Part 4: "Really? You're really asking that much for THIS?"

My advice to anyone in the LA area that are considering striking out on a house hunting adventure and only have a budget from $425,000 and less; do NOT watch those house hunting shows on HGTV. Those shows are filmed in Denver, the mid-West, Maryland and outside Atlanta where there actually seems to be an inventory of houses...houses that are actually worth what the seller is listing for.

Thinking back at our first couple of weeks of our search I look on the Tim and Renata of February of 2009 as a whole other couple. That Tim and Renata's naivety is adorable. They sat down a day or two after finding out they got approved for a mortgage and discussed what they wanted in a house. They opened Excel and made a "need" column and a "want" column. The need column were all the things they absolutely wanted in a house. They wouldn't even consider a house that didn't have all of these "needs." The "want" column, on the other hand, was just a list of things that we'd like in a house, but realizing our budget isn't huge, (by LA standards), they weren't deal breakings.

Our needs list included: two bedrooms, 1.5 to 2 bathrooms, a garage, outside space, (yard, big deck), big living room, and at least 1,000 square feet.

Our wants list included; a third bedroom or bonus room-den and a BIG kitchen.

Ah, so much fun to look back on that time when we believed we had a choice. Almost like looking back at childhood when we believed in Santa Claus.

Around this time I was poking around on a site called estately.com, I believe, and saw a house in our neighborhood that fit all our parameters. I swung by after work and it looked pretty nice from outside. So I went back on the site and clicked on the "schedule a viewing" button, filled in my info and waited. The next day I got a voicemail from a Real Estate agent named Gayle who told me she'd be happy to show me the house, but it had some serious foundation issues. "Hm," I thought, "that is a bummer, but it was cool of her to tell me that up front."

So I saw a few other listings and submitted a few other showing requests and was met with either tepid or no responses. Gayle eventually called back to follow up so we decided to go with her as our agent.

Our first real day looking at houses was a weekday evening and I sent a list of two places we'd like to see and Gayle suggested a third, which was where we started. The first day we actually met with her assistant, David, who lived closer, at a location on Ave. 42. It was listed at 900+ sf with a lot of around 2,000sf. 900? Yeah, right. The place was quite cute and well kept, but, my god, was it tiny. They must have included the balcony as part of the square footage and the lot was pie shaped. No room at all for expansion.

Next up, an empty place on Division st. Nice curb appeal, neat location in a hilly community, but oh, the horror. The inside looked like a 1970's horror film. Shag carpet and primary colored and cracked walls, but that was nothing compared to the amonia smell of cat urine that was permeating the air. David and Renata immediately started sniffling and their eyes swelled and watered. Always the optimist, I soldiered on and pointed out the plusses, "Oh, the rooms are pretty big, eh?" and "wow, it's such a nice neighborhood" and "oh, look at the size of the back yard." Renata simply stared at me for a moment and then rolled her eyes and laughed.

"I'm sorry, David," she said, "Do you have allergies?"

"I guess so," he replied, "but it's not your fault." Such a nice guy.

And off we ran to the next house, our hopes dashed, symbolically screaming into the evening, running away from this monster.

Next up, Kimlin Ave in Glendale. A cute little street that dead-ended at a school. A guarantee that nights and weekends and summers would be quiet and a guarantee the street would be well patrolled and safe. While not as scary as Division st, the Kimlin house was in definite need of what listing agents like to call TLC. i.e. heavy renovation.

Well, we bid farewell to David, after giving him some tourist tips on Boston, as we had just moved from there and he was on his way for a long weekend trip, and we bid goodnight to our first day of house hunting. We were a bit flustered, but still hopeful. We'll find a place yet.