Brain Sludge

That’s what I’ve got between my ears these days, or at least it’s what it feels like way too often. A huge factor is the whole “Forever Home” hunt. I have looked at so many houses on Zillow in the past three years. Literally hundreds. Probably not at a thousand plus just yet, but if Zillow had the stats to show me otherwise I wouldn’t be that surprised.

They all blur together, both individual homes and locals. This is the view from our hotel room in May when we went to visit the Apple Valley / Hesperia / Victorville (the “Victor Valley” or “High Desert” area) out on I-15 about halfway to Las Vegas.

There’s still a little snow on the surrounding mountains, and it looks very nice in the winter when there’s more. Sometimes they even get some here, being up at about 3,000′ elevation. But if you didn’t know, this could be Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Palm Springs, or anyplace in the Los Angeles area away from the coast (the “Inland Empire”). Huge lots of weeds, huge shopping centers, parking lots to the horizon, dotted with housing tracts, some “okay” and some really nice. But they’re all cut from the same cloth.

Now we’re seeing houses that we looked at in May which sold in June that are now dropping out of escrow and coming back onto the market, which confuses me even more as I’m trying to keep track of what we’ve seen, what the current price and status are, and so on. One place was “the dream house” and it’s absolutely freaking stunning, but not perfect and I have to wonder if the yellow flags are actually red flags and my “house lust” is blinding me to their true nature. Another that showed up today looks great on Zillow, but I remember going to see it in person and it was a bit on the “what a dump!” side. So never buy something sight unseen based on the Zillow listing. Those pictures might not be current and they might have been “cleaned up” just a touch, or selectively edited.

I would kill right now to have our ducks lined up on financing, pick a place that hits all of the “must haves” and has a handful of “wanna haves” and is more than just “good enough.” Then we could pull the trigger, get through escrow, and get through the ordeal that is going to be moving again for the very last time.

When that time comes, I think the biggest decision will be how much “good enough” is actually good enough. We’re looking at a range of houses and a range of prices, and there are $450K houses that I could live in if it were an emergency but they’ll never be my first choice, while there are also $700K “dream” houses. Of course, there’s a whole spectrum in between, with some $550K houses that are pretty nice and some $650K houses that I like a lot. Where on that spectrum do we take our shot? It’s a big decision, we’ll be there the rest of our lives if the everything goes to plan.

For those who have watched “Ted Lasso” (hopefully all of you) I would remind you of the angry and vulgar speech that Roy makes to Rebecca when she’s started dating and the guy she’s seen a couple of times is “fine.” Roy (correctly) reminds her to NEVER settle for “fine” because she’s spectacular and deserves nothing but the best. (It’s my second favorite scene in the entire series.) That sentiment haunts me when I’m looking at an array of potential houses. I don’t want to pay the mortgage on an extra $50K or $100K if I don’t have to, but I also don’t want to end up six months after moving having buyer’s remorse because the Forever Home we picked is “just fine.”

And it turns my brain to sludge. Anyone have any wisdom to share?