I’m still working a lot and taking “some” time off of house hunting (still reviewing listings that I get sent). I’ve been giving myself Sunday’s off so that I can focus on other things outside of work, such as Church, my beautiful girlfriend Jenna, and just living it up.

I’ve really liked the past couple Sundays. They’ve been eventful and full of activities. Last week we went to church and then went to IKEA and got some stuff to hang on my walls in the apartment (looks like I’ll be here for a while). After that, we came back and went for a bike ride on the beach.

It was pretty windy, so we didn’t get to go for that long of a bike ride before having to head back. It was still fun thought. Jenna was having a hard time pedaling her beach cruiser, while I was having no problems with my road bike (thank God for gears).

We went on later on that night and got some more frames and took some photos I took of NYC and got them developed and hung them up. I’m doing a “big city” theme in my place. I have a huge picture of Downtown LA, and a couple pictures I got of the skyline from NYC, and then those ones I took.

Today we went to Church, and then hit up Crystal Cove and checked out the Tide Pools. It was pretty fun.

Sea Urchin

Jenna wrote out first initials in the sand, and then quickly cleared it with her feet:

… and then she looked at my like this:

After checking out the Tide Pools, we went for a walk on the beach. It was a nice, quiet, natural beach.

I have the most beautiful girlfriend ever:

We drove back to Long Beach taking PCH the whole way. It was a nice drive.

We ended the night with Chipotle, Episodes of The Office (I’m getting Jenna caught up).

It was a pretty rough week, but things are pretty darn amazing right now :)

<3:

It’s not going to end the way that I wanted it to, but I think it’s for the best.

They sent me another offer for $233,000 ($8,000 over the appraised value – yeah, they want the $8,000 tax credit I would be getting). They also slipped in the offer that they wouldn’t be paying the $5,500 previously agreed to for closing costs, which would mean that if I had just accepted the offer thinking that I had the $8,000 coming at the end of the year, that I would have to pay the $5,500 extra, or lose my $7,000 deposit.

It all just seems really sneaky to me and seems like they’re really trying to get me to pay more than what the house is worth. Sure, I would have paid $250,000 for the house. I was assuming that the house was worth what they listed it for. But, the house is only worth $225,000, and they’re just trying to make more money than that. I would understand if they put some labor or investment into the house, but they didn’t. They bought it and turned around and sold it without making any improvements (which is in the paperwork they sent me). I’m just not going to let them sucker me into paying more than the house is worth because they think I’ll do whatever it takes to get the house – even spend money that I don’t have (yet).

I’m going to spend the rest of tonight praying about it and thinking about it. I had more clarity on the way home from work that I should just pass this up and let them have their bad investment and try to find someone else to sell the house to.

I love Jenna a whole lot, and she helped me edit every “in to” into “into”.

The updated appraisal has been sent to the selling agent. Now I wait to see what happens from here.

I don’t sleep enough these days.

Got the revised appraisal just now. It went up 2% to $227,000.

The comparables that that seller wanted the Appraiser to use are COMPLETELY different than the house that I’m trying to buy. The original Appraisal compared houses in the same track as mine. The new one they wanted to compare with houses in a completely different neighborhood about a mile away. They’re nicer houses and are roughly 10-15k more than the appraisal of the house I bid on. It seems legit. The sellers just need to accept that this is truly what the house is worth.