Deal

She accepted our final offer!

We'll have it in writing by the end of the day.

We're off to house hunt.

Major updates plus previously promised house tour photos tomorrow!!!

Get Ready For Another LONG Day

Party #2 is not meeting the noon deadline. They are seeing the house AGAIN (fourth time) tonight before offering.

Party #1 finally decided to counter our counter. And she came up 20K... so she's entering our ballpark now. She's giving us another deadline of 5 PM.

Of course Party #2 sees the house at 5:30 PM. Of course.

Oh, and there is another showing (unrelated from all this) today too.

So we're countering Party #1's counter at 5 PM.

If she accepts then that's that and we feel pretty good about that number.

If she counters it that will give Party #2 (and #3 if they jump in) a chance to make their offer before we're in contract.

You know, this whole experience (since Mr F accepted this job) has been crazy making.

But it seems like it's all going to work out.

Could This Day Feel Any Longer?

Okay:

Countered party #1.

Waiting on party #2 to make an offer (maybe) by end of the day.

Party #1 is now waiting to counter our counter until they know if party #2 jumps in.

So we wait.

And it's excruciating.

Will there be a competition?

Or will party #1 wait it out and hold strong with their low offer?

I can't tell if this whole thing has hurt us or helped us with them.

GAH!

We've started the negotiations. It's tricky and stressful. We needed to respond to party #1 by noon. Party #2 JUST finished their walk through and need to talk before making an offer on either our house or another. So we don't want to lose #1 BUT we also want to leave it open for #2 to jump in. See? Party #1 did this on purpose knowing party #2 was coming this morning. See? We don't know for sure if party #2 will come through with an offer and put this in competition... but... it's a good chance and we don't want to be locked in with #1.

So we're hard balling it back to #1, only coming down a nod (2K) and they can either meet it or they can counter giving #2 a chance to jump in which would then give us a chance to go back to both and say BRING IT! We're really hoping that works.

Until then I'll be in the bathroom...

Belated

Okay we were gone ALL DAY.

Lots of stuff happened.

We got an offer (hold your applause... it's low and we haven't countered yet).

We may be getting ANOTHER offer tomorrow... so... things are going in the right direction.

We found a house we LOVE.

Well... not KId.

She said she loves houses that are "richy" and "seem like they are REALLY rich".

Let me translate for you that "REALLY rich" = REALLY tacky. (sometimes you can take finishes too far, Kid)

We're going back to see the house this weekend and walk around the area and be REALLY sure before we make an offer.

Also by then we'll know what's going down with our Asheville house and we'll have a better idea what kind of offer we can make.

Pictures and commentary to come once Mr F downloads his camera!

Tomorrow Will Be Fun... Come Back For That

We've got a line up of 8 houses to see tomorrow. After watching back to back to back episodes of Sarah's House (love it) with Mr F, and his related commentary that the episode wherein she previews her potential houses was the most interesting, I've decided to give you all the same experience (what fun for you).

Although on a much less impressive scale.

So come back for that.

We're looking at everything from 1000 sq foot 1950s ranch (yowza that's small), to a somewhat ugly 70s house with a pool, to a .... get this... new (ish) subdivision house (I know).

We've got cul-de-sacs, we've got one acre yards, we've got hot tubs and swimming pools, we've got lots of blue toilets and salmon bathtubs and wallpaper borders.

Don't worry I'll take pictures.

We've got our list of priorities (3 bedrooms, a place for me to exercise, a yard to play in, sidewalks, walkable to school, etc). Our new motto is "This house is for the kids". So with some regret Mr F and I are sacrificing our personal aesthetic in order to get the best possible family house, in the best possible school, IN OUR LIMITED PRICE RANGE. It has become very unlikely that you'll see us in a cute Craftsman style bungalow this time around (Ann Arbor hasn't gotten that cheap.... yet....sniffle)

But, hey, there's a lot to love about 70s architecture... right?.... right?

One thing we know is that school starts in two months. We kind of need to get this show on the road if we're going to get in in time.

P.S. We're having two 2nd showings at our house this week. Fingers crossed, people. Because if our house sells I won't have to kill myself. (just kidding... kind of)