Updates

I've been a bad blogger.

But anyway, we're set to close on August 13! We're signing the loan documents on Thursday morning, and we've signed all the insurance paperwork. We have an insurance agent--I feel like such an adult. I just called PG&E, Comcast, and the trash company to start all those accounts, and I'm about to call the electrician and the roofer to schedule that work. My favorite part so far was picking out a phone number--we haven't had a landline in so long. I picked a number with a lot of 8s and 4s b/c I think those are lucky numbers.

We gave our 30 day notice on our apartment, and it's kind of fun to see it listed on Craiglist already. For $400 more a month than we're paying; $500 more a month that we started paying three years ago. That's a 35% increase in three years. I don't think they're going to get it, personally, but that's not really my business. Our landlord was nice and gave us the key to an empty storage room on our floor so we can put the boxes there as we pack. That helps us b/c it's not fun living amongst boxes, but it also helps them b/c a box-less apartment looks nicer for showing.

Mr. EBB is currently trying to figure out the final closing costs amount and how much money we'll need to deposit into escrow. The $7500 credit from the sellers is helpful, but it's still a huge number! I couldn't imagine being an escrow agent--it seems like such a stressful, demanding, "everyone is in a rush all the time" kind of job.

We're going to buy appliances this weekend. If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know!

My Hair is Frizzy Enough Already

Knob and Tube Wiring.
Dum Dum Duuuuummmmmm.

From my internet research (which I do think has been fairly extensive--I've read lots of electrician forums and other articles), I've learned a lot about this ancient wiring system. It's the original wiring system--and I mean original, like Ben Franklin-esque--that hasn't been used, fortunately, since 1940 in most places. In some more rural areas you might find it in structures built as recently as the late 1940s or 1950.

It is completely unsafe and a total fire trap and you will die if you plug anything into it.

Just kidding. Mostly.

But not entirely. Knob and tube is a system where the wire is covered with cloth (for real) and strung through the studs and connected with little ceramic knobs. There are only two wires (so no grounding). Over time and with manipulation as wiring is added, the cloth can fall away and the ceramic can become brittle and break, exposing the live wires.

We can see the knob and tube in the crawl space and in the attic, where there is insulation over it. Bad idea--insulation? Over a live wire? No thank you. Which is why the absolute very first home improvement measure we'll be taking will be to have the wiring replaced underneath the house and in the attic. Fortunately, 1/3 of the house is an addition from the late 1980s, so that has normal, grounded, modern wiring. We'll be keeping our computers and TVs in that part of the house, so really the only big worry after the crawl space and attic is the kitchen.

Replacing the wiring in the kitchen could be a major, major project. I can't decide if we should just bite the bullet and do it along with the crawl space and attic, or if we should wait. Replacing it means putting holes in the walls at every outlet and potentially ripping out part of a wall to get to the studs. I am not looking forward to this, in terms of finances or the disruption it will cause. Any thoughts?

Negotiating

We've been moving forward little by little, and it's nice to be back in ping-pong stage with the sellers rather than stuck in the limbo of waiting for inspections to be done. The engineer hired by the sellers decided that the foundation does not have rotation, which is excellent news. The sellers responded to our credit request and were surprisingly reasonable on most items. We still are fighting over some minor structural stuff and new copper pipes (they claim the low water pressure in the master shower was disclosed, we say not so much), but I think we're going to have a deal soon!

I think our realtor is kind of amazed that we're planning to do so much work so soon after buying the property, but I feel like every day that we don't do it is a day that we're wasting. If we have the money, why shouldn't we get every day's worth of enjoyment out of a fixed roof possible? Ha. I've been thinking about the repairs, and I believe my priorities are:

1. remove knob & tube wiring from basement and attic (before we even move in, if possible)
2. minor roof work
3. necessary structural work
4. new furnace
5. new water heater
6. new pipes

The k&t is the killer for me (hopefully not literally). I'll do a post next about k&t and the East Bay and why being "conservative" can be a good thing.

Finding a Realtor

Typical ways to find a realtor are to ask friends, family, and neighbors for recommendations. We're the first of our friends to buy a house, we don't have any family in this area, and all our neighbors live in an apartment. So in finding a realtor, we were on our own.

I think I've mentioned that Mr. EBB is a financial analyst for a bank and I'm a lawyer. To be a bit more specific, he works in commercial real estate lending and I focus on real estate and land use. You'd think that might give us a bit of a head start in buying a home, and you'd be right--in terms of having a vocabulary of "points" and "PMI" and "escrow" and "fee estate." But that's about as far as our degrees and work experience could take us--to navigate the listings, process, and paperwork, we needed a knowledgeable and patient realtor. I say knowledgeable because we had very limited awareness of neighborhoods beyond the ones we had lived in, and patient because we both had lots and lots of questions--Mr. EBB questions everything having to do with price and mortgages, and I question everything having to do with a contract. It's been particularly jarring for me to see how little of what I learned in my law school property and real estate classes actually comes into the real world.

We started browsing open houses pretty soon after we got married in early October. At first it felt awkward to just walk into someone's home and wander through their rooms and open their closets, but we adjusted. It was fun just being in houses with multiple rooms and doors and made returning to our little apartment all the more painful. We never really engaged with the listing agents--they all seemed so overeager and overconfident in the market.

Toward the end of November, we visited a beautiful home in a just-okay neighborhood, and we had the place to ourselves. While I poked around upstairs, Mr. EBB and the agent started chatting. They were still chatting when I came downstairs, and I could tell that they had a good conversation going. Mr. EBB was talking about interest rates and whether the market had reached bottom, and the agent didn't seem to be disabusing him of the notion that prices could still fall and waiting to buy might be wise. She seemed calm, non-effusive, and like she didn't really care if we didn't buy the house if we didn't love it. She was the antithesis of the "look at these spacious rooms!" agents that creeped us out in person and make us giggle on HGTV. We loved her.

I signed up to receive automatic email updates from her twice a week with properties that matched criteria we could enter. I set up a separate email account so as not to clog up my regular account with house emails, and I checked it occasionally. I slowly built up a list of "saved" properties and then just as slowly watched those properties sell. The agent called me once in January and emailed once in April to check in; both times I responded that we were still just browsing--don't call us; we'll call you.

In early May we began looking at the open house pages in the Sunday paper with a bit more interest. We began going to more open houses--six or seven each weekend when we were in town. When we'd see one we liked, we emailed the agent we'd met back in November, and she'd get us more info on the property. If we asked her about a property that she thought wasn't in a safe area or that was overpriced, she told us. Slowly we developed a rapport, and we trusted her. There was never even the slightest hint of artifice, and in all our open houses we never met another agent who made us feel so comfortable.

We've now been through several rounds of negotiations with her at our side, and I'm so glad we met her--totally by chance. I would never have considered buying a house without an agent, and with no one to recommend one to us, I think we did okay!

Where We Are Now

While Mr. EBB and I wait for the sellers to contemplate our credit request, I'll let you see where we currently reside. These pictures are from when we moved in three years ago--no way would I show pictures now with all the crowded mess! Three years is by far the longest either Mr. EBB or I have lived anywhere since graduating from high school and moving into the dorms. When we do move out, I'm sure I'll be finding lots of lost earrings and pens!

This is the view from the balcony. We're on the third floor in the corner, so we only share one wall. Definitely a plus!
Here you can see the main living area. The front door leads into a hallway that immediately opens into the dining area and then the kitchen. The kitchen table and chairs are a nice find off Craigslist--yay for solid wood over Ikea particle board!
This was taken in the "office" area looking toward the living room. You can see the sofa that's opposite the love seat that was visible in the previous picture. The sliding glass doors (best part of the apartment) lead onto the balcony. We get great afternoon sun. The closet in the den is where we store all our camping stuff. On the back wall (imagine turning 180 from the perspective of this picture) is now the wedding gift wall--you can see it in the masthead for the blog. :)

The kitchen--note the lack of dishwasher and the dated cabinets, stove, and countertop. (The fridge and microwave are opposite.) I really don't mind doing dishes, but I am looking forward to having more than 2 feet of countertop. Although I have pulled out some pretty impressive meals out of that kitchen, if I do say so myself.

Here's most of the bathroom. It's really not a bad size, and it has decent storage. There's also a linen closet.

I'm so proud of Mr. EBB for making the bed before he took these pictures. My dresser is on the other side of the bed, and there is a closet that spans the whole opposite wall. The wedding gift wall has spilled over to the windows by Mr. EBB's dresser, and his "good" bike lives there now too. (The "okay" bike lives in the apartment complex bike room.)

All in all, it's really not a bad apartment. Our rent is about 1/3 what our mortgage payment would be, and our landlord will be re-renting the place for $600 (at least) more in rent than we pay, so we have a pretty good deal too. We also certainly can't complain about the location. But....it's an apartment. We can't paint the walls, we can't retile the bathroom, we can't update the kitchen (and boy does it need it). On the other hand, if the sink drips or the screen rips, one call gets it repaired, free. I think I'm ready to give that up though in exchange for building equity and exchanging a "this is decent enough" to "this feels like home."

$tructural & a Field Trip

Yikes.
Our general inspector was pretty optimistic about the condition of the foundation. The sellers' disclosures didn't mention anything about problems with the foundation. Our agent didn't see anything wrong (not that she's an engineer or a contractor, but she's seen a lot of foundations).
But the guy who came out to give us a bid for the earthquake retrofit....
he saw $10,000 worth of rotated foundation and drainage problems.
That's on top of the $10-12k it will take to actually do the retrofit.
Mr. EBB is completely freaked out. We're submitting all the paperwork from our inspections and bids to the sellers with the news that we want $15k in credits toward closing costs. I hope they'll dislike that less than the news that they were living in a house with a foundation that one of the best structural contractors in the East Bay called "failed." Not to mention that they'll have to disclose that to any future buyers....

After the fun of the foundation, Mr. EBB dropped me off at the Oakland City Permit office. Our agent told us we could research the permit history of the house, which we wanted to do so we'd know when the owners prior to the sellers put on the addition. And as someone interested in land use and local government, I volunteered for that project. I did not have high expectations--Oakland does not have a reputation for running like butter, and I don't know of many local governments whose bureaucrats are known for their efficiency.
Imagine my surprise at the lovely experience I had. I received a little sticker at the Visitor's desk and headed up to the Permit office. The man at the information desk gave me a number, and not a minute later my number was called. The woman behind the counter asked for the address of the property, and in short order I was holding a printout of all the permits filed for the property since the mid-1980s. She asked if I wanted to see the permits on microfiche from the 60s and 70s, so I spent a couple minutes fiddling with the knobs on the microfiche machine. As I was leaving, the info desk man asked if I wanted to know if there had been any complaints filed against the property, and he directed me to another counter. A minute later, I was told there weren't any complaints (I didn't think there would be!) and I was out the door. The whole thing took less than half an hour.
So thumbs up for Oakland!

An Intermission of Shopping

I ran through five open houses today just to see what else is on the market. I went to three houses that were within our price range, one that was $150k above our price range, and one that was double our budget. It was very educational, and I came home feeling really happy with our house and our price.
The three that were in our price range: none were as nice as "our" house--all were smaller, all had definite oddities re: layout, and all (like ours) need some definite system upgrades. Of course, all three were also in a more "central" location--two in Rockridge and one in North Oakland. But I definitely liked our house better.
The one that was less out of our price range was gorgeous. An HGTV-esque kitchen, a beautiful yard, and lovely details. There was some layout funkiness with the bedrooms, and it was right by BART = loud. As I was leaving, a man asked if I was seriously considering it. I told him why I was there, and he laughed and said Mr. EBB and I should just bid what we could afford and see if the sellers jumped. He lived two doors down and said he knew they were desperate. Ha, probably not $150k desperate though!
The house double our budget--wow. Immaculate, tons of updating, beautiful exterior and yard, and tons of exquisite Craftsman details. But again--it would need new systems! I totally do not understand how people can have a multi-million dollar house and not care if it has a crumbling foundation or an old inefficient furnace. Are Mr. EBB and I the only people in the Bay Area who care about buying a house that has had structural work done on it??

Our Realtor, the Pit Bull

After the general inspection, our realtor recommended we set up a bunch more inspections to get bids for the work the general inspector recommended we have done on the property: electrical, plumbing, heating, roofing, and structural/retrofit. She immediately got on the phone, and the electrical and heating guys were there within the hour. They both independently described her as the pit bull of East Bay real estate--when she calls, they know they better get there pronto.
The electrical guys explained that the old knob and tube wiring in the basement has been disturbed so many times that it is fragile, brittle, and in need of being ripped out and replaced. Fine with me--knob and tube scares the heck out of me. I'd replace all of it, but I also have no desire to take the house down to the studs. Bid: $900.
The heater guy joked with us that he didn't go to college and has a "real job" that requires sliding around in the mud under houses. Is it that obvious Mr. EBB and I aren't tradespeople? I'm good with a wrench.... Anyway, the furnace and water heater are both past their useful lives. Bid: $4625. I'm actually really excited to have that work done because we'll be able to replace the systems with much more efficient, energy-saving and earth-friendly ones. Going from a 60% efficient furnace to a 95% efficient furnace will cut our heating bills too.
The money is adding up here, and it's freaking both of us out a bit. Since this house is at the top of our price range, we're probably going to have to dip into the banks of Parents EBB and Parents Mr. EBB for some serious loans. I hate doing that, but at least we'll be able to pay them back very quickly once my $$ job starts in November.

In$$$$pection

Today was inspection day. I took a lot of pictures. (Some of these are from the website though.)
The exterior is stucco and is a pretty classic California Bungalow profile.

The neighbor's driveway. You can also see where they capped off the brick chimney and replaced it--less aesthetic; way more earthquake-proof.

Our driveway and Mr. EBB with a gigantic bougainvillea.

The living room. I love the built-in bookcases and the hardwood floors. The sellers replaced all the windows and wood frames with much more efficient vinyl. I'm glad, but I would have left the wood in the front ones. Oh well.

The dining room. (I hate chair covers. Gah. So glad I rented chairs for the wedding.) Love the light fixture and the built-in china cabinet.

The kitchen and eat-in nook. The sellers did the granite upgrades and refinished cabinetry about two years ago. I'm psyched to put in a stainless steel backsplash and some really nice cabinet hardware! (The fridge and a pantry cabinet are against an opposite wall.)
As you walk back from the kitchen you come to this "landing" area that leads down to the family room or up to the two added bedrooms. This is where we'd eventually put a piano.

The family room is part of an addition. The sellers finished it about five years ago. I love how they put in some of the Craftsman details in the woodworking on the bannister going down the stairs and in the molding (no pictures, sorry). This room is huge--I have no idea what we're going to do with all the space. It's perfect for a flat panel and our sofas, and I guess we could put a ping pong table or pool or something in the other half of the room. There's lots of closet space under the stairs too.

And here's the master bedroom and bathroom. The bedroom has so. much. closet space. I love it. Not such a fan of the carpeting or wall color, but cosmetics are cosmetics. I also like the updated master bath. I'd like a different vanity though....I hate vanities where you can't put down a hairbrush or makeup. I totally forgot to take a picture of the main bathroom, but you're not really missing much. It's functional but needs serious updating.


And finally the backyard. The decking is made from recycled material--it'll last for ages without rot worries. I'd eventually like to jackhammer up that concrete and put down sod. The neighbor's overhanging tree is a concern--apparently the sellers just chopped off branches ten years ago and haven't touched it since. I think I'd ask the neighbors first!
I'm excited to see that sun--vegetable garden going in, stage left.

The furniture is all the stager's--our agent said that it's fun for her to see the same furniture show up at different houses.

I cannot stress how important an inspection is, especially if you're buying an older home--but even if you're buying a newer home! Mr. EBB and I are highly risk-averse people, and while I love surprises for Christmas and my birthday, I do not want the surprise after purchasing of finding out that the roof is in bad shape or the steps are about to fall down.
Our inspector spent almost four hours with us. We walked all around the property and poked into every nook and cranny. I was very pleased to find that I could stand up in the crawl space--I was the only one. :) We ran the dishwasher (no water leaking--that's good!), we turned on the furnace (loud!--not good), and tested the water pressure (uh...weak. very weak).
Even the "not good" things that we learned are good to know, because now we can use them as ammunition to negotiate with the sellers for credits at closing, or even a lower purchase price. While the sellers have done a lot of good maintenance on the inside of the house, we learned they haven't done such a good job with some of the major systems. The house needs a new furnace, a new water heater, new piping, and new wiring. That ain't cheap, and Mr. EBB isn't going to shell out for the maintenance the sellers deferred. Not when the headline of the Chronicle yesterday was "Bay Area home prices hit record low."

Acceptance

We have a house. Our offer was accepted without a counter. We sign the paperwork and deliver the earnest money tonight.
So. Overwhelmed.

Mr. EBB is thrilled on one hand, but terrified on the other, as of course I am too. He's the financial professional in the household, and I know he's going to be watching like a hawk the fed's moves on Freddie and Fannie this week. I guess the benefits of buying in a downmarket still carry quite a lot of risk.

In which I feel like a bad person!

Gah, I put my foot in my mouth!

(Don't worry, there's a happy ending.)

Mr. EBB went out for a run--we've both been so stressed over housebuying that we've both been working out a lot. As he was coming back, I heard him saying, "that's okay, thanks for the update. Bye [Realtor]." He hangs up, and I said, "NOW what ridiculous thing do those sellers want?" Mr. EBB laughed a bit and said I should take that back before he told me. Uh oh. Apparently, the sellers' new home has a pool, and they were out by the pool discussing our offer. The husband of the seller was getting out of the pool and he slipped, doubled over in pain, and had to be taken to the hospital. !!! So obviously they won't be responding to our offer until tomorrow, and their agent hoped we'd understand and not press the 10pm expiration.

I feel really bad about assuming the worst. I've been so focused on interest rates and furnaces and neighborhoods--health is so much more important. Our agent said the hospital didn't think it was a heart attack, but still. Priorities, priorities.

Does this mean the house is bad luck? I hope not--I'm starting to want it more and more.

Or is it???!

Our agent called this afternoon to tell us that the other bidders were going to put in an offer at $735k. She said if we want it, if we go in at $736 or 737, we'd almost certainly get it. After some tough thinking and a stop at the neighborhood's coffee shop, we decided to just go for it. We like the house, the size is great, the elementary school is actually quite good, and we could see ourselves living there for at least 10 years. The offer expires at 10pm tonight, so the sellers don't have much time to think it over either.
And of course, that will be the most we'll pay. If we get it, we'll see what the inspection turns up--the roof seems pretty good, but I have a feeling the furnace and water heater are desperately in need of an upgrade.

And that's that.

Well that didn't go very well.

We bid. The sellers hemmed and hawed. They countered at $10k under asking. We said no dice--we're not budging on the money. Their agent thought she had the husband convinced, and then the wife wanted to hold out. Finally, they said only at their price; we said only at ours = it's done. ::sigh::

It'd be one thing if we were looking at a $10k difference and it wasn't the top of our budget. If we could go back and bid another $10k on the first house we lost, I think we'd do it in a heartbeat, but that house was also $80k less than what we bid on this one. (Yes, I realize that there are places in this country where $80k itself would buy you a house. That's not where we live, and we're not planning to move to Iowa anytime soon.)

I think the sellers just can't get over that it's not 2005 or 2006 anymore. They probably saw some of their neighbors sell for $800k or more, and they think they should be getting that or close to it. It. ain't. gonna. happen. Not from us, and not from any other buyer either (unless the buyer is very, very foolish).

Mr. EBB is despondent. It's odd--neither of us have ever faced much disappointment in our lives up until now. I'm finding that he does not deal with problems like this very well--he withdraws, which is the opposite of how I deal. Obviously we've had arguments before, but this is the first time an outside force has caused a problem for us. I hope I'll be able to help him through this!

And we're bidding!

We enjoyed the neighborhood--dinner was tasty, and there's a good variety of shops and restaurants within walking distance of the house. I'm okay with the size--I guess bigger is better than smaller for a starter home, right? We wouldn't have to move even if we have two kids until they got a bit bigger.

Our agent advised a bid of $20k or even $25k under the listing. She ran the comps, and it would be a good deal but still a fair price. Mr. EBB ran the numbers, and $20k under is the max I feel comfortable with, so we're just going to start there and if they counter....tough. I really can't imagine they'd do the same thing twice. They've already moved out, and carrying this mortgage plus the staging costs can't be fun.

Cross your fingers!

So far, so good

The reports on the house came back encouraging. It was last sold just over ten years ago. It has a moderately new roof and an updated chimney. The addition is all retrofitted (no shear walls, but at least cripple walls) so we'd only have to retrofit the older front part. I'm not crazy about the yard--there's a huge tree in the neighbor's property that shades a lot of "our"yard, which kind of throws a wrench in my plans for a vegetable garden. I'm also not sure what the heck we'd do with all the space, except lose our cat. ;) Seriously, we could have a guest room, an office, a piano room, and put a pool table in the family room along with a bar and a flat panel. Considering we get by with 750 sq feet right now.... Also, since buying this house would stretch our budget for the next few months, we wouldn't have a lot of furniture until January, which would be kind of funny, I guess.

The agent for the sellers said that they've had one bid so far that was $20k below asking. They countered at $10k below and the buyers walked away. Their agent thinks she has them to a point where they're more realistic about the market--it ain't 2006 anymore, kids. We'll see--we're going for dinner in the neighborhood tomorrow, so we'll make the final "do we want to bid" decision then.

The Only Way Forward...

To get over our loss, we have to keep looking. Tonight after work we looked at three homes in two neighboring neighborhoods with our agent. We aren't very familiar with either of those neighborhoods so before we decide to bid we're going to have to hang out in that area a bit more. But I think one, if not two, of the homes have possibility.

We quickly eliminated the third home. It was cheaper than the other two, but it was quickly apparent why. The street wasn't quite as nice and although the kitchen had been updated, the rest of the house was kind of a mess. There was a big carpeted area under the eaves off the master suite....that we have absolutely no idea what you would do with. I'm 5'5", and I could only stand at the steepest part of the eaves. Mr. EBB is 6' and he just stood at the doorway and laughed. The backyard....our agent estimated it would take about $40k to make it workable. The most overgrown lemon tree I've ever seen, an abandoned garage with broken out windows and a falling-off roof, and a broken-up concrete yard. No thanks. Oh, and it's a short sale. We ran.

I loved the first home. It really was the fairytale house it was advertised as. There was a trellised walkway leading to the front door--you almost expected fairies and elves to greet you. It had a little balcony off the masterbedroom that was adorable. And the neighborhood was outstanding--the elementary school was decent enough that we even would have considered sending an eventual EB-Baby to public school--almost unheard of in Oakland. But. It was tiny. Only one bathroom, the master bedroom was small, there wasn't much closet space, and the family room was odd. Just--small. Plus, we later found out it was also going to be a short sale. The people who bought it paid waaaaaaaaaaay too much for it in 2006 (the listing price is almost $100k less than they paid for it) so it's no wonder they're having trouble with the loan/interest rate.

The second home may be Mr. EBB's favorite so far. It was also the biggest house we've seen in our price range--more than 1900 square feet. I liked all the space, and it had great built-ins in the dining room and living room. The main bathroom needs updating, and the kitchen is semi-updated but still could use some work (seriously, sellers--slapping on a granite countertop does not mean you suddenly have a "gourmet kitchen"). The family room was awesome--it was huge and in great shape (the back half of the home is a 1990s addition, giving the home a "newer" feeling than what we're used to in the 1900-1930s homes we've been seeing). It's been on the market for awhile and our agent thinks we can get it for $20-25k below the asking price, which would be about as high as we're willing to go.

We're going to get some info on the house tomorrow....cross your fingers for a low pest report!

The Process Thus Far

I was thinking about it today, and I estimate that Mr. EBB and I have visited about sixty open houses. Sometimes we've gone to seven or eight on one Sunday. We've also driven by probably another 30-40 homes that we decided wouldn't even make it to the open house stage, and we've looked at hundreds and hundreds of listings online. In that time, we've expanded our awareness of different neighborhoods and also increased our price range. Maybe if we had started out looking at more neighborhoods and with the bigger budget we'd be in a home by now!

The home that convinced us to move from "we're looking" to "we're seriously looking" was located less than 3/4 mile from our apartment. So many things about it were perfect--the location and neighborhood both could not have been better, the yard was a great size for us (small), there were lots of cute details, and it had amazing closet space. It also had a new roof and the foundation work had been completed. It also had things that were not perfect--the layout was kind of odd, it needed about $15k from deferred maintenance (new furnace, new chimney, some minor pest/dry rot work), and the fireplace looked like a giant pregnant woman's ass from most angles (for real--it jutted out with big birthing hips and once the image entered my mind I couldn't escape it). But the price--the price was perfect. It would have been a steal at $50k more, even.

We decided to bid. We were planning to bid right around asking, maybe a bit more. And then Mr. EBB decided we needed more advice. So he talked to a co-worker who lived near the neighborhood where the house was located, and she convinced him that the house was overpriced and we should bid $20k under asking. Both our agent and I thought she was insane. Her main issue was that the elementary school for the neighborhood wasn't that great and the yard was small. My reminders to Mr. EBB that 1. we don't have children, 2. we aren't planning to have children for another 4-5 years, 3. any children we did have wouldn't be entering kindergarten for another 9-10 years, and 4. he was excited about a small yard b/c it meant less yard work--all fell on deaf ears. In his eyes, he didn't want his co-worker laughing at him for overpaying.

We ended up bidding $9k under asking. We knew there was another bidder. We received a counter for $5k over asking. We accepted it (there was a lot of agonizing from Mr. EBB). After work that day, Mr. EBB went for a run by the house. He came back super excited about it. And then we got the phone call that the seller had entered a contract with the other bidder. It was over.

Mr. EBB was devastated. He beat himself up pretty badly for listening to his co-worker; if we'd gone with our instincts and our agent's advice and bid $10k over asking to start, we'd probably have the house. That weekend and the next week were pretty miserable. Knowing that we could be DONE by now. Yet here we are.

And what are we looking for?

In a word, we're looking for space. To some people, that would probably mean 5 acres and a 3000 square foot home. But for us, space would mean something with more than 1200 square feet and a yard big enough to fit a couple of adirondack chairs, a bar-be-que, and some plants.

Realtors advise buyers to think about and categorize their desires by "wants" and "needs." Our needs aren't very descriptive: at least two bedrooms, at least one bathroom, easy access to BART or a Transbay bus line, at least minimal yard/outdoor space. That doesn't really eliminate much of anything. Our wants are all over the map: it would be great to have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, an attached garage with interior access, original built-ins, a kitchen with an island, a separate family room, and two stories. We'd much prefer a house that already has a lot of the work done--and I don't mean updating, I mean a new to new-ish roof, upgraded/retrofitted foundation, modern wiring, new to new-ish furnace and water heater, energy efficient windows.

The homes in our price range in neighborhoods that we like often don't have a lot of those things. These are 1920s (or earlier; a few are from the 1930s) homes and construction back then just wasn't anywhere near as safe or secure as modern standards. On the other hand, these homes are full of character--the built-in bookshelves, dining room hutches, window seats, and the molding and woodwork are unlike anything you see in a modern home. Unfortunately, sellers seem to want to put all their "let's get this home ready to sell" budget into granite countertops and stainless steel appliances; I'd rather have shear walls and a 30-year roof and make my own kitchen remodeling choices down the line.

And of course we're looking for a deal. The house that we lost would have been a steal (I'm still crossing my fingers that it falls out of contract--awful, I know) and it's hard to see homes that aren't as nice listed (and going) for $75k more than that one. But we have learned that even in this "buyer's market" decent homes in good neighborhoods can still command, if not a bidding war, at least multiple offers and committed and qualified buyers.

We should be receiving disclosures on a couple homes our Realtor has recommended to us--maybe one of them will be "the one."

So who are we?

In browsing home listings and attending open houses, I've come to the conclusion that finding a home is a lot like finding a partner. Everyone is right for someone, but finding the right match can be tough. We've visited lots of lovely homes that will be great for someone, but just not great for us. Rather akin to how my friend's boyfriend complements her delightfully, but he would not be right for me. Thinking like this helps when I feel frustrated that we haven't found "our" house yet.

Mr. EastBayBuyer (Mr. EBB) and I have been married for just under nine months now, but we've been together just over nine years. Neither of us are California natives, but we plan to make the Bay Area our home for the foreseeable future. We currently rent a perfectly adequate apartment in a very nice neighborhood in Oakland. We have a balcony where we can grow potted plants, we have a pool in our complex (not that it's ever warm enough to use, this past weekend excepted), our building manager gets everything and anything fixed promptly, and our commute to work in San Francisco couldn't be easier. We also haven't been able to unpack about 75% of our wedding gifts because there is no room to put anything. So the wall of Crate & Barrel boxes that towers over the "office" nook of the apartment looms as a constant reminder that we. need. more. space.

By the end of July we'll have lived in this apartment together for three years. We have been looking at listings for about the last year and have been attending open houses regularly for the past six-eight months or so. It's kind of sad that we've run into the same agents at multiple open houses and we recognize each other. We're hoping to buy within the next few months; otherwise work/scheduled travel will likely push our plans off into next spring.

Next up: what we're seeking.

Welcome

I'm starting this blog to chronicle my husband's and my search for, and hopefully eventual purchase of, a home in the East Bay (across the bay; east of San Francisco). Since it's doubtful we'll find a house in perfect shape in our price range in a neighborhood that we like, I'll also have home improvement projects to talk about--again, eventually, in the hopefully not-too-distant future.
We have a Realtor (look--it's capitalized! because it's trademarked!) but are otherwise near the beginning of the process. We're still browsing listings and going to open houses, so I'm kicking off this blog for the duration. We did have one disappointment last week, but that deserves its own post or two.
Until then, welcome!