Our house has been officially listed and there is a sign post in our front yard. YEAH. I am so excited. It was a lot of work but so much easier than filing for adoption. My house has never been so clean for so long. DH is really motivated to sell quickly so he has been picking up after himself....
We still have a little work to do with the closets and garage. I am fine with someone seeing them but it would be more ideal to straighten them up and organize them. Today is the first day in a few weeks that I did not have to work on the house, so I get to relax. It feels great and I am so happy that I accomplished my goal of getting it listed.
Hopefully we can sell it soon. Our townhouse is part of a four family unit and we are on the end. This is very desirable when looking for a townhouse since you are not stuck in the middle of others and you get more land.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Saturday, May 16, 2015
The Photographer
The real estate agent, was waiting for the photographer outside of our house. The photographer was really late and finally called the real estate agent. He said that he was done taking photos and he was surprised that the agent did not show. The real estate agent, tells the photographer that it is impossible bc he was waiting outside of our house the whole time.
He tells him that he went to the wrong address. Same street different house number. The real estate agent asks the photographer if he just did the outside. Nope, he did the inside too. It seems that the photographer rang the bell and a man answered. The photographer tells him that he is there to take pictures bc the real estate agent, requested his services so they can list the house. The man lets him in. The house is a total mess but the photographer takes the photos anyway.
Later on a police car drives by and stops at my house to ask the real estate agent why he is taking photos of the outside of the house bc that guy called the police. Then the real estate agent, tells him about the mix up. The officer says that it must have just been the outside. Then real estate agent, tells the officer that the man let the photographer into his home and allowed it to be photographed even though it was a mess and he was not going to list it.
OMG I was hysterical hearing this story. DH and I hypothesized that this man must have let the photographer in and then called his wife who said that she was not expecting a photographer and they were not listing their house. That is probably when he called the police.
It felt good to laugh bc we have been so serious these past few weeks.
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Made an Offer
I wanted to keep looking for a house that we both loved. DH was done looking and wanted to get something now. I always take forever to make a decision but he is very decisive. He said we could get one of the houses that I loved...................EEEEEKKKKKK
We put in an offer on a house that was only on the market for about a week. We tried to stay calm and not get too excited bc we knew that it might be too late already. We also put in an offer that was below asking price. They countered our offer with a little more. We accepted.
It does not seem real to me that I bought a house. I am still very cautious bc it is not official until closing and anything can happen. We put down a deposit and will close at the end of July. They don't want to move out until the end of August bc they are building a new house and can't get in until then. They will pay us rent for one month.
We found a mortgage that will help us out. It is adjustable so we don't need to put down 20%. We can still avoid PMI and only put down 10%. This will help us tremendously when trying to arrange money for the adoption and the new house.
Now I have to get my house listed and sell it. I have been working every night to declutter, visit the storage unit, and paint. My main project is still the garage. I have painted most walls and most of the ceiling. I started to paint the floor grey and it looks amazing. As soon as that is done, we can finish moving stuff out of the other rooms into the garage and clean.
Adoption News:
Case number five is closed for now. The grandmother is going to file for custody bc the bm is not legally allowed to parent. I am fine with this bc I knew in my heart that it was really iffy. I never got attached to this one. I have also been so busy with the house that I did not have time to get my hopes up.
We put in an offer on a house that was only on the market for about a week. We tried to stay calm and not get too excited bc we knew that it might be too late already. We also put in an offer that was below asking price. They countered our offer with a little more. We accepted.
It does not seem real to me that I bought a house. I am still very cautious bc it is not official until closing and anything can happen. We put down a deposit and will close at the end of July. They don't want to move out until the end of August bc they are building a new house and can't get in until then. They will pay us rent for one month.
We found a mortgage that will help us out. It is adjustable so we don't need to put down 20%. We can still avoid PMI and only put down 10%. This will help us tremendously when trying to arrange money for the adoption and the new house.
Now I have to get my house listed and sell it. I have been working every night to declutter, visit the storage unit, and paint. My main project is still the garage. I have painted most walls and most of the ceiling. I started to paint the floor grey and it looks amazing. As soon as that is done, we can finish moving stuff out of the other rooms into the garage and clean.
Adoption News:
Case number five is closed for now. The grandmother is going to file for custody bc the bm is not legally allowed to parent. I am fine with this bc I knew in my heart that it was really iffy. I never got attached to this one. I have also been so busy with the house that I did not have time to get my hopes up.
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Case #5 Reopened
We have been very busy looking for a new house. It has been exciting but exhausting. Every other night we would go out to look at something and then the other night we would pack up stuff in our current house. We also made runs to the storage unit. Looking at other houses is great research when you are selling your own house. I realized how important it is to declutter and clean your house. It is amazing the range that I saw from totally empty vacant to full blown they live here and you can totally tell they are slobs.
We got a few car loads out of our house and it already looks so much larger. We also found a bunch of hot spots that need some TLC like paint touchups or that hole in the back wall of the garage that I never bothered to patch.
Then in the middle of the day last week, my dh calls me and said that the sw called him to say that case #5 was back open. This was the case that I got the call in March and the bm chose another couple. It seems that the couple backed out and now we are it. This case seems very unstable. The other couple who already experienced a take back decided they could not risk it.
Since the due date is not until July and we are still in full blown house hunt, we said yes. I am not really sure exactly what is going on and we still have to meet with the bm. I am not getting my hopes up since the details seem iffy and there are still two months to go. We are rolling the dice for now and not telling anyone about this bc they won't understand and I don't want to get their hopes up.
At least for now, it seems that this was meant to be. We would not have been able to afford both the house and the adoption, if we adopted first bc we would have used our cash. Since we are going for the house first we can use our cash for the down payment and then borrow from the house for the adoption. It is crazy bc you end up paying the same amounts but the down payment must be in cash and the adoption can be a loan so you have to get the puzzle pieces to fit just right.
We got a few car loads out of our house and it already looks so much larger. We also found a bunch of hot spots that need some TLC like paint touchups or that hole in the back wall of the garage that I never bothered to patch.
Then in the middle of the day last week, my dh calls me and said that the sw called him to say that case #5 was back open. This was the case that I got the call in March and the bm chose another couple. It seems that the couple backed out and now we are it. This case seems very unstable. The other couple who already experienced a take back decided they could not risk it.
Since the due date is not until July and we are still in full blown house hunt, we said yes. I am not really sure exactly what is going on and we still have to meet with the bm. I am not getting my hopes up since the details seem iffy and there are still two months to go. We are rolling the dice for now and not telling anyone about this bc they won't understand and I don't want to get their hopes up.
At least for now, it seems that this was meant to be. We would not have been able to afford both the house and the adoption, if we adopted first bc we would have used our cash. Since we are going for the house first we can use our cash for the down payment and then borrow from the house for the adoption. It is crazy bc you end up paying the same amounts but the down payment must be in cash and the adoption can be a loan so you have to get the puzzle pieces to fit just right.