Ulysses
General => Off-Topic => Topic started by: JamminR on August 24, 2007, 04:50:40 PM
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I'm not going to go into major detail of where it is, cost, size, etc here in a public post.
If you or anyone you know might be interested in purchase a home in the northeast TN area, please post here. I'll consider sending you a link to the listing.
I'm close to the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, less than an hour from the Smoky Mountain National park, Pigeon Forge(Dollywood!), Sevierville, Gatlinburg(Wedding chapels, Saltwater taffy!)
20 minutes away from closest lake, other lakes, dams, rivers nearby.. all good for fishing or other water sports.
If you aren't old enough to get one yourself, by all means, tell your parents. They may have friends at work.
Or perhaps might be looking for vacation home?
Job market is wide open here. I live in a technology corridor that runs from Nashville to North Carolina.
Serious interest only ask please.
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25¢
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Like I said, if you aren't old enough (physically, OR mentally) ....
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...50¢ ?
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You're slowly, ever so slowly, working your way up to one square foot of my lot.
Unfortunately for you, I need to sell off all the square feet at once.
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Weeell. Too steep for my liking. I'm out.
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We're having our first showing Friday 8/31.
House has been on the market 13 days now.
Pictures of the house have been up since last Friday (one week)
Pray that they like what they see and make an offer we can work with.
Thanks
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We had a showing last Friday (mentioned in last post)
Someone scheduled for last Sunday but cancelled.
We had a showing yesterday (Wednesday)
We have a showing scheduled tomorrow (Friday).
It's scheduled the latest in the day we've seen (so far). 630 to 700pm.
Wife and I are going out on a date.
So far, all the feedback (from people through our realtor) about the house has been good.
Last Friday's showing loved the house, didn't like the neighborhood. (Though this neighborhood was built in the 90s and looks good, the only way in drives through houses built in the 70s/early 80s. Split Foyer's abound. Some are pretty scary.
Yesterday's showing loved the house and floor plan, but wanted a more level lot.
Wife and I looked at about 10 houses matching this floor plan before we got this one, because it had the best lot.
So far, we're pretty happy with the response. Just took two weeks before anyone called to look I guess. (And, honestly, one week of that had no online pics)
I say good luck to them. Perhaps they'll be back. We were.
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If it doesn't work out, my previous offer still stands.
/wink wink
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Uh, thanks GD. I'll make sure to keep you (as far back as possible) in mind.
While at work today, realtor called. We have another showing tomorrow, Saturday, at 11am
Wife and I both like to stay up late, sleep in late. Not happening tomorrow morning (though, the stay up late might still)
She wants to charge them breakfast.
I just remind her that most adults over 30 don't stay up until 3am (or later) and get up at noon (or later) on the weekends.
:)
The people that viewed the house today also viewed a house on the corner with the exact same floor plan (we passed them as we were leaving).
Competition is driving her crazy. After we put our house on the market, they dropped thier's 10k to be 10k more than ours.
It's slightly bigger, the downstairs is twice as big, because they have a connected side garage (where in mine the single car garage takes up half of the space)
We've seen the pictures of the inside though. We think the way they did the mid-level isn't that great. They made downstairs the family room, made mid level entire kitchen/dining area.
We'll see.
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We have a showing somewhere between 730 and 830 tonight.
In other words, they're looking at other houses.
(There are 4 others for sale in my neighborhood)
Realtor Feedback-
Friday 8/7 showing didn't show much feeling either way.
However, I was happy with the Saturday feedback.
Not as happy as I would have liked to have been, but happy none the less.
The Saturday 8/8 showing said our house was now a second choice/backup for them. They were going to make an offer on another house, and if that offer didn't go through, and ours was still available, they'd make an offer on ours.
Though I don't (normally) like wishing bad things on anyone, I hope the first offer falls flat.
Edit (spbogie): Fixed a grammatical mistake. (I have you covered Jam ;))
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How goes the house sell there Jammin? Haven't had an update in a while.
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No news is bad news. We had a showing Monday afternoon 9/10 while we were at work.
Unfortunately, for the wonderful run we had (6 or 7 showings in 9 days), we've had no calls or apparent interest since last monday.
We got feedback from the monday showing. They've decided to go with new construction.
Oh, and another bit of dissapointing news...the house to the left of us is going on the market.
That makes 5 houses on this street (of 7) that are for sale.
I don't mind a little competition, but . If I came to a neighborhood cul-de-sac with 5 of 7 houses for sale, and only one other for sale in the entire neighborhood....I'd ask myself "what's wrong with this street".
Not a thing wrong. We just all decided the buyers market is good for upgrading to larger/better right now it seems.
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Did you remember to add a ulx advert?
If you can get the message to play across peoples HUDs when they come in range of your neighborhood server, you'd probably get a little more interest.
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Haha. No advert.
I posted on the local Craigslist though. :P
Whole bunch of flyers around work break rooms too.
No idea if any of the viewings we've had were due to any of what I've done though.
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Bit of an update.
Tomorrow, if people show as planned, will make 4 showings in 4 weeks.
HOPEFUL news.
(I don't have false hopes, but the thoughts are nice anyway)
We had a showing yesterday. Our realtor gave us feedback today that SUPPOSEDLY the other realtor says its between our house and the same floorplan house at the end of the street.
I don't know if this is proverbial realtor smoke blowing or not. (On the part of OUR realtor OR the other)
1) We've heard similiar feedback before. I say 'similar' because previously we were told outright 'we're second runner up if first offer falls through'
2) I'm a skeptical realist. I hope for best, expect worst.
The other house we're supposedly tied with uses more of its space. it has an additional two car garage to its side, and a larger downstairs.
Our floor downstairs is half thiers, because it is instead a one car garage.
That being said, we heard from the neighbor of another house for sale that the viewer's realtor told THEM that the people looking would be stretching to afford the other house. We're a good $15k cheaper.
So..pieced together.
1) People are deciding on which of the two houses to go for.
2) We're more affordable.
That means they'll make an offer on the other house, right? At least thats what all the HGTV "home buying show" people end up doing, buying the house they originally state they can't afford. :)
Skeptical to the end. I won't lose sleep tonight.
We do have a showing tomorrow.
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Last update for the year.
Only a few showings during October. Back to school seemed to kill the 'looking'.
We had ~8 showings during the first 3 weeks of November.
No bites.
We took our house off the market today.
We're on travel/out of country from Dec 6 to Dec 16th, and didn't want our house to be shown while away, nor do we want to show during the Christmas holiday with all the family plans we have.
Though wife may change mind, I believe we're going to try again sometime early next year. I say January again, but I don't know for sure.
Golden-Death, save the quarters you get for Christmas, perhaps you'll have enough by the time we put it back on the market.
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Sweeeet. 8)
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Update. We've found another house we want. It's in the same neighborhood. Lots more room. Quite a bit more cost too, but interest rates are (currently lower) than what we locked in at on the last offer. Amazing what interest rates can do to help/hurt. The original house had ~2300sq feet. The house we want now is ~2800sq feet and would only cost us a few more dollars a month.
The house is currently only a frame, no sheetrock walls or windows (as of Sunday). We plan on making an offer this coming week, at the latest, next.
I'm preparing to write an email with a wish list of things we want done during the build.
Though I won't cover the wish list too much, they're things like running ethernet through the house, and speaker terminals in the living room for surround speakers.
I figure since the sheet rock (wasn't as of Sunday) isn't up yet, it would be much easier.
We're going to make the offer non-contingent, since that went so well last time (and the fact that since there are only about 10 lots/15 houses available in the neighborhood, we figure they'd say 'no' on one currently being built.
I pray we sell before we close.
GoldenDeath, got those 500000 quarters? We're willing to take a much lower price if no realtors fees are involved.
Otherwise, expect us taking no less than 520000. :D
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After getting our wish list, the realtor came back with ~20K worth of addon cost.
We were expecting less than 10K.
Needless to say, we've brought in big guns (another realtor) who we met with tonight for 1.5 hours, standing, in the frame house, where the breakfast nook would be if the house were more complete. (There's a frame there where an open wall will be, so it was used to sign papers.)
Our realtor said most of the costs weren't that bad, but as we knew from pricing upgrades on our house, some were.
We refined our list, and we've made an offer on the house, without all of the wish list we wanted. The seller response is expected by Friday 5/23 6pm.
Our house goes on market next week. Last chance to save yourself $9000. :P
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Sweet deal! :D
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Builder(seller) replied quickly today.
Without even talking to him, or knowing anyone who's worked with him, he's a money grubbing ***<I'll censor myself>***.
After several calls back and forth from the realtor, who then would go and fight the builder's representative, we're getting much of our list done, but not for our original offer price.
Not too bad really, only $2k more.
*sigh* That still doesn't account for the fact we're spending much more than the 'this price would be easy' houses we'd been looking at over the past year.
None of them 'fit' us though. This one does, and due to our list of addons, even more will.
We fax the final acceptance signatures to the realtor tomorrow.
Though I know God (yes, I'm gonna get religious here) has us in His hands all through this... I continue to see minor miracles on this process.
One such miracle happened tonight. My wife and I are going to be making a photo journal as the house gets more and more completed.
On our first trip to take pictures tonight after work, another car pulls up with an elderly looking man and woman. (GO AWAY, IT'S MINE!!) He gets out and starts eyeing it.
My pride gets the better of me (GET OFF MY CLAY MUD LAWN!!!) and I say "What do you think of my soon-to-be-new house?"
He says "Are you buying it?" My wife and I (still being quite friendly and joking of course) say "Yes, we've made the offer, and intend to send in the final signatures of acceptance tomorrow.
In further speaking, I find out that this man is the guy that does the telephone, coax(cable), and in cases like mine where I'm adding on, Cat 6 RJ45 for all living areas and surround for the living room. He then says "let's go in, show me where you want it all"
His poor wife was asleep in the car 30 minutes later when we got through.
I come to find out that this guy knows the builder, and isn't surprised that my wife and I had such a difficult time getting our addons at a reasonable deal.
Besides the little things like that which have come up and clicked into place, my wife showed me tonight that though the house we're buying is close to $30k more than the one we originally offered.. interest rate we locked into (and can still go down/relock once) will save us $50 a month in mortgage payment. We're getting more house for less.
God has a timeline for us all.
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The contract has been accepted.
We're the proud new owners of two houses.
One still for sale. I updated the first post with an image of our house now.
Attached are pictures of our house under construction, and an example of one finished (from it's front)
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Crazy!
Congrats and all that!
How long until the new house is finished and you and your wife can move in? I bet you are excited =)
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Closing is set for July 21st.
Yeah, I'm pretty stoked.
Wife's excited that we threw in to the contract getting to pick all the colors. (I'm happy too, but, colors/design aren't my forte')
Most all of the homes in the neighborhood were put up with no buyer input (I'm sure there probably had to be a few, but not many).
We got it early enough. My wife calls me at work yesterday and says "Hey, we get to pick brick, shutters and siding color too!"
I'd expected to get to pick cabinets, floor tile, counter tops, etc, but not exterior.
I'm happy we got the ethernet and speaker wiring. Sure, I have wireless too, but there's nothing like the speed and reliability of wired.
As I work for a company that does government contract work occasionall, the security factor is a plus too.
Ha. My wife just sent out an email with some pics to family and friends. She makes the joke
"The house needs a little work, but it has potential."
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Nice shape and big house, just wow!
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Yay. I'll have to drop by to visit someday. ;)
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Yay. I'll have to drop by to visit someday. ;)
Though we have a room for you if you'd visited now, you'd have to had kicked the cats off the bed.
With the new house, the cats have a choice of rooms, and of course, they'd pick yours.
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Congrats, glad you could find something worth more than GD's lonesome pocket change.
In other news, I thought you of all people might be interested in that the syrup thread with the crazy music your wife hates has changed my life.
Yes, as of a week ago, I actually spilled syrup- on my pants.
All is well, however. Shout Action Gel promptly resolved the sugary conflict.
(http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/259/img3889yq3.th.jpg) (http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/259/img3889yq3.jpg)
Actually I take that back. I see now that you have censored your house's address information. I see how this is, man. Megiddo can come over at ANY time. But no, no GD. After all I've done for you, giving you waffles, pants and syrup. I just can't believe it. [/lame humor]
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GoldenDeath, got those 500000 quarters? We're willing to take a much lower price if no realtors fees are involved.
Otherwise, expect us taking no less than 520000. :D
Look! Make an offer by Tuesday morning, you can save 20000 quarters!
As for the syrup, are you sure you just weren't happy...., oh, nevermind. Back on topic.
Life changing events...crazy.
You started it, not me!
:P
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I like your proposition. I had some free time to kill, so I decided to see how many quarters 500,000 really is.
I don't think you want this many quarters...
(http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/53/79637206hv8.jpg)
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So... what are we looking at exactly?
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We went on the market with a realtor Tuesday afternoon. Get more quarters GoldenDeath.
We got our first call this morning, first showing from 1 to 2 today.
Got a call this evening, another showing from 1 to 2 tomorrow.
We went by and saw our new house during our showing.
They've put the brick and siding on. Workers were actually working today on the brick.
It looks great.
So, come buy my current house soon. It's well priced!
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While gone during our second showing today, took pictures of the new house. We think we've picked some nice colors for the siding and brick.
Goldendeath, I found a nice place for your quarters. Send them quick!
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Jam,
Looks like they broke a few bricks in the process, and I assume there's going to be something more than 2x4's with shear screws holding up that overhang eventually ;P.
Meg,
GD's picture is 500,000 black pixels on a white canvas, but he saved it as a jpeg resulting in the strange grid artifacts and blur.
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Spbogie, I got a good deal.... why do you think I want those quarters so badly?
:D
Got a call from the realtor earlier today, another showing set up for 1130am this coming Wednesday.
(Running count since going back on the market = 3)
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= 3)
lol, that makes a funny looking smilly XD
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Tomorrow's (wednesday) cancelled.
Little buggers.
Heard that Saturday's showing people said 'love house, but too small'.
Yes, 1400+ sq ft is a bit small for some. We clearly advertise that its that size, pictures show rooms.
What were they expecting?
Biltmore? (http://www.galenfrysinger.com/biltmore_estate_nc.htm)
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Yeah, the picture is of 500,000 quarters. It isn't the jpg that killed it though, it's all the terrible resizing I had to do to not make the image 50 times the size of your monitor and 400 megabytes. I'll do some math and be right back with more interesting figures.
I used this quarter for the image, multiplied by 500,000 by hand.
(http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/1013/50statesquarterobvlargemq9.jpg)
500,000 quarters
are massed at 2,835,000 grams, which equals 6,250.10513 pounds
If you laid the quarters out side by side in 1,000 rows of 500, you'd get:
1000x500
24260mm x 12130mm
=
79.59 feet by 39.79 feet
=
3166.8861 square feet
=
3,166.8861 square feet = 0.000113596408 square miles.
If stacked, they would be
875,000 millimeters tall, which = 2,870.73491 feet, which = 0.543699794 miles tall.
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Had a showing today. Back up to official count of 3.
We pick lighting for the new house tomorrow.
For some reason, I'm just not as excited as I was for picking counter tops, tile, carpet, and linoleum.
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[RANT]
GRRrrrr. I dislike having to be ready to go at a moments notice.
1) I miss my cluttered desk.
Someone on craiglist is wanting a ceiling fan. I have two I refuse to take with me. (Sale, Goodwill, etc)
Took pictures. Went to look for a connection cable to a camera and couldn't find it.
I'm sure it's packed in a nice neat area somewhere. Ready to move. I had a card reader, so yanked the card out of my camera and used it.
2) Day planning. Procrastination impossible.
I woke up early (for me) today. 7am. Lay in bed about 10-15 minutes thinking, can I sleep more?
I get up. Make coffee. Straighten up a bit. Need to mow, but wife is sick, sleeping in. Fine. I'll wait till 5 or 6 when shadows just start to grow long.
I patter around. Can't clean much more. Wifes in bed. 1pm rolls around. I think "prime home shopper" time. Nothing.
3pm rolls around. I start getting sleepy. I decide to take a nap. I lay down. I doze off. 320... RING RING.
Realtors office...showing at 530.
Darn it. I waited all day for you. Why during my nap, and when I have house chores to do?
I quickly get up, vacuum, mow most of the lawn. *While mowing, 'home shopper' drive by as I'm about to quit and head back to garage
I turn self propelled mower back to full, walk behind it and quickly mow two 80ft lines back and forth (I'd left a bit undone) using one hand to steer.
"See!? See!!? Look how easy it is to mow this lawn compared to the huge hills of the other yards for sale near me!"
(My yard really is easier...but at first inspection does look impending)
515pm - we leave
3) Fuel
I'm picky where I get my fuel. After some years of trial and error, I've found one brand in my area gives me best MPG of any other.
Unfortunately, this brand has few stations in my area. I go driving, not realizing I'm somewhat low. I explore roads I've not been down before, but, thanks to Google maps, have a general idea where they end up. About the same time I'm ready to go home, nowhere near a route that takes me by one of my stations, I realize I'd left myself enough fuel on Friday to get to a meeting I had Saturday, get home, then get to work on Monday, get fuel during lunch, and be done with it.
Noooo. I now have to put an inferior company's gas, even if only a few dollars, in my tank tomorrow morning with my carpool bud.
615pm - We're back.
4) Phone interruptions. 5) False hopes
My wife was talking on the phone to my mother-in-law. I love my mother in law. Wife gets a call. I over hear 'mom, gotta go.' Our realtor is back from a weekend trip. I overhear "Oh? Great! I was planning on going to the drs tomorrow anyway." I start thinking "someones made an offer?... meeting with realtor perhaps? Why else would our actual realtor call instead of her office after getting back from a trip?"
No. Yet another viewing. Scheduled for 10am tomorrow.
I figure it's the drive by we had at 430ish. Hope they like my yard.
[/rant]
Official count of views since relisting, is now at 4, with one scheduled tomorrow.
We relisted Wed May 28. It's now Sunday Jun 8. Less than two weeks ago.
Yes. I know that the more showings, the more my chances increase I won't have to carry this house in the new one.
I just hate having to live my life on the edge... always waiting for that call.
Darn it. Someone needs to purchase this house (lots of quarters!) so I can go back to being normal, at least for a month and a half.
Packing will already be a breeze. I've got most of what I would pack already packed and in storage to declutter the house for showings anyway.
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Small update -
We've now had 5 showings (1 since last post)
I have a major cold/croop of some sort, I'm staying home from work tomorrow (well, technically, it's already tomorrow, so, staying home from work today)
What that means is that I'll expect my realtor to call while I'm trying to rest.
Though I could say "No" to showing, I'd really have to be on my death bed to say that.
What that _really_ means is that towards mid day when I've tried somewhat to stay up and dressed enough to go out on a few minutes notice, I've given up and decided to get back into my pajamas, I'll _then_ get the call.
Murphy's laws of house showing (while sick)
Bad item -
Wife has been watching interest rates for mortgages. They've gone up since we locked in for our other house. That makes a challenge for buyers in our home price range (usually first time buyers).
Good item - Many of the houses in our immediate area that were for sale have either sold or gone off the official listing market. With exception of a foreclosure, we're now the most affordable home in our neighborhood.
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I got much rest today. Slept from 4am to 230pm. No showings/wake up calls from realtor.
Wife did call and let me know we have a showing tomorrow (Saturday) from 1 to 2pm.
Also, I asked and got a volunteer in another GMod related forum I hang out in to build my new house virtually.
Though some work is yet to be done on it, he's come along with quite a nice draft. See attached.
Not sure how I'm going to pay him back yet.
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8 showings now. Re-listed 3 weeks ago I think.
The one last saturday mentioned previously.
Wednesday I got called at work, and told not to come home until after 6.
Thursday had one while we were at work.
Anyone out there want to move to TN?
I know a nice place for sale.
:P
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I do like the GMod house, looks like a cozy place to move into... but where will you put the computer? :( And that thing that connects to the keyboard to interact with the world.
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+1 showing Monday 6/23 (well, sort of.. people had to cancel, but they're realtor came on in, and according to our realtor, will still recommend they see it)
+1 showing Tuesday 6/24
+1 showing today.
Do I hear +1 Thursday, +1 Friday.. going once.... going twice .... SOLD Friday!/me dreams big
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+1 Thursday (had one today 1-2pm)
(This is crazy, but it's nice)
12 total now.
We went back on market 4 weeks ago yesterday.
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Long time no update. We've had about 15 showings. No bites.
New house stress has pretty much ruined me.
We've had to fight for almost any little extra we added to the contract.
I've been quiet lately both game wise and forum wise, as you may have noticed.
My house is now unnofficially for sale at 129k, if you still know anyone looking.
I say unnofficially because we're waiting until finished packing and out before we list at that price.
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Move to new house tomorrow. Cable is supposedly already on there.
I hope to actually not see internet for a few days. Internet has a tendency to distract me.
I'm actually about to shut down all computers, pack them up, and take them to the new house tonight.
(I do plan on testing the cable modem strength in my new NOC closet)
Old house still for sale.
19 showings now.
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Good luck with the move there Jammin :)
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Good luck! :D
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Move went ok. We're still not unpacked.
I went and mowed the lawn at old home last weekend. While there, I dug up a little St Joseph statue we buried last year the first time we put the house on the market, turned him around the opposite direction, buried him again.
Wednesday night, a showing.
Thursday, an offer was made.
It was much lower than our current selling price. $13k lower
Our realtors have haggled, countered, offered, and we've got the offer up to about 10k less than we really WANTED, 7k less than we'd expected/hoped.
HOWEVER... and this is where it gets eerie and somewhat miraculous (yes, if you've been reading this forum house sale diary, you know I'm a firm believer in Christ),
1) They want to close no later than August 31
Our first payment on the new home is due Sept 1.
2) The offer we've haggled is pretty much 'as-is', they haven't asked for new carpet (which is needed in two areas), new kitchen vinyl (DEFINITELY needed), and few other cosmetic fixes I expected to be asked for but wouldn't have done at the price they're offering.
Though it's not in writing yet, there's a good chance we're going to accept.
We're sleeping, thinking, praying on it.
Well, ok, officially I'm not sleeping on it right now. Too wound up after a long week of work (both house and career)
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We've accepted the offer. Contract was signed.
Now the fun begins.
I don't expect it to go through, realist I am.
I believe the buyer will ask for a repair on something once the house is expected.
No idea what, but I expect something to be found.
We're $4k below the point at which we would have offered to fix anything.
If they ask, we're going to tell our realtor to remind them we've already given them 8k off the asking price, they can use that to fix something.
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Inspection went through last Friday. We weren't given any notice it was scheduled for that day.
No, doesn't matter, we had nothing to hide, but still, we would have liked to have known.
Closing is expected to come next Wednesday the 27th.
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Woot woot. :)
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We closed on the house today.
HIP HIP HOOORAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
Not a single double house payment!
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Nicely timed JamminR. Have you memorized all the light switches in your new house yet? :)
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Nicely timed JamminR. Have you memorized all the light switches in your new house yet? :)
lol, he's probably got them all labled :P
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lol, he's probably got them all labled :P
Scary close, but not quite. P
The Ethernet panel with 7 ports in my 'NOC' closet has been the only one labeled. :P
I've also gone through the house and written down the # of switches of each panel and where the lights went.
I intend to convert some of the fan and light controls into adjustable speed/light.
Others I might just change out the switch plate from plain creme/white to something more decorative.