state of the engagement

[deird1]

House Hunting

So far, we've put in offers for two houses. Didn't get the first; waiting to see if we got the second.

Buying houses is this weird kind of psychological torture in which you guess random numbers until you hopefully get one right. It is like no other buying experience on Earth: it would be so much more convenient if houses came with price tags attached, or at least with the ability to bargain with the seller. I know how that works; but this? Not a clue.

The house we're currently after is an absolute wreck, but a salvageable one. It would require an awful lot of immensely difficult work – and I would so enjoy watching it turn into something better. (Also one of the reasons I like editing, so...)


Parties and So Forth

Had an engagement party last weekend, at my parents' house. We packed out the house, with heaps of people ...who I mostly remembered the names of! Go me!

My sisters organised for every person at the party to have their photo taken holding a sign or a funny prop. I would really recommmend something like this for anyone having a similar party; it was so much fun getting to see what everyone did, and now we have a guest book full of photos.

I don't think I have to send thank-yous about people giving us cards – which is good, because we have the most enormous stack of cards, matched only by the enormous number of comments on our facebook pages.

Despite saying 'no gifts', we also have a table stacked high with presents from everyone who decided to give us something anyway. Rather fun, looking at all the pretty things and figuring out how we'll use them...



Still so much to organise – but we'll get there.

Comments

[next_to_normal]

Wait, what sort of bizarro process do you use down there for buying a house? When I bought mine, all the houses came with price tags - or rather, a listing price. And you bargain with the seller by making an offer and then they make a counteroffer, and so on until there's an offer on the table you both agree to.

[deird1]

We have a vague listing price - but then you put in a single offer, without knowing what anyone else has offered, and then they ring up the winner and say "Congrats! You got the house!" and that's how you find out that you didn't get it.

It might work differently in some other situations, but at the moment everyone ever is putting down offers for every house on the market, so there really isn't any negotiating happening.

[next_to_normal]

Ah, your housing market must be doing a LOT better than the US one, then. Ours is slowly recovering, but there's still nowhere near that level of competition. When I bought my place two years ago, buyers could pretty much dictate the terms of the sale. Score one for the terrible economy, I suppose?

[velvetwhip]

Obviously, real estate works VERY differently there, because here in the USA we know what the seller is listing the house for right from the get-go.


Gabrielle

[killing_rose]

Here via network. As a former licensed Realtor in the US, I am just--baffled. List price, your Realtor knows about how much you can haggle (and which pieces--closing costs, new flooring bonus, appliances, the dog--no, seriously, my boss once haggled buying the seller's dog as part of the contract--you can get included). Some of that's based on things in the non-public listing comments, some's based on the listing agent, some's just based on intuition and experience.

I...how in gods' names do you not have a decent ballpark on whether or not you're offering the right contract price? We had a three to five house showing, first offer accepted general guideline that was met on a weekly basis.

[stormwreath]

I don't think I've said 'congratulations' yet.
So, congratulations!

When I bought my house it had been on the market for several months, so I didn't really have to compete with other buyers - but there was still the pain of seeing their asking price and trying to work out far under it to pitch my own offer. Life would be much more pleasant if prices were just fixed. :)


Also: somehow I could see your previous post on my LJ friends page, but not on Dreamwidth itself, so I couldn't leave a comment. So here's a secret message: I remember that discussion. Argument #4: they totally can, you know.:p

[deird1]

Thanks!

(Oops. When I created my access list, you didn't have a DW account, so you got left out. *fixes* And they so can't. Or at least not comfortably...)