The Long ... Wait

Sorry it has taken me so long to write another entry. There were a number of things that go in the way, like a graduation in California, work, and training for some physical events coming up. However, the biggest reason for going silent was that we were waiting to sell our current home. 

This is the first time I've purchased a new house and planned to use proceeds from my current house to pay for it. Given the past few years of crazy real estate stories - houses selling for above asking price before they even go on the market officially, no contingencies, no home inspections, multiple cash offers, etc, we were conditioned to expect a quick sale. After all, our current home is beautiful. Surely it would sell within minutes. 

Well, we were a little off in our thinking. Several factors conspired to make our home selling experience much more 'normal' than the stories we had heard. The current higher interest rate environment, the subsiding of the COVID home-buying frenzy that took place in our area, and the layout of our wonderful little home all contributed. The interest rates make a 1M+ purchase more risky and expensive than it has been in a few years. The layout of our home has the master bedroom and other bedrooms separated by the kitchen and a hallway. This is good for some people but most families are not comfortable having the kids bedrooms be separated by too much distance. This means the house was good for families with older kids and for empty nesters, or near empty nesters.  The problem with them is that most empty nesters are in no rush to find their next place and the higher interest rates are a strong influence to wait a little longer and see what happens. So, no offers for quite a while.

That means many, many showings. We had 4 open houses and about 70 individual showings. These days showings are all organized by a mobile phone app. You get a request and then you approve or deny it. Then you need to be out of the house at least 15 minutes beforehand, each time. We had many clients come early. This was all very stressful for our 15 year old, breathing impaired doggie, Socks. She was absolutely a trooper, and she got used to taking a lot of rides with Laurie and me. But the timing could not be worse, since her health has been deteriorating since the beginning of the year. I think when we finally signed a contract to sell the home, our biggest relief was that Socks was going to get a break. 

C'mon now. Let's get this house sold!

After 70 showings and no offers, we received 3 offers within 24 hours on the same day I traveled across the country for my son Ian's graduation. I guess I just needed to get out of Dodge. Of course, one offer prompted two others to act. We actually went with the lowest offer because they were the first to make and offer and their offer seemed the most stable. 

Of course, by the time we signed the offer, the builder of the new home (and us too) was assuming we would purchase using some kind of alternative financing since the existing home was not yet sold. We were starting to move money and take big gulps as we signed documents for a much bigger loan than I was initially anticipating. Can anyone say the word "Jumbo?"  So once the new contract was in place we went to the builder to see if we could step back to our initial mode, which would incur a 1 week delay in the new home closing. Luckily, DR Horton was very reasonable about this and within a day or two they reoriented themselves for a later close. Thanks DR Horton.

In the meantime, the new house has been moving right along. Another post will cover all of that. But we are doing our final walk thru later this week and