Actually, the weather sucks. But it’s Ohio so no surprise. A bit colder and snowier than Columbus. It is very windy and snowing sideways as I write here at Starbucks in Beachwood.
First day of school today. I got up early, of course, and hit Starbucks for oatmeal and coffee. Truly terrible oatmeal. I went first to Panera, but they only open at 6:30 here. All the others I have been to open at 6:00. So I wound up with bad oatmeal.
I need to make a new housing plan for next week. The hotel I am in is dirty and uncomfortable. If we can hold schedule and close on March 7 on the new place (assuming we make a deal), then this will be a tolerable timeline.
I made the offer on the condo but we received a cryptic reply. I offered about 94% of asking price. They sent a text back saying something like ‘price is 159 and prefer a different title company.’ 159 is asking price so I assume that means they don’t want to negotiate. But not sure what that means about the title company. Does it mean if I offer full price they still will say no unless I use their title company? Or does it mean if I switch to their title company they will agree to my price? Fucking weird.
Who gives a shit about the title company—oh yea, the realtors who are getting the kick backs. Same with mortgage jockey’s. The realtors push their partnerships pretty hard. When I bought my place in Columbus I turned away from Quicken Loans because my realtor there told me they had a terrible reputation and I should use someone she recommended. I did. And it was a disaster. I then did a littler research and found that Quicken actually has a pretty good reputation. And they underwrite the mortgages for Schwab customers, so I am giving them a try. So far so good. They kicked out a pre-approval letter in an hour and promised to finish all underwriting in a couple of days. So off to a good start on that side.
Now just need to get a signed purchase agreement.
I have looked at a lot of places and found nothing even remotely close to the one I am interested in, so if this falls through I suspect I am headed for an apartment for 6-12 months.
I’ve been feeling reflective these past few days. Maybe even second-guessing my decisions a bit. I suspect this will be a more tolerable work environment, but I enjoyed my place in Columbus and it was nice being just an hour away from the folks. And moves, no matter how much it makes sense on paper, take time, energy, and always cost a lot more than planned. By the time I get a place secured here, pay for hotels and meals while I am finalizing those logistics, get moving help and kit out the new place as necessary it will be thousands of dollars. No big deal to people who move every 10-20 years but I do it every two years. On average. Signing bonus here helps a little but will not cover everything.
Anyway. It’s my nature. To roam and explore the planet. I will be close to the lake here so might be able to get a small sailboat and do some day sailing. I am not so interested in a big boat on these waters. The Dambreezy experience taught me that the winds here are just not worth trying to push around a big heavy 34 footer.
Funny piece in today’s paper. Well, funny at least in the sense that we have a deranged sociopath as a president. A man who truly appears to believe he is the smartest, hardest working, kindest, most tolerant president in history. Really. There are no words, but we can try.
Time to get over to the office and start meeting my new people.
No other news of note.
Trump’s sacrifices are hard. You think it’s easy working 11 to 5? – The Washington Post
The Martini Tales 