Celtic House

After much deliberation, we chose Celtic House.  Archer preferred Square House, but I pointed out that it was the same price as Celtic House but lacked a garage (hello?  I'm not clearing off 12+ inches of snow off the car during the winter!) and a yard.  For me, the yard is a huge selling point.  So our agent and her husband (they work as a team, but everything is in her name) came over last night around 8:30, and we signed the contract.  Before she came over, she contacted the listing agent and asked what was the lowest offer the sellers would entertain.  It seems she has worked with the listing agent a lot and felt comfortable asking this question.  He gave her a number, she gave him a number, and he said something like, "I think I can get my people to work with that."  So we submitted an offer about $12,000 under asking price, based on a few things.  The house really does only have 2 bedrooms (again, there is a large finished room in the basement that could be a bedroom as well as a main floor addition that could also be used as a bedroom), and it has been on the market since May 5 (I think this is due to the bedroom situation; most people can't see the potential of this house).  Our agent said she'd drop off the paper work by 10:00 this morning, and that we should know something by 5:00 this afternoon.

At 10:30 as we were loading up the boys for Wild Man's 11:00 soccer game, Archer's cell phone rang.  It was our agent.  She was with the sellers and their agent, and the sellers were planning to counter at $4,000 over what we asked.  They told our agent that if we'd split the difference and meet in the middle we'd be done.  Archer said, "M and I have already talked it over.  We're 100% comfortable with that.  Let's close the deal."  So we got the house, which is a really lovely, little house (although it is actually much larger than it appears to be), for $10,000 under asking price, which is about 5% off the price.  More to the point, we like the neighborhood it is in much better than The House, and while it is a bit smaller, the yard is much, much nicer.  Barring any thing showing up on inspection, we have a house.  And while it is older, the only things that need to be done to it are cosmetic.  I mean, there is a crazy Greek-themed wallpaper border in the downstairs bedroom that has got to go, and the kitchen is the same copper color that we just painted over in our house.  But aside from that, it is a great house.  I'm very, very happy with our decision, especially considering how easily the deal went together.

As a bonus, we just got a call from our agent.  The sellers do want to keep a few things, primarily some plaid drapes they love (please, take them, I said!) and a light in the dining room that the husband made himself (I also said, feel free!).  In exchange, they are leaving us their massive freezer, their lawn mower and other lawn tools, and possibly some outdoor furniture.  It seems they are thrilled that a family with young children bought their home, and as they are moving to an apartment, they will leave us anything they don't want--and they'll clear it through our agent first!  What lovely, lovely people!  I think we're going to be really happy in this home.

One of three

*I started this post yesterday, but due to Bear's refusal to go to sleep in a timely manner, I didn't get to finish it until this morning.

Between yesterday and today, we've seen about 10 more houses.  Our options are limited given our price range and CU Land's market--which is, it seems, always a seller's market.  So after much debate and realizing we don't want to go over the amount we feel comfortable with (in reality, we could get approved for much more and we could also cover the cost of the down payment and closing costs, but we don't want to be slaves to our mortgage) we narrowed it down to three houses.

1.  Square house: the house is a take on a Georgian, by which I mean it is a big square with 4 windows in the front.  The advantages: it is, as Archer keeps telling me, a good, solid house.  It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, as well as a newer roof, updated plumbing and electrical, and a newer furnace.  The kitchen has the original oak cabinets, which are in great shape.  I'd update the hardware, but that is fairly minor.  The basement also looks like it could be finished, making a smallish rec room.  The disadvantages: the sellers put in a massive deck, which takes over the already small yard. Seriously, these people must have spent about $20,000 on this deck.   It also has no garage, and it is on a really busy street.

2.  Celtic house: the older couple who live here are clearly Scottish or Irish, as it is adorned with all sorts of Celtic symbols.  The basement has a series of photos from the local Celtic Choir as well.  This house is red brick with a picture window in the front.  The advantages: it is also, using Archer's phrasing, a good solid house.  It is about 70 years old, but it is in excellent shape.  The couple who live there have taken excellent care of it.  It has a new roof with 35-year shingles, a nicely finished basement, 2 full baths, and an eat-in kitchen.  It also had a massive back yard with a lovely rose garden and a vegetable garden as well as a garage.  The disadvantages: it is on the small side.  Technically it only has 2 bedrooms, but there is a main floor addition that has a small deck, which could be used as the master bedroom.  The bedrooms are also large enough that the boys could share one until they are older, at which point one of them could relocate to the basement room.

3.  Cookie Cutter house: this is one of many brand new homes being built on the north side of town.  It is in, as Archer calls it, Suburbia Hell.  It is like any new development in the States.  All the houses look alike and are incredibly close together.  The advantages: it would be brand new, and we'd get to pick out all the fixtures, cabinets, etc.  The development we're looking at would put us about 8 minutes from campus, in a very family-oriented neighborhood.  Plus, our wonderful neighbors are looking at the same subdivision, although they aren't likely to move until next summer.  The disadvantages: it is a new subdivision.  We'd have to pay to put in the privacy fence and any sort of deck, as well as the flowers.  There are no trees, and since we're looking in the newest section, we'd be living in a construction zone for about 2 more years.

So those are the choices.  Realistically we could wait.  We don't close on our house until August 30th, so we do have time to wait.  But we're supposed to leave on Friday for the mammoth of all car trips to visit various people on the way to an 8-day stay in Home State.  Given my mom's current state of being, we need to be in Home State by the 6th of July.  She left this morning, and I'm anxiously awaiting the phone call telling me she survived the shuttle trip to the airport in Big City in adjacent state.  I need to be in Home State to go to that appointment with her.  I also just need this to be done.  We've seen upward of 20 houses, and after the fiasco on The House, I'm really just done.  I can't think about anything else, and I really need to focus on work.  So it will be one of these houses, unless our agent comes up with something by tomorrow morning, we're putting an offer in on one of these.

House hunting. . .

continues, after a major disappointment earlier this week.  We saw a house we loved.  It was 5 minutes from CU.  If we wanted, we could walk to boys to daycare and then walk to work.  It was in the right school district.  It had a lovely yard.  It has 3 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, and a basement that had been finished--and finished well.  As a bonus, it was within our price range.  It did (or does) need a new roof before winter.  Taking that into account as well as the fact that we were the first people to see it, we put in an offer that was $4,500 under the asking price.  They countered with an offer that was $5,500 over the asking price.  Yes, you read that correctly, and yes, that is apparently legal.  Needless to say, we walked away.  In the meantime, we also filed a complaint with the local real estate board as the seller's agent said some incredibly unethical things to our agent, and we also wrote an email notifying the agent's broker that the seller's agent told our agent that her clients priced the house as they did to generate interest in the hopes of instigating a bidding war.  Again, totally legal, but also completely unethical.  If they had priced the house at what they thought it was worth, we'd never have looked at it as it would have been about $12,000 out of our price range.  As it is, we were maxing out our budget, but we were willing to do so because the house would work so well for us.  Yesterday, our agent received an email from the seller's agent essentially asking what they could do to convince us to meet their price.  I wrote back and said, "While we love the house, we are aware of it's flaws.  We were more than willing, however, to negotiate within the parameters of the original asking price.  As it stands, we believe it is in the best interests of all parties involved if we move on."  This morning the house was relisted at $10,000 higher than the original list price. 

Meanwhile we continue to look, and we're having a hard time finding something we like.  House hunting sucks.

House Hunting

I saw 5 houses today in the hopes of putting a few on a short list to look at once Archer returns.  Oh, I didn't mention that he left to go do research for the week?  Yes, that's right.  We sold our house on Saturday, and on Monday, he left the country to go photograph some sites and do a bit of archival work.  I dealt with mortgage stuff all day yesterday, and today I looked at houses.  Shall I say yuck, yuck, and yuck?  One was actually lovely.  It needed some work, but nothing horrific.  Nothing that we haven't done to our current home.  I was thinking it was a real contender, and then I went into the basement.  The house was built in the 1890s, and it still has the original cast iron sewer pipe, which doesn't look to be in great shape.  Yes, my agent took one look at that and said, "M, we're done with this one."  The sellers aren't likely to fix it before finalizing a sale, as it will cost somewhere in the ballpark of $15 to $18,000 to remove and update.  If it leaks at any point--and it looked like it was about to burst while I stood there--it would cause major damage to the entire left wall of the house.  So that one is off the list.  The others I saw were just ok.  Nothing to write about.  The one with the plumbing issues, though, makes me sad.  Not only did it have lots of lovely original details (including stained glass), but it was an older home that had been updated really well.  Plus you could stand on the front porch and see one of the three schools we're interested in.  Seriously.  I could stand on the front porch, drinking coffee, and watch my children walk to school.  I will stop now before I start figuring out how to fix the plumbing problems.

A little sad

That is how I feel about yesterday's events.  I do think we did the right thing, and that was reinforced today when Archer found a cheque for $350 from the Canadian Revenue Service that he thought he'd lost (I may not be that religious, but I do believe in karma).  I'm sad because this was our first house.  Yes, we'd lived in other houses--five since we've been married, as a matter of fact.  This house, however, was the first home we bought.  It was ours.  We made a lot of improvements.  We actually painted the walls colors we chose.  This home gave me a lot of comfort when we first moved to CU Land and I was so very lonely.  In fact, I made my closest friend in CU Land because we bought our house, and now we'll be moving away from our dear, dear neighbors who have become such good friends.  I could was sentimental for a while, and if you've been reading for a while, you know that I am more than capable of that.  I will miss many things about this house, and I hope that there is a house out there in CU Land that will become our home.

We took . . .

the offer.  We spent the last three hours crunching numbers, and we can make everything work with this offer.  While we both think there is a chance we may get a better offer, Archer and I are in agreement that a firm offer is not something we want to risk.  When we spoke with our agent and laid out our case, she offered to reduce her commission, so that is something.  Now the house hunting really begins.

Oh, and in the middle of everything my parents called, and I explained what was going on.  My dad asked me if we needed any money, and I said, "well, if you're offering, we could use some, yes.  We can pay you back by December as we'll be able to build our savings back up once I'm getting paid again."  So when my mom gets here next week for Bear's birthday, she's bringing us a check for a substantial amount of money.  That definitely helps in terms of a down payment. 

They countered . . .

with a reasonable offer, just $1,000 under our counter offer.  But now we're not sure what to do.  The house has only been on the market for 4 days.  Do we take the offer, or do we say no, hoping we'll get a better one?  This is a firm offer--absolutely no contingencies.  We'll be able to put an offer in on another house knowing that this house is sold.  And they don't need to close until the end of August.  But we were hoping to get closer to our asking price, so we'd have a better down payment on any place we want to buy.

And we don't have to sell.  If we don't get a better offer, we wouldn't sell.  In fact, several things have happened related to Wild Man and school which mean we do not have to move this summer, as we'd thought (I'll explain this in another post).  We could just stay here.  But we've already packed up so many things.  If we do that, I'd feel like we'd wasted the last 7 weeks, which isn't completely accurate. 

I have no idea what to do.

And we have an offer . . .

and it is a total low ball offer.  We can't accept it.  We can't accept anything near it.  See we don't have a huge amount of money saved up for a down payment.  So we're depending on what we make on our place for the down payment.  The smartest thing to do?  Maybe not, but it's what we're doing.  But the other thing is, given the amount of work we've done to the place, we're only stand to make about $4,000 if we get the asking price.  We will have a fairly good down payment though because we've been here for 3 years and have built up some equity.  We countered, and we cannot take lower than the counter offer.  We'll see what we see.

Houses

So house hunting in CU Land is super frustrating.  Archer and I are still about a week away from getting our place on the market--maybe a bit longer, depending on how long it takes to get carpet installed.  We haven't looked at any places, but I have been checking the MLS website every day.  In the last week 5 houses in the neighborhood that is walking distance to CU and in the FI district we really like have been listed.  Each of them have been in our price range, which tells us they likely need a bit of work, but based on the pictures on the website, they are in good condition.  Because of their price range and their location, we decided to try to see them.  I contacted our agent yesterday, and we've been emailing back and forth since then.  It turns out three of the houses have contracts on them, one is a rental, and the agent for the last one won't return calls.  The three that have contracts on them were listed this week.  So it seems if we really want to be in the neighborhood (and it is one of three we'd like to be in) we'll have to move fast if we see a house in our price range.  This means putting in a contingency offer, which I'm not comfortable with.  So I've just emailed our agent with the list of houses we've compiled over the last 10 days or so.  I've asked her to figure out which ones are still available, and we'll go from there.  Have I mentioned I'm not a fan of hunting for anything?

We may have found . . .

the perfect house.  Seriously.  It is walking distance to one of the two schools we want the boys to go to, as well as to CU.  It is an older home that has lots of updates.  In fact, I don't think we'd need to do anything with it.  The issues: it is for sale by owner (and I have no idea how that works), and it is about $15,000 out of our price range.  It is on a really busy street, and it is set back from the road.  I have no idea how Archer saw the for sale sign.  Because it isn't in the MLS system, I can't tell how long it's been on the market.  Archer has called our mortgage broker to see what the likelihood of us getting approved for slightly more is, and we are making an appointment to go see it.  This is probably a bad idea, but if we could get the owners to come down on the price . . . I'll stop there.  I don't want to like this house any more than I already do.

New or old?

We've been pre-approved.  That's the good news.  The sort of good news is our mortgage broker is practical, and she didn't pre-approve us for the total amount the bank will likely approve us for.  She pre-approved us for what we can afford our monthly mortgage payment to be.  Why is that sort of good news?  Because it is the harsh reality of what we already knew.  We can't afford the nice homes in the older neighborhood walking distance to the really great French immersion school and to CU.  We can, however, afford a brand new home about a mile from the other really great French immersion school and a five minute drive from CU.  We can also afford a moderately nice home in the older neighborhood, probably one that has had some updates, but will still need a fair amount of work in the next 10 years or so.  Now we get our place on the market and hope it sells high.

Frustrated

So Archer and I are approaching this house hunting thing from completely different perspectives.  I'm going on a gut feeling, and he is being much more analytical.  We saw a lovely Cape Cod style home on Saturday that I love.  Is it perfect?  No, but it is a great place to begin.  It has 3 bedrooms and 1 bath (which is small).  It lacks closet space, but it has a brand new kitchen, a new roof, and a family room addition.  It has a small yard, and it is one of the two neighborhoods we'd really like to be in.  As a bonus, the basement is large and could easily be finished to make a larger family room.  Plus the laundry room has already been refinished, including new plumbing, which means we could add a second bathroom in the basement.  I liked it because we don't have to do anything to it but move in.  Does it need work?  Sure, but it doesn't need any thing done to it right away.  Any work that we would do would be cosmetic.  Archer, however, had a whole list of things that he didn't like, including the fact that it is quite likely neither Yetta nor Pita would fit in the bathroom (it is oddly laid out, so given their sizes, this is a distinct possibility).  So this started a whole conversation about what we each want in a home (and yes, we did have this conversation when we started this process, but it seems that wasn't enough to get us on the same page), and again, I'm thinking what feels right for our family (along with all the essential practical things).  He is thinking, "What could we do to improve this place and make money in 20 years?"  I see that as a valid point, but it also means he is automatically ruling out lots of places.  I have no solution for this. 

I've spent the last 40 minutes looking at houses on line, and I've discovered a few things.  If we broaden our search a bit, we can get more for our money.  We'll still be in one of the two districts we want to be in, but we won't be walking distance to the boys' school or to CU.  Given the price of gas, it would be enormously helpful to be walking distance, but we would be biking distance.  So I've got a list of a few more places to look at.  Once we see these though, I'm stopping.  I think the most practical thing is to wait until our place is on the market and then start looking.  In the meantime, I'm still frustrated.

*As an aside, I have no desire to evaluate every single home we look at based on whether or not Yetta and Pita will fit in the bathroom or up/down the stairs.  I'm just saying.

House Hunting

In my last post, I neglected to mention one of the new stresses in our life: we're house hunting.  When we moved to CU Land in 2008, we knew the town home we purchased would be a temporary home.  We had thought then, however, that we'd likely stay until Archer had tenure.  As we learned more about the school system, we learned we'd have to move sooner rather than later.  When I was first offered the full-time position at CU, we talked about moving.  At that time we decided it made more sense to stay where we are now and save up a larger down payment.  This meant, however, that we would enroll Wild Man in the French Immersion in the neighborhood we weren't thrilled with.  This also meant that Wild Man would likely change schools by the time he went into grade 2.  We weren't happy with this decision, but economically, it made the most sense.

A few weeks ago, Archer and I were in one of the two neighborhoods we'd love to live in.  This neighborhood is walking distance to CU, to the boys' daycare, and to the FI school we want the boys to go to.  I looked it up when we got home and found out it was affordable for this neighborhood (I say for this neighborhood because the homes in this neighborhood are, on average, $30,000 more than most of the homes in CU Land).  So after several long conversations, I called the real estate agent who helped us find out town home and made an appointment to see it.  The house turned out to be insulated with a formaldehyde based foam insulation, which cannot be easily removed, so we passed on this house.  But our agent came by and looked at our town home, and based on some key factors, she thinks we could get about $15 to $18,000 more than we paid for it, giving us a much larger down payment than we anticipated we'd have.  She also said the market for our neighborhood is really great right now.  Because ours is a small town home community in a nice part of town, retirees want to be in this neighborhood.  Not only are there no town homes for sale in our community, but there are only 3 for sale in this part of town, all listed at $20,000 over what we paid for ours.  So we've decided to put our place on the market.  Archer is in the process of finishing the floor trim in the kitchen, and we're going to touch up all the rooms we've already painted and paint the main floor.  Next week we'll go pick out carpeting for the top floor, and after we rearrange some furniture and pack up all our family photos (if you know me at all, you know that will be an arduous task as I have lots of family photos and that I will be a little sad not to have these things around me).  Then our place will go on the market.

That part will be the easy part.  The hard part--finding a house in our price range that doesn't need to be completely gutted in one of the two school districts we're interested in.  We've been looking, and we're slowly realizing this isn't going to be easy.