Property hunt

After what a friend termed the “moving imbroglio”, I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday looking for houses in various parts of Seattle, from nigh on to Shoreline to Beacon Hill. I have to say, I'm pretty well knackered.

It’s interesting that, in the month I was “out” of the looking, packing all my possessions, there’s risen a whole crop of properties into the market. Friday and Saturday my agent and I viewed 25 townhomes. Yesterday we went back to look at five of them again and start narrowing down.

The focus was on new construction because, after my experience with the condo of the Mad Cow Realtor, I’m leaning toward being the first person in a house. And there’s definitely no shortage of them these days—rather a change from earlier in the year.

Here are my finalists: a 3 bedroom/3.5 bath stand-alone townhouse—don’t ask me about that; I can’t figure it out. This one is finished, very nice flooring/kitchen; pantry (whoo-hoo!), enough space (>1700sf) for my 2700 books, even a tiny garden. High-end finishes—slab granite in the kitchen, nice cabinets, oak flooring. I have to go back on my own to make sure I can get into the garage.

(One thing I’ve learned about metro Seattle: builders fling up townhome groups with literally not enough room to get into/out of the much-touted “attached garage!”. People just use them for storage and park their car outside. I'll be damned if I pay for a garage I can't use.)

The other contender isn’t actually finished. The listing agent assured mine that it’ll be done by 31 May, for sure. I’m not holding my breath. This one is 2000sf, bamboo flooring, slab granite kitchen, 3 bedroom/2.5 baths; no pantry. It’s not as light as the first, skylight notwithstanding, and I’m a little hinky about putting an offer in on a house that isn’t finished yet. I’ve heard too many horror stories about construction going on forever.

My goal is to be moved as soon as possible into my own place, where I can be as comfortable as possible in this town.

BTW—the condo that fell thru? MCR has it back on the market, with the same deceptive features touted. Her only change is that the loan has to be a 20% down financing only and the seller will give $3000 “credit” to the buyer.

Oh, and she’s lied about the listing date and the original listing price.

I’m so glad I’m out of that.