Or perhaps open for visitors…

Finished all of the settlement wackiness in about an hour and a half.

Read the rest of this entry »

Been a while since my last posting, but I’ve been busy being sad about my WoW guild shutting down.  This post is about the process of removing the last few contigencies on my home purchase offer – home inspection, HOA documents, and lender agreement. Read the rest of this entry »

Ever since I graduated college in 2002, I’d always looked briefly into buying a home of my own in the DC metropolitan area.  Through various factors(crazy housing market, buyingwith only one income, etc), I’ve managed to avoid pulling the trigger.  Now, with the $8000 housing tax credit for first time buyers, a depressed(but rapidly recovering DC area market), and low interest rates, I can’t resist the urge to invest in a home, even if it’s just for the investment potential.  In retrospect, as a first time buyer one of the biggest advantages that I have is that I can choose an advantageous time to enter the market(as opposed to a subsequent home where many of the market factors balance themselves out).

Today I began the process by meeting with Bob MacIntosh, a realtor who was highly recommended by many of my friends who recently purchased homes(Devin+Beth, Mike+Emily, Tom).  We had discussions about various topics to start to get a feel for my requirements in selecting a home, and thus I’ve started a page to detail them here.  With the listing of open houses, I can formulate a plan for tomorrow to see a variety of them and thus start hammering out my exact requirements.  The key thing that Bob liked to reiterate was that this process is supposed to be fun, which is in stark contrast to the horror stories of high pressure agents who just want to make a sale at the expense of who they are representing. Read the rest of this entry »