Mrs. Dr Greys Anatomy and I have been loving our California life. We don’t miss the snow and driving alongside Texas cowboy immigrants in a Blizzard. We miss our friends but are finding solace in the food and diversity California has to offer. We love going to farmer’s markets, composting, and made full use of our “wine passport” this past year in Napa. We are also both thriving in our jobs. After we moved to California, I got promoted to a “lead remote optometrist”—basically I get paid more to answer emails, approve time off requests, and be informed of all the hot tea. Mrs. Dr Greys Anatomy is a hospitalist physician with Kaiser. It’s her first attending job out of residency—and while it has been a tough transition with increased liability, more responsibility, and considerably sicker patients—she is thriving and is such a good doctor. I am so proud of her.
Neither of us are looking to leave our jobs or California any time soon. The plan was to originally rent our previous house for at least a few years until the MRS made partner; however, things rarely go according to plan with us!
Our house was conveniently located close to the train tracks. It made my one day a week commute to Berkeley a breeze but made getting a restful night sleep nearly impossible as the train would blow it’s horn at all hours of the night. The house itself was nice, all on one level, hard floors throughout, but we had a hard time with our neighbors. We managed to move across the street from the one person who flies a Trump flag proudly in California. Our neighbors had approximately 7 vehicles, all of which would be parked directly in front of our house. The Trump-ers I believe fostered kiddos and taught them to love motorized gadgets—so at all hours of the day we’d hear the loud motor from scooters, skateboards, mini-bikes, and a beater of a vehicle. It was awful. Mrs. Dr Greys Anatomy is a sensitive sleeper as it is but this just became a recipe for disaster. That, and I’m 99% sure our house was built over a spiders nest as we consistently rehomed half a dozen spiders a day to the backyard or to the afterlife. There was also a cat, Gus, who belonged to someone, perhaps the Trump family. Gus was straight up feral and attacked Bernie through our window, ruining our screen.
We started looking for other living arrangements perhaps a little prematurely, but we knew we wanted to end up in a college town about 20 minutes away. The town houses more like minded individuals, lots of doctors and lawyers, they have some of the best school districts in the state and country, and a green belt that connects the entire town with walking and biking paths. For those familiar with Colorado, it is like if Boulder and Ft. Collins had a baby. It seemed a little more our scene, and we had several friends and live in the area. The icing on top of the cake was we were without power for over 48 hours after a wind and rainstorm. The first day was kinda fun, a new adventure. Us wearing headlamps and puff jackets, and heading to the hospital to charge our devices. But after that, it was significantly less fun–especially because the MRS just did a Costco run right before the power went out and we weren’t sure how safe the food was to eat so threw out the majority of it. Those who lived in our new town–their power flickered, was maybe out for 20 minutes, but not the full 48 hours that we were experiencing in our town!
Finding a rental home that wasn’t at least double what we were already paying, that had a garage, 3 bedrooms, and accepted cats was nearly impossible. Zillow ads would go unanswered, property managers would stand us up, and it was a very discouraging process. Perhaps it was because we were looking a few months too early, but we were scared with having to compete with college students looking for housing and wanted to get our foot in the door early.
Mrs Dr. Greys Anatomy, very casually, started looking at places to buy. One Saturday on my lunch break we went to an open house for a rental property that I had high hopes for. There was a line to even get in the door of prospective tenants and the MRS and I were clearly out of place as not only the oldest ones there, but also the only ones with a completed college degree and gainful employment. So we went to another open house, but this one was listed for sale.
Overall the house was great and we liked it a lot. It was right across the street from 2 of our good friends, but in an area where parking is a little difficult…and we weren’t a big fan on the staircase right as you enter. Overall, it was a large house that seemed reasonably priced in an area we would love to live. But what really got to us was the realtor…we will call him Flanners.
Flanners was painfully honest at this open house, which we both appreciated. Even though he knew we weren’t in the position to buy the house we were standing in, he took the time to explain the ever so competitive real estate market that is this town. We grabbed his card, shook his hand, and left it at that.
Now several of Mrs Dr Greys Anatomy’s co-workers didn’t get an offer accepted until their 10th one. Most in the area have to offer 10-20% over asking, and many are coming in with all cash offers, waiving inspections. The Mrs and I were not in this position. So we decided to continue to look for a rental, but also had our Zillow filters to for sale options as well. Once we calculated our rough mortgage payment and did a deeper dive into housing costs, especially in the area we were looking, we decided to look more seriously at buying.
When Mrs Dr Greys Anatomy and I were first looking for a rental prior to moving to California, we asked her employer if they had any connections with real estate agents to show us around and to help us find a home as we were moving from out of state. They set us up with one, we will call her Kim Kardashian, and while she was nice and a handworker, she just wasn’t who I think either of us needed in looking for a home. She was very pushy to try to get us to buy rather than rent our first year, she does have some lip fillers and probably a BBL and she never once pronounced Mrs Dr Greys Anatomy name correctly—one of my biggest pet peeves.
After going out with her and seeing properties for a day, I was left less than impressed. She kept trying to get us to sign an agreement with her that would give her exclusive rights to show us homes, making it so we had to buy our home through her. I knew we needed someone who was a little more patient and willing to hold our hands a little more than Kim Kardashian, and someone who would give us a better shot in buying a house. So I reached back out to Flanners who welcomed the Mrs and I to his office, had hot tea waiting for us on a rainy day, and just talked to us for hours, getting to know us as people first. The first session with him almost felt like marriage counseling. We went and saw a few properties with him—including one that hadn’t been listed yet which we loved. If it was one bedroom bigger, we probably would have bought it.
Flanners made it clear that we weren’t married to him and were just “dating”. He wanted to take us to see as many homes as possible to show us the town more and get a better feel if we were looking to buy a starter home that could eventually be turned into a rental or if we were looking for a forever property. He also told us we would not be signing any agreement with him—he wanted what’s best for us and understands he is not the best option for everyone; but, we knew he was the best option for us. What really sold us—his clients usually write just one offer for a home and it get’s accepted, not the dozen or so Kim Kardashian and other real estate agents were having to write. He would send us updates on properties that were listed, what the offers were and what they sold for. We were amazed at how much over asking some homes went. One of the houses he listed went for $350,000 over asking, cash offer, and beat out the next highest offer by only $5,000. The home had over 1,000 views on Zillow within 48 hours and people traveled across the state and country to come see it during the open house. After he shared these numbers with us we jokingly asked if we were his poorest clients (an optometrist and a physician mind you), to which he seriously responded “No, but bottom five.”
Mrs. Dr Greys Anatomy went to check out an open house that was posted at 1:00AM that Saturday morning. She texted me “I really like this house.” Then video called me, showing me the functional and open layout—something we weren’t getting with a lot of older builds. It was all on one level which was a requirement, because let’s face it, no one can pay to cool a two story home with California electric prices. There was an office, three bedrooms, lots of natural light with tall windows and high ceilings, and a pool in the backyard. It is across from the greenbelt and the first house she walked into and saw potential. She knew we needed to come back and come back with Flanners.
To be continued….