Sold: Part 2

Disclaimer: this is really long and probably boring but I want to remember these details....

I wanted to record all the details before I forget and so I can look back on it one day. On Saturday, February 20 we looked at a house that we absolutely loved. It was in a neighborhood we loved and a floorplan we LOVED and the backyard was full of trees. We have been looking at houses since October and I have seen maybe 3 backyards I loved and this was one of them. But we wanted to think about it and pray about it. On Sunday we decided to go ahead and make an offer. On Monday we found out that they were not interested in taking a contingent offer because they had just come on the market. I felt so sad. Despair is the word that comes to mind. I just knew it was the house for us. I loved it so much. After an encouraging email from my Dad on Tuesday reminding me of the amount of faith required in this whole process, I was feeling better about things.

On that Tuesday we had two showings--which was great for a Tuesday. The next day (Wednesday) around 5:30, a realtor called and said she had shown the house the day before and her client was ready to make a decision and could they possibly see the house again at 7 that evening. Of course we said yes and got everything looking perfect. It was horrible timing because Ethan had missed most of his afternoon nap and I was planning to put him to bed early but we were obviously not going to turn down the showing.

On Thursday morning we heard from our realtor that the person had made an offer! We were so excited. We countered back and she accepted it and by that afternoon we had a contract on our house. The lady is paying cash for the house and the only catch was that she wanted to close on the house on March 9!! That's next Wednesday. We agreed to the closing but asked to lease the house back for a week, so now we have to be out of our house by March 16. I can't believe it. Two weeks from today we will be moving out. So, it ended up taking 27 days for our house to sell. I think the staging helped. Everyone that looked at the house gave us positive feedback and we had 2 almost offers before our real offer finally came through. But ultimately I think it boils down to your price. We were realistic for our neighborhood so I think that is why it sold (relatively) quickly in this market. And we are actually going to walk away with some money. I still can't believe that. I had prepared for the worst.

The day we got our contract we went to see two houses that were new on the market but we didn't love either one as much as the one we had made an offer on. So, on Friday we made our offer again on the house we loved and they agreed since we now had a contract on our house.

So I went from despair on Monday to elation on Friday. My parents and Mark's parents came on Saturday to see it and they all gave it their seal of approval. We had the inspection on Tuesday and nothing major came up so we are all set to close on March 25. We will be homeless from March 16 through March 25. THANKFULLY we have two sets of parents to stay with during the time. We are going to split the time between my parents' and Mark's parents' house. It is going to be stressful, for sure, but definitely worth it in the end. Right now I am calling movers and getting quotes and we are trying to start getting ready. March 15 will be here before we know it and I ALWAYS underestimate how much work moving really is and I always say I never want to do it again.

Well, there is the saga of our home sale and new home purchase. I am so ready to leave this neighborhood but I know I will feel some feelings of sadness when we move out of this house--the only house Luke and Ethan have ever known. But those feelings will pretty much immediately replaced with feelings of joy thinking about the new house.