So, it's been another long blog vacation, but I figured that it was time to provide an update to my loyal reader.
Even I haven't been to this blog in a while. I had forgotten that I was looking for a house the last time I posted and, guess what, I'm still looking. I did manage to find one that would have been just about perfect. 1.6 acres, 1900 sq ft, a pool and a hot tub, and all for $155,000! However it was not to be. I tried to get an offer in 5 days after it went on the market, but someone managed to beat me too it. The thinking is that it was some kind of inside deal, but regardless, I still don't have a house. I'm certain that I'll be able to find what I want for the price I want to pay eventually, it's just going to take some waiting and I'll have to jump right on it when I see it.
For those of you who have not gone through the house buying experience, all I can say is making that decision to put that first contract down is the toughest (so far). Now that I've done that twice, both unsuccessful, I'm much more prepared to jump on good deals that come up. I suppose the one benefit of being as picky as I am is that I get to see a lot of properties and get a good sense of the real estate market in this part of Florida.
The other fun part is dealing with short sales, which make up a large chunk of the market down here. From talking to my realtor the other day, I guess the price that a short sale is listed at may or may not have anything to do with the price the bank will accept. For instance, you could put a full-price offer on a $130,000 house and the bank will come back 60 days later and tell you that no, they won't take $130,000, but they will take $220,000. WTF?! Joanne, my realtor, has said that this is very frustrating for both the realtor and the buyer, which is understandable, since you really can't put other offers on houses while you're under contract waiting for the bank to tell you if they're going to sell or not. I know the housing market is pretty crazy everywhere, but it's insane here. Heck, Palm Bay, the city I technically live in, has 1,900+ listings right now, and apparently half are short sales and foreclosures!
Anyway, on to better news. As of this week I have joined the rank of the Mac users! Some people might think that I've gone crazy, but I have good reason for making the switch. First, I've wanted to play around with the iPhone SDK for a while now, and if I actually make something cool I'd like to be able to put it up on the App store. Thanks to Apple's "don't play well with others" marketing strategy, you can only develop legitimate apps on a Mac. I guess it worked, since I bought one of their computers, right? The second reason is that I needed a new, more reliable desktop anyway. My aging monster from junior year of college was getting flakier and flakier (for instance, 9 times out of 10 it would decide that there were no CD drives), and with the Xbox I don't really play too many games on the computer anymore. Heck, all the classic games that I'd like to play can be easily handled by my laptop anyway.
So, I guess the story is that I'll post pictures as soon as I find another house that I actually want to put an offer on, and in the mean time if anyone has any great ideas for iPhone apps, send me a message and I'll see what I can do :).
-Chris
