More Waiting

Overall things in Austin have been going well. Nate and I both like our new jobs and are getting settled into our new roles. In general the job situation turned out much better than I expected. We both assumed that moving from a larger to a smaller market, we might have to take pay cuts and/or positions we might not be thrilled with, just to get down here. Instead, we are doing better financially (Nate got a raise; I stayed exactly the same) and we are excited about the jobs we landed and future opportunities they provide.

The hard thing has been selling the house. We found a service in Dallas that is sort of like a house sitter. They specialize in finding people who need short-term situations and don’t want to sign a lease (like a fellow home owner who has sold a house but hasn’t found a new one yet, or maybe their new place is undergoing extensive renovations). They live in your house and pay utilities and maintain the lawn. They pay low rent in exchange for living in a nice space. You continue to pay the mortgage and have the peace of mind knowing that your yard is being maintained and your house isn’t sitting empty. The agreement also includes them keeping the house ready to show with an hour’s notice at all times and carrying insurance, should something awful happen.

In our situation, we got an extra benefit. We can’t have our pets while we stay with friends in Austin. Nate’s brother has our dog Walker but we couldn’t find a place for our cat. Roscoe is a pain in the ass. He hunts like a serial killer, is loud as hell and wants to be let in or out at four in the morning without fail, and he isn’t good with other cats. These things all limited our options for temporary placement and we knew that keeping him in a kennel would make him miserable (he insists on spending most of his time outside). So we were really lucky that the guy who’s staying in our house has two indoor cats and was happy to take care of Roscoe as well. That was a huge weight off our shoulders.

These are all good things. But now that we have a tenant (so to speak), he’s the one who gets the phone calls for showings. We have no sense how often our house is being shown or what is going on. We spoke with our realtor yesterday and she is going to send a report of recent showings. We also found out that someone saw our house last weekend and requested the seller’s disclosure report, which our agent says is usually a good sign.

So, we wait. That is something neither of us is very good at. I think we both get impatient, but not at the same time usually. Our agent thinks we should wait to see what happens after Labor Day because in her experience, things tend to slow down in July and August and pick up in the fall. I think we will wait a little longer, but are considering looking for an apartment. Staying with our friends has been great. They are very kind and generous. But living as a guest has also made our time in Austin seem sort of temporary. We don’t feel fully like residents yet and I suspect that having our own place would help us feel a little more settled. We’ll see what the coming weeks bring, but I’m not sure we’ll wait much longer. Nate and I aren’t that good at waiting patiently without taking any action. I can’t wait to feel like this is really my city again, and the place where Zoe will grow up.