OMG!  Buying a house is so time-consuming, stressful and there are so many things we need to consider.  And, it has not become easier despite the economy has improved over the past 4 years – on the contrary.  We receive daily mortgage offers by email and snail-mail, not to mention phone calls from eager sales people selling mortgages.

The majority of real estate agents are willing to sell anything, work long hours to sell you the next family homestead, and most likely sell themselves too.  They have automated email listings based on our wishes, but most of the houses we’ve seen on these lists are nowhere near what we are looking for.

We must’ve visited 20-30 houses in the past few months, just to see what’s available on the market, and then prepare ourselves for the giant leap forward and become house owners again.  It beats paying high rent and paying off someone else’s mortgage.

Realtor US term - Real Estate Agent EU term

Trulia and Zillow have played a huge role in our house hunting adventures.  And no, we are not getting money for the house, or some other prizes, but it’s a fact.  Those two sites are great at showing you houses that you need, and then share the list with your realtor.  Your realtor hates when you do this, as they don’t have to do much work and you know more about the house you are interested in than they do.  And because it’s a huge investment, at least for 99% of us, the potential buyer’s read up on their prospects.

Once you finally find the house, you have to go through some “basic” paper signing exercises with your realtor.  This is just the beginning our your autographing skills.

Anyway, we have started this journey now, since our landlord has decided to sell the house we are renting, leaving us few options to continue to rent.  I guess it’s fate that has kicked off this process; we want to own and he wants to sell.  Unfortunately our budget is nowhere near his asking price, so we have to shop around.

Our youngest daughter has stated that we will be living in a big white house soon.  Not sure how that will work out, since non-nationals cannot vote or run for presidency … one day that might change and our kids will end up having top jobs, perhaps even president.