House Search

(Sorry for the lag in telling this story!)

Since our house sold so quickly, we accelerated our new house search. We honestly thought we'd have a little more time to really look!

Our real estate agent connected me on the Web service that updates the MLS listings all day long. Every morning I would get an e-mail of new houses on the market that fit our criteria, info on open houses and news on price drops or increases (yes, believe it or not, there were some increases!).

I had my heart set on a particular neighborhood, and every day I'd look for something in that area. Nothing! After a few days I conceded that we better widen our search or else we'd end up putting our stuff in storage and renting. That was really not an ideal option.

On a Sunday afternoon, we went with our agent to see two different places. One was way below our price range, but I could tell from the listing that it need a lot (A LOT!) of work. The second was a bit above our price range, but the realtor thought we'd have some wiggle room with the sellers.

First we went to the lower-priced one. I knew when we pulled up that I hated it. Turquoise shutters, a plain cement porch, no landscaping, etc. The kitchen needed gutted and floors replaced, there wasn't a window blind in the place and the basement was a weird mish-mash of discounted tile all slapped together. It was terrible! Rob tried talking me into seeing what we could do to fix it up, but all I saw were headaches and dollar signs floating out the unblinded windows. After I agreed not to rule it out completely, we moved to the second one. I admit, that agreement was a total lie. There was not chance I was buying the turquoise-shuttered house. ;)

We'd looked at the second house online back in December, but it was out of our price range. And, we'd actually driven by it when we went to look at another house in that community for sale. I'd commented then that I really liked it, and lucky for us, the sellers had lowered the price.

As soon as we walked inside, we both were impressed. Wide crown mouldings, nice glass doors to the library, high ceilings and a huge kitchen/living room combo wowed us. My only concern was the bedrooms -- I thought they were a little small, but not terrible (I grew up in a house with big bedrooms and have a slanted view). We agreed to think about it and talk to our realtor the next day.

We ended up meeting her back at the house that next day (Monday) and decided to make an offer. We did, the sellers countered, we re-countered and so did they. After four attempts, we came to an agreement and signed the paperwork. Hooray! The timing was great and we'd be able to move from one house to the next.

A few days later, it all started to crumble. I won't go into specific details (you never know who's reading!), but the sellers wanted to back-out of the deal. We said no to canceling the contract and sat on pins and needles while they came to peace with their decision to sell. Our realtor said she'd never seen that happen after paperwork was signed -- lucky us! It was stressful and I had quite a few nights of worry, but it all worked out for everyone.

Moving dates were set in place and we began packing, packing, packing!

Next up: the actual move. To be continued!