Installment #27 - Housing market-related

Selling and buying a home should be exciting, but, to me, it is so stressful. I've been fixing up my house for a bazillion years, it seems! Will I ever get done? I had put down vinyl flooring last year and loved it - this year, the white ones (I did a kelly green/white checkerboard pattern) turned yellowish. So, I decided to do it all over again - this time I am doing it in "faux wood" - so far, it's very pretty. Knock on wood!

I plan to sell my house and buy another soon - hopefully a foreclosure or at least a decent priced fixer-upper. My current home has a "great room" - the 'open floor plan' that is so popular today. But, I feel that it's a lot of wasted space - I'd prefer storage and work areas as opposed to blank space. I've got a serious search ahead of me!

Anyhow, I keep my TV on HGTV (I'm in love with David, Barry, and George!) and I am looking around for good deals. No luck so far, but I can't give up - it'll happen. I hope.

I've googled 'foreclosures' and 'real estate listings' and 'sell my home' and 'buy a home' - of the 40, only 9 were not good.

Here are the results of sites I've checked into:

BAD:

• realtor.com
• homes.com
• loopnet.com
• ibuyhouses.com
• homegain.com
• realtytrac.com
• foreclosuredata.com
• emailforeclosures.com
• foreclosurestore.com

GOOD:

• realestate.com
• listingvue.com
• homescape.com
• weichert.com
• remax.com
• househunt.com
• point2.com
• owners.com
• forsalebyowner.com
• ushomeassist.com
• sellhomeshere.com
• sellmyhouse.com
• fsbon.com
• expresshomebuyers.com
• fsboamerica.org
• savemefromforeclosure.com
• ziprealty.com
• homebuyinginstitute.com
• newbuyer.com
• masshousing.com
• michaelbluejay.com
• buyhomedirect.com
• ourfamilyplace.com
• thehomebuyingcenter.com
• buygreen.com
• foreclosures.com
• foreclosurefreesearch.com
• foreclosuredeals.com
• homemortgageforeclosures.com
• foreclosurenet.net
• bankhouses.com

I would love to talk to people out there in cyberspace who may be going through some of the same things I am. The preparation, the financing, the architectural preferences, dealing with agents, dealing with sellers, dealing with contractors, et cetera. Drop me a line at hanna dot geni at yahoo dot com or leave it in the comments.