Contract pending

Hoody Hoo! We've got a contract on the house!

Things are really starting to fall into place. A major concern for us is about to be wiped off the map. This past Saturday a couple placed a bid on our current house. After reviewing it with our agent, we made a couple minor changes and send it back to the buyers. They accepted our changes and the contact is in place.

Everything came together late last week. On Thursday we had two showings of the house, both of them second showings. The first couple had first seen the house a couple weeks ago. The other couple had seen the house on Monday. We knew both couples were interested because they both asked for the disclosure information.

On Friday we got the first offer, or at least part of it. The first couple wanted our house but wanted to close and take ownership in just over two weeks. After talking it over, Susan and I did not want the stress of moving twice and having to find temporary housing so we told them no without hearing the dollar offer.

Saturday morning we got a call from our agent. It turns out the couple spent Friday afternoon looking at houses and could not find anything they wanted. The couple was willing to buy our house and let us lease back until our new house was done. The dollar figure was a little lower than what we were asking but within our acceptable range. As I said earlier, we made a couple minor changes to the offer and sent it back. This morning we found out that the couple had accepted the changes and the deal was on. In fact, the buyers have already scheduled the inspection for Tuesday.

What about the second couple that was interested? Our agent called their agent Saturday before sending the first offer back. The second couple also wanted the house but they could not beat the price offered by the first couple. We were hoping for a bidding war, but it was not to be. No major loss as we are pretty happy with the offer we got.

In theory the deal can fall through so we have to keep showing the house (in fact we had one today). However, I get the sense they really want the house. The major stumbling blocks could be the inspection and the sale of the buyers' house. I don't think the inspection will turn up anything major as the house is in good shape. The buyers are selling their house in two weeks so we should know really soon if that were to fall through.

Posted by Ed Rozmiarek at April 4, 2005 8:43 PM