17.7

She Says: Welcome new follower! After weeks or no reading the blog, a new follower brings me joy!!!!

An update...

Step one sell the house - Our house is basically sold (the hoops between now and seven years ago are amazing).  Minor negotiations on how much our check to the buyers at closing are all that is left (mortgage company wants a new electric panel because the manufacturer is out of business, but it still works fine...).

Step two find a place to live - We learned that it is no longer possible to rent a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom in downtown Columbia PERIOD. So with a yearning for Main Street life we made an offer on a gorgeous, perfect, feels like home 2 bedroom 2 bath top floor condo that welcomes cats AND overlooks the fountain in front of the art museum Saturday... but lost the sale to a prior verbal agreement at a much smaller selling price (our bid was 90K less than selling price five years ago, but still far above the winning verbal bid).  We have a great extended story line based on fact to sell to the writers of The Sopranos.

So now we look to the Vista.

Vista appears to have a plethora of perfect two bedroom two bathroom condos (1100 plus square feet, open floor plan, balconies,  two covered parking places, storage, views, etc. for less than our previous offer). But true to our adventure these units are listed with less than professional agents. One hasn't been introduced to the 21st century and put a lock box on the property and several others are short sells (for those naive like me, about to go to foreclosure so 30 days to 6 months before the closing date).   We will look at three such properties tomorrow:)

Stayed tuned, we are looking at three properties tomorrow that cover the spectrum of our opportunities. It is a shame the Residence Inn (extended stay hotel) I worked for locally is now under another owner...