Holding Pattern
Still, I have not much to report on the negotiations with the Sunnyside house. We have found a loophole in the lease agreement on the solar panels that might help a little bit with that situation. But the bad news is that the roof needs a LOT of work. We are basically signing up for project after project for a long, long time with this house. Right now, that doesn't seem like such a drag. But ask me after we've been at it for a year or more, and I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune.
As the issues continue to pile up and I start to get discouraged, Dylan just reminds me that the house is still ours if we want it...we just have to figure out at what price. We still don't know so many things. We're just assuming that the seller will be unwilling or unable to put up any sort of money to fix the things that need fixing, and we just cannot do it all by ourselves. We might be right...but maybe not. He is eager to unload the house, this we know. So maybe he'll give a little or possibly even meet us half way so that we can get the place in decent shape and make a deal come together. We submitted our post-inspection requests today, and we'll be in negotiations soon.
Back at our current home, we've had three showings in the last week, which (for us) is a pretty good week! The most recent one was today, just after the cleaners were here. We asked them to leave the lights on when they left, and man did they ever come through for us. They left this place nicer and more inviting than I've ever seen it. So, of course, we got negative feedback for the first time. It's always the horses out in front of our house that kill the deal. Honestly, if it weren't for the horses, we would have been out of here weeks or months ago. But other than that, we are usually told that the house is great and shows nicely and is priced well. The horses were the main negative again this time, but they also said that it was priced too high. We've heard about the horses time and time again...but I'm so bothered about the price. We obviously based the price on what other houses in the area are listed at, and so far it has been in range. Actually, it is one of the lowest priced homes in the area when you look at price per square foot. But, there's so much variation in the properties out here. Some people have pools and great backyards and less driving on dirt roads and more land and, obviously, not so many horses in close proximity. It's just difficult to gauge the right price for a house, but I think that getting this feedback was just a good dose of reality.
We have spreadsheets and calculations and graphs and have done every kind of analysis to find out what type of financial situation we'll be in when this is all said and done. We can go lower on the price of this house, and obviously we need to do that. So, we lowered it just a little bit now to see if we can drum up some more interest. We'll probably have to aggressively lower it soon. I had gotten pretty chill about this for a while, but all of a sudden I'm real nervous about if/when we can actually sell this house.
In a perfect world, we'll have a month or two to fix up the new house and get everything moved in, and then our current house will close just after that. For that situation to become a reality, we wouldn't really want our current house to go under contract quite yet. But...the world is hardly ever perfect. Sometimes it is...but usually not. I'd really just like to get this house sold.
This whole ordeal has been a test of patience, and it has built a lot of character. At least for me it has. When I started to get more relaxed about it and focused instead on all the good things in our life, I was in a really good place. Just tonight, though, I found myself slipping away from that happy place. It's not comfortable to get worked up over these real estate transactions. I lose sleep and just generally don't feel good. But, maybe some discomfort is necessary to kick us into gear so we can do what it takes to get this place sold.
We've come a long way in the last ten years. So many good things have happened, but we've faced some challenges, too. We'll have more good times and more tough ones, too. When we look back on this time of our life, we'll see it as just one thread that makes up the fabric of our story. It helps to take a look at things through a wide angle lens sometimes and realize that this is a problem that will get solved...and ultimately, we're lucky to live the kind of life where real estate transactions are our "problems."
As the issues continue to pile up and I start to get discouraged, Dylan just reminds me that the house is still ours if we want it...we just have to figure out at what price. We still don't know so many things. We're just assuming that the seller will be unwilling or unable to put up any sort of money to fix the things that need fixing, and we just cannot do it all by ourselves. We might be right...but maybe not. He is eager to unload the house, this we know. So maybe he'll give a little or possibly even meet us half way so that we can get the place in decent shape and make a deal come together. We submitted our post-inspection requests today, and we'll be in negotiations soon.
Back at our current home, we've had three showings in the last week, which (for us) is a pretty good week! The most recent one was today, just after the cleaners were here. We asked them to leave the lights on when they left, and man did they ever come through for us. They left this place nicer and more inviting than I've ever seen it. So, of course, we got negative feedback for the first time. It's always the horses out in front of our house that kill the deal. Honestly, if it weren't for the horses, we would have been out of here weeks or months ago. But other than that, we are usually told that the house is great and shows nicely and is priced well. The horses were the main negative again this time, but they also said that it was priced too high. We've heard about the horses time and time again...but I'm so bothered about the price. We obviously based the price on what other houses in the area are listed at, and so far it has been in range. Actually, it is one of the lowest priced homes in the area when you look at price per square foot. But, there's so much variation in the properties out here. Some people have pools and great backyards and less driving on dirt roads and more land and, obviously, not so many horses in close proximity. It's just difficult to gauge the right price for a house, but I think that getting this feedback was just a good dose of reality.
We have spreadsheets and calculations and graphs and have done every kind of analysis to find out what type of financial situation we'll be in when this is all said and done. We can go lower on the price of this house, and obviously we need to do that. So, we lowered it just a little bit now to see if we can drum up some more interest. We'll probably have to aggressively lower it soon. I had gotten pretty chill about this for a while, but all of a sudden I'm real nervous about if/when we can actually sell this house.
In a perfect world, we'll have a month or two to fix up the new house and get everything moved in, and then our current house will close just after that. For that situation to become a reality, we wouldn't really want our current house to go under contract quite yet. But...the world is hardly ever perfect. Sometimes it is...but usually not. I'd really just like to get this house sold.
This whole ordeal has been a test of patience, and it has built a lot of character. At least for me it has. When I started to get more relaxed about it and focused instead on all the good things in our life, I was in a really good place. Just tonight, though, I found myself slipping away from that happy place. It's not comfortable to get worked up over these real estate transactions. I lose sleep and just generally don't feel good. But, maybe some discomfort is necessary to kick us into gear so we can do what it takes to get this place sold.
We've come a long way in the last ten years. So many good things have happened, but we've faced some challenges, too. We'll have more good times and more tough ones, too. When we look back on this time of our life, we'll see it as just one thread that makes up the fabric of our story. It helps to take a look at things through a wide angle lens sometimes and realize that this is a problem that will get solved...and ultimately, we're lucky to live the kind of life where real estate transactions are our "problems."
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