The Real Estate Search Has Begun
Written on March 15, 2008 – 9:21 am | by jaygaulardcom |
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It seems that many people aren’t writing in their blogs these days…with me being one of them. As I mentioned in my previous post, it’s just been all sorts of crazy ’round these parts. Honestly, the last thing I have been motivated to do is write. Well, I think my dry spell is over.
One of the reasons I haven’t been writing is because I have been hiding a horrible secret from my mother. See, in the past few months, I have been loudly complaining about the Winter blues. Much like every other Winter of my life, I threaten to move down South. This time, I went as far as to sell the idea to each of my family members…who happen to live down South. You can imagine their overwhelming joy at the thought of having my pretty face much closer to them.
A while back, I began a real estate search in certain cities and towns in Northern Virginia. I was extremely excited and wanted to live on a warm lake in the worst way. I found some good stuff, but after giving it some hard thought, discovered that those areas weren’t for me. As a side note, if you don’t know me, I am famous for changing my mind soon after a forceful decision has been made. It’s part of my charm. I had to break the news to my mother that we weren’t moving down South before I wrote this post. The silver lining of the whole thing is that we will have a nice place up North for her and my father to visit for the Summer.
I am not sure if I ever mentioned that I have been looking for that “perfect town” since I was in college. I think I may have solved the problem. For the longest time, I have been looking at these tiny towns in the middle of nowhere. The problem is, while they sunk some money into their main streets, they were virtually broke because there was no real revenue, besides tourism. I can’t live on tourism alone. Last year, I wanted to live in Woodstock, NY because I thought it was a neat little town. Well, after visiting a few times, the novelty wore off and there was nothing to do. I need some reality in a town. I need indoor tennis and golf courses. I need neighbors who give a damn and who don’t put up Wal-Mart decorations on their lawns during the Christmas season.
The other day, I had an epiphany. I thought to myself, “Jay, perhaps you have been looking in the wrong places. Perhaps you need the money of a city, but the peace and quiet of a suburb.” Ah, a suburb.
Last week, I started searching realtor.com for some properties around the Hartford, CT area. There are some very nice places around that city. There are some not-so-nice places too, but those are easily avoidable. I zeroed in on two towns…one very nice and busy, the other very nice and not busy. I like to live on the outskirts, but have the real world close by. I found a real estate agent and had her email me some listings for the area. Laura and I picked out three houses that we liked and took a trip on Thursday. The trip has two purposes, one was to see if we liked the area and the other was to see if we liked the houses. This, of course, was after I went to the bank to get pre-approved for another mortgage.
When we arrived, we immediately liked the area. We met the realtor and had her drive us around all day. We took tours of both towns and visited all three houses. The first two were very nice, but just ok. The third one was really nice. I think Laura and I just kept looking at each other thinking that we would get lost in the place. It was really big. It was also on four and a half acres of land.
Needless to say, we liked the third house. It is a very nice Connecticut colonial on a really nice cul de sac. The neighboring houses are all right up my alley. They are new and very, very clean. I did some research and it seems that most of these people live in this town and work in Hartford.
We have been going back and forth with the realtor and the homeowner and may put an offer on the house this weekend. If that doesn’t work out, we will keep looking at existing homes or build a brand new one. There are many options to build new in the area. Since these homes are on a totally different level from what we are currently living in, we have to do this slowly and carefully.
The bad part is that I brought my camera on Thursday, but totally forgot to take any pictures. We may go back out there on Monday, so I will be sure to take some photos.
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Tags: all sorts, Blogs, changing my mind, cities and towns, colonial, Connecticut, ct, dry spell, family members, good stuff, home search, horrible secret, houses, longest time, main streets, money, northern virginia, overwhelming joy, perfect town, pretty face, real estate, real estate search, silver lining, tiny towns, tourism, winter blues
One Response to “The Real Estate Search Has Begun”
By Mom on Mar 17, 2008 | Reply
Do you think your mother will ever forgive you?