Impeccable Timing

My husband and I have a horrible sense of timing.

In July of 1999, we bought a house two months before the furnace and water heater went out and the roof started leaking.

In March of 2000, we left for a two month pack across Europe. Many economist mark 03/00 as the start of the US recession.

In September of 2001, we left for a 10 day teaching stint in Minsk, Belarus. Our return flight was scheduled for September 11.

And now, in April of 2005, we are in the process of buying a second home. Our dream is to move to Edmonds (less of a commute and what a great town!) We also want to keep our starter home in Kirkland as a rental. We have heard so much about what a good investment this can be.

I must say, Verity has been great in this whole process. They ran so many different financial scenarios to see if we could swing two mortgages and they made it work! I swear I was going back to Shari Peterson every other day with questions like, ‘what if we put 10% down and increased our current HELOC?” “What if we put zero down and took out a second?” “what if we did a 40 year mortgage and rented our current place for less?”. Every time she would give me a new good faith estimate until we landed on what worked best for us. And she was so NICE about it (patient too). Then, when we finally closed and took possession, everyone in the department seemed so happy for us. I’m not just saying that because I work here. It is true. They were nice and helpful and happy for us. That felt good.

So now we are moving from one house to another and taking classes on being landlords and sprucing up our old place. Why do I think we have bad timing? Well, I’m 8 months pregnant. It’s hard to pack, move, spruce, rent, when you are as big as the new house you just purchased.

Timing.