Old House, New House

So here is the story about our housing situation. Britney and I knew that Charlie would push the limits of our current house as far as size goes and it would soon be time to do some house shopping. My plan was to get our house ready, have Charlie, put our house on the market and then find a new house. Britney's went like this, find a new house, make an offer and get the offer accepted, get our house ready, put it on the market, then have Charlie. What actually happened is we listed our house 2 weeks before Charlie was born, sold it the first weekend, signed the papers for both the sale and purchase the day we were supposed to be induced, then had Charlie. We move in under 4 weeks on April 18th.

I have read a few articles that list the "Top 10" most stressful life events and I think we just did 3 of the top 10 in 1 week. We'll do the 4th in a few weeks when we move.

The new house will be great. It is in a really nice established neighborhood, has about 1,000 more sq. ft. and a nice 1/3 acre lot. It needs some work and were able to negotiate in some $ for a new roof and some other upgrades so in a year or so it will be sufficiently upgraded. Some days I wonder if I am crazy for buying this house now, but we are in it for the long haul and will likely a few more 'housing market' up and down turns before we have to move again.

I almost forgot to rave about Redfin. We bought our new house and sold our current house through Redfin. Real agents, but no high commision crap. Here's how it works. When you buy through Redfin they refund you 2% of the purchase price, they keep 1%. We had a real agent that did the paper work and everything. When you sell they charge you $4,000. You get a sign, open house signs, they send a photographer to shoot the house, post it to www.redfin.com, craigslist and other sites and make a flier. The home owner hosts the open houses, but once you have an offer a real agent handles the closing and everything. LOVE IT!! I easily saved $25k between the 2 houses.