Welcome to episode 128 of the Nerd Journey Podcast [@NerdJourney]! We’re John White (@vJourneyman) and Nick Korte (@NetworkNerd_), two Pre-Sales Technical Engineers who are hoping to bring you the IT career advice that we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. In today’s episode we discuss John’s return as co-host, his experience buying a home and moving, and Nick’s experience flying solo.
Original Recording Date: 06-01-2021
Topics – Stress of Home Buying, Taking a Break and Flying Solo, and Lessons Learned
1:00 – John is Back!

* John and his wife were told by their land lord and the homeowners that they wanted to sell the home in which they were living, forcing John and his wife to move pretty quickly.

* This caused a big time crunch, and recording is what gave.

2:21 – Stress of Home Buying

* The process of finding a house was pretty difficult. COVID is still with us, and there are certain restrictions involved in seeing houses, how long you can look around, many people looking for houses and fewer looking to move, etc.

* In California at present, you get a 30 minute appointment to look around a house, the realtor has to be present, and you have to sign a great deal of paperwork.
* The agent gets a key code for the door and walks around the house with you.
* Only one interested party at a time can be inside the home at a time.

* The house hunting process was mostly on weekends, but toward the end of 60 days they looked hard at renting again. Their real estate agent found them a place, and John and his wife had an offer accepted.

* They then went through the 30-day closing / lone approval period and had 2 weeks to move.
* The last 2 week was when things kicked into high gear.

* This process was easier due to the fact that John and his wife were renting and did not need to sell a place before they could buy something (i.e. contingency sale). This was a complication on the place John and his wife ended up finding.
* Any house John and his wife wanted to see required 24 hour notice to the home owners for a showing.
* One of the things that worked to their advantage was the 30-day loan closing process and then the 2 weeks to move out of the rental.

* This 30-day period was when the packing process had to take place.

* John took a break but definitely missed it. He was able to let it go to focus on what was needed.
* John recommends not moving in a hot housing market during a global pandemic.
* On the topic of career, John was fortunate enough to have a manager who understood.

* The manager emphasized that John take time off to move effectively and communicate what he needed. The sales rep John works with was extremely supportive as well.

* John felt supported by everyone, including Nick.

12:45 – Taking a Break and Flying Solo

* Nick remembers the day John told him he needed to take a break. He didn’t want to offend John but thought the podcast needed to keep going.

* The motivations for both of us have always been finding things that could help others. It was never about being featured on something.
* John was afraid the podcast would altogether stop and was surprised but excited Nick wanted to try to keep it going.

* John had edited all 112 episodes up to the point where he took a break.

* Nick was ok with not knowing how to edit.