Househunting 101

Ah... so i'm out looking for a house for us to live in for the rest of our live and i'm realizing that this is EXACTLY like the worst parts of our adoption-of-the-Spark experience. Lots of seeing and not knowing and being told that "all you need to do is..." and finding out that actually, that's not entirely true, and finally finding a place that's PERFECT then realizing that a whole bunch of other people also think it's perfect and that they have more money to offer, bigger down payment, whatever,  than you and that you're not going to get that perfect (or practically perfect because, let's face it, the ones we can really afford are in the "fixer-upper" category. Sorry. Try again and remember to keep a hopeful outlook but don't hope too much. just enough to keep looking but not enough to get sad if/when you don't get it. We're even having to write "why we're great and super deserving and you should give us this kid - er- ah... I mean house!" letters..... {sigh} K. i realize everyone goes through this. i KNOW that. but it still sucks.