Finding a Realtor

Now that we have somewhere between half a dozen and a baker's dozen homes that we'd like to look at, we need to find a realtor.  I have two recommendations from coworkers, which is helpful when the alternative is picking someone randomly online.  The first woman came recommended by two coworkers, but she hasn't returned N's email or call yet.  She wasn't at the office yesterday - out sick, perhaps?  We'll give her another day, and then we'll move on to the other coworker recommendation: a husband and wife team who helped one of my technicians find a cute place in Warrenton.  We are both hoping to be able to look at some interiors this weekend, but we might be hoping for too much too soon.

N is dividing time between working on his final paper and looking into home loans.  I gathered up all my school loan information for him, which necessitated checking the balances remaining on all of my loans.  Not something I care to be reminded of (I owe National Education how much?!), but I am paying them off as best I can, so there's not much to be done about that.  I am very thankful for the IBR program, though, since it brings my monthly payments down to a manageable level for all of the government loans.  Hooray IBR!  My hope is the fact that I have been steadily paying off school loans for years now without ever missing a payment will speak in our favor when it comes to obtaining a home loan.  See?  I'm reliable!

Besides, if there's a problem I can always use Pippin-cat as collateral.  My willingness to do so may or may not be in direct proportion to how loudly he is bugging me for breakfast at the current moment.


Update:  The realtor called early this morning, and spent about 45 minutes on the phone with my hubby.  This is entertaining in and of itself because N is usually not an early riser, but he just happened to be up working on his last paper ever.  She seems very nice and is knowledgeable about the parts of NoVa that we're looking at.  She also pointed out some things we hadn't thought to consider, such as the fact that some of these homes aren't connected to city water and sewer, so have a well and a septic tank.  Which is fine, but if they're not in proper working order that would be a major (read: expensive) project.  So, something to consider.  She sent us a list of 20 or so properties to look over; about half of them look interesting.  We will be meeting her on Sunday and we're excited!