Delay’s and Surprises

So after putting our house on the market, Deena and I returned to Boston. Our realtor was confident our home would sell quickly. The house across the street sold in 42 days, within $5,000 of the asking price. We were priced in the same range, and had the same floor plan so we were confident.

 

Despite several showings, good comments and open-houses we were still missing an offer. After 6 weeks, we decided to drop the price by $5,000 to attract a buyer. In the meantime, our offer on the new house expired. We decided that was ok and we really should focus on selling the Mahan house, and then make decisions after that took place.

One afternoon we got a call from our realtor. It seems that the sellers of the new house were in the market for an investment property, and they wanted to see our house and gage its potential as a rental. To make a long story short, we soon had a cash offer in hand for our house from the sellers of the other house.

Deena and I were amazed. Everything continues to fall into place to allow this transition in our lives take place. As of last week, both inspections were accepted, and we are on track for a double closing on July 23^rd.

Now that you know the story, I would like to start discussing plans for the new house. In my next post I will outline some of my thoughts and ideas. I'm definitely looking for input and advice from any of you that may be doing similar projects.

Making an Offer—Contingencies and Extensions

We contacted our realtor and started the process to make an offer on the house. We needed to sell our current house to make the deal work, so after a few back and forth negotiations we agreed on a price for the new house, including a contingency for our house to sell first.

 

We spent the next couple weeks working on the house to get it ready to sell. New paint, carpets cleaned, everything depersonalized, new kitchen cabinets, counters, and floor. It was a lot of work, but the house looked great.

 

Then we had to return to Boston so I could finish working, we hoped to sell the house, complete the offer on the new house and be able to move into the new house when we returned in July.

 

Throughout this entire process we decided that we wouldn't fight it. Everything felt right and seemed to be falling into place. Deena and I agreed that if it was meant to be, it would happen, and we would set aside our typical "type A" personalities and allow the deal to go through, rather then pushing and trying to force it to happen.

We had an opportunity to attend the Elliott Lake Ward, which would be our new ward if everything worked out. We were thrilled with the ward members there. So far it seemed that everything was on track.

 

 

Finding a new house

In my last post I talked about the purposes for this blog. I wanted to share the story of finding the home we are purchasing.

 

What makes this an interesting story is that we are actually trading houses! The folks we are buying our new house from, are buying our old house from us. It's a very interesting story, but let me start at the beginning.

In March, Deena and I were back in Tri-Cities, WA for a trip home. We have been living in Boston for the last year, but that is a different story. You can read her blog at East-Cost-Living to learn more about our adventures in Boston. While we were home we discussed again the possibilities of selling our house. We have lived in the house for 11 years, and although it has been great, the needs of our family have outgrown the house. We decided to go looking for new houses. The story is full of strange coincidences, which at the point I will consider blessings as it has become more and more clear to us that this is the place we should live.

 

Deena being the organized person that she is (sometimes I refer to it as neurotic) had compiled a list, well…actually a binder full of printouts for all of the houses we had researched ahead of time. Our goal was to start at one side of town, and view externally as many homes as we could that day, finish up the next day, and then call our realtor and see some houses. We started on the East side of Kennewick. Anyone who knows me knows I have always preferred the West side. My parents live in Rancho Reata, I grew up there, Deena's parents live in Badger Canyon, and I have always preferred that area. Nevertheless, we found some attractive homes in East Kennewick, so they were on the list. As we are driving down Spruce we see a sign for a 5-bedroom house with a pool. Great! That must be the one…although I don't remember it having a pool on the listing. The gate is open, so we drive in and have a look around. To make a long story short, we love the house, and cannot believe how great it is for the price. As we leave, we drive down the road a bit more, and find the house we are supposed to see. Hummm…not quite as nice. We continue to work through the list, driving by and reviewing houses, crossing some off the list, marking others as needing to be seen with our agent.

 

Finally we are ready to see houses. We decide to see the house on Spruce first. It is more expensive then we had originally planned, however the features associated with the property are attractive enough that it's worth looking at. We meet with the agent and walk through the house. We are blown away. Part of me didn't want to get too excited, but this house seemed to have everything we needed. Is it too much to ask for the first house to be the right one?

 

After getting our fill of the house we continued our day of seeing houses. When it was all said and done, we had driven by 40+ homes, and walked through 20+. The reality was we couldn't get the first one out of our mind. Everything else we saw was compared to that house. There was only one logical choice. Buy that house.

 

 

 

Purposes and Beginnings

Recently we cleared what I think if the final hurdle towards purchasing a new home and selling our current home. The inspection contingency was agreed to by both buyers and sellers and we are now set to close on July 23^rd. I have been wanting to share some of my thoughts and ideas relating to self-sufficiency and now is the perfect time to do so.

 

My goals for this blog will be to share the ideas, challenges and successes as we move to our new home. There is space to raise animals, a large garden and fruit trees. There is also a shop for the creating of many fun concepts and ideas.

 

I have been a follower of survival blog for quite some time. I truly appreciate all of the information shared in that group, however do not believe it is feasible (financially or socially) to move out to the middle of no-where in a retreat. Therefore the purpose of this blog will be to share my path to local self-sufficiency. How to I prepare for disaster, either natural or man-made. Can I create an environment where we can provide for ourselves on our 2 acres?

 

Over the next several weeks I will share the story of how we found the property as well as our plans as we prepare to move back.