Our house went on the market at the beginning of December and we had an offer within four days. The offer was a lowball offer; we countered quite high; and the buyer walked away. We continued to high traffic through the house the whole month of December but people didn't like it for this, that, or the other. Generally it was things like the layout of the house, the small backyard, didn't like where the kitchen was located in the house...all things we could not fix.
We were starting to feel the time crunch and didn't want to miss out on our potential dream house. We dropped the price by $5K and had a full price offer just three days later. Then the fun began. We had inspectors come out to our house four times. They supposedly found a bunch of things wrong with our house but the buyers just wanted money. We countered with a little bit of a lower number and they accepted. The closing time was short: just over 30 days.
Things got moving on our end. We started gathering all our documentation we would need for buying the other house. We found a lender. Closing dates were set, which is next Thursday by the way. And we started packing. Packing packing packing. The basement is full of boxes and there is still so much left to pack and do.
We have utilities to switch over. We have addresses we have to change. We have to schedule a carpet cleaning before we can move as the previous owner had cats and Dave is allergic. We have to hire a specialty mover for our piano and treadmill. We have to rent a truck (thank goodness we're only moving four miles). And we still need to beg friends and family to help us. All of this is going on while we're still trying to maintain normal life while working and having a 10 month old.
In just over a week we will start anew in a house that could be our dream house. The thought of moving scares us both but that house is exactly what we've been looking for: in the right part of town, near the bike trails, close to work, a big yard for the baby and the dog, and the privacy we've been looking for. I can't wait!
1 comment:
Reality Check here! We just went into contract yesterday! Now the fun of sorting and packing and PURGING begins!
It's a crazy real estate market still. We put an offer less than asking but not low ball. We countered back and forth and got to within $5k but it was just over what we decided was our stopping point. We decided to not sign. The next day the seller got a full price offer but it was contingent and it was from the a lawyer. The owner decided he didn't want to work with a lawyer and came back to our offer. We ended up splitting the difference between the $5k and so far everyone's happy. never would have thought we'd get that ending!
Happy almost moving day!
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