Woo, what a week. Things looked promising at the beginning, and even though we now know that it wasn’t meant to be, it’s still frustrating and disappointing.
Shall I explain?
As many of you know, we’ve been house-hunting for 9+ months. Our first home we made an offer on was a short sale, which took 2 months to hear anything from, and then the bank was unreasonable and we had to walk away from it. The dead of winter brought no new homes on the market, so it wasn’t until last week that we stumbled across a foreclosure we liked.
It was a 1940 cape that had almost everything we had been looking for and then more besides, such as this amazing foyer!
We were smitten. We learned on the same day that we were making an offer that another offer had just come in, but as long as we also sent our offer that day, they’d consider both.
The only pitfall with the house was that the SDS revealed it had not been hooked up to the public sewer, which was necessary in order for any new owners to possess the house. The selling realtor told us that the bank was aware of it and already getting estimates.
Since it sounded like the bank was already acting on it, we added a contingency that the bank hook the house up and with fingers crossed and a prayer, we made our best offer and waited.
The selling realtor came back two days later saying that our offer was the strongest, but that the other offer hadn’t mentioned the sewer hookup. Therefore, they would only accept our offer if we assumed responsibility for the sewer to be hooked up. They said they’d been quoted $7,800 for the job, but as many know, you can never trust an estimate – unforeseen issues can crop up. Not to mention we had already given our very best offer manageable, because there were many other updates needed in the house (such as a water-damaged and falling-down ceiling in the garage).
When we asked how they’d even be able to (legally) sell it to the other buyers without proper hookup, he flippantly said, “it’s only illegal if it’s caught”.
Cue me wanting to give that realtor a good swift kick in the you-know-where. These are people’s lives you’re messing with here, buddy.
It was an underhanded move of the bank and realtor in our book. Neither our realtor or we felt comfortable with their idea, so we stood by our original offer and basically said to take it or leave it.
They left it and went with the other.
I can only imagine the terrible surprise those new homeowners are going to get now. I truly wish I had a way of contacting them before they accepted the bank’s offer.
Alas, another home we fell in love with bites the dust. We’re taking comfort in the fact that our house is still out there somewhere, and I’m trying to not be impatient and tell it to hurry up and show itself. It’s a struggle sometimes, especially as the market still hasn’t really picked up.
Going back to house hunting, I just had to share these two…unique…features of some homes we recently found during one day of touring several before finding the 1940 cape, such as this pendant lamp complete with gingham patterned wallpaper on the ceiling:
…and this coat closet that was also turned into a partial bathroom…gross (can’t say I’ve ever seen that before).
We’re still getting rid of stuff by the bagful in preparation of decluttering before moving. Here was my most recent trip to Goodwill, with stuff in the backseat and front seat not pictured. We’ve probably donated 40-something grocery-sized bags to Goodwill in the last few months. Feels so good.
Oh, and despite the bad headcold I’ve had the last 48 hours, progress has been made on the piano bench!
Hopefully I can knock off this cold over the weekend and be good to finally reveal those side tables next week that I’ve been forever working on.
Have a great weekend, y’all!
