This picture doesn't really tell the true story of the state of my condo. There are a ton more boxes, walls are bare, and I think my cat hates me :(

Luckily there haven't been any disasters ... (Like back in 2002 when I was getting ready to move to my condo from my apartment... I was out on my second floor balcony cleaning the sliding glass doors... and lets just say I locked myself outside. On the balcony. By myself. Not fun.... I climbed over the railing a few times but couldn't convince myself to jump! I eventually shouted to someone in their backyard to please call my parents (who had the spare key).... YIKES!)

I will miss the checkerboard floors in my kitchen, my plantation shutters in my bedroom, the drapes in my sunroom when they blow in the breeze, and my Deep Aubergine dining room :P

I will not miss noisy people that live above me, renters, HOA Drama (aka the Parking Lot Nazi), people that cannot park between 2 lines (really people it is NOT that hard!)

Settlement is tomorrow..and then the big move is Thursday! YAY!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

It has been a while since I had any update to any of the items on my 101 in 1001 list. But today I finally have one...

Flashback to 2 years ago... A friend and I planned to take part in a Cherry Blossom bike ride (viewing only ... not a race :P). So I dug my bike out of the storage closest, threw it in the backseat of my car... with the top down.. in early April and drove west on RT 50. It was cold.

Took the bike on Metro and arrived downtown... met up with tour guide... and set off, except when I pedaled, the wheel didn't turn :(

So my friend and I had to bail.

But when I started the great de-clutter prior to listing my condo for sale, I relegated my bike (and a few other things) to my parents house and then asked that it be taken to a bike doctor, which it was, they had it for a few weeks, and today it was returned in working condition (to my parents house.... I will have it in my possession once my move to a new house is done!)

The status on my condo has officially been flipped to Under Contract. YAY!

Packing resumes!!!

(Curious about the 19? the time that my condo was under contract does not count towards Days on Market....YAY)

Thursday I came home from work and was a decluttering/cleaning machine. The house was not in horrible shape, but since I am a pile person I had some piles (of mail, laundry, and randomness) to put away. The other big thing I had to deal with was all the boxes I had been bringing home and starting to pack. Basically I just stacked them all up in the 2nd bedroom. I figured better to have the Living Room/Sunroom/Dining Room clutter free so as to make a good first impression.

Friday...1 showing was scheduled during the day, while I was at work. As I was riding the train home I checked my phone, and there was a message from my realtor. She thought we had an offer coming! The potential buyer had two questions...

Saturday morning... TXT message from realtor... "What's your schedule like for Saturday? We have an offer to review!" w00t!!!!

So I met with realtor.... Offer was ... not that great.... Low ball on price and wanted 10K closing help. So I countered back at full price and with the closing help.

I go about my Saturday..... That evening I get a message from realtor.... Potential Buyer, feels that he is pushing his payment comfort level @ 5K below my asking price...I responded that perhaps he shouldn't be looking at houses out of his price range ;)

Sunday morning...realtor and I discuss this buyer walking because he wants a lower price and mucho closing help. I state I am fine with it because it sounds like this buyer can't afford my condo and wants me to give it to him (which is not happening!!).

Around 11am... I start getting calls from the showing service! 3 showing set up! (I go out to run errands). Feedback from the first showing rolls in .... they are interested in the property!

My realtor has told potential buyer's agent that we have showings scheduled throughout the day... apparently buyer's agent goes off to talk to the buyer.

My realtor says I basically have 2 options... 1) tell potential buyer from Friday that my counter of full price + closing is still on the table until Monday OR 2) Say its off the table and see what else rolls in.

Proving that I am not a horrible person (no mater what Potluck Bitch thinks :P) I say that the counter offer is on the table until Monday.

Buyer's Agent comes back and says he talked buyer into the full price! So Basically I am back under contract again! (Just waiting for some signed paperwork I think....)

Woohoo! Home Inspections later this week :D

Total showings - 10
Total movies seen - 1
Total meals eaten out - 2
Total shopping trips - 3
Total offers - 2

I can't believe its been almost a month since my last post....

Needless, to say the 2nd bank coming out of the woodwork threw a major wrench into the process. They seemed very against the offer .... at one point 2nd bank declared they had an appraisal that was $140K over my offer so they were very against it (they wanted me to up my offer by 15K).... luckily my lender had already ordered an appraisal... which came in close to my offer, so after that 2nd couldn't sign the approval fast enough.

Then the 2nd banks approval went back to the 1st bank to approve. That seemed to drag on forever, Then the PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) team got involved and had to review the whole deal....

Needless to say, my buyer walked yesterday! So my condo is back on the market and open to showing as of Friday. Yay! I get to declutter again!!

And as I expected, I finally got signed off approval on my offer for the house I want to buy, from both banks this morning.

Monday I met with my listing agent to review the offer. It was not a horrible offer, but there was one big problem that I had with it. They buyer wanted to settle at the end of March. Ha! Two problems. 1) I haven't been inside any potential "new to me" houses & 2) My lender has told me they usually ask for 45 days to process the loan.

So I countered on $$$$ and moved settlement to end of April. Then we started putting together a list of houses to look at this weekend.


I got a call on Tuesday evening. Counter offer accepted!!! YAY!

So now I get to look for a house. Start to pack (I am not looking forward to this! Have you seen my shoe collection :P). No shopping until after settlement :(

Madison will be happy though... no one disturbing her naps (except when they come for the home inspection)... and I do not have to make sure the house is spotless and all put away whenever I leave!

I am still a bit nervous. This is moving very fast...but the prospect of no more upstairs neighbors or HOA drama makes me beyond happy!!!

I had 4 showings scheduled for Saturday. First 2 from 10am - 11am. Last one from 1pm - 3pm. So I made plans to shop (what else!?!?!?)... and planned to meet my mother in Columbia around 10am. As I was getting ready to go out I noticed one of the bulbs in the light fixture in my Master Bath was out! So I raced to Bloom to pick up a new one (actually I got a 3 pack, in case of future burn-outs). Crisis averted!

My listing agent uses a "showing service" to schedule the showings, and once they are finished the buyer's agent has the opportunity to provide feedback (via a survey).

The majority of feedback says the unit shows well, is priced right, is clean and tidy. 2 mentioned the interior needs to be updated. One said Too Purple (at which I tweeted), along with being too feminine... well guess what ... a female lives there :P

This was also how I first suspected I was getting an offer. One Agent filled out the server and said "offer submitted".

YAY! So yes, I have an offer. I meet with my realtor this evening to review... stay tuned!

Wrap-up. Showings, and what I've left the house to do while they are going on ...

Total showings - 7
Total movies seen - 1
Total meals eaten out - 2
Total shopping trips - 2
Total offers - 1

This had to be done this weekend, due to my condo going on the market! Basically I was using my 2nd bedroom as a quasi office/storage room. I have my cable modem there, along with the router and printer. I have a TV and a chair, some bookshelves. All my packing supplies for stuff I sell on ebay is stored there ( along with bunches of stuff that I still need to list on ebay. I should have taken a before picture, from when it was really bad... but I didn't.



(Oh... I hope no one looks in my 2nd bedroom closet or the hallway closet.... they are packed to the gills... I even manged to get 2 dining room chairs in my hallway closet!!)

Looks like I may be getting out just in time!


Regular readers may remember that I am still on the Board of Directors for my Condo's HOA. Earlier this week we got the summary of letters that were mailed out to various owners (for whatever by-laws they were violating :P). There was only one. It was about busted pipes causing a leak. My first thought was -- These buildings are only 7 years old... pipes should not be busted already!!!

Come to find out yesterday..... he owner of that unit ran off with a guy in October... and no one knows where she is. The heat was left off... and you can guess the rest! (Oh and she left her car too!)

So now I am worried that if she has been gone since October... has she been making her mortgage payments? Will her unit be getting foreclosed on soon?

Crazy!

I hope my condo sells fast.... I am way past ready to be gone from here!

The photo above is the "before" photo. And that patch is no longer! I now have a uniformly white ceiling again.

So about 2 weeks ago I found 2 painters using my local community Yahoo! group. And I had them come out to give me an estimate. (I briefly talked about my ceiling at Thanksgiving and my brother-in-law indicated the job would be about $350-$400.)

Painter #1

He showed, on time. Then proceeded to walk around my condo, and count steps (I guess he was counting square footage). He asked if I still had paint left that matched the wall colors because he indicated since the ceiling was textured it wasn't that easy to do the "edging". I replied that I did. - Estimate - $603 (listing that he was charging me for labor, 3 gallons of paint, and drop cloths).


Painter #2

He showed, 30 minutes late. I pointed out the area I needed painted. He asked me if I already had the paint. I said no. He looked around, and said $350. I said I would make a final decision in a few days.

Then I went back to painter #1 and said that I thought he included the sunroom in the estimate and I didn't need that room done, and asked if he wanted to submit another estimate. He knocked $25 off.

Needles to say I went with painter #2.

He showed, 30 minutes late, with 2 helpers, and his own previously used drop cloths.
Ceiling looks great! No edging issues.

I totally recommend BGE Home.

My situation is described here -- #2 (and when I said it's been happening for a while I mean ... YEARS!!!)

Monday morning I went to the BGE Home website and scheduled the appointment online (YAY! for that, if you know me you know I HATE talking on the phone and usually avoid it at all costs :P).

You pick a day and then time period... ie AM or PM. I picked AM. Which means they can come anytime between 7:30am and 12:30pm. They call when they are on their way... no answer means they move on to the next appointment! 7:35am my phone rang ( I was ready!)... The repair guy said he was on his way and would be here in approximately 30 minutes... and he was! Less than 45 minutes later and he was done...I thought the price was reasonable... and he even adjusted the fridge so that the front is higher than the back (this has something to do with the door closing...)

I was very pleased :D

Luckily it's very short!

1. Get the ceiling in the Kitchen/Living Room/Dining Room painted. - - You may be asking yourself why... The reason is I used to put Yankee Candles ( the big 22 oz jars) on my countertop that divides the Kitchen and Dining Room... and after a few years it caused a nice brownish discoloration to form. It wasn't obviously noticeable... but I knew it was there so of course it bothered me. So about 2 years ago when I painted my kitchen cabinets white... I had the brilliant idea to attack the spot with the white paint! Bad idea because it didn't match the ceiling white :( And now it is very noticeable (as my mother likes to point out whenever she comes over :P). So I need to get an estimate and have it painted...
2. Have someone look at Refrigerator - It's dripping water from the freezer area into the fridge part. This has been happening for a while... actually and I have been using a cup to catch the water (and then water plants - see I can "think green" when I want to! :P) But since you can't sell like that it needs to be fixed. Google-ing assures me that it is a common problem, and easily fixable... (something about water draining from the freezer... some hose may be clogged). BGE Home is scheduled to come Wendesday morning!