How to go Mad (or Die Trying) in about a Week...

Try to buy a house in that time period.

So yes, as I mentioned before, we decided to venture into the real estate market.

As of last week, we were still in the looking around phase. We made the bold move to start working with an agent and began to think about a more focused search.

First thing she did, was to send me off to some mortgage bankers to get pre-approved for a mortgage. And we made plans to see some houses with her on the weekend, including one house we had already seen and found much to our liking.

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, our agent had to cancel and reschedule for Tuesday. We were already in the area because we had made plans to have lunch with a friend of ours whose mother lives that way. So we made a trip to the house anyway, just to get a look at it from outside.

On Monday, I followed up with the mortgage people getting copies of all sorts of financial documents to them to try to get the coveted pre-approval.

One Tuesday, we finally met up with our agent to see a few houses including the one we liked. As we walked around, we decided that we really did love it. When we got home, though, we found out that it had an offer on it. That's when everything started going really crazy. I called the agent and she asked me what we wanted to do. I didn't know. I never have done this before.

"Help!" I requested.

She then explained that we needed to make our own offer quick, which required the pre-approval. I asked if we could meet the following day to go through our options and the steps we needed to take.

I then called mortgage guy to let him know we needed the pre-approval. He said he would work on it.

On Wednesday we met with our agent who had received the pre-approval (yay!) and we put in our offer. The seller's agent said they were going to get a third offer. So we expected to hear back the following day or maybe even Friday. After two days on edge and running on adrenaline, I thought we would have a few days to breathe and let things settle a bit.

No chance.

That evening our agent called saying that our offer was accepted. So then it was off to get a lawyer, contact the mortgage guy, and set up an inspection. Yesterday we had the inspection and everything looks great.

Now we need to actually get the mortgage. And something do cope with the repeated surges in adrenaline and the utter exhaustion of the past week.

Wish us luck - and sanity....