Our New Home!

We had started our new home search back in the spring, but b/c of timing and wanting to save enough money to put a 20% down payment, we decided to table it until the fall, with the goal of moving early December. Initially we were searching near the club, but decided due to the price and what it would buy, we expanded our search further out. Once I had our realtor run a new search on some of the areas I was interested in, it didn’t take long for me to find a house that sparked my interest. It had 4 bedrooms (which is so hard to come by), and 2.5 baths. The interior pictures were awesome and it sat on a quarter acre, which also is hard to find. The price was well below what we were looking at. Of course, even though it is a buyers market, I wanted to see it before it was off the market. Since the golf course was shut down for about a week in August, we had some time to go look at some houses that weekend. We saw 5 of 9 houses we were interested in. Even though the house that drew me out right away to look at these houses was nice, I had mixed emotions about it. It was small, and the kitchen needed a major redo and to be honest, the basement scared me. On our tour of houses was one that Kyle really wasn’t interested in at first and I was only b/c I had seen interior pictures. He didn’t like the lack of curb appeal and I didn’t think the curb appeal was all that bad considering what we probably would have ended up with had we looked closer to the club. It is in need of some decent looking landscaping, but that is a process I am willing to do over time. Once we walked in though, I think we both got the same feeling about the house. It had a really nice flow to it, was nicely updated and had large bedrooms and nice use of space, plus b/c it was a ranch style house, everything was on one level. Having lived in a ranch house before, I have to say, I would take a nicely done ranch any day over any other style. So we mulled it over for the remainder of the weekend and on Wednesday of the next week, we decided to write an offer. We finally ended on a price that was, looking back, too good to be true. So much so that, a once previous bidder on the house contacted the seller and told them they would like to make a new much higher offer. Once I thought that we had a binding contract, I started getting emotionally attached. Our realtor called me over the weekend to tell me what was going on. We didn’t really worry about it because when we were in Ohio, no such thing could happen during a full executed contract. Well, not so in Illinois. There is this wonderful thing called a 5 day attorney review period, in which, either party can void the contract for any reason other than price and guess what they did come Tuesday (b/c Monday was labor day), they voided the contract based on the closing date. I can mostly only speak for myself, but Kyle too, was upset over the whole thing. I was really, really upset. Immediately Tuesday morning, when I found out this was going to happen, I got on realtor.com and re-searched through the houses our realtor had sent us through the mls. I couldn’t find anything that had sparked my interest. Even the house we initially went to see had gone under contract. And the more I thought about that house and what we had seen and what we were looking for, I realized we had more of a gem in that house than I had recognized prior. Of course our realtor called and I expressed my feelings to him. He told me that we could put in another offer, but that he thought we should see some more houses on that initial list to see how we truly felt about this house. That afternoon we went out and saw some more houses that were ranch style and another colonial that really looked nice from the pictures. It was nice in person too, but it sat on a corner of a busy street. I think we both realized that we really wanted the house we made that initial offer on. So we talked about it, and discussed what it would be worth, given what we had seen and the many amenities that the house had that were specifically appealing to us. That night at 10 pm we wrote another offer. By the next day in the afternoon we had heard from the seller that they were going to accept it and they did. We did meet them on their terms, but it is worth it to us, even though we feel what they did was wrong and unethical on the first offer. We closed today, which is also our 5 year anniversary! Although the closing didn't come easy, b/c some of the work that was to be done, did not meet our satisfaction. And there was a lack of meeting of the minds so to speak on what we had requested and what we thought was conveyed in our contract versus what they thought we had requested. Bottom line, we ended up getting a credit for most of an estimated amount on what it would cost to complete the job to our satisfaction. The house closed in 24 days! Needless to say we have been very, very busy meeting all the terms of the contract. We will not actually get possession of the house until October 22nd. The sellers are going to rent the house back from us for about 3 weeks. Which works fine with us b/c we have a lease here until December. We will not be moving in though until mid November. Kyle is going to be traveling on a golf trip, he’ll get back then all three of us will be gone for awhile, and finally in a couple more days, he will be gone again! I figure that will give me (or someone) time to paint the girl’s bedrooms, and with the help of some parents, move their bedroom furniture in and set that up. We plan to be moved in before we have to leave to go to Ohio for a wedding that I will be in – yes, at 8 months pregnant!!! Lots going on!