We made an offer on beautiful park-like yard on Kings Way that happens to have a perfect-for-us 3/2/2 house attached to it. We checked off all our "needs" list [3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2-car garage, treed and fenced yard with plenty of outdoor space for gardens and doggies, close to Missy M (it's 14 miles away)...all for a retirement-friendly price under $200k], as well as almost all of our "nice-to-have" list: fireplace with gas logs, gas stove in the kitchen (well, it will be once we upgrade the appliances...;-), wood floors in living areas, granite countertops, separate dining room as well as separate laundry room, and permanent stairs to the attic...or in our case, to the expansion area over garage. The house even has a red front door!
Our offer was accepted, the inspection and appraisal both went well, and we are on track to close the deal mid-month. But that makes it sound like it has all been smooth sailing to get to this point in the process. Trust me...it has been anything BUT smooth.
After looking online at seemingly hundreds of resales in and around Lawrenceville (the majority of which were "pending/due diligence/under contract" before we could actually go visit the properties), we decided we would go with new construction. So, we wrote an offer on a new build in Winder, only to find out that the builder had accepted another offer on that lot (and didn't bother to post "pending" to the MLS). No problem...we wrote another contract: same house plan, different lot. After telling us there had been a price increase, the builder verbally accepted...then went off to Tampa. When he returned, he had decided he didn't want to build "our house" on "our lot" for the price he had verbally committed to. So we decided we really didn't want or need to deal with a...well, I guess the kindest word I can use here is "flighty" builder.
Moving on...
We had an offer accepted on a house in Snellville, but the same day that we found out our loan had been approved, we found out that the house didn't appraise for the purchase price. And even though our realtor did her best, the seller wouldn't budge on the price.
Moving on...again...
We raced home from our AZ trip to keep an appointment to see a house...that went under contract while we were at the ATL airport. We previewed scores more houses online, most going under contract before we could make an appointment. As our realtor said: "you know, houses don't stay on the market for more than an hour in this market." We wrote offers here and there and everywhere...only to come in second or third or tenth...but never first. Can you say "seller's market?" Sigh.
Moving on...ad nauseum...
And then, just as we were ready to take a break from all this disappointment, our sweet-wonderful-resilient realtor sent us yet another list of "new listings." On it was a house in Loganville that was "back on the market." Turns out, this was a house that I had favorited the same day we'd flown out to AZ, and of course had gone under contract while we were there. End of story, right?
Moving on, right? Not so fast! As it happened, the seller had accepted one of three offers...an all-cash offer, contingent on the sale of the buyers home. Only...that sale apparently didn't happen, and the other two offers had moved on when he put it back on the market, so when we walked into 303 on the afternoon of June 13...and then walked outside into the back yard that our realtor described as "a park," we immediately asked her to cancel our other appointments for the day and write up an offer. (She already had an earnest money check from us...left over from a previous attempt to make an offer on another house...no worries there!). It felt like we were in a race to beat any other offers that might slip in.
And the rest has been a sprint to the finish line: July 14. We submitted all the paperwork (again), we cleared all the contingencies (again), we were approved (again), we paid for a home inspection (again), and we paid for an appraisal (again). But, this time, the house we had chosen appraised for more than the purchase price. Woo hoo!
So now, the only thing standing between us and closing is the closing attorney getting everything ready for our very own Bastille Day. Fingers crossed...and toes, too!
And, to think, it only took us 90 days to get this far. Three months...and counting.
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Want to see more pictures of our soon-to-be new house? Check it out here:
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