Then, the fourth time has to be good, right?
Right?
So, a few posts ago, I wrote about putting an offer on a house that was completely inappropriate for us.
I mean, I still love the house, but as we stumble into old age, then it’s probably best that we don’t buy a house the is built on the side of a steep hill.
Randy and I made a pact. We would not make anymore rash decisions just because we’re under the gun. If a short term rental is in our future, so be it. We would not make anymore dumb decisions.
Then we put an offer on another house.
This is the house we bid on after going to a brewery and watching a dude balance a chair on his face.
Randy has since researched that brewery and we learned that if you are in the place for more than 10 minutes, you’ll see that guy balancing furniture on his face. Still, something you don’t see every day.
We wrote a contract on the house. The offer was accepted.
Later that night, the owner got an offer for cash and they took it.
Yep, they signed a contract and sold the house to someone else. I’m guessing they are confused about contracts.
Brett, our real estate agent, told us that we would be within our rights to sue and compel them to sell us the house.
I don’t know about you, but I am hesitant to send a steak back in a restaurant for fear of the disgusting things the people in the kitchen will do to my food. I shudder to think what they may have done to that house if we made them sell it to us instead of them getting a bucket of cash that night.
Also, the master bedroom was upstairs with no bathroom. Randy and I haven’t slept through the night without having to get up and pee in a dozen years or more. One of us would have fallen down the stairs sooner or later. A safe bet would be me, but Randy has taken a few spills over the years.
In retrospect, we weren’t making a good decision there, either.
Then, Randy found another house.
I looked at pictures and told him to make an offer. He’s the more cautious of the two, so if he felt it was right, I was in.
It’s a seller’s market. I get that, but damn, people are assholes.
The seller had until 3:00 the next day to give us an answer.
At 3:15, Brett called the seller and the guy told Brett that he wanted to accept our offer, but darn the luck, he couldn’t get the electronic document to open. He said he hadn’t been able to thoroughly read it.
This guy has either been living under a rock or is just kind of dumb. Brett explained to him that he can see when a document has been opened and read and he most certainly was able to open the document. Brett said that he understood he might want to wait around for a better offer. He told the seller he had an hour to make the decision, if not, Brett advised us to withdraw the offer.
We withdrew the offer. We’ve had enough dealing with liars.
Yesterday, we made another offer on a house in a neighborhood we hadn’t considered.
It has the most horrendously ugly kitchen ever. Seriously. I’ll take pictures. Maybe. Hopefully. There is a gas stove, though. I really wanted a gas stove. The house is not too big and the master bath and bathroom are both on the first floor. The deck is amazing and the backyard ends in woods.
The offer was accepted and contracts were signed.
We’ve been down this road already, so I’m not getting my hopes up.
But if this works out, then we will miss being homeless by 3 days.
You know how I’ve been bitching for a year about painting my house?
I can’t wait to paint this house.
Whew! You’re actually doing brilliantly. Wow.
Thank you, I needed that.
I can’t wait to send your housewarming gift. Fingers and toes all crossed.
OMG thank you! I just want this to be done. And I need to stop thinking about the house I saw online today that I loved. I’m already cheating on my new house with another house. BUt it’s just PICTURES, so it’s not real cheating.
Dear god. We have been pre-approved for a VA loan and I’m now calling realtors about houses I’ve been looking at on Zillow for a month. The house I totally love has been shot down by my husband who rather than considering deck size and the fact there is enough room to lock him off in “his part” of the house the silly man is looking at mortgage payment cost. We are in our 60’s retired and no longer willing to live for a house payment. We have 90 days. The hunt is on. I don’t pray or things like that but I may end up lighting candles that we don’t kill each other.
I am super happy that Randy and I have MOSTLY been on the same page. He’s giving me side eye over how I want to redo the kitchen, but he’ll come around.
I feel your pain acutely. We’re 6 months out of this horrible process. We had 4 offers fall through on our house ( buyers backing out/ not qualifying/ couldn’t sell their house) A buzzard of a real estate agent who had been circling our dead bodies swooped in and gave us a low ball offer. We got him up a bit but it should have been more. Our sellers agent should have held our hand with her right and squeezed his balls harder with her left but we think she was sick of the process. It was the end of November and we’d been carrying two mortgages for 3 months. We sold him the house and moved away a week before Christmas ( we do not recommend doing this) Now that it’s June the emotional pain has subsided somewhat and more important, we are so happy in our new home. Good luck on this one!
THAT is what is important. You are happy in your new home. I hope I am saying the same thing in a few months.
Thanks Michelle. You’ll get there, I promise. We’re in our 60s and moved to be near our 2 grandchildren. To be able to do spontaneous cookouts or playground visits beats living in our old beloved home where we spent many a Saturday night alone wondering why we weren’t down there with our kids. Life changes. You either fight it or embrace it with some nostalgia. We chose the latter. I’ll be watching for your next chapter! Good luck!!
Man I hope this works out for you guys!
me too!!!
Whew! You’ve had quite a ride. We have moved so many times and still, each one is an adventure I hope the one you get is the perfect match for you. Good luck!
b
Thank you so much!
We’re unfortunately now in the position of having a lease, but the owner is selling to someone who will gut the place & re-do it, then rent it for twice the rate we’re paying. So I don’t know if we’re going to wait the full year of the lease or start looking way earlier, as there’s nothing down in S. Fl. that’s in our price range. Even the neighborhoods that have drive-by shootings are high. This was supposed to be our ‘death house’ (to quote you), and having to start the process of moving AGAIN is just not in my energy level.
I am pleased that you have found just what you want, and hope (with fingers crossed) that it goes through this time.
We still might have to rent a place. I mean, the inspection could ruin this deal. I hope not, but if it does, we will have no choice but to rent a place
I have been in my house since about 1998 so haven’t had to deal with this for a long time. I wasn’t crazy about this house when I bought it but I have come to appreciate it over the years. It isn’t always love at first sight. Glad to hear you found something you want to paint. That’s a good sign!
Yeah, there are a lot of things I really like about this house, but I’m still going to have to warm up to it.
I hear ya sister! We just went through the ordeal of selling our house. We made an offer on house #1 and it was rejected. We made an offer on house #2 and it was rejected. The sellers of house #1 came back and decided to accept our offer. Then the sellers of house #2 accepted our offer. A home inspection on house #1 showed some issues so we asked the sellers to repair them. We’re still waiting on an answer on that. In the meantime, we have moved into a rental. I feel like I’m living in a motel with all my furniture and I HATE it! We jumped through all the hoops when we sold our house to accommodate the buyers so they wouldn’t back out. Unfortunately, we were the ONLY ONES jumping through hoops. Buying a house sucks!
OMG I feel like we’re the only ones jumping through hoops as well. The house we are buying? The seller had a basket of clothes on the bed. There are cobwebs everywhere. I cleaned the shit out of my house. It was cleaner than it has ever been. That’s exhausting.
Fingers crossed for you!
XOXOXOXO
Awesome. Finally. Fingers crossed. You can always update the kitchen and it would be fun to put “you” into it, no?
Haha, I have already redesigned the whole thing in my head. It’s going to look amazing. I can’t wait to do before and after pictures. Assuming everything goes well with the sale.
We lived in a rental on 18th st. in Eureka when I was a kid. We moved there after my dad sold the land we lived on South of town so us kids could go to school in Eureka City Schools instead of Humboldt County Schools. We didn’t really care.
It had a tiny, little kitchen, which my parents completely remodeled as soon as they bought the place. Oh, and we completely re-landscaped it, also. Think hundreds of yards of slumpstone retaining walls, all with rebar and concrete in them (my dad had just become a construction inspector for the Forest Service), a concrete driveway where the back yard had been, etc. For months, buying a yard of sand and shoveling it into a pile next to the concrete mixer was just what we did whenever we weren’t working or going to school.
Then when it was done, we bought a different house to live in and rented that house on 18th st. out as income property.
Both of my parents died while living in that other house, and now my sister owns them both, so at least all of that work hasn’t just disappeared into a sales contract somewhere, and I can still see it on Google street view…
I hope this all comes together for you, and I would ask if you were feeling OK because of the enthusiasm for painting, but I think I know where you are coming from on that one.
And homelessness? I don’t miss it at all.
Thank you! I hope it works out as well. I’m tired of doing this. I am also sick with a sinus infection or something, which is super not convenient as we still have to pack up the rest of our house.
OMG – keeping my fingers crossed for you. I really feel for you going through the whole selling and buying thing. When we moved countries we had to rent to start with and then we bought (what I thought was our death house) because I told Alan, I’m NOT moving again. Then we gave up packing shelves and night and all of sudden acerage looked appealing and so the hunt was on. It took us ages to sell our house but somehow we managed to find what we wanted and then on settlement day, the sellers didn’t have all their docs signed (ex-wife on other side of the country) – it was a fucking nightmare. Long story short – they didn’t have their paperwork so they didn’t get penalised for the things they were supposed to fix that they didn’t.
We arrived at the house at 3pm – settlement was 1pm – and they still had a shitload of furniture and crap in the house. Grandma was shouting at K and her then boyfriend to “Get out the house – you aren’t allowed in” – so they went and sat in the car and waited for us to arrive. By that time I was so wound up and on the warpath, Grandma didn’t stand a chance !!!
Good luck – sending lots of positive energy that this works out just like you want it to.
xox
I’m so sorry you didn’t get the one that ended up being bought out from under with cash, but if you’d have fallen down the stairs eventually, it’s all better now. Congratulations on not being homeless!
We have currently taken a short-term rental, just because we know things in life – jobs, etc. – will change in the next few months, and we intend to get a better place then. The good news is, we are slowly realizing what we really want and don’t want in our next place in this new city.
That is a solid plan. That is our backup if this one falls through.
From a Realtor… Location, Location, Location. Screw the kitchen if the location is good. Even BETTER, if the price is ok! Good luck!
THe location is good and the price is good. I’m afraid to get excited though because we still have the inspection to get through.
I am crossing my fingers for you, I hope you get the house you want.
Thank you!!
Even though it’s a seller’s market that’s no excuse for people to be assholes. You and Randy aren’t being assholes with the house you’re selling.
I know I’m preaching to the choir here but, damn, sometimes the choir deserves the attention.
Thank you..and no, we are a lot of things, but we don’t fuck people over.
Those other houses weren’t for you. Consider it a gift that they fell through.
Got a good feeling on this one, and can’t wait to see the before and after kitchen pics!
We went through this with our cottage–3 offers that were all pulled at the last minute, one because the two guys decided that the “crawlspace was too messy”. It’s under the goddamned house–did they want me to festoon it with ribbons and put up a floral border?! Best of luck with this one–as my dear dad always says, “What’s for you won’t go by you.”
for all that is holy…the crawlspace?
My husband has now been unemployed for two weeks, so he’s on the job hunt. IMO, that’s as bad as a house hunt, but I haven’t been in your position, so maybe my opinion is shit. We’ve always rented in California, because who can afford home ownership here? One of the employers that reached out to him via Monster isn’t necessarily an industry he’s got interest in… BUT the pay range is quite lovely and got him dreaming of home ownership. Here, in Los Angeles County!
I like the dreaming phase. I love going to open houses and dreaming of winning the lottery so I can just buy into my desired neighborhood without a lot of fuss. I really hope your nightmare is at an end, Michelle. It’s TIME.
I will keep my fingers crossed that you guys can buy a house!! And thank you!
Yayyyyyy!
Michelle’s buying a house…
Michelle’s buying a house…
I am singing that, if you can hear it…
But man that is close
I hope so. I really do.