Finding a house has been quite an ordeal for us. As I type this, we still don't have a place finalized but we are close, I think (more on that later). My original plan was to write a post once we had found the home and were past the option period. Well three offers later, I decided I better start writing now and just break out the story into 3 or maybe even 4 different posts. See below to read about the first house we found and fell in love with.
House #1
Mike and I were really looking forward to looking at houses together. When we first put our house on the market we started to look but immediately realized that houses were going too fast to start looking before we had an offer on our house. We didn't want to fall in love with a house and then not be able to buy it because our house didn't yet have an offer. So we went to open houses here and there to get a feel for the neighborhoods we liked.
Once we accepted an offer on our house on July 22 we immediately started looking with our realtor. We looked at one house that Monday, great neighborhood but bad layout (entry to master bedroom was practically part of the living room). That Wednesday we looked at 4 more houses. Within that group of houses we thought we had found our dream home! It was a great price, in a great neighborhood, spacious - with room to grown, backed up to the greenbelt and walking distance to the neighborhood pool.
We immediately made an offer that night and asked them to get back to us by Friday at noon. On Thursday we heard from our realtor that we would have a counter offer that night. Thursday night comes and goes with no counter. On Friday, our realtor had heard from the listing agent who said he wasn't able to get a hold of the seller because they are elderly with no internet and cell phone but that he had a meeting with them later that afternoon and we should see something after that meeting. Friday afternoon comes and goes. Friday evening we hear that they missed the appointment with their realtor but they plan to make a counter later that night. Friday night comes and goes. FINALLY on Saturday they countered and we accepted immediately. Now all we needed to do was have them sign the contract! They were supposed to sign on Sunday night.
When we first expressed interest in the house the listing agent had told us that the back siding needed replaced and they had already gotten a quote on it. We were planning to ask for money towards closing costs to repair the siding. That Sunday night, they of course didn't sign the contract because they were now thinking that maybe she would just have the siding repaired on her own. She wanted to think about it overnight. In the meantime her realtor told my realtor that if she didn't sign the contract that Monday by 1:30 he was taking the house off the market and firing her as a client (he was as frustrated with her as we were). We felt like our dream home could slip through our fingers at any moment!
On Monday she finally signed, but... she didn't want to pay any closing costs or fix the siding. At this point the listing agent decided to give us an inspection report that was done on the house earlier this summer. Apparently, they had other buyers interested but told us they backed out because of financing issues. After reading the inspection report, we realized that had to be a lie because the house was a mess!
Aside from replacing the siding, it needed a new roof and anything that could leak had been leaking. It was a money pit that we were not at all interested in investing in. We took that as the final sign that this house was not meant to be for us and withdrew our offer.
I wanted to add a picture of this house and just checked on realtor.com and it's no longer listed for sale - Go Figure!
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