Life outside of the box

So were approaching the finish line for the house, All of the electrical has been completed and inspected (another blog entry), were in the process of finalizing our mortgage, the appliances have been ordered, TV and internet have been arranged, We see our lawyer in two weeks and a few days later we close the deal.

Man, talk about a wild ride. Which will be complete when everything is all in the house.  Only 4 more weeks, I can’t wait.

Now this is what’s happened to me this past week

My Girlfriend and I go view a few homes last weekend and had a gut feeling on one of them.  Luckily that house has an open house the following day so we both go and view it again.  That’s when we made the decision to put an offer in on it.  So we got in touch with our broker and was able to put the paperwork together for that evening as our broker presented the offer.  When the home owners counter offered with a few minor changes we were happy to accept. 

Within the next two days the home inspection was completed and we were happy with the report.  We also had our mortgage approved the following day so we went from Saturday to as I type this on Thursday night doing all of this.  And I can’t thank My Girlfriend enough for her help in this as well.

We have a few more things to work out and then everything should be final

So

As promised here are some tips that I have for live auctions:

1. Go to the previews
   By going to the preview you get the opportunity to see what is for sale and the condition of the item.  This also gives you the opportunity to create a list of what you want to buy and verify if you can take them home after the auction.  If the items on the list are to large to take home then ask if they offer delivery or arrange for someone to be available to take back with you any large items.
2. Stick to the list !!!
   By sticking to what you want to buy you’ll have a greater chance of not spending  a lot of your budget.  If the items on your list are of greater value like a pair of dressers you should limit what you want to buy.  
3. Budget
   It’s a word I don’t like but I didn’t want to spend a lot on the pair of dressers that I got.  I had set a limit of $250 per dresser before the item was auctioned off.  If the bidding price went over $250 I would either stop bidding or adjust my budget for other items in my list.
4. Patience
   Often Auctioneers will start the bid price high and then decrease the bid price to attract any bidders.  For the dressers that I got I waited until the price was about $150 per dresser. Others will want to bid higher on the dressers.  I was able to be patient and bought the dressers for $240 each and stick to my budget.
5. Be careful
   You have to be careful as to what you do and say.  By raising your hand that tells the auctioneer that you’re interested in bidding.  I was caught off-guard when I answered a question by saying “yes”, that to tells the auctioneer that you’re interested in bidding.
6. Have Fun
   With this being my first Auction Experience you learn a lot and have a lot of fun as well.

So, my girlfriend and I have made the decision to buy a home.  The thing is that we haven’t done something like this before and are going to need alot of help.  The first thing we thought of is to shop around and find a reputable lender and then find someone with knowledge of the local real estate and go from there.

More to follow!