The potential buyers didn't accept our return offer, and signed back again. Again a little lower than we were hoping for, but closer. So after some hard decisions and some finagling from our agent, we came up with a solution that we think they will accept. We had to come down a bit and include the washer and dryer, they had to come up a bit, and both agents agreed to take a slight commission cut to make the deal happen. They have until 10 PM tonight to accept it, or not. We think we'll know by noon today. If they accept this, we'll have done a little better than we were hoping for in the end (our absolute minimum number) and we'll have "made" almost exactly $100k on this house in 5 years. Unbelievable!!
Fingers crossed. Potential move-OUT date will be November 19. We're going to see if the lady in the home we're buying can bump out the date we closed on by a week so that we only have to bridge for a week instead of two.
The other couple who were potentially in the running for our house had decided against it, and opted to try for a larger house with smaller property that backed onto the Baden school grounds (yuck). The girl apparently loved our house, but couldn't win over the guy, or something. Anyway, they probably wouldn't have been the best choice for us given the time frame and if this deal is accepted, I think it will be nearly the best possible outcome (other than paying full price!) :-)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
House!
We received an offer to buy our house last night. It is on the verge of being low-ball and insulting, but our agent prepared us for it to be low. The buyers did a market analysis of some other houses in Baden, but neglected to include homes that were comparable to the lot size and location with ours. So their comparison come out to look like ours was way overpriced. Anyway, it's funny that this offer even came in because earlier in the day we received an email from our agent that said they were going to continue their looking around. They sent the email on Friday morning.
Their exact words were;
"We have decided to continue our search. Certain things about the house we wouldn't be comfortable with include the location of laundry, the size of the en suite, and most importantly basement size (little small).”
So, there must have been something that they really liked about the house, or location. Marn thinks the lot is what made them change their mind and decide to put an offer in. What made us extra mad is not only the low-ball offer, but that they wanted all of the appliances including the washer and dryer. That's about $6000 worth of extras. When you include the Deck and Shed, that's more like 12,000 of "extras" that they are not getting with any other house on their analysis. Not to mention the court location and large lot that the others also don't offer!
Regardless of the price that this may end up at, this becomes more interesting because our agent also had a couple through (twice) who really like the place and were going to decide about an offer this weekend. They were away for the weekend, so won't know about the other offer until this morning. So hopefully they'll decide to put an offer in as well. The PROBLEM with this scenario is, we need a quick closing date and the people with the offer
We should know by tonight what's happening!
Their exact words were;
"We have decided to continue our search. Certain things about the house we wouldn't be comfortable with include the location of laundry, the size of the en suite, and most importantly basement size (little small).”
So, there must have been something that they really liked about the house, or location. Marn thinks the lot is what made them change their mind and decide to put an offer in. What made us extra mad is not only the low-ball offer, but that they wanted all of the appliances including the washer and dryer. That's about $6000 worth of extras. When you include the Deck and Shed, that's more like 12,000 of "extras" that they are not getting with any other house on their analysis. Not to mention the court location and large lot that the others also don't offer!
Regardless of the price that this may end up at, this becomes more interesting because our agent also had a couple through (twice) who really like the place and were going to decide about an offer this weekend. They were away for the weekend, so won't know about the other offer until this morning. So hopefully they'll decide to put an offer in as well. The PROBLEM with this scenario is, we need a quick closing date and the people with the offer
We should know by tonight what's happening!
Birthday Party
We had a "small" birthday party for Violet on Saturday. Both families, minus the Asbury's, which still managed to pack the house -- 18 people (including us)! We had burgers, potato salad, pasta salad, greek salad and chocolate cake and I'm sure other things.
It was a lot of fun and Violet didn't play shy at all to anyone. Not even Dad or Tony, who historically have caused some tears with her! lol I mean at first, she just sort of looked around at everyone in a stare, but no tears which was surprising. She was very good all day long and crashed hard at around 3:30pm. As far as cake eating, she wasn't too crazy with it. She definitely liked it, but didn't inhale like some of her cousins! She didn't even eat it all or get that messy. It was a really fun day, I just wish the Asbury's could have been there!! Maybe Marn can attach some pictures at home?
It was a lot of fun and Violet didn't play shy at all to anyone. Not even Dad or Tony, who historically have caused some tears with her! lol I mean at first, she just sort of looked around at everyone in a stare, but no tears which was surprising. She was very good all day long and crashed hard at around 3:30pm. As far as cake eating, she wasn't too crazy with it. She definitely liked it, but didn't inhale like some of her cousins! She didn't even eat it all or get that messy. It was a really fun day, I just wish the Asbury's could have been there!! Maybe Marn can attach some pictures at home?
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Happy 1st Birthday Violet!
Violet is on the verge of walking on her first birthday! Marn told me that she stood up by herself and took about 4 steps without help tonight. Up until now, she's been "walking", but with lots of help, and while falling forward. She's on the brink of getting up and around and we can't wait!
Some good news regarding the house; the first couple who came through the house on Friday last week is coming back for a 2nd look today (Wednesday). They are clients of our agent, so fingers crossed! (It means that his commission goes down if they end up buying it).
I just feel bad that I've been away all week so can't help get/keep the house cleaned up. I was supposed to fly out Wednesday at 6pm Central, but there's one other flight leaving at 10am, so I'm about to call Air Canada to change to that flight. It will cost $75 to do it, but I think it's worth it to get home 8 hours earlier. I'll miss the last little bit of the conference here, but most people leave in the morning, so there's not much going on anyway.
Some good news regarding the house; the first couple who came through the house on Friday last week is coming back for a 2nd look today (Wednesday). They are clients of our agent, so fingers crossed! (It means that his commission goes down if they end up buying it).
I just feel bad that I've been away all week so can't help get/keep the house cleaned up. I was supposed to fly out Wednesday at 6pm Central, but there's one other flight leaving at 10am, so I'm about to call Air Canada to change to that flight. It will cost $75 to do it, but I think it's worth it to get home 8 hours earlier. I'll miss the last little bit of the conference here, but most people leave in the morning, so there's not much going on anyway.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Conditions Waived
Except for selling our house, of course! We removed the Financing and Home Inspection conditions last night. We also added on the agreement to remove the old oil drum in the basement at their cost, which they already said they had to do before selling, but just so that we have it in writing.
Anyway, there is another showing of our house tonight at 6pm. This will be only the 2nd one so far and hopefully many more this weekend! Depending on how it goes this week, we may have an open house next weekend.
I'm heading to Nashville bright and early on Sunday morning for a work conference which will cause Marn to be extremely busy if there are more showings while I'm gone. She'll have to clean up, watch the baby, and get Echo out of the house all on her own. Taking Echo out of the equation would make it so much easier... he makes such a mess sometimes!
Anyway, there is another showing of our house tonight at 6pm. This will be only the 2nd one so far and hopefully many more this weekend! Depending on how it goes this week, we may have an open house next weekend.
I'm heading to Nashville bright and early on Sunday morning for a work conference which will cause Marn to be extremely busy if there are more showings while I'm gone. She'll have to clean up, watch the baby, and get Echo out of the house all on her own. Taking Echo out of the equation would make it so much easier... he makes such a mess sometimes!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
MLS
Here's the MLS listing, which is basically the same as the daveshomes.ca listing;
http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=8704052
The "emergency" walk-through yesterday didn't result in anything. Bottom line was the buyers were looking for a bigger place. They didn't like how the island wasn't built in, and the en-suite was a little small compared to other places they were looking at. But, at least it's drawing people in. No word on whether we'll have an open house or not. Our agent thinks that they're more beneficial to the selling agent that his client (us), so he tends not to do them, but will if we ask.
We had the Home Inspection yesterday afternoon, and all in all, the house is in great shape considering the age. The biggest concern is the roofing -- the front of the shingles look less than 5 years old, but the back and side look like hell. Almost like they re-shingled only half the roof at one point. The seller said they look like that because she had trees scraping along there which caused the wear and have since been cut back, but the home inspector didn't buy it. He said the wear type and pattern weren't consistent with the explanation. There are also no signs of leaks in the attic, so it's something that we'll have to keep an eye on. I also had some concerns in the basement which were somewhat alleviated. We were concerned that we wouldn't be able to take the wall down between an unexcavated part of the basement and the "finished" side, but it looks like we can with the help of only two jack posts (there are two I-beams holding up the floor joists in that section). I say "finished" because whoever did it, didn't put any electrical outlets in the walls! When the time comes, it shouldn't be a problem (the only problem is money to excavate and to pour a floor at this point). Anyone know an excavator on the cheap???
All in all the inspector was impressed with the condition of the home, minus a few "cosmetic and layout quirks that we'll have to figure out". He meant the bathrooms and decor inside...
http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=8704052
The "emergency" walk-through yesterday didn't result in anything. Bottom line was the buyers were looking for a bigger place. They didn't like how the island wasn't built in, and the en-suite was a little small compared to other places they were looking at. But, at least it's drawing people in. No word on whether we'll have an open house or not. Our agent thinks that they're more beneficial to the selling agent that his client (us), so he tends not to do them, but will if we ask.
We had the Home Inspection yesterday afternoon, and all in all, the house is in great shape considering the age. The biggest concern is the roofing -- the front of the shingles look less than 5 years old, but the back and side look like hell. Almost like they re-shingled only half the roof at one point. The seller said they look like that because she had trees scraping along there which caused the wear and have since been cut back, but the home inspector didn't buy it. He said the wear type and pattern weren't consistent with the explanation. There are also no signs of leaks in the attic, so it's something that we'll have to keep an eye on. I also had some concerns in the basement which were somewhat alleviated. We were concerned that we wouldn't be able to take the wall down between an unexcavated part of the basement and the "finished" side, but it looks like we can with the help of only two jack posts (there are two I-beams holding up the floor joists in that section). I say "finished" because whoever did it, didn't put any electrical outlets in the walls! When the time comes, it shouldn't be a problem (the only problem is money to excavate and to pour a floor at this point). Anyone know an excavator on the cheap???
All in all the inspector was impressed with the condition of the home, minus a few "cosmetic and layout quirks that we'll have to figure out". He meant the bathrooms and decor inside...
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