Sunday, April 21, 2013

The Tides Are Turning



Well, the house flipping folks never called us back, and our second opinion from the other realty company revealed that our house was still overpriced.  After calling our realtor to the carpet, he understood that we were willing to drop the price of the house to a sellable range.  Lo, and behold, we started getting showings.  We had THREE of them the weekend before last, and one last week that resulted in our first OFFER! 

The folks came in a bit lower than we'd like, but it appears they may have accepted our counter offer.  We'll know more tomorrow, as Husband Fixture took the weekend off of house planning activities to enjoy our anniversary weekend.   We went to a local couple's resort, where we me lots of nice people and enjoyed some desperately needed alone time. 

Unfortunately, we returned to find a sick Princess Gingersnap. I could tell from my mother-in-law's description of her symptoms and one look at her, that it was probably strep throat.  We took her immediately to one of the urgent care centers, and darned if I wasn't right.  While I was looking forward to getting back to work, a mom's work is never done.  I will likely be watching an all day Twilight marathon or some such thing, but I can always busy myself by making some homemade chicken noodle soup.  I can also pace the floor like crazy, waiting to sign a contract. 

UPDATE:  Houston, we have a CONTRACT!  The buyer accepted our counteroffer, and we will close on June 17.  You may now throw the confetti and pop the champagne corks.  

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

The Search is Over


Husband Fixture went down to Maryland for work, and since the kids were out of school Thursday and Friday, we took the opportunity to get some house hunting done.  I worked like a madwoman leading up the trip, trying to get the house ready for the Open House on Saturday.  I was all too happy to hit the highway Wednesday evening, and even happier to sleep in a bit before heading out to meet our realtor. 

First, we took the kids to see the house we'd made offers on (but were awaiting a final answer from the owners), and then we went to see six others.  I tried to keep an open mind, but nothing thrilled me-until we saw the last house.  It was gorgeous, and I kept waiting for something to be wrong with it because it was priced so low.  Even the kids were telling me we just had to buy the house (of course, that was after we discovered it was practically across the street from a Dunkin Donuts). 

We arranged to come back and see the house with Hubby as soon as he got out of work, as we knew it wouldn't be on the market for long.  Sure enough, it was under contract by Saturday--for us!  We have finally found our new home!  We are set to close on May 2nd, as the owners had to move quickly for a job, and are in a rush to sell.  That explains why the house was priced so low.     

Now we just have to sell our house . . . The Open House was a bust.  Only one person showed up, and afterward, our realtor told us the price is too high.  You'd think he'd have mentioned that before the Open House.  (Sigh)   We lowered the price, and have been in contact with a company that flips houses.  They're due to look at it this week, and if they can offer us what we need, it's theirs.  I know that would certainly take a load off my hubby's shoulders.  In the meantime, he's trying to get the ball rolling with the job so that he can finally get his official start date.  Since he has to depend on the same douchenozzles that sat on his paperwork and cost us the relocation assistance, I find that more stressful than trying to sell our house.  Hopefully, everything else will fall into place soon.