"ash, honey, you have no idea..."

...february 16, 2010...
I first talked to Jim pretty quickly after I met with Tom.  He seemed ridiculously nice on the phone, and had sent me listings for Chandler within my price range.  We discussed that my ideal home would be a 3 bedroom, 2 bath one-story home that was built in the last 10 years.  What I loved about Jim right off the bat was that he was so accommodating and patient with me; I really had little knowledge about what I was getting into, as well as what all the acronyms and jargon meant...

***

I had spent the early part of this month looking at houses on various websites, and had found a few in Cooper Commons that I was very interested in... My dad and I drove to look at the ones that I had found, an I instantly fell in love with a house I'll call Teresa.  Granted, I only viewed Teresa through her windows and backyard, but the house was in great shape!  The other home in Cooper Commons was Bell, and was a similar floor plan to Teresa; either way, I was close to my parents and in a good neighborhood...I was ready to start looking!

I told Jim about these two homes, and both popped up on the listings that he sent me.  He warned me up front that 99% of the homes we would look at would be short sales due to my price range.  He said that he would call all the listing agents on the homes I wanted to see before we went to look, so that I don't get my hopes up about a house that was unreachable.  What I didn't realize was the extreme competitive nature of the market, and unfortunately for me I was in no place to be even remotely competitive; my "top" was $125,000, and I couldn't go any higher or I could kiss spending money goodbye.

Jim called the homes on the listing that I was interested in, and told me that out of the 20-something houses he sent me, only 7 were completely available with no offers.  That meant, Teresa and Bell were going to be out of reach, as other people had placed offers on the properties already, getting me into a bidding war if I chose to pursue them...which just was not possible.  We set to meet for the weekend!