Rewind to Super Bowl Sunday 2010. My husband and I were renting a lovely house in an amazing neighborhood. My husband went to a Super Bowl party next door-we were just at the beginning stages of looking into buying a house. A neighbor mentioned to him that yet another neighbor had been trying to sell his house, and recently took it off the market. It was the bigger floor plan on the street, which we needed, due to having three kids already. So we called up the possible seller, and he said he was indeed interested in selling, but he needed to put some numbers together and give us a call back.
Months went by and he didn't call us back. We continued to call him every so often, letting him know we're still interested, and inquiring if he was still interested in selling. The conversation was the same every time, he'd say "I'll call you back in a few days with numbers..." and it never happened. So we moved on, and started house shopping elsewhere. We only found one other house we both really wanted, and we were outbid (with an all cash offer). I mourned for months over that house! It was in the city I grew up in, had so much character, so much attention to detail, was on one of the oldest streets in the city and had huge old trees, it was a small cul-de-sac, had a pool, great outdoor living space... the list goes on. I was in love. And I had been rejected. My heart was broken.
We continued to look at house after house. Both of us were quite picky about what we were looking for, and we never seemed to agree on a house. I found more I was interested, my husband wasn't. He found a few he was interested in, I wasn't interested in them.
At long last, January 3, 2011, I received a text message from a neighbor friend of mine; the wife of the neighbor who had first informed my husband about the possible availability of the house on our street. The owner could no longer keep the house, and he was going to short sale it. I called my realtor right away, and before the house even hit the MLS, we had an offer in. The owner accepted it right away, but then we had to wait on the bank to approve the amount. The entire process can take months, they run numbers, look at local sales and listings, do an appraisal, run more numbers, and they tend of drag their feet during this process!
Toward the end of March, my realtor informed us the bank had approved our offer. Now they wanted to rush things, we had to close within 30 days, or the process would start over, which meant it was possible for the house to go into foreclosure after the 30 days is up.
Everything went fairly smooth, and we were able to close within 30 days. There were a few issues with getting the seller out of the house after closing, but alas, we are home owners, in a neighborhood we love, and we are making lots of plans to make this house ours!
I also love all things design, so I'll be posting pretty things that inspire me, or design elements I just love and feel like sharing here!
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