Today was day two of my search for a house. My real estate agent was having an open house at one of her properties, so Nina and I went there—mostly to talk to her, not really to see the place. The place was a lot nicer than the one I looked at yesterday, though it only has two bedrooms. I think it still moves to the top of the list.

I discussed my inability to perform simple arithmetic and my new-found capability to shop for more expensive homes. We made a list of about a dozen homes to look at over the next couple weeks. I'm going to see a bunch of them over lunch on Wednesday.

We also discussed the timeline for for the process. Since the house I saw today is sufficiently good that I would move into it if it was the best house I could find, it appears that I will not find myself in a position of being ready to buy but not being able to find a place that I'm comfortable buying. So it's just a question of looking at everything in the range of possibility and making an offer on the best one. My agent tells me that everyone is having a terrible time trying to sell property here right now, largely because of the recent lab management change and the fact that there is a hiring freeze that has been in effect for over a year. This is great for buyers, because it means that some owners are getting desperate to sell their homes and will accept lower bids. It also means there is a large selection available. It's going to take me at least a couple of weeks to see everything I want to see, then I'll probably do a second visit to three or four places to make the final call. It takes about a day to construct the offer, then anywhere from a day to four days of negotiation with the seller, then about a month for inspection, title search, and what-not... and then closing. So I expect to be able to close in about two months.

I'm hoping I can time it so that I close at the end of March, minimizing my interest pre-payment on the mortgage. I'll probably pay to rent the apartment for April, giving me plenty of time to leisurely move. This is important, since I have a major meeting to prepare for and present at in the middle of April.