Just Another Day

We bought a house today. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Like you walked into a shop, browsed through a couple of aisles, found something you liked, and whipped out your credit card. Actually, considering that we’ve only been in this State for a bit less than two weeks, it probably does look that simple, at least from the outside. But the fact is, our current home-buying venture was so front-loaded that it’s a wonder the whole thing didn’t tip forward onto its metaphorical face, and it serves as an excellent example of how doing something with style, precision and speed is usually just a matter of really good preparation…

And of selecting the right business partners, of course. In this particular case, I can’t take a lot of credit for the fact that 13 days into our time in Michigan we’ve already selected, made an offer on, inspected, agreed to terms and conditions, and closed escrow on a house; most of the heavy lifting was the work of two (or four) other people. First, of course, was our wonderful California-based Realtor team, Steve Smith and Martha Alonzo, who not only sold our house in Redondo Beach in a market where nothing seems to be selling, but also vetted Realtors here in Central Michigan to find us someone truly exceptional…

Second, Karen Fisher-Austin, our local Realtor (who is, in fact, truly exceptional), started sending us property listings two months ago, including pictures, comparable property information, and virtual tours. Starting with this small mountain of data, Angie and I spent several weeks pouring over the property listings for East Lansing, as well as looking around the neighborhood and surrounding areas on Google Earth and other sites. As a result, we arrived in town already knowing the dozen or so properties we wanted to visit, and were able to select one in just four days…

Most of the credit for our success has to go to my wife, who put her amazing abilities as a manager and administrator to work on this project, starting with the initial contact phone calls back in Redondo and following through to getting all of our documents together at the end of the close meeting today. Now I suppose I could ask for some credit in having the impulse that led to our meeting Martha, the gall to ask our California realty team for help finding an agent in the upper Midwest, or the good sense to have married somebody this amazing in the first place, but the fact is I’d have done all of it anyway; I’m just lucky that my emotional choices have worked out in so many other dimensions…

It has often been said that it’s better to be lucky than good, and goodness knows I’ve proven the truth of that more than once. But it is also commonly remarked that we make our own luck, and while it might look like in this case we were lucky to blow into town and fall directly into what we were looking for, the truth is that Angie and I have spent long days, difficult nights, and a week on the road getting to this place, and none of the things we’ve done are anything that another home buyer or seller (or pair of them, anyway) couldn’t have done…

Now, I’m not going to tell you that selling a house in a declining market like Los Angeles is easy; or that packing up a large house, arranging movers, contacting an agent in your new city, learning the terrain, finding a new home, purchasing a house, or moving in are necessarily easy. I am saying that even a task as complex, arbitrary and emotionally difficult as moving to a new city can be done with speed, efficiency, and style – provided you also have a good plan and the right people to help. If you need a good Realtor in LA or East Lansing I can refer you to one, and if you need a good plan, I can probably help walk you through the process. But if you need a partner as good as mine, you’re going to have to get your own…