Things have been a little insane over the course of the last two weeks. Previously on the Real Person | Real Needs podcast, I mentioned that my wife and I recently were able to get pre-approved for a mortgage after over 6 years of being trapped in rental world. I thought that working in real estate would make buying a house a little easier. I WAS WRONG!

00:00-03:40 Multiple Offers and Trying to Find Our Dream Home

03:41-07:17 Taking a Closer Look | When the Panic Sets In

07:18-10:47 Home Inspections | Knowing When To Walk Away

10:48-16:04 Hey Sellers! Remember that You Were Once A Buyer

16:05-17:45 Doing What Is Right Instead of Just Being Right

17:46-18:36 A Thank You to and plug for ASTAT Inspection Services

18:37-19:33 Housekeeping and Outro

Things have been a little insane over the course of the last two weeks. Previously on the Real Person | Real Needs podcast, I mentioned that my wife and I recently were able to get pre-approved for a mortgage after over 6 years of being trapped in rental world. If you’re tuning in for the first time, then I encourage you to go back and listen to episodes 4, 51, 52 to get the full housing history. Now, we wanted to keep our housing expenses lean and mean so we decided to do it now rather than wait until we had more income. Working in the industry now, I have a much better feel as to what is available in our price range and the current interest rates and loan programs. I also want to be sure that we are in a good position regardless of how well or poor the real estate market is doing.

First, we found a home that seemed too good to be true. It had every key component that we were looking for and it was across the street from a diner. Now, that may sound like a weird thing but I’ve always had this social fantasy of walking into a diner and cozying up to the counter for my usual breakfast and shooting the breeze with the locals well into my 70s. Maybe they’d base a screenplay on it or a television series…anyway…We decided to put in an offer. The problem was that it appeared that there were 3 or 4 other people who had the same social fantasy. Maybe they just liked the house. Needless to say we didn’t get it. Then we found another home that we loved, but unfortunately it needs a lot of work that we simply are not prepared to do. Maybe if we had more capital and maybe if I could swing a hammer without damaging my beautiful guitar playing fingers. As an aside, along with my vocal chords, my fingers are what I refer to as the Money Makers. You can listen episode 43 to understand that reference. We decided to take a step back from that house, though I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t still holding a candle for it. Maybe if it drops in price again. We’ll see. Then we found a twin home (not my preference) that had recently been renovated, the overall location was great in terms of proximity to work and family, etc. However the home’s specific location left a little to be desired.

We decided to put in an offer, which was then rejected. We were not that disappointed because we believe that God is orchestrating our search and that it must not have been the home for us. That gave us a sense of peace.

Then less than an hour later, the listing agent called back and told us that the sellers had reconsidered our offer and accepted.

After that phone call we went through a whirlwind of emotion. We thought we knew what

#Podcast #RealPersonRealNeeds

Since we last gathered on the podcast, I performed in my very first cabaret on Valentine’s Day as part of Season 6 of the New Voices Cabaret. As far as I’m concerned the night was a rousing success. Aside from a flubbed lyric here and there, the crowd genuinely seemed to enjoy my four song set, which was a relief considering I hadn’t been this nervous about performing in years.

00:00-03:00 Car Show

03:01-04:45 Cabaret

04:46-16:50 College vs. Educating Yourself by Experience

16:51-17:49 Housekeeping and Outro

My sons and I like cars. Big cars, small cars, classic cars, futuristic cars. That’s why for the second year in a row I took them both to the Philly Auto Show at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. This has the makings of a father/son tradition. It was a Sunday afternoon and the place was mobbed.

The best part was being able to take pictures with famous vehicles from your favorite movies. The Delorean from Back to the Future, The Ectomobile from Ghostbusters, The original Batmobile. You name it. They even had the van converted to look a dog from Dumb and Dumber.

Now, for someone who prides himself on automotive frugality and disdains materialism, I have to admit to this one guilty pleasure of mine. Fancy cars are impressive. Come to think of it, my core set of values and beliefs preclude me from ever owning an extravagant vehicle like the ones on display here, which means that the closest I’ll ever be to one of these cars is sitting in the front seat at a car show. I certainly understand the allure of such a fine piece of machinery, even if most of them are made and marketed to help people compensate for a low self-esteem. Kind of makes me feel like I’m in a rap video, were it not for all of the pasty-white middle-aged men walking around the Convention Center floor.

Since we last gathered on the podcast, I performed in my very first cabaret on Valentine’s Day as part of Season 6 of the New Voices Cabaret. It was also down in Center City Philadelphia at the Philadelphia Boys Choir Building. I, along with 4 other very talented performers, performed a variety of selections with piano accompaniment to an intimate audience of friends and family. I was fortunate enough to have 18 guests give up their Valentine’s Day plans in order to share this experience with me and I am eternally grateful for their support as I continue my performing arts endeavors. As far as I’m concerned the night was a rousing success. Aside from a flubbed lyric here and there, the crowd genuinely seemed to enjoy my four song set, which was a relief considering I hadn’t been this nervous about performing in years. The founder of the cabaret was very complimentary afterward and even asked me to sing as part of their “Best of the Season” concert in June.

I’m looking forward to getting the DVD of my performance at which point I will no doubt be plastering my Facebook page and YouTube channel with more videos of shameless self-promotion. But hey, when you are performer, you just have to get your name out there. Wherever and however you can.

By now you probably know that I didn’t go to college. The older I get the more I realize that that may not be such a bad thing. And here’s why…

Today, is my son’s 9th birthday. Hard to believe that he has grown so quickly and that he has been in my life for that long. He is incredibly smart and kind and quirky and he has dope glasses. Happy Birthday JESSE! I know that being a father is one of the ways that God chooses to teach me a few lessons that I otherwise would be too stubborn to learn on my own. In this episode, I use my younger son’s recent struggles with fear to discuss how we need to redefine our fear so that it is a catalyst rather a crutch. I also comment on how contentment in life is both alluring and elusive for someone like me, and how sports can be a great teacher of life lessons. 

Notes:

00:00-02:15 Happy Birthday, Jesse and No Paid Sick Days

02:16-07:16 Using Fear as a Catalyst Instead of A Crutch

07:17-12:25 The Allure and Elusiveness of Contentment and a plug for the JUMPSTART! Video Series

12:26-17:52 Super Bowl LI, Tom Brady and Why It’s Never Too Late for A Comeback

17:53-19:14 Housekeeping and Outro

As many of you know, my dream is to one day work for Sight & Sound Theatres in Lancaster, PA. I’m pretty outspoken about it on the podcast actually. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been invited to audition for them twice. Once in 2015 and then again in 2016. Both times I was not selected for their upcoming season. And I’d come to terms with that and have continued to work on improving as an actor and performer in the meantime. I’d also started to look ahead to 2017 and outline my plan for the year as best I could.

Then something interesting happened.

#podcast #RealPersonRealNeeds

00:00-03:55 Premature House-hunting

03:56-09:57 A Surprise Skype Audition for Sight & Sound | Listen to Episode 48 for the backstory

09:58-14:25 Heading into Year Three for Desiato Homes and a thank you to all of my supporters

14:26-16:52 Housekeeping, Invitation to Subscribe, Outro

In the last episode, I discussed how my wife and I had begun to explore our options in terms of getting pre-approved for a mortgage, now that we realized we should not sell our condo. As it turns out, we could potentially be able to buy our forever home (barring any unforeseen life-altering events) as soon as next spring. Now, this newfound sense of freedom led us to do something we always tend to do. Jump the gun. But you can forgive us for a little tomfoolery considering that for over 5 years we’ve felt hamstrung by the fact that we could not sell our condo. So, we decided to go see a house, just for fun. Something that my wife has awoken in me, in addition to my overwhelming machismo, is a love for exploration. We are both a curious folk. So with the unfettered access my real estate license now affords me, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to check out an interesting home.

We knew the listing seemed too good to be true. The home was so large that it had been split into two four bedroom rentals. It also had a 2 BR carriage home on the property. And for what they were asking we knew it had to be a trash heap, but the idea of fixing it up and turning it into the Desiato family compound was too intriguing to ignore our exploratory urges. I swear I did not intend for this episode to sound so creepy. We imagined being able to rent the carriage home and even keeping the house split so that we could rent out the other side, essentially allowing us to live there for FREEEEEEEEE!

Yes, we actually have that elaborate of an imagination.

We soon realized that we were being ridiculous and had no way of salvaging this place. But if we hadn’t at least done our due diligence, we would have always been left to wonder. And that is something I am a big proponent of. Due diligence. Exploring and exhausting every option. I’m convinced that I’ve learned more by doing that in the last few years than I ever did in school or could have learned in college. More on that idea later.

So anyway, like I said we will probably be in a better position to buy in 2018 so we best not get too ahead of ourselves.

As many of you know, my dream is to one day wor