Open wide and say SOLD

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Open house number 7 tomorrow. Despite consistent rave reviews about our house, and several people alluding to loving it so much they want to live here, we still have no official offers. One gentleman stayed an hour last time - 30 minutes past the close of the open house. He seemed really enamored and kept listing all the things he loved. Unfortunately for us, it's the kind of market where people can take their time making up their minds. Somewhat fortunately for us, the Fed has threatened (promised?) to raise rates by the end of June so that might put people in more of a hurry to make offers and lock in rates. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

We released the contract on the house we had initially planned to buy (below). The seller got some shifty contractor out to fix the things listed on the pest report. The guy did a horrible job and didn't even repair all that was listed. Then the shiftier pest inspector came back and said "all the work listed in this report appear to have been done." Well if he'd actually looked (by the shower, in the entry hall, under the eaves, etc.) he would have seen that those areas weren't even touched. The contractor also would not provide a guarantee or warranty on the work that he did, nor a list of where he worked. He would only guarantee the materials. Whatever. So we're out of that one.

We looked at a lot of other houses since then and found that most of them are crap. I seriously wonder how someone could live in some of these. (On another day I'll tell you about the house with the dirtiest people in the world.) We finally found one we both really liked. It was in the same neighborhood as the other and had just been listed that day. We considered an offer, but hesitated since we haven't sold ours. The next day, someone else beat us to it. Bummer...

Then on Wednesday, Michael was walking in the neighborhood across the street from the front side of the park (versus the other area which is directly behind the park). When he came home, he said, "If you could find a house on one of those streets, I'd live there." Ta da! I found a place that, again, had just come on the market.

We went to look at it that night and loved it! The owner is a gentleman who's the original owner and has maintained his house PROPERLY. For a house built in 1971 it looks only a few years old based on condition. Even all the original decor is pristine. I thought I would hate the green shag carpet, but I surprised myself and loved that too. If we get the house, I'll probably keep it in the living room and office. It's such high quality and has been so well taken care of that it looks new! The seller was there when we viewed it with our agent and he was such a nice older gentleman. His wife died two years ago and his daughter in Washington wants him to move up there. Must be hard to sell after 36 years.

The next day we talked about the house and were still hesitant to make an offer because it would have the contingency attached. Nonetheless, I didn't want to end up like the last one and have someone else take it first. So I had our agent contact his agent to see how open they were to such an offer. The feedback we received was positive, so yesterday we made a full price offer with a larger deposit and also included a nice letter to the owner. Hopefully it will all be strong enough to have them accept it. The benefit is that he not in a rush to move and the house is paid off - it wouldn't be too much of an inconvenience to take an offer with a contingency.

I really hope we get this one. I'll post details after we hear back from the agent. I don't want to get too excited just yet.