Condo or house hunting can be a really fun thing. I used to go to open houses from time to time just to see what is out there, especially in my neighborhood. I never asked my realtor to show me places I wasn’t serious about, but if there was an open house I felt ok taking a look. And if the seller’s realtor asked me, I was always honest and said I wasn’t seriously looking at the moment but looking at things for the future.
But serious condo hunting is a very different feeling. I think I am feeling a bit more stress than I need to because I feel like there is more of a time crunch than actually exists. But I am seriously looking and it has been a lot so far. In about 2 weeks, I’ve gone to over 10 properties. Some of these were when my parents were in town and we looked at a lot of condos in a single afternoon. Some are condos that my realtor has taken me to on my own. And some have been open houses for places I’m interested in. I have to say, going to open houses alone hasn’t really been that fun for me. It feels like the seller’s realtor is always asking me questions when I just want to look and think about what I feel about the place. And I don’t want to ask to be left alone because that’s rude. But because of my availability and when I can see places, going to open houses seems to be more common for me lately.
But because I’m not really enjoying going to open houses alone and I want to make condo hunting more fun, I decided to reach out to a few of my friends to see if anyone wanted to come with me this past weekend. And my friend Pamela said she’d love to so she joined me for condo hunting on Sunday! Originally I was going to look at 3 places, but I changed my mind on one and the other didn’t have an open house so we only looked at one place together.
And I’m so glad she was with me to look at the condo. It was one of the oddest ones I’ve seen so far. The main entrance opened into the main bedroom and there were no doors on either bedroom. It also had a lot of weird quicks that I think the seller thought were cool. But it just didn’t work and it was not at all what I was looking for. But because of the photos on the listing, I had no clue it was like that. I guess some photos can really hide the less flattering features of a place.
And because I wasn’t alone, I had someone to talk to as we were walking through the place and to give looks to when the seller’s realtor was trying to sell us on features that I didn’t love. It made the experience so much better. Plus, it gave me time to hang out with a friend which is a luxury I don’t do enough these days! And we did luck out when we went to the condo because it was crowded before we got there, but it seemed like everyone was leaving when we arrived. So we didn’t have to be around too many people. Even with wearing masks and having so many people in LA vaccinated, I still try to avoid crowded places as much as possible.
After we looked around the condo, Pamela and I got to hang out outside and catch up. We’ve only seen each other once in person since the pandemic, and that was a really brief moment. This time, we really got to talk and it was so great. I needed some social time and it really let me decompress from stressful things going on in my life.
And now, I have someone willing to come with me to future open houses! I’m so glad that I don’t have to keep going alone now and I have someone else to bounce ideas and thoughts off of as I look at more and more potential places!
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