Long overdue update!

I have to admit it's hard to blog when you're so busy! Between our delightful spring weather, work, birthday celebrations, etc, we have been on the go!

It's been an interesting six weeks or so, that's for sure. We looked at at least 15 more houses, 2 of which we really liked but by the time we decided to make an offer, they were under contract!

We did find one house that we loved north of City Park. It was an adorable fix n flip bungalow with pretty much everything we wanted; three bedrooms, two bathrooms, brand new kitchen and a two car garage! We thought about it for a week or two and then they dropped their price, so we decided to go for it! Here's how the last week went:

* Thursday: Made an offer
* Thursday night: Seller presented counter offer, went back to look at the house at 9 pm

Don't judge a book by it's cover!

* Friday morning: We accepted and handed over the earnest money.
* Over the weekend: Under contract and super excited!
* Monday: Looked over and signed the disclosures
* Tuesday: Got some missing financial documents to our lender
* Wednesday: Inspection and sewer scope went horribly worng
* Wednesday night: Terminated the contract

So in less than a week we went from making an offer to terminating it. Essentially, the house was a shoddy fix and flip and they did not do a good job whatsoever. It became very apparent throughout the inspection that almost nothing was done correctly! It baffles me that you could try and sell a house branded as "totally remodeled" when so many "hidden" things were wrong with it.

It was totally worth the $400 inspection and sewer scope fees to avoid dealing with a $200,000 headache in the coming years. Obviously it's bittersweet but it is what it is! We will obviously keep looking. Since that was the seond house we had made an offer on, maybe the thrid one will be the charm?

Good thing I didn't make that premature trip to Ikea! The search continues....

No deal

The offer/ counter-offer situation did not work out unfortunately. I still have hope that the sellers will change their minds in the near future. There were no promising houses to look at this weekend, so we took advantage of the free weekend to:

*have brunch on the patio at Racines
*take a leisurely bike ride around Lowry
*see The Descendants
*walk around sunny Wash Park
*take a nap (thanks daylight savings!)
*have dinner with my fam

All in all it was a great weekend. I'm ready to see what next week has in store!

Winnie in my bicycle basket!

Signing an offer

Our invisible deadline for making a decision is about to approach and I am not confident we are going to make it. We are supposed to give our apartment leasing office 60 days notice if we are going to move out or go month-to-month.

We attempeted to make a lowball offer on a house in Skyland on Monday but it was already under contract. While I didn't think they would accept it anyway, it was another reminder that houses in our price range go so, so quick!

We saw a different house twice over the weekend and after thinking about it a couple of days decided to make an offer! We thought we had a very reasonable amount but the sellers countered and we still thought it was too high. Sad! It really is a fantastic house but we want to be smart about the money we are paying for this particular house! We did reach out with a counter to their counter so we will see if it works out!

If nothing else, we got a look at the offer letter process, which was new to us! Basically our real estate agent drew up the contracts with everyone's info and a very detailed day-by-day checklist/deadline calendar for inspections, title transfer, loan paperwork, etc to be completed. We got a look at the disclosures and the nitty-gritty house info. Our mortgage banker sent over our pre-approval and closing cost amount and we wrote a check for the earnest money!

So while we don't know the outcome yet, we feel like we're getting closer! Send us your good vibes for the original house to come through for us tomorrow. Otherwise, we will keep searching!

xoxo