Fast, Frozen

During the day on Friday I got a notice from Zillow that a house I had looked at recently just had a 15k price drop.  It was already in a range that I thought I could swing once I sold my house.  The one thing that seemed negative to me was it was only 1400sq ft and change, over 25% smaller than my current home.  Now the reality is I am looking for less so the price drop combined with the fantastic location close to work got me to consider it more.

After playing pickleball Friday at lunch I drove by the place.  All I could do was look at the outside as it is still occupied but it was appealing.  The neighborhood was filled with nothing but well maintained homes and the biggest plus of all was when I checked the distance to work it was less than two and a half miles.  What a game changer that would be.

So once I got back to the office my wheels started turning, which is quite often dangerous.  Up until this point the sequence of events in my head as far as my housing situation goes  was sell my house, THEN buy another house, using the proceeds from the sale of my house to fund the majority of it.  All of a sudden another scenario popped into my head, what if I bought another house while I still was in the process of trying to sell mine…

So I contacted the woman I am dealing with from the mortgage company.  I was already pre-approved in the scenario of only getting a small mortgage with my house sale equity carrying the load.  I asked her what about a scenario where I do a full conventional mortgage where I act like I don’t even have a house for sale, could I get approved to do that?  The answer was yes.  Now things get interesting.

Basically I could buy a house and then down the road a few months, assuming I can sell my place, use the equity to refinance the new place with the vast majority of it being paid off.  I contacted my realtor to see if she would be able to arrange a showing of this house I was looking at.  She did, for 10AM Saturday morning, right after she meets me at the house to go over a few things.  I could hardly believe I was considering this drastic shift in strategy.

I was up early yesterday to get a couple things done before my scheduled meeting with the realtor at 8:30.  She was coming over to see all of the changes/improvements at the house. She was impressed, the fresh paint on the inside and outside made a tremendous difference in the way the house presents, she loved it.  We talked about the details of listing my house as well as how I wanted to try to list it a little higher than her initial recommendation.  She said that was fine and if for some reason we aren’t getting many showings we can quickly adjust the price if needed.  I signed the contract to get the house officially on the market.  Before I knew it we had to get going to get to the showing of this new place.

The drive there took about 40 minutes.  When we arrived my realtor commented on how cute the neighborhood is.  She also mentioned how it was a big plus that the HOA fees in this area are very inexpensive, less than $300 a year.  In some areas HOA fees can be nearly double that PER MONTH.  The listing agent was at the house and had it all opened up.  The place features huge triple door sliders in the main bedroom and living area that disappear into the wall which is very cool, allowing the house to open up into the large covered lanai area.

I did immediately feel that I was in a house significantly smaller than my own but overall I liked the vibe.  The kitchen and both bathrooms are areas that I am going to want to update at some point but they are functional and clean.  The TV situation in the main living space could take some creativity on my part.  Right now they have a smaller set mounted in a corner, less than ideal.  The family evidently has three kids based on the other bedrooms, I am sure they are looking for something bigger to support a family that size.

The covered lanai is a good size and is connected to a small back yard that is completely fenced in which would be great for Elsa.  The lot is only a quarter acre, compared to the 2.73 acres I currently have.  It would be enough maintenance to make me feel useful but nothing like I have now where it can make me feel like I am drowning.

When I walked into the garage I met a mountain of boxes and things as the family has clearly been preparing to get out of there.  It’s a two car garage which should fit my needs.  The place was not perfect but it checked a lot of boxes and that location is a total game changer in regards to my day to day life.  The listing agent said the sellers originally wanted to be out by the end of February.  The fact that they dropped the price two weeks after listing it was another indicator they were highly motivated to sell.

I talked to my realtor about it and got her advice.  She thought based on what she saw/feels, we could make an offer below the asking price that was already discounted 15K.  Like I said I liked the place but did not a fall in love, most likely because the idea of having the renovations done was a bit of a negative.  However the reality is the price point we were at was low enough that I could fund the renovations from the sale of my house.  So I decided to place an offer, which felt a little surreal.

Within a couple hours I heard back that the sellers countered, offering half way between their ask and mine.  I talked to the realtor and gave her one more counter telling her it was my last one.  If they didn’t go for it I would move on, despite some of the positive things potentially about the place.  I was sort of the mindset that if they say no, it wasn’t meant to be.  Well they said yes.

So all that was left was for me to initial the revised offer paperwork electronically and send it in.  My realtor sent it to me and there it sat, for most of the day.  I started to question pretty much anything and everything.  There were things I wished I asked while I was there that I neglected to do, probably because it was the first house I went through.  I found out through communication with my realtor that the place has no impact windows or storm shutters which sort of surprised me. Granted the home went through Hurricane Ian without damage but still I was a bit surprised by that.  Of course that is something I can always address myself down the road.  I also didn’t give thought that homes in that area require flood insurance, not a huge additional expense but just another thing to consider.

I felt almost frozen, unable to commit to uprooting my life, especially without first having my house sold.  It was the sole thing on my mind for most of last night as I walked around the house continuing to replace switch and receptacle covers.  I then had another phone conversation with the realtor and talked through some of my concerns.  I apologized for taking up her time on a Saturday evening but she was very understanding.  By the end of the call I finally felt ok about signing and sent back the official counter offer which will set the ball in motion.

There are a number of hoops that have to still be gone through like a building inspection and a number of other things that could derail the sale.  But, things are moving forward.  One of the big pluses in this scenario is at allows me to only move once instead of the possibility of me having to secure temporary living arrangements if my place sold and I could not secure something else in a timeline that works.  As I mentioned, the price of this new place is at a point where I will be able to pay off a huge portion of it when I sell my house but also be able to have funds set aside to foot the bill for a lot of reno.  A negative is this is going to apply significant financial pressure to me until my house is sold. The location of this house is going to be simply amazing in how it will change my reality, combined with far less to do/maintain that is home related. So yea, that was my Saturday.

Today I plan to head out early for a long range test on my Sherman S and then decide where I want to watch the Eagles playoff game, either here or at a bar. It will be a nice distraction from the mental marathon I have been running the last couple days.

Oh yea, I streamed Friday night and finally got around to installing and shooting a video on the new floor mats I was sent for free from a vendor months ago.