This is the first post in a series about the home-buying process on Orcas Island. Falling in love with the island happens to many visitors. If you are a repeated visitor the itch to own can become a burning desire. This is my story.
Let’s start with a little background. I spent part of my childhood on Orcas. Within a month of my eighteenth birthday I fled “Orcastraz” for the mainland. At that time Orcas was a little light on engaging activities. Sailing, boating, and watching door knobs rust were about it. I needed more.
I landed in San Diego where I have spent most of my adult life, the last twenty-five years as a Realtor.
Let’s dial the time machine back to November of 2000. I’m sitting in my car in the parking lot known as “the I-5” staring vacantly at the license plate on the car in front of me, ICURF8. The hot, harsh reality of day-to-day living in southern California has blown away the memories of my idyllic late-summer vacation on Orcas Island. It’s about a hundred and five degrees outside. Oh, how I wish I could just be sitting on a log at North Beach. That’s when I asked myself, “Why not?”.
San Diego’s real estate market was rocketing toward the bubble. I had loads of equity along with a stable income, two of the more important ingredients in the home-buying process. As a licensed agent I have access to like a million loan officers. I call my favorite to learn that I’m pre-qualified for a fairly large loan. Big whoop, right? Pre-qualifying for a loan simply meant that I could fog a mirror and talk to a loan officer.
I am a fairly conservative person and did not want to overextend myself. So I took the next step and completed a loan application with a knowledgable lender familiar with financing on Orcas. After they checked my credit, income and expense reports and tax returns I received conditional loan approval. Conditional? Yes, conditional approval meant that as a borrower I had the income, credit and reserves necessary to finance the purchase of a property. The condition was that I find a property that would qualify for financing. At that time this simply meant that the property actually existed and was still standing.
Time to start hunting for the perfect property. I arranged to spend a little extra time on island my next visit to look at the housing inventory. Stay tuned for my next post when I discuss some of the things I learned about the house-hunting process on Orcas. Or if you have equity or savings, a stable job and are ready to start hunting for your new home call me at 619.224.9015. I’m here to help.
