Valerie and I have spent a lot of hours this past week with a family friend who happens to be a real estate agent. He has worked with her family in the Northern Virginia area for over 20 years.

Now that I have a full-time job and with Valerie's job going well in Georgetown, we have been house hunting in her old stomping grounds of Alexandria. We need to get out of our one bedroom basement apartment soon - preferably before the baby boy comes! I've heard that babies tend to come with lots of "stuff."

With the market the way it is we decided to lock in an excellent interest rate (in hopes that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issues wouldn't kill us) and found a beautiful townhome in Alexandria.

We have toured it twice and still like it, and met with our real estate agent this evening to go over the preliminary paperwork. We are going to put in an offer and see what the owner comes back with. It may be a long shot, but we are closer to buying our own house! I'll just be happy with a house that we like so Valerie doesn't need to spend hours house hunting anymore and can enjoy her spacious digs for once!

I'm sure the amount we are offering will be countered, but it's a start and if anything, it's been a learning experience and a "dry run." We'll keep looking but hopefully we will be able to find something and move into it BEFORE the little tyke comes.

It's been frustrating for me to think that Valerie and I were born just a few years too late to get into a house in our mid-20s. Other members of our family were able to buy nice homes for a lot less than they are nowadays. The market skyrocketed a bit too early for our situation, unfortunately. Hopefully housing prices keep falling and interest rates don't increase to drastically.

Another issue that has frustrated me was a) not having a job/income for the past few weeks and b)while house hunting, finding gorgeous relatively-new homes in the $280K range in states such as Georgia (NW of the Atlanta beltway), and North Carolina (Raleigh-Durham) where there are good schools, good people and unfortunately no jobs that would hire me. I know. I looked. I applied. Nothing. I was hoping to find something in those areas so we could move right into a gorgeous home, but I guess right now it's the DC metro area and a townhome. Regardless, it's time to build some equity.

So... I am off to sign the paperwork, so Valerie can return it to our agent in the morning and he can get the ball rolling with the art of real estate!

Babies, real estate, new job.... lots to be thankful for!

Labels: house val