I posted a few weeks ago about
listing our house. In the time since, we've had five showings to three potential buyers, and one offer. We weren't comfortable with the offer, so we countered and haven't heard back (in five days...we've stopped holding our breath for that one!). Our house is still active on the market, and although we've had a decent amount of interest so far, we decided to drop the price (by about 5%) for one big reason:
We found THE house for us!
We made an offer on it this morning, and are not so patiently waiting to hear back. The catch? It's a Fannie Mae-owned property, meaning it will definitely have multiple offers. If I decided to be very optimistic, I'd guess our chances of winning (that's the best word for what it will be if our offer is accepted), are about 15%. Instead, thanks in part to my insane hormones, I'm completely delusional and have already decorated each and every nook and cranny of the place (but only in my mind, of course).
I will say that we made our offer as appealing as we could to give ourselves the best chance possible. We didn't even require selling our current house first, meaning we will probably have two mortgage payments for at least a month (assuming we get the house). Although we're not thrilled at the idea of throwing $800/month down the drain, we know we're in a place where we can financially handle it, and feel confident enough in our house and the market to not lose sleep over it. It doesn't hurt that we're saving about $1600 on commissions once we do sell our house, since we found a broker who would discount her commission. We're also going to save on the buying end, getting a rebate after closing.
But enough about boring old money...who needs that anyway? Hopefully not us, since we would be using about 60% of our savings at closing. Let's talk about (almost-kinda-sorta-please, please, please, God) our new house.
My favorite things:
- The location-17 minutes from Patrick's work (as close as we can safely get)
- The location-(yes, I typed that twice)-near so much! Great malls, stores, Goodwill (yes!), parks...
- The location-I pulled it up on Houston's crime map...NOTHING. Wait, there was identity theft one neighborhood over, but I'm not really worried about someone breaking into my house and stealing my identity.
- The curb appeal (let's hope I can learn to keep that landscaping alive)
- The front porch (fully paved with brick)
- The floor plan (not technically split since the nursery and master share a wall, but split enough for me, and so open!)
- The floors. I've been trying to reconcile myself to the fact that our price range just doesn't include hardwoods, then BAM! I found this.
- The fireplace.
- The master suite- We've never had one before! Our own bathroom! A bedroom that's not 12x13! A walk-in closet! These are the things (my) dreams are made of.
- The nursery- It's the only bedroom with wood floors, and it also has bead-board paneling halfway up all the walls. Super charming!
- The backyard- One of the only backyards I've seen in all my searches with a single tree. It's also landscaped up the wazoo and has a nice sized covered patio.
The drawbacks:
- The location-45 minutes from "home" (aka Crosby)
- Kitchen counters- midnight blue laminate. A one-very-far-away-day upgrade.
- The floors- need to be either polished or refinished, depending on whether Patrick or I win (believe it or not, I DON'T want to refinish!)
- The second bathroom- The builder used tile for the tub surround, which is fine. Unfortunately, they went with white, with black tiles randomly mixed in. It kind of reminds me of a rorschach test. But that's what shower curtains are for!
- The backyard- Although I LOVE the finishes of the backyard, it's not large. And by not large, I mean it's maybe 800 square feet. And with Bella now officially an outside dog, I see a LOT of walks in our future!
But the biggest drawback of all: If we don't get this house, it will be horribly hard for us to settle for another one in the same price range. Sigh.
We've been non-stop praying for God's will to be done in this, but I've also thrown up my share of "...but if you could go either way, God, please please please let us win it!" add-ons.
Well, I guess that's quite enough for one post. See ya!
-Kelli
