The Unexpected Hunt

In February, we received an email from the realtor handling the management of our rental house, telling us that the homeowner had decided to sell the house by the time our lease ended on May 31st. He wondered if we might "be interested in purchasing the house if a deal could be put together between" us. Since staying right where was are would, of course, be the simple answer to everyone's problems, we said we would be interested in hearing what the seller would offer. Nearly two weeks later (with us sitting in a holding pattern, wondering if we ought to hit the pavement looking for a home to rent or buy), the homeowner's sales realtor called to let us know that he was offering it to us at full comps price. The "deal" was that he was going to list it higher if we didn't buy it, so we were supposed to be impressed with the comps price. It was non-negotiable and he would, of course, be saving 6-7% due to us not using our own realtor. Yeeeaaaahhhhhh. We were not impressed. Once we crunched the numbers, calculating for property taxes and home insurance, we would be paying almost $300 MORE than we already were for rent!

At the very least, we were hoping that he would cut us a break since A) he is practically kicking us out if we didn't buy it, B) he wouldn't have to stage the home for sale if we stayed, C) we, likely, wouldn't have had him make any repairs, and D) we'd already been paying ridiculous amounts of rent towards his equity for the last almost 2 years. I figured it out and we'd paid over $50,000 towards it. It also might have been considerate of him to split the saved 6-7% and give us a discount of 3.5% or something. But since it was non-negotiable, there was no room for that discussion. His realtor told me flat out that because we hadn't originally started with a rent-to-own type agreement, all of that was for not. He could ask what he wanted to ask. 

Mind you, he had not invested money in all of the home's major upgrades, the granite counter tops, the tile floors and showers, the basketball court in the backyard. I met and spoke with the original owner and builder of the home, and she told me that other than changing the light fixtures, she had done everything else. He just flat out wanted to get full pop after paying $355,000 for it four years ago (thank you, public records). 

The realtor told me that we had until April 15th to decide what we wanted to do, but after a week or two, she started calling me almost every other day, leaving messages, wanting to know what we had decided. No pressure, right? We had not wanted to flat out tell them forget it, just in case we couldn't find anything else and had no other choice. So, we started looking around and eventually got hooked up with a realtor through USAA's free referral service. I continued to dodge the homeowner's realtor's calls. 

We figured out pretty quickly that there were no rentals for a family our size in the Valley right now. And even the inventory for homes to purchase was abysmal. It was the middle of winter, and, being a seller's market, the few things which came onto the market were scooped up the same day or close to it. Sometimes sight unseen. 

I went to see several houses on my own with our new realtor, since Jake was working. Some were in Liberty Lake, some by Shelley Lake. Nothing impressed me. They were in our budget price range, but had odd layouts, were just too small, had no storage, didn't have enough full bathrooms or had teeny tiny yards. One had a yard that bordered on a busy street, so standing outside you could hear all the traffic whizzing by. I was starting to wonder if I could possibly find a house that I actually LIKED as well as could afford. Was I just too picky? Would we just have to settle? Four walls and a roof in our price range? We are not handy, so a fixer-upper is just not an option.

There was also the issue of zoning for the boys' schools. Although the boundaries for the high school are pretty wide, that is not the case for the middle school and most especially for the elementary school. If we were going to have to change wards, we were really, really hoping that we wouldn't have to change schools, too. All my mom guilt from our many moves flooded back, and I kept having sleepless nights worrying and praying.

We decided to have a family fast on fast Sunday to find a house. Everyone, except Riley, fasted and prayed that we might find a house, and in my case I prayed just to find the right situation. I knew that I needed to trust in the Lord and that SOMEHOW everything would work out the way that it was meant to. I was also praying for peace in the process, so that I would not be overcome by the stress of it all. I have been doing really well with my health lately, and I didn't want that to be messed up. 

The next day, on Monday night, our realtor's property search system popped out and emailed me a house that had just come onto the market. It looked cute from the outside. It said that it was 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, on .36 acres, 3,264 sq ft, and listed at a price below our budget ceiling! The other inside pictures looked really nice, so I immediately texted our realtor to see if I could get in to see the house the following day. He hooked me up and by 1pm that Tuesday, I was there with my video camera (Jake was working) to walk through the home. 

For the first time since our search began, I had an excited feeling! The house was really pretty, with some upgrades even! There were tons of rooms and space for the boys to spread out. The yard was nice with more room to spare. It even had a large pantry, loads of storage space and some main floor bedrooms with a full bath for when company visits!!! And the icing on the cake was that it is zoned for all three of the boys' schools! 

Within an hour of getting home, Jake called me to know how it went. I gushed. I also let him know that the realtor had told me that there were more showings scheduled for that same day and more for the following day. Gulp. We are NOT impulse buyers, and Jake hadn't even had the chance to see my video of the house yet, but we decided that we'd better make an offer asap. Jake was willing to trust me and I was just going on the fact that I had done everything in my power to stay close to the Spirit. I wasn't getting a "no" feeling, so we went for it. The documents were e-signed that same night.

By Wednesday night after mutual, we got a call back from the realtor saying that our offer had been accepted and that we had a closing date of May 11th. That would give us a couple of weeks before our lease is up to transition over, maybe paint or put in some new carpeting. It was incredible!

So, we just had our inspection yesterday (a week after the acceptance of our offer), and with the exception of some housing code fixes, we are hopeful that everything will go through. We even got a good deal with a local credit union for our VA loan, thanks to a friend's recommendation. We are not ready to celebrate just yet (the fat lady hasn't sung yet), but we are tentatively excited and feel blessed that things seem to be coming together. 

Pending any unforeseen event, we will be moving in May to 1710 S. Progress Rd. Veradale, Washington 99037, and hope it remain there few a long while. We will miss being in the Greenacres ward, but since we will only live a mile away we are hopeful that the friends we've made will remain close. Hallalujah! God is good!