Last week, I covered my obsession with house-hunting online. How I'm addicted to the MLS Listings, how I can spend hours scrolling through pictures of homes, Google mapping neighborhoods and comparing home values on Zillow.com.
I love it. It makes me feel good.
It makes me feel hopeful and excited and like my dream house is just one click away, all I have to do is find it.
But house-hunting in real life - opening closet doors and peering into dark, dingy basements --now that's another story.
It's like online dating.
First there's the flirtation.
Oh, look at that house's profile! Look how cute it is! It says it has an enclosed screened porch. And a creek in the backyard. A full basement and a walk-in master en suite. Oh wow! I have to see this now!
I schedule an appointment with my agent. I squeeze in a showing between work and daycare and doctor's appointments and whatever else fills up every second of the day.
We pull up to the "House for Sale" with baited breath.
And it doesn't look at all like the pictures I spent hours drooling over online.
In real life, the house is the size of a shack. The screens are rotting off their hinges. The basement has water stains half-way up the walls from numerous floodings. Railroad tracks run through the backyard. Or it's practically located on I-95. And the "creek" is a dried-up ditch.
What a faker! It's like showing up for a blind date only to find a toothless guy with a comb-over and a bad case of halitosis.
It's depressing. And exhausting. And extremely, extremely time-consuming.
I'll house hunt for a day or two and then take a break.
I get home and think:
But I love my house. My house is so much better than all of these houses. Maybe I don't want to leave anyway. Maybe this is where I belong.
If I could put my arms around my 150-year old house, I would. She's so charming with her stained glass windows and curving brick patios. She's like a little old stately lady: fragile and expensive, but really, really pretty and super sweet.
But then the things that made me put the home up for sale start cropping up again. We're bursting at the seams with baby toys and Big Wheels and I have nowhere to put everything.
What I wouldn't give for a garage! Or a kitchen with an island!
And then, before I know it, I'm back to scrolling the MLS Listings on Richmond.com again. Hoping and wishing to find that dream house...that matches (or even surpasses) its online description.
Hunter House is an anonymous Richmond homeowner who is chronicling selling her house and (hopefully!) buying a new one in the RVA. Her home has been on the market for a year. You can find her frequently scrolling the MLS Listings on Richmond.com and Google mapping your neighborhood.
Check out last week's House Lust here. Or go here for a full archive of House Lust columns.
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