The Search Begins

I guess our story begins like that of most couples. Almost eight years ago we met, fell in love, and later moved in together. My cat and I made the move to Pete’s downtown apartment. Pete and I were thrilled to “set up house” together. We bought furniture and household items. We cleaned and painted. The cat hid under the dishwasher.

Our apartment has a lot going for it. It’s in the front half of a duplex, with our landlord occupying the other half. The location cannot be beat. We are technically located in the Gay-sian district, close to bars, restaurants, coffee houses, and almost every other form of entertainment available in Orlando. And the rent is pretty cheap, too!

But there are also some negatives. There’s the dryer that doesn’t dry, the toilet that runs, the water heater that chooses for you when you will have hot water, the oven door that tries to close on you, the incredibly loud dishwasher, the crappy wiring that blows out light bulbs, the ants that come to live in the winter months… Let’s see, is there anything I forgot? Oh, yeah, it’s not ours. Every little thing that we want to do to improve our living conditions has to be run by the landlord. He’s mostly a reasonable guy, but it’s still a pain in the ass.

Right before I moved in, Pete had the opportunity to buy the duplex from the previous owner for a pretty good price. But he wasn’t really thinking about home ownership at the time, and I was still in school with basically no income.

After we got married in 2004, we started saving money for a down payment on a house. According to my dad, it was either that or immediately have a baby. Unfortunately for us, that was also right around the time that the housing market starting booming in Orlando and around the country. Prices shot up dramatically. Unlike most people during that time, we wanted to be responsible; we didn’t want to get into a loan that was over our heads. We have this crazy idea that you shouldn’t buy something you can’t afford. Funny, huh?

So, we diligently saved our money and tried to wait out the housing prices. But they kept rising and rising and rising… Which brings us to August 2007. We were hearing everywhere about the housing slow-down, but apparently no one else in Orlando was. While nationwide prices began dropping, sellers in Orlando were determined not be to part of that trend. No one wanted to budge an inch, and everyone felt entitled to make a $150,000 profit on their house. That’s right, I said PROFIT. There was a lot of speculation and a lot of house flipping going on.

Despite these obstacles, we decided to finally start looking because it felt like we couldn’t stay in our apartment any longer. Within the first month, we found a house we loved. In retrospect, we made the mistake that most first-time buyers make: we believed that there might be something else out there and didn’t make an offer in time. Although losing that house was a big disappointment, we kept looking.

In October, we found another house in the same neighborhood. This time we moved quickly to make an offer. The house was listed for $250,000, and we offered $240,000, which was the top of our budget. The seller didn’t even call us back. According to the listing agent, they had like 5 other offers. And they continued to have 5 other offers for the next 6 months, when they finally suckered someone into paying the full asking price.

Again, we were disappointed. In the next few months, we saw a lot of crappy and overpriced houses. I know that some people might say we’re too picky. We have a very limited radius outside downtown where we would consider living. In a city as small as Orlando, there is no reason to live anywhere but downtown. There’s nothing to do, and no public transportation to use to get anywhere. We want an established neighborhood with older homes and big trees. The idea of living in one of those cookie-cutter developments in revolting to me.

-- Yana