On finding a house.

First i want to say how very lucky we are. The houses that we are looking at in LA are nearly 8 fold what our house here in Albany cost us. We don't have to buy this new house, Employer is buying it for us. We won't own it of course, but we get to live there, and that in itself is a very lucky thing. (luck, and a lot of fast and hard working brain cells on Husbands part.) That aside now...

The market in LA is just maddening. There are lots of crazy prices, and lots of crazy people who aren't really sure they want to sell their house after all. It's maddening when you are on a schedule and there has to be an address that you reside so that you can register your kids for a school maybe possibly for next year. It's maddening because we've hit it at a bad time. This market's bubble may not be bursting but it's at least deflating (if bubbles do that?) and the realtors going with it aren't going down without a fight. For Example- We have a very very favorite house on a lovely street that had a sign outside that read "for sale or lease". We had some details to work out and the house's realtor "had a hard time getting a hold of the owner" and upon mentioning the lease, she told Employer's Realtor that "Honey, you won't make a penny on a lease. Don't let them sign a lease, you've done so much work!". Did she tell her seller that? How can professionals do this? We are being taken hostage by greedy house sellers who who are under the delusion their house is the cutest and everyone wants it (but i have to admit, that house is real cute).

Speaking of that, Employer put an offer on another house that was totally in our range and they hemmed and hawed and decided, well actually, maybe we don't really want to sell this house. Chances are they wanted a bidding war for their house and chances are I don't want their house anymore. I'm not loving this.