But no, that would have been TOO EASY...

Well, fudge. A week or so ago, our landlord called and informed us that they were selling off all their single-family properties, and we had first dibs on the one we're in. After discussing it, J & I decided that yes, it was about damn time we became homeowners and stopped throwing money down the rent hole, and went forward, doing research, etc. We had a market analysis done by a realtor that told us we should pay about $150,000 for the house. The landlord, when he had called, had said that he'd not had an appraisal done, but that he guessed the house would go for about $160,000. He wanted to get J & I on a conference call to discuss who was going to do what. When I called him back with a good time for J to be in on the call, he changed it so that we were coming by their office. The next time I talked to him, he mentioned our meeting at the office and signing a "letter of intent" to purchase. I told J about this new development, and we researched letters of intent, and were on our way to the meeting when the landlord's secretary called us; he'd had some emergency come up and couldn't meet us, and was going to be out of town this weekend, could we meet Monday? Sure. We called Monday morning and asked what time we were meeting, and then asked if we could do it Tuesday instead. Sure. So last night we go over there. I've looked up the 2004 Market Value of every house on our street, and what they last sold for... one house on our cul-de-sac with the exact same square footage sold 3 months ago for $115,000. So we walk in, and the landlord opens up his file folder with stuff printed out, and right on top of one side of the pile is a printed up "contract of sale" - J & I never said anything about it to the landlord, but I was pretty pissed. We'd gone from a phone call, to an office visit, to a letter of intent, to a contract of sale, and the bastard hadn't even gotten an appraisal done. We could tell that he was less than pleased that we'd been so diligent about our research, and told us that HIS market analysis came out at $169,900, and that they were willing to give us $5000 off of the closing or appraisal value, whichever we preferred. The jerk said he would not pay for an appraisal unless he had a contract of sale. J & I discussed it afterwards, and decided no WAY were we going to sign some stupid contract for the house when there hadn't even been an appraisal yet. *sigh*

So we doubt they're going to come down on their price, and so we're probably moving again. I'm house-hunting. Anybody know of a 3br in a nice neighborhood for sale that's not too expensive?

And I need boxes again. *groan* At least I can have a big garage sale and get rid of a bunch of CRAP before moving this time.

And I still don't have my laptop back! WAAAAA! Thank goodness my husband is so sweet as to set up a computer in the office that I can log in to... The painter's house usually gets painted last, but he's been doing a really great job of keeping our network up and happy.

Is it Friday yet?