...for me over the past two years or so and is only getting worse. First I traveled back and forth from Benton, AR to TN about an hour east of Memphis to look at houses. It was a fairly long drive to see maybe one to three houses each time I made the trip. Then the trip got longer when I moved to NE TX. It got more expensive too because a trip meant two or three nights at a motel.
Then I got sick, was sick for quite a while and was finally diagnosed with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in September 2020. I kept looking but with the RMSF, and with COVID-19 already upon us for quite some time by then, things were screwed up badly. Many realtors refused to show houses in person and told me to view houses online (frack those - idiots) because of the China Virus.
Then in December 2020 I came down with the Rona V and that knocked me out of the house hunt for a couple or few months. I was only sick about 2 weeks but the after effects were lasting for months, such as general malaise and feeling miserable.
I was able to make some additional trips to TN in there but gave up last year in disgust when the realtor with whom I was working did not get back to me on a house I wanted to see. When I traveled to TN again and saw her next, she told me the house was fabulous, almost perfect condition and ready to move in with no repairs needed. I asked why she had not gotten back to me on it. She told me she brought another client to view it and he made an offer but did not get it. She never said why she did not get back to me on it. Not only was the house supposedly near perfect, it came with about 30 acres as I recall and was well under 200K. I was ready to offer up to 20K more than they had been asking dependent upon me seeing the house and liking it as much as did she. But, as I said, she for some reason did not see fit to get back to me on it. I tried another trip to TN with her showing me houses but that was a dismal failure as well. So that was it for her and for my trips to TN.
I then started looking mostly in TX and a bit in AR but since AR has an income tax, I looked there only now and then when disgusted with not finding anything in TX. The thing is, I was not finding anything anywhere and that was/is due to house prices going through the roof over the past year and currently still climbing. Houses that had asking prices of about 90K two years ago, even just a year or so ago, where I live currently, now have asking prices of $120K up to $140,000.00 and they usually are in need of repairs. That is insanity.
Add to all the rising house prices, that the cost of everything is going up due to the failures of Joe Biden & Company and that mortgage interest rates are starting to take off and it looks as if I may never buy a house (or at least not buy one in the near future). Of course, I am still looking because hope springs eternal and so does despair. The despair I mean is if inflation keeps going the way it is running now, well I won't have enough money in my bank account to buy half a loaf of bread in a year or two if not sooner. Right now, I can buy a less expensive house for cash and am hoping to do so before prices go up more.
All in all, as I said above: House hunting has sucked! Yet, I am going out to look at 3 or 4 tomorrow. I had about 8 on my wish list but that I found on Zillow last night but the realtor I am working with told me all but three are under contract. Of course, those are most of the nicer ones. Anyway, at least we have three, maybe even four, to see tomorrow. The search goes ever on... .
All the best,
Glenn B
