I have house lust

So we may have found the house that we want to buy!

But it's too soon, and now we have to stall!

!!!

My parents were interested in seeing some homes with us during their visit, so on their first morning in town, we went out with our realtor to take a second look at a few places. One of these was a house that D and I immediately loved on our first viewing, but we kept our sentiments under wraps. No sense giving our realtor more reasons to prod us about getting pre-approved for a loan.

Mom and Dad had already previewed the pictures of the house and looked it up on Zillow.com (a very useful website for previous sale information among other details the realtors are loath to disclose), so we had a pretty good idea about how reasonable the listing price was. The current owners are definitely asking way more than any smart buyer in this market should pay, so we've been watching the listing closely for any changes. Yesterday, our realtor forwarded us a notice that the owners have dropped the price. Not by much, but it might be enough for overeager buyers to jump on it.

The house isn't perfect -- there are little things that we made sure to mention in front of the realtor to sort of throw her off how much we like the place -- but I have a feeling she may have seen through some of it. There's no tub in the master bathroom (not an issue for us since we're not tub people, but future buyers may find that to be one), and the furnace is in the attic with a questionably sized crawlspace for access. If that furnace breaks, it'll be a major operation to get it out of there (not to mention putting a new one in its place). Then there's the lot across from the house that looks like it's being reclaimed as a protected wetland, but the clearing that's going on also suggests new construction(?). And let's not forget the problem of the greenbelt overgrowth behind the house. Right now, the plants back there are young, but we're not sure what the law says about trimming all that stuff back when it gets higher than the fence. Are we allowed to touch it? Some sources say no. And that would mean a raggedy mess to try to market when it's our turn to sell ...

But how can we not love this house when D and my parents and I can envision our children sleeping in the bedrooms?!? Dad was so funny -- because of the depth of the greenbelt, he was concerned that mountain lions might be able to make off with his future grandchildren while they were playing in the backyard. The fact that he was even thinking about grandchildren was just too cute, but the fact that he was serious about the mountain lions was even cuter.

(It is highly unlikely that mountain lions would prowl the neighborhood we're looking at. There's more of a chance that they'd appear around our current apartment complex, which is not far from the foothills of the Cascades.)

This post has to stop here for now -- I am on my way to wedding #4 for the summer. The next installment on my parents' visit when I get to my next internet connection! And if anyone has ideas on how to prevent someone else from buying this house, we're all ears ...