So We're Buying a House
OK, we're TRYING to buy a house. This will be attempt number THREE in the past 5-6 weeks. The market is tight here in Dayton. Actually a suburb of Dayton, but the school's are good, we like the vibe of the place, and the houses are older and have that charm that seems so elusive on TV as well as in real life. We move pretty frequently so trust us when we say there are worse places to live in the world than Dayton, Ohio.
I guess I should introduce us: I'm James and I build, repair, and restore stringed instruments. My wife is a nurse. We've decided we've had enough of moving every 2-3 years (she's done it for almost 30, I've done it my entire life) so we're putting down roots. We've lived in enough different styles of houses to know what kind of place we want: a ranch with a basement (partial is OK but we prefer full), 3BR+ 2BA+, a fireplace, 2 car garage and "some place" for me to put my workshop that doesn't involve co-habitating with Ruby.
Ruby is my wife's car.
We've been homeowners before and had both "new" and "newer" homes but never an "older" home. We're not scared of a home needing work. Guitars and houses and made of the same materials (mostly) so how hard can renovating it be?
(Remind me later that I actually said this out loud, but please be gentle. I bruise easily.)
We thought we had found a good candidate home but learned quickly about the "I have to put the house on the market but already have a buyer lined up" phenomenon as a reason a home will be listed for oh, 12 minutes then suddenly go PENDING. Then we found another and learned that there can be shenanigans going on within the real estate world and even though you make a REALLY nice full-price offer a better offer "suddenly" gets on the table (don't get me started, it's ugly)...not that I'm bitter (but I really am). I'm getting over it. I felt better when I found out the floating workshop floor had sunk and would cost $4k to fix. Ouch.
We also learned about the seller who has a literal crap-ton of emotional connection with their property and have priced it outside the realm of reason and won't budge so they can get points for "listing" the house but knowing it will never sell at that price. For a loooong period of time. And that's OK.
We also learned that Cape Cod style houses in a certain part of town get snapped up pretty darn quick. As in it goes on the market at suppertime, has one viewing appointment and you have the next available appointment the following morning and it's pending before you finish your breakfast. But that's OK, too. We'll get the house we're meant to be in. I recently attended an estate sale at a house we had noticed in the past that looked promising and that *might* come onto the market in a few weeks. I crossed my fingers that we'd at least get to look at it.
Which brings us to the present situation. We've found a house that fits nearly all of our criteria: a ranch with a partial basement, 3BR, 2 1/2 baths, 2 fireplaces, a 2-car garage for Ruby and some shop space in a detached structure for me. It's in our present school district so the kids keep their friends, it's under budget (YAY!), on a flat lot (I am not mowing hills or shoveling steep driveways) and it is a 2-3 minute commute from our present home if the traffic is bad.
It was listed on a Friday afternoon and popped up on Mrs. Rattlecan's phone as we were driving back from Niagara Falls (the Canadian side so we could use up all our budgeted vacation money faster). We had just made an appointment with our realtor to see a property that night as soon as we arrived home and couldn't see this newly listed one until Sunday afternoon. Insert rumbly tummy sound >here<. Could this be the one and would it be on the market for at least 48 hours...long enough for us to at least look at it?
So we halfheartedly looked at a house on Friday that was victim to the "1500sqft home listed as 2500sqft because we finished part of the basement AND put a sun room on the back" as well as other marketing gimmickry such as using "OMG" and "your friends will be so jealous" in the description. It was a nice enough house but it was too small and just wasn't the one. We left disappointed and decided to await viewing the other house on Sunday. Remember the estate sale house I mentioned earlier? Tomorrow we would get to see it. ~Mr.
**As either myself of Mrs. Rattlecan will be posting here, we've decided the easiest way to let you know who has written a post is by signing it with a ~Mr. or a ~Mrs.**
Next step: the Viewing!
I guess I should introduce us: I'm James and I build, repair, and restore stringed instruments. My wife is a nurse. We've decided we've had enough of moving every 2-3 years (she's done it for almost 30, I've done it my entire life) so we're putting down roots. We've lived in enough different styles of houses to know what kind of place we want: a ranch with a basement (partial is OK but we prefer full), 3BR+ 2BA+, a fireplace, 2 car garage and "some place" for me to put my workshop that doesn't involve co-habitating with Ruby.
Ruby is my wife's car.
 |
| The infamous Ruby who does not like "shacking up" with a garage full of noisy, dirty, oily tools. |
We've been homeowners before and had both "new" and "newer" homes but never an "older" home. We're not scared of a home needing work. Guitars and houses and made of the same materials (mostly) so how hard can renovating it be?
(Remind me later that I actually said this out loud, but please be gentle. I bruise easily.)
We thought we had found a good candidate home but learned quickly about the "I have to put the house on the market but already have a buyer lined up" phenomenon as a reason a home will be listed for oh, 12 minutes then suddenly go PENDING. Then we found another and learned that there can be shenanigans going on within the real estate world and even though you make a REALLY nice full-price offer a better offer "suddenly" gets on the table (don't get me started, it's ugly)...not that I'm bitter (but I really am). I'm getting over it. I felt better when I found out the floating workshop floor had sunk and would cost $4k to fix. Ouch.
We also learned about the seller who has a literal crap-ton of emotional connection with their property and have priced it outside the realm of reason and won't budge so they can get points for "listing" the house but knowing it will never sell at that price. For a loooong period of time. And that's OK.
We also learned that Cape Cod style houses in a certain part of town get snapped up pretty darn quick. As in it goes on the market at suppertime, has one viewing appointment and you have the next available appointment the following morning and it's pending before you finish your breakfast. But that's OK, too. We'll get the house we're meant to be in. I recently attended an estate sale at a house we had noticed in the past that looked promising and that *might* come onto the market in a few weeks. I crossed my fingers that we'd at least get to look at it.
Which brings us to the present situation. We've found a house that fits nearly all of our criteria: a ranch with a partial basement, 3BR, 2 1/2 baths, 2 fireplaces, a 2-car garage for Ruby and some shop space in a detached structure for me. It's in our present school district so the kids keep their friends, it's under budget (YAY!), on a flat lot (I am not mowing hills or shoveling steep driveways) and it is a 2-3 minute commute from our present home if the traffic is bad.
It was listed on a Friday afternoon and popped up on Mrs. Rattlecan's phone as we were driving back from Niagara Falls (the Canadian side so we could use up all our budgeted vacation money faster). We had just made an appointment with our realtor to see a property that night as soon as we arrived home and couldn't see this newly listed one until Sunday afternoon. Insert rumbly tummy sound >here<. Could this be the one and would it be on the market for at least 48 hours...long enough for us to at least look at it?
So we halfheartedly looked at a house on Friday that was victim to the "1500sqft home listed as 2500sqft because we finished part of the basement AND put a sun room on the back" as well as other marketing gimmickry such as using "OMG" and "your friends will be so jealous" in the description. It was a nice enough house but it was too small and just wasn't the one. We left disappointed and decided to await viewing the other house on Sunday. Remember the estate sale house I mentioned earlier? Tomorrow we would get to see it. ~Mr.
**As either myself of Mrs. Rattlecan will be posting here, we've decided the easiest way to let you know who has written a post is by signing it with a ~Mr. or a ~Mrs.**
Next step: the Viewing!
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