to wait this long. If it was up to me I’d probably have given up after 3 weeks or so of waiting. As much as I love that house…I just really want that tax credit! I mean can you blame me? $8000 is a lot of money, and it’ll definitely help us out. We could put it towards the mortgage, or buy furniture (coz we would seriously need it, we don’t even have a proper sofa!), or maybe even use it to fix up whatever needs fixin’ up in the house we buy.

So, with less than 2 months to get everything settled and sorted, I think there’s really nothing much we can do, but start the process all over again (which is a PAIN!). I mean we’re still going to wait. Keep the contract we have on that house, and hope for a miracle that maybe the sellers will give us an answer in a few days, but in the meantime maybe it’s just time to start looking again. So NOT looking forward to it!

zaianne
I’m a interactive media developer/designer, and new mom to a gorgeous little boy named Liam Ayden Sparrow, who cooks to de-stress and relax. I’m originally from a little peninsula in the South East Asia region of the world called, Malaysia. Although I’ve moved a lot in my life, Chicago, Kuala Lumpur, Australia, Georgia, NYC, and finally back to Chicago; one thing remains the same. The food, because I cook. I grew up around amazing cooks. My mom and my late grandma, and although during my teen years I despised helping my mom in the kitchen, once I grew up and had to moved to a different country for studies, and didn’t have my mom to make meals for me, I realized how lucky I was to have at least some basic cooking skills! And although my mom never really allowed me to help her make anything (I was mostly there to help clean and prep) I did always pay attention to what she was doing in the kitchen. Over a few more years living overseas, and now being married, I’ve had plenty of time to practice my culinary skills and I’ve managed to teach myself a thing or two. I experiment, and create, and I think that’s the best way to learn…anything really.
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