Saturday the family spent the afternoon driving around and looking at houses again. We're getting a good feeling for where we want to live and what kinds of houses fit our budget. We found some pretty good choices. A lot of the homes we've been seeing are in the process of being foreclosed on, so the price is really cheap but its owned by the bank and the owner. Usually it gets put up on auction to the highest bidder. If the house doesn't meet a minimum amount, the bank doesn't sell it. All in all, its a long and painful process... and there's no guarantee you'll get the house in the end. We're trying to stay away from such deals, but it's difficult... there are some great houses in foreclosure right now. I feel sorry for all the owners who got suckered into buying a house they couldn't afford. Often they will try to sell the house before the foreclosure is complete. That's called a short sale. But again, the sale also requires approval of the bank/lender.
I'm very close to finishing Mass Effect. Just like in Fallout 3, I decided to stop doing all the side quests and just go through the main story line. Although I enjoyed all the side quests I did, there's just too much game for what time I have. I've had a lot of problems with the game lately. The sound has been dropping out, hissing, and/or crackling. Several times the game just crashes. Last night I could hear the music going but the screen went blank, as if there was suddenly no video signal.