Confessions of a Real Estate Junkie

I Confess, I have struggled for many years with a real estate addiction. It started innocently by frequenting MLS sites but soon grew into a full time habit with uncontrollable urges to constantly watch HGTV and go to open houses. My husband Greg, also suffers from this addiction which began to manifest when he started coming home on Wednesday's with take out in hand yelling "whoo hooo, hurry up, it is Real Estate Wednesday on HGTV".

The two of us would watch "House Hunters", "Buy Me", Flip that House" , "Moving Up...you name it we watched it. We played games trying to figure out what house was chosen, who lost money and who was totally out to lunch on their renovations. We believed we had become experts in real estate.

It all came to a head this June when we went on a business trip to Merida. My business meetings took place and then we planned a few days of free time to spend in Merida as it was our 15th wedding anniversary.

We walked around town, rented a car, drove to Progresso, visited all the popular sights and even took a carriage ride thru town. It was a lovely few days and we fell in love with Merida. One evening as we were having a glass of wine deciding what to do the next day Greg said "Hey, why don't we take a look at some Real Estate tomorrow?"

It was like the universe slowed down, I got all dizzy, broke out in a sweat and started to recall an episode of "Buy Me" that followed around a lady looking to buy in Merida. It all happened so fast. The next thing I knew I was in an Internet cafe, surfing properties for sale calling out ID numbers to Greg as he feverishly wrote them onto the pad of paper we found in our hotel room. Greg started calling agents trying to get appointments for the next day, he was writing times and locations down , I was punching a calculator figuring out our budget.....it was simply crazy.

The next day was hazy, we went from one house to the next, falling in love with each and every one we saw. I could picture myself in pretty much every property we waked thru. I began to decorate each and every one of them, recalling different styles and designs from my store and doing a quick calculation of the cost for each to decorate....I am a Realtors dream...buying signals galore.

The final house of the day was the one. It was perfect, it was everything we wanted (WANTED!!!!!...Like we had time to even put a list together). We put an offer in before we left the property. The next day we boarded a plane, flew home and arrived only find out the property has sold to another buyer. We were devastated, but not ready to give up. We decided to put an offer in on our second choice, but that too had sold.

The following night we took a deep breath and began to giggle about how ridiculously close we came to buying a house in Merida. Common sense had taken back over and it felt good. We made resolution to stop the madness, to take our time...why the urgency? We began to make plans to go back down to Merida in the fall, take our time, look around and not make any snap decisions. We were getting our addiction under control.

The very next day I had a lull between Gringo Furniture orders. I resisted going to the web site for homes in Merida and instead got on my bike and went for a ride. I came back made a coffee and sat back down at my computer determined to work on Gringo Furniture. And that is when it all happened again. My fingers punched in the web site for homes in Merida, I started to sweat and began to surf and send suggestions via email to Greg's blackberry.....the madness began all over again. His blackberry started to go off like a fire cracker, he called me and yelled "WHAT ARE YOU DOING"...I yelled back "I'M ONLY LOOKING."

Before he could get his key in the door that night I POUNCED on him...GREG! I have found our dream home in Merida...hurry, come look at my computer. That was all it took, he succumbed to the madness. He went thru all the photos of the house I had fallen in love with, then went thru them again, and again, and again, and again. Finally he announced "IT'S PERFECT!"

The next day we asked the agent to go and make a video of the property. The video arrive and it looked more like an Alfred Hitchcock movie but it still sold the house to us. We were in love and nothing was going to deter us. We placed an offer and within a few days and a little negotiating the offer was accepted and a deposit was sent.

To add to the madness, my mother took one look at the house on the Internet and insisted on owning 1/3 of it.....what is that saying????...... "the apple does not fall from the tree"....now you know where I get it from.

So here I sit, 3 weeks away from seeing my new home for the first time. Furnishing it from floor plans given to me from the real estate agency and preparing to wire the final amount.

Do I have any regrets....ABSOLUTELY NOT! Am I afraid the house won't be what I expect....NO WAY, in fact, I think it will be better than I expect. Since the purchase I have gotten calls from people looking for furniture who were also house hunting in Merida and went thru my house, they told me it was magnificent. Also, since we bought it we found out it had been profiled in Ambiance Magazine last year.

So you ask, is this the first time we've done something like this.....ARE YOU KIDDING, this is the 4th time we bought something without seeing it. And finally, the last question....how much of this story is true....ALL OF IT!

It feels so good to finally confess. I know we will repeat this story over and over again for years to come. When people ask how we choose Merida......we will say, Merida choose us, because honestly, is there really such a thing a Real Estate Addiction?!?