We Out!

We have decided to back away from the home on which we have been negotiating a price. This is how everything played out. The house is bank owned, the result of a foreclosure. It is 13 years old and in very good condition. In many ways, it is the sort of house we have been looking for: three bedrooms, two baths, and a huge kitchen/dining area. The problem is that we just never felt that confirmation. You know it, the one where you walk into the home and it hits you: this is the house! However, we could not help thinking about what a great deal it was. As it is bank owed, we also thought we could get a smokin' deal on it. The house is easily worth well over $100,000, but it is listed for 89,800. We offered 75,000. They countered almost immediately with 87,900. That disgusted us a little, but I figured they needed to try. So we offered 79,800. It took two weeks for them to counter with 85,310. This feels like a tactic, and it almost worked. We were ready to walk or accept the counter offer. We didn't feel anything pushing us toward the house, but we convinced ourselves, hesitantly, that we couldn't walk away from such a good deal. We decided to accept the offer. Two things happened: I continued to feel uneasy about it, and that led to a lack of urgency. There was no reason to rush things.

A lot of things happened today, including my driving by a house we had previously looked at that had desperately needed new windows. I saw that the windows had been replaced, and the whole house looked brighter and more alive. The price had also stayed the same. This is the funny thing. I kept thinking that there was something out there for us that was perfect, or at least, I was concerned that once we agreed upon a contract with this other house, that something perfect would pop up. Someone was trying to tell me something. I was excited to get home to tell Leah Marie about the awesome new windows in that large brick house only three or four blocks from campus. It was perfect. Little did I know, Leah Marie had news of her own. We believe we have found our house. We have absolutely no desire to accept the counter on the other house now. We realize that our hesitancy should have been enough for us to recognize it was not the right place. The real estate agent we have been working with, has kept her ear to the ground, so to speak. Someone she knows has been renovating an old house, and he showed it to her today. It still needs some work, but he is getting ready to sell it. It has three bedrooms and two baths. Our agent told him that she has a family that would likely be interested, and she called and told Leah Marie. Our agent left town about five minutes before I walked in the door, so we won't be able to walk through the house until Monday, but since she gave us the address, we drove by and took a peak. It's not perfect, but it is our house. Just peaking through the windows, we had that hallelujah moment we have been waiting for throughout this whole process. Hopefully, this will work out because we are smitten. Again, it's not perfect, but it spoke to us, and that's what matters the most.