Catch and release

This week has been a flurry of house hunting activity. We saw one house on Monday and two more on Tuesday. One of the houses was actually pretty good, which was more of a problem than a benefit. Because it basically fit the profile of what we were looking for, it was automatically at the top of our list. But it also lacked... I hate to use the term, but it lacked an "X Factor." You know, it didn't have much in the way of anything special. But because it had met all of our requirements, it was very difficult to say no. But after much agony, we eventually did say no. It is far too early in the search to commit to a house that we are not wild about. House hunting - even rental house hunting - is a very nerve-wracking game, because houses don't just come off of the line (some do, I guess, but we're not interested in those) and the benefits aren't strictly comparable. As a result, the Perfect House may not exist. Or there may be many Perfect Houses and even more Perfectly Adequate Houses. And they are all coming down a conveyor belt and once you say no to one option, that opportunity may well be gone for good.

Man - if searching for a rental is this stressful, I can't imagine what it's going to be like when we look for a purchase in three years! Yikes!