我在西雅图当房奴(2)

(三) 转移战场–花明柳暗篇

一个朋友听了我们的经历,说:”你们为什么不去Sammamish看房呀?”
其实在刚看房时就有许多朋友推荐我们去那儿,而且他们中好多人也就住在那里. Sammamish是一个新开发的处于丘陵 (或高原) 小城, 地势有起伏, 树木很多, 非常幽静, 也非常漂亮.尤其是早晨, 云雾缭绕犹如仙境.  房子比较新,面积比较大,结构也更合理, 最关键的是学区不错,价格便宜,而且不象Somerset那么竞争激烈,或许可以享受一下”上帝”的待遇哟. 我们曾在一个月前去那儿看过一处房, 90年的房子,2300 呎, 结构很好, 要价才40万. 可我当时就是觉得太远(离公司10麦),而且去那里来回只有一条行车道, 比较堵.尤其要是有什么交通事故,简直要堵死了….
可是当我们确定要转移目标,便开始看Sammamish的房子的时候,才发现那么宽松的竞争环境已是老黄历了.那里的价格也早已上升到和两三个月前的Somerset的房价不相伯仲了. 最可怕的是,出价时也要往上加,因为每家房子都有四五个offer了.看来真是应了那句话”机不可失,时不再来呀” 

不过因为”经验丰富”,我们终于有机会当了次”候补”.
一天一大早,经济人就给我们打电话说: 昨天夜里一个卖房经济人给他打电话留言,问我们是否还愿意出一周前发出的offer的同样的价格,如果愿意,就可以卖给我们. 原来那家房子我们当时加了1.5万,得了亚军. 可是冠军因为家庭的突然变故不能买了. 我和先生早已厌倦了,或者说恨透了这些天的经历, 自然很高兴的说愿意了, 晚饭妈妈还做了一大桌的饭菜说是庆祝一下我们要乔迁新居了. 可是可口的饭菜刚吃到一半,经济人又打来电话, 气愤地说卖房又反悔了,要重新上市,还要再open house, 再review offer,还说欢迎我们再次竟标!  

（四）破斧沉舟--终于胜出篇 

就这样在失败,半失败,再失败之后,房价越来越高, 我们终于”找不着北了”.
一个月后我们看上了一栋房子,感觉还不错. 经纪人看我们对那栋比较满意,当下便说”根据我的经验,你们应该至少往上加8万”. 我先生听了有点生气,私下对我说:”他可真黑,没做任何的市场调查,就让咱们加那么多, Sammamish的房子还没听说加那么多的呢,况且房子的要价也不是很低”.  权衡再三, 我们咬咬牙往上加了5万.写offer的时候,我们的心都在抖呀.
等待的日子真难熬,一分一秒都那么漫长. 第二天下午,经纪人打来电话,未开口我就从他呼吸的兴奋里知道有好消息了(毕竟3%的手续费是一大笔收入呢). 不过听他说完,我们却虽然高兴但又总觉得高兴的不是那么痛快。原来排在第二的offer只加了1.5万，所以我们只需要出比要价高1.7万的价格就可以了。想想有些后怕，要是再有一个买方经纪人也象我们的经纪人一样以后要，即使用escalate这种方法，我们也会成为冤大头的 ( 这里需要交代一下,尽管原先的经纪人还不错, 但他主要做Redmond, Bellevue & Kirkland 一带. 所以看Sammamish房时我们换了个经纪人. 但这个新经纪人让人感觉不是特别可靠.每次看房他都劝我们加3-4万, 特别急于让我们买到房子, 他就可以赚钱了, 根本不管那个价格是否合理. )就这样，虽然我们在这场战斗中胜出，我们对经纪人的信任此刻也降到了冰点，于是就注定要好事多磨了。 

(待续）

[MONKEY_MAGIC]

your article is very interesting, I just want to comment something, if Bellevue is so expensive, the price is comparable as San Francisco Bay, why don't you move over there, I am sure Silicon Valley is a much nicer place to live than Seattle. There are plenty of job opportunity for experienced people down there. Also, why don't people want to move to Tacoma area? What do you think Tacoma, Olympia area? What do you think the potential there?

[还好吗]

Sorry that I don't know IT companies here. I am working for Microsoft but not as a IT person.

But if you go to the city information in the link I provided, they have the major companies in each city ( at least Bellevue ) . if you search seattle, you may find more companies but definitely Dallas has much more IT companies than here

[spagetti]

Thanks for your reply.

We visited Seattle 2 yrs ago. Both me and my husband love the place, the city, the harbour, the national parks and beach. We talked about moving, but house there is twice as expensive as in Dallas where we currently live. I'm also concerned they don't have as many IT companies as in Dallas. What is your take on that? What are some major IT companies besides Microsoft and Amazon?

[还好吗]

We bought the house in May, 2005. Yes, I see the market is cooling down.

[spagetti]

Thanks for sharing your house hunting experience. But I do a question: Around what time did you buy the house? Was it last year or this year? I thought housing market on the west coast has been slowing down since the turn of 2006.