I bought my first house in 1979. I was so excited I don’t remember feeling any kind of buyer’s remorse. When I bought my next house I tried selling my first one on my own. Because of doing that, I missed out on the home of my dreams (at that time). We were “bumped” off our contract because our home hadn’t sold yet.
A friend of mine had just received her license so after attempting it on my own for 4-6 weeks, I gave in and let her list it. It sold very quickly and I netted more than I would have if I sold it on my own. That was my introduction to real estate selling.
But it took a few more years until I got my own license, in 1983. I will be celebrating my 26th year in the business this year. I have owned many of my own properties, including a 4-flat in Chicago. I’m an experienced REALTOR and home owner.
So you’d think it would be easy for me to purchase a 2nd home (actually, a condo) in Scottsdale, AZ, right? 
Not!
I’ve gone back and forth with my excitement. Of course, the first thoughts were , “Oh, this is exciting. I can’t wait to start looking!” At this stage of the game I was only searching for properties on Realtor.com. I had my agent lined up but I wasn’t crazy about her IDX search.
Then my husband had a band gig in AZ for New Year’s Eve and we got serious. Our agent set us up for an automated search. We kept searching another agent’s IDX since it was set-up better than our own agent’s. But before we actually went out there I fell into a stage of “buyer’s remorse.”
This wasn’t a normal purchase, this was a 2nd home purchase. It would sit vacant most of the year. We’d probably have to put some work into it before we could even attempt to rent it out (short term rentals). This would be an additional mortgage payment.
We did our financial homework and unless I don’t earn any money at all this year, we’ll be OK. But I was still scared. I talked to a few people online and offline and I felt better for it.
Right before our trip I got excited again and couldn’t wait to view properties. My husband was a little miffed at me that I set our first round of appointments the day of our arrival. But he ended up being glad I did it that way.
It was definitely fun looking and we actually had a handful of condos that we would have considered making a bid on. We narrowed it down to three. You can read my journal about Scottsdale real estate by clicking on the link.
I’m so in love with Scottsdale I’m thinking of getting licensed there and partnering up with someone to take any leads I might get while I’m back here in Illinois.
If you’re looking to relocate to Arizona give me a call at 708-536-8200 or use my Contact Form. I have a large list of professional REALTORS in different AZ areas. Of course, if you’re looking in the Chicago southwest suburbs, contact me right away. I’m seeing increased buying activity with these low rates.
The photo above is by ACME-Nollmeyer
