I’ve mentioned how I hate to fly.  But this was a more than usual exciting trip.  Every time I fly it is usually for something fun and exciting such as a vacation or having a fun visit with my family in California or an exciting trip for a real estate seminar, etc.  Flying to Arizona to search for Scottsdale condos for sale was really something special.

The reason this trip was originally scheduled was because my husband had a gig with his musician friend at Maggiano’s in Scottsdale for New Year’s Eve.  So he did need to have a little rehearsal time. 

He was a little put-off that I had scheduled property showings for our day of arrival.  This meant that we got picked up at the airport by our friend, brought back to his home to unload our suitcases and jump in the car to meet our REALTOR.  Even I was hoping we could pull off the timing.

We met our agent at a coffee shop and had to purchase something quick for us to eat.  She was waiting for us and let us pick up some food and we sat down for a while to go over our day’s showings.  She presented us with a very nice notebook showing all of the listings we would be seeing during our visit and information on the area and how real estate works in Arizona.  I was very impressed and mentioned that this is probably done because they are a popular destination area for out-of-towners.  She said she prepares this book for every one of her clients, local or from out-of-town (or country). 

I prepare a little folder myself with the listings I’ll be showing that day and some other stuff, but it’s nothing like what she gave us.  I still have it and have added other paperwork to it.

So we met, we talked, she explained things and we were ready to view our first place…

I already wrote about the short time of buyer’s remorse I went through before going ahead with our Scottsdale condominium purchase.  Fortunately, it was short lived and I kept thinking about the investment value of our purchase.

Once again, we were surprised we could afford to purchase anything in Scottsdale, AZ and the reason was because of the recession we were in which affected (and caused) real estate prices to drop throughout most of the nation.  Arizona was hit very hard and in my opinion was caused by over building because there was a rush of buying in the state.

Baby boomers were retiring and moving to this warm, dry climate.  Californians were moving to Arizona as it was more affordable.  A lot of Canadians purchased here as well as other foreign buyers from different countries.  But new construction outnumbered the ready, willing and able buyers as our economy tanked.

Some areas were hit harder than others.  California’s prices plummeted as well as the Phoenix area, Las Vegas and Florida, among others.  Detroit, MI was hit hard because of the faltering auto industry.  I am still seeing declining prices in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, IL.  Although we don’t feel we were hit quite as hard as some of the aforementioned areas, I am seeing prices cut on some properties by $100,000 and more in northern IL. 

So I knew that if we did not go forward with this purchase we would regret it down the road.  I am not a gambler and purchasing a property that we were not planning on renting out was still something I was having a difficult time swallowing, I knew we had the option to rent it if we wanted to and that made me feel better.

So the search was on and getting very close.  My fear made way for the excitement of shopping for a Scottsdale condominium.

I have purchased 6 properties before, one of them a 4-flat that I lived in for a while and then rented out my unit after moving to another place.  I am not a first-time buyer.  Yet right before we’re ready to leave and start our search for our piece of Scottsdale real estate, I started getting buyer’s remorse.

I was worrying how my income dropped from the prior year (which was my best year ever, but I expected to beat that).  And it dropped big-time, by about half!  I couldn’t help but remember the gloom and doom writings of some well respected real estate gurus telling us that “we ain’t seen nothing yet.”  What if my income was cut in half again in 2009?  Could we still afford it?

I wasn’t so worried that what I bought would drop in value since we planned on keeping it for at least 10 years, if not more.  So that wasn’t the issue.  My fear was that although we kept saying this was an investment, it was really just a 2nd home.

A true investment doesn’t sit empty for most of the year collecting dust.  A good real estate investment pays for itself as a rental (and then some).  So to me this was an extravagance, not an investment.

My husband doesn’t want to rent it out if we don’t feel the need to.  Let’s face it, when you’ve got brand new furniture and carpeting, it’s hard to let strangers use and abuse it.  I get the heebie jeebies at hotels, too.  I try never to walk on floors with my bare feet and try not to sit on the bedspreads, even fully clothed.  I’ll pull down the bedspread and sit on the sheets – hoping they’ve really been washed.

So even though I was gung ho on renting it out to snowbirds until we’re ready to retire, I also feel ambivalent about renting out our baby to strangers.  But can we and should we accept a vacant piece of property that just sits there for our part-time pleasure?  Are we nuts?!

So I confessed to my fellow Internet friends, agents and webmasters

Many of them told me of their second homes and how happy they were with them.  No one tried to talk me out of it.  They did make me feel better, but I still had that funny feeling taking over the excitement I had been living for a couple weeks as we were getting closer to our Scottsdale trip.

Should we really go through with this?  Should we call the search off?  Should I sheepishly call my agent and tell her to forget about it?  To be continued…