We have been so excited to finally have sold our 1st home and moving into our new home which will be closer to friends and family. However, this is not quite how I imagined it going.
We put our house on the market back in July 2010. The market looked pretty good then, but unfortunately by the time we got on the market, it turned bad. No sales, no traffic. We had it on the market and had a total of 7 showings in 5 months with no real activity. We took it off for a month, and then put it back on in February. After about a month, we finally got an offer that we accepted. It was unique because they wanted to close nearly 8 weeks later and then on top of that have us lease the house back to them until the end of June. Which, to most people, that is a 3 month process that they'd rather not do, however, it worked perfectly for our situation.
We could move in the summer time after I got out of school. I had to have my entire classroom packed up at school before school let out for our renovations over the summer. So, this way we could pack the house after I got out of school. This also left us plenty of time to find a new home and we wouldn't have to worry about an "in limbo" time without a place to live.
During the process, we had the appraisal done, and it came back lower than contract price. Luckily, between the 2 parties, we were able to meet in the middle. This left us at our bottom dollar. But, we sold the house without having to pay to leave. That was a huge stress for us.
We began our house hunt for a new home just before Easter. We found a perfect home, put an offer in, someone else beat it. Went shopping the next week. Found another home, same floor plan just a few streets over. Put an offer in, someone beat it. Went at the search again and found a home we really liked, put an offer in, and turns out they had just signed papers to lease it out that morning. Then, we went again. By this time, I imagine we had been inside 40 homes. I was exhausted. We found another home, same floor plan as the previous home, just next to my wonderful mother-in-love's house. We knew the neighborhood and that helped with the liking of the home. However, the home was priced pretty high for it's actual value. We went through some negotiations, and eventually came to an agreement.
We really liked the house. However, it was hard to grow attached to it. There were so many variables that had to come together in order for the deal to work that I didn't want to be left heart broken again. One of the major issues with the house was going to be the appraisal. We honestly didn't think it would meet it. It did. At this point, we thought everything was good to go. Our lender said that we were almost through underwriting and everything looked good. They were going to do another review appraisal because there was a small red flag in the previous one, but no need to worry.
Then came Monday. After being overjoyed that school was over for summer, I got a call from our realtor. He asks me to sit down. Turns out, the review appraisal just came back in, and it didn't look good. The review came in $19K less than the original appraisal. All of this, just 10 days before we have to be out of our current home and a week before closing. There had been some flaws in the first appraisal that were brought out in the 2nd one. Basically, we were recommended by our realtor to just go look at houses again.
Tuesday, we went out. I was not very excited about this. We saw 8 houses, and felt good about 2 of them. We had also decided that since we were going to be homeless anyway, why don't we go ahead and look at some new construction homes. So, we went to the home sites as well at the end of the day. And that's when we fell in love. We found a brand new home that was perfect for us. It is currently under contract with someone who built it, but they can't qualify for their loan. The sales lady said she was going to have to cancel it. But, it was a great deal and we could easily get into it.
It backs up to a green belt so it has a huge tree that shades the backyard. It has the perfect floor plan. And, it's new. Brand new. And it's not really even on the market for us to have to battle against anyone. We were ready to go.
Wednesday, after letting the original house know we were terminating the contract, we get another phone call. They are pleading with us to rethink and let them get another appraisal that could possibly bump the number up again to be workable.
AGH!
I had already let go. I was already done. We had already come to terms with the fact that we were going to be staying with family for a few weeks. But, we were much more excited about this new home. I had already fallen in love and I had only been in it 45 minutes.
So, as badly as I feel for the couple that was set to move this time next week (which we still have to), we have to do what's right for us. There is still no guarantee that the 2nd appraisal will come back even workable. But, we don't want to lose a house that we love that is an excellent value and BRAND NEW.
I feel that God gave us an oppurtunity for some reason to get out of that home. I don't know what that reason is, but that's not the important part.
We just ask for prayer in this next step in hopes that this new home goes very smoothly and that everything will work out.
And, if you're available mid week next week, come help us pack up!!! We're hoping to move everything into garages of friends and family so we don't have to pay for storage. So, we're not paying movers. We've got some high school boys coming to work for us to go to camp. It's still a big ordeal, especially since we will have to move our belongings twice...boo....
Boy oh boy, not the way I thought my summer would start!
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