Finally I decided to sell my condo and buy a house

I have been so busy with my translation business in the past three months. Now I got my Condo (Be careful. This word is different from Condom) all fixed, detail cleaned, and have kept it displaying like a "museum" for over a week now. It is really a pain in the butt to keep the house clean and tidy like a museum. This is because that I finally put my Condo on sale with the help of a real estate company.

One day I was talking on the phone and having dinner at the same time in my "office" room, I heard the strangers were talking in my living room. I knew my door was locked and why I heard someone talking. It turned out that a Realtor was showing the house to his customer and did not realize I, the owner, was in the room. It turned out he used the key in the Realtor lockbox. Thank goodness, I was decent at that moment. So far 8 buyers came and checked it out, there is no offer yet. I hope it will not drag too long. I am just looking for that one perfect buyer.

If everything goes well as planned, I should be able to move into my new dream house by the mid of May this year. It is a brand new house, 1,857 sq. feet, priced $285,000 with the upgraded interior. My current Condo is expected to be sold 20 days before the moving day and cover half of the mortgage of the new house. Now I will be really like an American, because everyone here carries a big house mortgage. Fortunately, mine is still less than most people.

I made this decision solely because a Chinese lady friend who was poor 2 years ago, but she made a smart decision to buy a house in a good neighborhood 2 year ago. Now the value of her house went up $60,000 on top of the price she paid her house. Her story inspired me, and I want to repeat her successful story. I hope the fortune will shine on me, a hardworking soul, eventually.

July 1, 2007: This is a side note I am adding one year later to the previous post. I have moved into my dream house for a year now. Everything has been fabulous. The feeling of being able to climb into the middle class in the American society has been very rewarding to my proportionated self-ego. I am still learning how to interact with my American neighbors. Some of them are very friendly and nice, and some are as cold as frozen fish. The most beautiful thing that upset them is that I am the youngest house owner on my block (well, the Bank still owns half of the house). I designed a greeting card with my new house as the center piece for the year of 2007, the Year of Pig, according to the Chinese zodiac calendar. Enjoy!