Deja vu

We saw two houses today. Both are short sales, which we're seeing a lot of. A short sale is an early part of the foreclosure process, where the owner makes a deal with the bank to sell the house for less than they owe on it. Because the market has dropped so much, a lot of people owe way more on the house than they'll ever get at market value. This has put a lot of great homes into our price range, if we can fight our way through the bank bureaucracy.

The first house we saw is close to our current rental. It's a great part of Clermont -- very quiet, very residential, but very far from the turnpike for JJ's commute. The house has a nice floorplan for our needs -- no separate living room and family room, generally open with high ceilings, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, and a nice screened porch. The big hang-up for us is the commute.

The second house is in a much better location, more in the center of town. I stumbled across the subdivision on one of my many drives around town, getting A. a nap. It's very hidden for being in the middle of everything, down a hill and next to a protected area with lots of older trees. We were pretty excited about seeing this one; I'd jumped on it when I saw it pop up on the MLS because I didn't think we could afford this neighborhood.

Unfortunately, when we met our realtor at the first house, she told us that we couldn't see the second house. The owner had "run off" to Utah without leaving a key. The realtors said that they had just listed it, and hadn't expected anyone to want to see it. *sigh* Isn't the point of listing a property to sell it? And don't you have to show it to sell it?

Anyway, when we left the first house, JJ and I drove over to the second to walk around it and peek in the windows. Deja vu. It was the same model that we had just looked at!

So now we're very interested, and waiting to hear that we can get in to take a look in person. It's really good to see some promising houses!