the chorus

so it seems that a lot of my life is revolving around thinking about/gearing up for/saving money for the upcoming move and condo purchase, and – it’s been an incredibly frustrating and brain-stretching process, thus far (especially for someone whose brain is not necessarily slanted in the direction of finance… as mine is not).  as part of this journey, i’ve gotten to meet a lot of thrilling folks who are alternately helping this process along or hindering it – so let’s meet a few of them!

The Realtor: This gent on the left is Aaron, and he’s my real estate broker.  I’ve worked with brokers in the past (I once owned a condo in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood), but this is a bit of an atypical situation because he’s one of the main representatives on the project.  All that said, I do genuinely feel that he wants this to work out for me and has my best interests in mind.  He’s been genuinely nice to work with and I have ongoing faith in his intentions for me and be@schermerhorn.

Side note: Aaron used to be the tour manager for The Band, which is one of my all-time favorite bands and gives him 10,000 bonus points on my coolness scale.  I promise, however, that this did not factor into my decision to buy a condo from him.

The Real Estate Attorney: This person is your advocate, and negotiates sticky and annoying things (contracts, fine print) from a legal perspective.  In my particular case, she is also a friend from college and that makes the entire thing go down a bit more easily.

Note: This is not actually an image of my attorney… which is sort of unfortunate.

The Mortgage Broker: This is the middle man between the banks (who have the money) and you (who need it).  And in my experience, he’s also the guy who listens to you explain how much money you have and how much you want to spend on your prospective purchase, and then ignores all those figures and promises you that you can actually afford the taj mahal (and doesn’t explain that you’ll also be paying $363,000/month as a mortgage).  He will subsequently confuse you with a bunch of terms you don’t understand while he’s explaining what a great deal you’re getting, and then cancel your meetings and ignore your phone calls.

That’s it for now.  The only other character worth mentioning is me, and I have to get to work.

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