We checked out seven properties and sent bids out to three. Two of these were short sales and we had to prepare ourselves for the possibility that, if our offer was accepted on either of them, for a potentially long and drawn-out process to close the sale. Such is the bad side of buying a house in short sale - all of the hands involved, all of the approvals needed, all of the hoops to jump through. The third, as luck would have it, was a foreclosure, which meant the time to close would be significantly shorter, typically 30 days. Less than a week after sending the bids out, one was accepted: for the house that was in foreclosure. This was truly exciting, as well as nerve-wracking, given our complete and utter inexperience with any of this! We had already scheduled a time to meet our realtor to check out a different house yesterday evening, so we kept that appointment and talked to him about the accepted offer. His advice was simple: If we like the house, we should jump on it, as sales of this nature are rare creatures. Apparently most of what is on the market currently are houses in short sale status, a tragic side-effect of the whole housing downturn. That said, we felt the need to check out the property one more time before deciding...
As soon as we walked through the front door for the second time in less than a week, I knew what my decision would be. This would be our house, our home. The layout is great, the size is perfect, the number of rooms what we need. The location is desirable, being near the end of a cul-de-sac, lots of trees, elementary school literally within sight down the side street (meaning no crossing of any major roads), huge backyard for our dogs as well as the kids. It would seem that the stars were aligning to provide us with a golden opportunity which I felt in my gut would be a mistake to pass up...
Here are some pictures from one of the real estate websites on which the property appears:
We will try to get into the house again this weekend and take better pictures. It amazes both Amy and I how many people are simply not able to take very good pictures of their houses for sale. For example, a picture I am not including here is of the kitchen; it seriously only shows one corner of an otherwise spacious area. Oh well...
After doing our second walk-through last night and making the decision to move forward, I asked our realtor what the next step is and he says, "Well, really, since your offer was accepted, all that really remains right now is for me to say Congratulations!" I guess this means we move forward, discuss what may or may not need to be fixed before the final papers are drawn up and money changes hands. It is all so surreal for us that I keep expecting something to pull the rug out from under our feet.
Add to this that we also got approved for a car loan that we can use in conjunction with trading in our RAV4 in order to get something with three-row seating in order to better accommodate what will be a pretty damn quick expansion of our family in about eight months! Pretty crazy...
All I can say is that it about freakin' time that things in our life started to change for the better. We are both very happy and very nervous at the same time and will keep everyone apprised as events unfold.
