Are We Moving?!

I made an offer on a house today.

I think I've mentioned before that I want/need to move, and I've been seriously looking for a little while now.

I've seen a couple of places that I kinda liked except for a few things that I didn't, one that I think I would've made an offer on had I been in a position to do so at the time (I hadn't gotten pre-approved yet), and a whole lot of duds. But on Sunday, Jordyn and I went to an open house, and I fell in love with the place. In fact, I knew I was going to really like it before I ever saw it in person. Call it intuition, or maybe I could tell from the listing, but I just knew. The day before, we'd gone to two other open houses, and while this particular house also had an open house that day, it wasn't until later, and Jordyn needed to nap. I purposely put her down slightly on the earlier side because I thought maybe we could make the end of the open house after her nap, but of course she chose that day to take an extra-long nap. We'd driven by the house earlier in the day, though, and I really liked it from the outside, including the neighborhood and general location. The open house on Sunday was earlier, so we made it there before nap time.

We went back to see it again later in the day with my realtor, and I still loved it. It has pretty much everything I'm looking for (except a couple of things I know I just won't find, at least not in my price range - like an en suite master bath), and even a couple of things I never thought I'd end up with - a huge, level, fenced-in yard and central a/c! Around here, it's fairly rare to find central a/c except maybe in new construction. This house was gut renovated and added on to in 2007, and they put in central air then. The house was originally built in 1915, and only the basement shows its age.

My realtor found out from another realtor who's a very good friend of his that she had potential buyers, but they had a pre-offer inspection done that found mold in the attic, so they decided not to proceed. I was happy they weren't making an offer, but worried about what their inspector found that made them walk away. Since my realtor wasn't able to get any additional information, I hired my own mold guy (who even knew there was such a thing as mold guys?!) to come take a look this morning. That meant a third look at the house, which I still loved, and my sister came to see it and loved it, too. My parents have been out of town since Friday morning and don't get back until tonight, so they weren't able to see it except for pictures on the listing and that I took and sent them. The mold guy said there's definitely mold, but it's a very, very common one that isn't toxic and is easy enough to get rid of. It'll cost me a few thousand, but it's something that really should be done, including possibly a little work on the attic venting to make sure the mold doesn't return, and some additional insulation. He said it's really nothing that should scare me away as long as I have the funds to make the necessary repairs.

So, I decided to go ahead with an offer. The problem is, there are at least two other offers on the table.  The market around here, at least in the town where the house is (and where I really want to live), is in a place right now where there's very little inventory, and when something does go on the market, it usually sells almost immediately, as long as it's priced right. And people are listing their houses in such a way that it invites multiple bids over the asking price! It's a total seller's market. The good spin on this is that I should end up with multiple offers on my current place once I get it listed. My realtor is great, so I'm sure he'll be able to figure out the right strategy to make that happen. My offer was $42K over the asking price, and it's quite possible that another offer (or more than one) will be even more than that. It's a clean offer, though, so hopefully I'll get the house. I really, really, really hope I do!

My intuition was right, of course, in that I did love the house as much as I thought I would. I walked in, and I could almost immediately "see" us there. I could see Jordyn playing with her toys on the floor while I got dinner ready, I could see us eating dinner on the deck on a warm summer evening, I could see her running around and swinging on a (currently nonexistent) swing set in the yard. I wrote a letter to the sellers to accompany my offer, and I included a very similar paragraph to this one (up to this sentence). I also included the pic below.

Wish us luck on actually getting the house!!!

Mommy-daughter selfie

Ugh!! I was just about to publish this post, and I decided to text my realtor to see if he had an update as to the total number of offers, since it's now past the deadline for making them. Turns out, he'd just emailed me but it hadn't come through yet. There are 8 - EIGHT - offers on this house!!! The sellers are going back to all 8 people asking for their highest bid and the best terms by noon tomorrow. OMG. I already offered $42K over asking! I can't make my terms any better than they already are, so it's all about the price. After talking to my dad and my realtor, I'm going back with my offer as being $2500 over the highest other offer, with a cap that's 47.5K over my original bid, so a total of 89.5K over asking. This is ridiculous, I know, but this is the market!

There's nothing else out there to even look at right now, not in the area where I want to be (in the right location, with the right school system). It's a matter of waiting for something to even come on the market, and then everyone who's looking pounces at once. I wish I could wait for the market to change, but I really can't, and plus, then that would hurt me on the selling end. And no way in hell would I sell now and live with my parents and brother for a while!!! I'd rather pay $89.5K over the asking price of this house. Or maybe even more than that!

Well, that's my best offer. Let's see what happens...
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10:53pm Edited to Add: And, of course, as happens in a bidding war, I've spoken to my realtor once or twice more since originally posting this, and my offer has changed once again. He spoke to the sellers' realtor, who said mine is one of the top 3-4 offers, and kind of hinted at a couple of things that would help make it even better. The sellers don't want an escalation clause (the $2500 above the highest offer thing), they just want my highest number, plain and simple. So, I gave my best offer as basically what I'd capped the clause at, added a few thousand extra to the deposit with the offer (which isn't really a big deal since I get it back if they don't accept my offer, it'll be applied to the total purchase price, and the only way I'd lose it is if they accept my offer and then I walk away, and why would I do that after all of this??), and moved up the signing of the P&S by a few days.

So, now we (we? who's we? I guess my realtor and I) wait. I should know by shortly after noon tomorrow...