Still On The Roller Coaster

Things just keep getting crazier and crazier.... Last weekend Richard and I flew up to Virginia to do some (rental) house hunting. Richard had done quite a bit of research (of course he did!) and had a list of houses we wanted to see. I called a realtor who said she could see us on Sunday only so we gave her a list of about 8 houses and then called a different realtor to take us out on Saturday.

We left on Friday evening and drove to Jacksonville to drop Nate, Julz and Sadie at Jens for the weekend. Spent the night there and had to get up at 3:30 AM!!! to get to the airport in Orlando. Probably should have made our flight arrangements out of the Jacksonville airport but a) I didn't think about it plus b) it's about double the price to fly out of there... anyway...

Got into Dulles about 9:30 and picked up our rental car (have I ever told you how much I hate flying?), checked into our hotel and grabbed some lunch at a very cute and tasty restaurant.

Our first realtor met us at noon and took us to see about 8 or 9 houses. She was really good about telling us all about the area, the different neighborhoods, etc. I have to say after a while some of the details all started blending together. But in any case we saw some really good houses and some really bizarre ones as well. We looked in several different cities (Sterling, Reston, Ashburn, Herndon, Oak Hill and Chantilly) all DC suburbs in two different counties (Loundon & Fairfax). This is me after a REALLY LONG day. I was so exhausted I couldn't think straight!

The next morning we met the next realtor at 11:00. Here's Richard bright eyed and bushy tailed the next morning with his Starbucks fix!   Again, another 8 or so houses ... some great ~ some, not so much.  This realtor was not nearly as nice as the first.  Basically she had one rental house listing and was looking to unload it (on us!).  It was a big house but looked a bit shabby.  Didn't feel like it was in a neighborhood but more like it was out in the country. Trust me, I'm not ready to be country.   She sounded just like a used car salesman and actually asked what they (she and the home owner) could do to get us into that house ~ OMG!

We did find a house when we were with her that we fell in love with in Reston, just 3 miles from Richard's office!   Two issues with it though.  First one was that we had heard bad things about the elementary school in the area and secondly the house was also on the market to sell.  They would, of course take it off the market for the year lease but we were concerned that we'd have to move again after the first year.    After the realtor dropped us off, we went back to the neighborhood and took a walk.  Being the shy demure person that I am (cough cough) I accosted a mother and daughter walking in the neighborhood and asked them about the area and the schools.  The daughter (now in college) had lived in the neighborhood all her life and attended all the "questionable" schools and LOVED them.  They couldn't say enough good things about the schools and the area in general.  Now we were really excited.   We called the realtor back and asked her if she could find out about an extended lease and if so, we were ready to commit.   Long story short (too late for that huh?) she didn't get back to us because she was upset we didn't choose "her" house.
In the meantime the favorite house from the day before had someone else interested in it and unless we put in a bid (at a higher price, of course) we would lose that one.  Decisions, decisions....
I called the second realtor one more time to see if we could get an answer to our question on the lease length and her answer was for us to submit all the paperwork and checks and then we'd see what we could find out. Oh HELL TO THE NO!

I want my questions answered before I give you thousands of $$ so we decided to go with house #2 in Sterling.    This guy was really anxious and must have called me 4 times to see if we were going to go with his house and we'd need to get him the paperwork and $$ before leaving VA on Monday morning.    Stayed up late, got the paper work done and dropped it and the checks off at 6:45 on the way to the airport.  We were excited about this house.  It's beautiful, huge, great neighborhood and schools.   End of this story is that our realtor called us after we got home to say that the guy decided to go with the other renter instead.  Fortunately he did not run our credit so we will get both checks back.  We think he was just using us to get the other tenants to up their price.  Sucks, right?

So, at this point we've decided to try for house #1 once again.  Since we had no luck getting answers from Realtor #2, we asked Realtor #1 to get us the answers and we'd use her as our agent for this house.  Unfortunately this house has fallen through as well.  They really need to sell the house and will only give us a 6 month lease.  There is no way I'm moving again after just 6 months but I'm telling you, we love this house and if we were in the market to buy a house, this would be the one.

So now we are on to house #3.  It's a really nice house in Ashburn.  It has the longest commute for Richard but still only about 25 minutes or so.  It's a great neighborhood, great schools.  It's a 5 bedroom with a full walk out sewing room , um, I mean basement.   So yesterday (the day before Thanksgiving) realtor #1 gives us instructions to get 2 certified checks. One to run our credit report and one for the security deposit and to make them out to her realty company.  Also to get it done quicker, make copies of the checks and fax those along with our rental application to her immediately.  Now, Richard came home from VA and promptly got a nasty cold so he's doing the paperwork from bed while I'm at the school setting up the holiday shop.  So, I get home, pick up the paperwork...run to the bank... get the cashier's checks.... go to the UPS store ... get copies made...  try to fax them only to have the realty fax machine not working correctly .... meanwhile the UPS store is trying to close early for the holidays....  the fax finally goes through but now the last pick up has been made at the UPS store so it's off to the post office .... send the papers and checks overnight to our realtors office .... get home ... .Guess what??? It turns out our realtor screwed up!  First off,  her office is now closed till Monday so I sent them all overnight for nothing AND they were supposed to be made out to the listing realtors company and sent to him, and oh yeah, they didn't need to be certified!  Now there is a possibility that we could lose this house because of her screw up. 
Fortunately this guy seems decent and is willing to work with us.  We emailed him a copy of the rental application and mailed him a (non cashiers) check for the application fee.  He is going to get started on it right away because he realizes that the screw ups were not our fault...

So my friends, some positive thoughts our way would be most appreciated.  I know that we have much to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving weekend.  I'm grateful that Richard was able to find a job so quickly and that we are in a position to be able to make this move.  I'm grateful that we are all together and (mostly) healthy.  That we have a wonderful family and friends.... and I'm thankful for you, my followers and friends.   Your comments always make my day.
I'm wishing you a wonderful holiday with much to be thankful for.