House hunting, decluttering, and packing - Oh my!

To say the rental market in the Seattle area is crazy right now would be a drastic understatement.  One of the best suggestions we have had was to find a leasing agent, someone who would be working WITH us in our search for a new home.  We happened to come across just this on accident and it has been the biggest blessing! 

We were feeling pretty discouraged after determining that all three homes we were hoping to look at over the weekend had already been rented.  We spoke with property management companies and private home owners on Tuesday and Wednesday and set up appointments to view their homes on Saturday and Sunday, but one by one they were rented before we were even considered a player in the game.  Yikes.

As we were driving through a neighborhood to take a peek at a home that had another applicant pending approval we saw a rental sign and called the number.  It turns out the home for rent was through a company called Invitation Homes that buys houses specifically to rent out.  The house we discovered on accident was waaaaay out of our price range, but the person Bob spoke with assured us that they had others listed and she would have a leasing agent contact us to see if we could find a good fit.

Success! 

The timeline details still need to be worked out, and we haven't seen the inside of the home yet (aside from pictures and what we could see peering into the windows), but we've entered into a Pre-Lease agreement on a home in Puyallup's South Hill area.  Pre-Lease.  Yep.  Thats a thing now because of how agressive (our agent's word) the rental market is.  What it means for us is the house will not be advertised as available to anyone else.  Its ours to confirm yes or no on when we are able to get in and do a walk through (tentatively set for August 1st).  We signed electronic documents this morning, and are overnighting a deposit on the deposit today. 

It feels like a big weight has been lifted to have a home lined up for us to move into in a few weeks.  This is one more prayer that has been answered, and we are so, so blessed. 

Now its time to focus on having a moving sale, packing and cleaning.  I desperately wish I could fast forward through these tasks.  I'm really struggling with how to get these things done.  Thankfully my mom is on her way down to spend a few days with us and help out as needed.  I'm sure she'll have some time on boy duty as I try and prep for the sale as much as possible over the next few days, and hopefully we can come up with a list of deep cleaning tasks that we can tackle now.  If our timeline falls as it is looking right now, we've got just over 3 weeks before we pack the truck and drive away.  Such an awkward amount of time. 

I need to somehow get over this paralyzing feeling and just DO SOMETHING.  So, I write a blog post.  And wish for a nap.  I'll do something this afternoon.  I promise.