Adventures into Adulthood

Despite whatever image you may have when you read the name of this post, I am not and have not been a “child” for a while.  What I am talking about is taking on more responsibilities of what one would think an “adult” should be taking on.  After several years of consideration, I have finally decided to invest in a home that I can eventually call my own.  I’m buying a house people!!!!

Well, to be specific I am buying a condo and I am not doing it alone.  CP and I will be going into this together and it has been a roller coaster of a ride – especially for me.

Trying to be supportive of CP’s studies for his CPA exam, I have undertaken the job of finding us the realtor, lender, and the research of every potential condo.  Over the past month, I have been learning the realty “talk” and getting first hand education on all the little nuisances of the world of real estate.  I have been even watching more HGTV because of it!

All my life, I have always had my feet planted firmly down on the ground.  I have grandiose ideas and fantasies of what my ideal situations would be since I was young.  Yet, no matter where those thoughts take me, my left brain is that annoying, too smart and too realistic nerd that keeps poking at me, reminding me that I can keep dreaming, but then there’s reality.

I went into this starting at the amount of liquid assets I could reasonably put up for our down payment.  Considering the traditional requirement is 20%, I knew that the higher that purchase price goes, the higher that requirement becomes.  Mortgage payments did not worry me as much because, again, I had a general idea of how much it would cost.  Hence, working with that “20%” number, I calculated backwards of where our cap should be based on the premise that we would not want to spend more than 40% of our combined liquid assets.

Then came the “Must-Haves”.  CP and I could agree that we needed space and a one bed and one bath would not work for us.  And that was about where our agreement ended.  CP seemed to have the grandiose ideas as I did, but the annoying nerd did not seem to exist in him.  It was definitely something we had to work out because in a world where money talks, we were limited.  Also, CP would like to live in certain parts of San Diego, which I would like to as well.  However, the prices as well as the availability were major limiters for us.

Hence, other than the 2 bed and 2 baths requirement, we were also looking for:

• Renovated, spacious kitchen
• Spacious “feeling” living space
• In-unit washer/dryer
• Good amount of storage
• Double vanity for the master bathroom
• Location: keeping it central (not too far in any cardinal directions) with easy access to freeways

We both would have loved renovated bathrooms too, but I reeled us back in again.  It would be NICE to have, but it should not be a deal breaker either if the price is right.  Therefore, the list above was what we went with.

Now after a long weekend of stress and un-restful sleep, CP and I have found a place that has met our requirements.  An offer has been submitted and as of writing this post, we are now waiting to see what happens.  Keep your fingers crossed for us!