House Hunting Part 3

So again we began the hunt for homes to go look at over the weekend. We decided this time that we were going to go on Friday night the 18th, to beat people going on Saturday and Sunday. Steven had a theory that the reason we weren't getting these bids was because weren't going to look at homes until Sunday afternoon and everyone else was going on Saturday. Our finance man's theory is that people are realizing that if you don't have a bid on the table by Nov 1st you aren't going to make the November 30th cutoff for the $8000 tax credit for first time home buyers.

Well there just weren't any new ones that came on the market last week so we decided to go and look at the house that was under construction. This house is on Ballard St in the Colony. We already knew we liked the rest of the house we just wanted to see how the two kids rooms turned out. What these people did when they moved in was they tore down the wall between the two smaller rooms to create one big room. Well in this housing market no one wants a two bedroom house they want a three bedroom house, so they weren't getting any offers. Hence why they were doing the construction put the wall back up. They owners did a great job of putting the wall back up and painting and they even put new carpet in all three bedrooms. We discussed the house a little bit and decided to go ahead and put an offer on it since we did like it. We drove to the local Chick-fil-A and filled out all the paperwork (for a third time) and then we left thinking we would have good news the next day.

Our Saturday was jam packed with fun stuff to do. We went to Steven's parent's house to help paint some baseboards and finish up the deck before the baby shower next weekend. Well Steven's Dad got called out on a job for work, so we went to Home Depot to get the paint so we could go ahead and get started. We painted the baseboards in the dining room and the laundry room, and the door frame going from the kitchen into the laundry room. While we were at Home Depot we got a little excited and picked up some color sample pages so we could start getting some ideas of what we would like to change in the house on Ballard St, because we knew we had it in the bag. We showed Steven's Mom some of those colors and she loved one of them so much that she decided she wanted it in her dining room as an accent wall, so our painting job got a little bigger on Saturday. We had lunch and then Steven and his Dad went and got the paint for the dining room wall, and some paint for the laundry room walls too. Needless to say we have a beautiful accent wall in the dining room, but that meant his Mom needed new curtains to go in there. While Steven and his Mom were out looking for new curtains he got the phone call from our realtor.

She called almost in tears to let us know that apparently someone had gone and looked at the house on Ballard St Friday morning and had put in an offer and that the sellers had picked their offer. Again, why didn't their agent say something when ours called to schedule the viewing? Who knows, but seriously he should have especially if they had already submitted the offer! Why waste our time and money driving out there when the seller already has this other offer? Or at least he could have said what we would have needed to offer to beat it, so we didn't waste time putting in an offer that was going to be declined. Steven told me when he got back and I immediately go into this Robot mode that I have where I don't want to do anything other than what I'm currently doing. I don't' want to talk, I don't want to stop, I don't want to be disturbed. But when you are in a house full of people and a couple of them are completely annoying you it's hard to be in that mode.

About 30 minutes after Steven got back and gave me the bad news we got another call from our realtor saying that she had just found a house in The Colony that had the exact same floor plan as the second one we had put an offer on. How there are soo many houses out there that have Doppelgangers I don't know, but they do. She said that if we wanted to we could go out right then and look at it, so we decided to go. Dad had put lasagna in the over and it wasn't going to be ready for an hour so we were good on time. We hopped in the car and headed up to see this new house that neither of us had seen on any of the lists we had received. This house has the exact same floor plan as the one with the skylights and it bright and open and airy, so again we already know that we like the floor plan.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/4820-Ash-Glen-Lane_The-Colony_TX_75056_1111722676

Here is a link to the properties info. The pictures don't do it justice. We might want to paint some and we'll need appliances probably, but we can handle that. Plus one of the rooms has paneling in it that we are going to have to remove and texture and paint. Otherwise it's great! The added family room is fantastic too! We've already got it planned out to have for the kids play room in one half and the computer are in the other. Well if everything goes as planned.

We did put a bid on this house Saturday night, and we have heard back from them with some concessions. So we have countered and submitted that information last night along with our earnest money. The earnest money is the good faith money that you put down to show them that you are serious about buying the house and you most likely won't flake out on them. Once we get down to closing that money will be put towards the down payment. We have finally reached the next level in the negotiations process. We are meeting with an inspector Tuesday night to see what he has found on the property and to go over all of that jazz. We have 7 days to finish up all of this stuff and back out if we want to, but I don't think we will unless the inspector finds some pretty major things. The seller is actually putting on a brand new roof this week, and he's finishing up the repairs in one of the bedrooms and replacing the carpet. Oh yeah it has new carpet through out the whole house.

For now this is where are in the house buying process. Hopefully we'll have a home to move into soon so we can get it ready for the baby.