Sand Kastls: Click Click Click Click

House hunting is much like a roller coaster. Especially in South Florida, 2010. We moved into an apartment back in January after Adam's work has shifted to being down here rather than Central Florida. After buying an overpriced house at the height of the market and seeing about 20% of the value diminish over a few years time, we want this purchase to be a sound investment. So, with that experience behind us, we have moved forward on our home search. Where to live? How do you decide on an area when there are so many choices? Since Adam spends many days of work in the car and all over the region, our options have been pretty open.

So, if South Florida is Kings Island*, we will call our ride from January to March The Vortex (Lots of ups and downs, pretty long as far as roller coasters go)

Choose the location. Click Click, going up.
Find a house. Click click.
Lose house because it was a foreclosure in an auction-type sale, we were not the highest bidder. (House sold for over $100K more than the asking price)Weeeeee, down the first hill, my stomach was left at the top.
Find a house. Click Click.
Lose house because seller does not want to come down on asking price. Head is pounding against the restraints during the cork screw.
Seller returns to the negotiation table and reduces price. Click Click
Lost home for good when home appraises for $35K less than appraisal and sellers are unwilling to budge on contract price, and we are unwilling to pay over the market value. Going upside down is unnatural and I have to get off this ride. I can't do it anymore!

By the end of March, I was remembering how the Vortex gives me a headache,and isn't as great as I thought it was when I first saw it. At the end of March, I decided, along with my husband, that a new roller coaster would be worth a try. So we stopped for a Skyline Chili dog and a twist cone, and moved on. Call April The Beast. (Older and shorter than the Vortex, ups and downs not as extreme, but roller coater nonetheless.)

Breach subject about looking in another area with our realtor. Click Click.
Realize there aren't many houses in this market for sale. Click click,
Make everything a little more exciting by adding a time constraint. (we have an AMAZING interest rate locked for a fixed amount of time.) Click Click. Whirring around a fast turn, kind of scary, but a thrill.
Find a house. WEEEEEE!

And so now we wait. Our new prospective house is in the older part of Delray Beach, a mile from the Atlantic Ocean. It is a fixer upper project and a short sale. This means we are waiting for the bank as to whether or not the purchase price is acceptable for them, or not. At which point, we may or may not have a house. Fingers crossed again.

The thing about old roller coasters is that they may stall. So here we sit on the hard bench of a seat... and wait.