Normally here at Caputo's Corner, the blogger does not blog about himself, but I feel like an exception should be made here. As many of you probably know, your humble correspondent recently completed a major transaction. I just bought my first house!!!
Needless to say, these are exciting times here at Caputo's Corner. In a couple weeks, we are moving to a brand new command center. Here is your humble correspondent in front of the for sale sign (I know it says "under contract," but trust me, it should say "sold.")
The house is in Laurel, just off of route 216, before you get to the Patuxent River bridge (if any of you know where I'm talking about). I really like it. It's a 3-story townhouse with 3 beds and 2 baths. I do envision one of the bedrooms being turned into an office space for myself (or as I'll call it, the blog room).
For those of you wondering, there will be a housewarming party (or parties)...but that won't come for a while. Just so you know.
This transaction was a long time coming. My first hesitant steps in the homebuying process came in 2009. I was thinking about buying a house versus just getting an apartment. It was May (oddly enough) and I was at the Columbia Triathlon with Caputo's Corner reader (although he didn't know it at the time) Brian Jones, who was there to watch his future wife Ivy compete in the race. We were talking about our mutual friend Jorge who had just finished buying a condo in Bethesda. Brian had been in contact with Jorge's agent Tom McGlynn (who at the time worked for Llewellyn Realtors, and who now works for REMAX Allegiance, based out of DC). I told Brian that Tom could give me a call, and sure enough he did. I set up an appointment with Tom that week so that we could talk about the homebuying process. I knew I was not ready to buy that summer, but it was nice to have the contact. I talked with a few other agents that had been recommended to me, but I decided I would go with Tom. I also needed a loan officer. Fortunately, my cousin Rob Bodine, who is featured here on our Blog Roll, works in real estate law. He recommended to me the name Lisa Schwartz of Aspen Home Mortgage Group. Throughout this entire deal, both Lisa and Tom have been great and I could tell very early on that they both had my best interests at heart.
Anyway, I spent the rest of 2009 and the early part of 2010 continuing to save. I had finished grad school the prior December, so I finally was able to really start building my base up so that I could make this whole thing happen. I started to actively start looking at properties in summer of 2010. I went into it with a no-pressure attitude. I did not have to buy fast. I did not have to move immediately. So I had the luxury of being able to wait to find a house that fit me perfectly. The first few houses I looked at were just eh. By the end of summer, I had not found anything to my liking. Then I found a house in Laurel (not too far from where I am now). It was an end unit townhome, and was a short sale (the house was owner occupied, but the seller was underwater so the bank was in charge of selling it). I liked the house enough that I decided to place an offer on it. My offer was accepted by the seller, but instead of immediately going to contract, it went to the bank. The bank had to approve the offer before the contract could go into force. The bank countered at a higher price than what was initially listed, and needed a response in 48 hours. After some tough thinking, I decided to give it a shot, and I agreed to the higher price, even though I knew it was going to be a tight squeeze financially. Then we went to the inspection, and the inspection turned up several items that needed immediate addressing. There was a problem, though. Since the house was a short sale, the house was being sold "as is," meaning the sellers would not make any repairs. Take it or leave it. In short, I decided to leave it. It would have just cost too much money, money that I didn't have.
After this last deal fell apart, I took a break. During this break I went to Florida for I/ITSEC and we had Christmas break. I had a chance to get caught up on some school work for STEM. After talking with Tom, I decided that a good time to get back into the game was when the weather turned warm. This was the middle of March. It was in this time frame that I visited the house I am in now for the first time with Tom. The next day, I visited it again as part of an open house with my Dad. After talking with my Dad (and seeing the other house I was in go under contract immediately), I decided to put a bid in on this house, a bit that succeeded over 3 others!
The month of April was filled with inspections (which revealed several flaws...), addendums, negotiating, wrangling, and stress. A trip to New Jersey (chronicled here on Caputo's Corner) served as a brief but needed respite in the whole process. It finally came to an end last Friday in Rockville. After a 2 and a half hour settlement, one which saw papers fly across the Internet super highway faster than a Space Shuttle chasing a space station (if any of you get that reference), Tom presented me the keys to my first townhouse. A huge sense of relief passed over me. I got to enjoy it only for only a few hours as the work started the next day.
Mom saw the house for the first time on Saturday as we spent the whole day cleaning. We vacuumed the carpets and cleaned the floors in the kitchen and den. We made a checklist of the items that needed to be addressed by contractors, and that's where we are today. A constant parade of contractors will be coming by the house to do estimates and necessary repair work. Hopefully this will all be taken care of quickly as I plan on moving in a couple of weeks.
That's pretty much the whole story. I will attempt to keep the blog up on a somewhat regular basis, but I cannot promise that I'll be making daily or near-daily posts. There is a lot going on the life of Caputo's Corner right now (for many reasons...good reasons :-)...the house being a big one). Hope you enjoyed my little story here, but there is more to be written. I'll share as much as I can here at Caputo's Corner...as well as providing other quality contributions to the blogosphere that you have come to expect from us. Thanks once again for reading and following here at Caputo's Corner
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