Our House

We went to Dallas a couple of weeks ago to pick up a few things for our apartment in Austin. Pots, pans, silverware, sheets, Zoe’s 24-month-old clothing, that kind of thing. We have a house sitter and he mentioned that a man was coming by later that day to see the house for the fourth time and that on the previous visit, he’d brought his wife, mother-in-law, and a camera. Good signs. We mentioned it to our realtor, who hadn’t known about the four visits because the viewing agency had somehow listed it as two separate two-time visits instead of one four-time visitor.

The next week (last week), our realtor followed up with their realtor. She told us we were “the bridesmaid and not the bride” and that they were going with a smaller, less expensive house. She reassured their realtor that we were open to negotiation and on Wednesday evening he called and told us they were withdrawing their offer on the other house and to expect an offer the next day. Due to some complications with opening the file, we didn’t get to see the actual number until late Thursday. Their first offer was a fair one, we countered slightly higher and then we had a deal. Needless to say, we were very relieved.

The hilarious thing is that we got the offer two weeks after signing a year lease on an apartment. Oh well. The location is really great (very convenient to both of our jobs and Zoe’s daycare) and the lowered expenses over the next few months will give us the opportunity to pay off some debt and possibly save some money. So in a lot of ways we’ll be in a much better position to buy at the end of our lease.

Right now we are in the option period, so we are waiting impatiently. They are pre-approved and asked if we could close in two weeks (we’re in turn asking for three) so I doubt they’ll back out if they’re on such an accelerated timeframe. They’re moving to Dallas from out of state and I think they would like to move directly into the house, rather than find some interim solution.

So, there you go. Eight or nine days to go and then I will feel much more confident about all of this and so relieved to be able to finish the move to Austin.