Perched with my laptop at my kitchen table with boxes all around me, I gaze out the window and watch the sky turn grey with the impending snowfall. I’m trying to concentrate on work, but I am distracted. I just came from the title company where my husband and I closed on our new home. We aren’t moving in quite yet. We have a few more days until we get possession. So, here I am, reflecting back on the last 5 weeks – amazed that closing day finally arrived and yet it seemed like such a long time to get to this point. There was a flurry of activity yesterday between the mortgage company and us and the title company, that caused a bit of anxiety, but all is well now. The papers have been signed and the house belongs to us. I am relieved and excited, but also anxious to get done with the moving part.
Five weeks ago my husband and I were completely frustrated because we had put an above asking price offer in on two different houses and had been outbid by other buyers on both of them. We had gotten so excited about both of the houses and both times felt like the air had been let out of our tires. I am a buyer’s agent and have been through this process with my clients, but I was getting to experience the frustration personally this time. I didn’t like it at all.
After getting rejected the second time I sat down in my living room to sulk and logged into my MLS account once again quickly scanning through the available houses in our search, but then…What is this? I haven’t seen this house before. The picture looks just like the house we had owned previously. My favorite house ever. It just came on the market today and there’s an open house going on right now! I showed it to my husband, Todd, and we quickly grabbed our shoes and ran out the door.
We met the listing agent at the door and had a nice conversation with him about how this house was the same model as our old house that we absolutely loved, and how we had been looking for a house just like this. We told him about being beat out on two other houses and how frustrated we were. We looked around and realized this was actually like our old house only better! I called it Heywood Lane 2.0. The listing agent told us a little about the seller’s situation and as we left we told him we’d be in touch.
On the way back home we quickly called our lender and had her update our pre-approval letter with the amount we had decided we wanted to offer. She sent it to us right away and I went home to work on writing up the offer. This house was listed for slightly over what our budget had been so we were a bit nervous. Our lender assured us we would still qualify for the loan, so we anxiously sent over our offer and waited. And waited…and waited. Hours seem like an eternity when you are waiting for a response to something so importance as an offer on a house.
The listing agent called me a few hours later and said that another offer was coming in. Ugh. I was so disappointed. I had flashbacks of the last two times. So, I asked him if it would be ok if I wrote the sellers a letter and if he would send it to them. I wanted them to know about how this house was exactly like our old house that we loved, only better. I wanted them to know that our oldest son and his wife just moved in their first home 5 minutes away and had just found out they are pregnant with our first grandchild. I wanted them to know what a difficult season this had been for our family and this home would be such a blessing to us and a gift from God. I sent the email and then waited. And waited…and waited.
A few hours later we got a call. The sellers had accepted our offer. The listing agent told me our letter had made all the difference. The sellers really wanted us to have the home. They felt like it was supposed to be ours. Thank you Lord! We were so thrilled. And, now 5 weeks later, the house IS ours and in a couple of days we will move in and make it really ours.
My friend and teammate, Sandy, said recently that every agent should go through buying and selling in this market personally just to understand what our clients are going through! I can say now that I understand well. I understand on a very personal level the highs and lows, the hard work, the anxiety, the frustration…everything. And, yet, it’s all worth it. It’s worth it to find the home of our dreams and to be able to be a homeowner. Not everything worth having in life is easy.
TriciaHudson.com 