We’d been shopping for a new domicile for a month or so. We hooked up with a very highly recommended realtor a few weeks ago, and on Tuesday the wife found one that seemed to fit our needs on the listings the realtor sent us. Thursday we looked at it. I think the cat that was lounging in the bay window sold it. We made an offer last night, and the realtor just called to tell me that the cat pictures we sent along with our offer put us at the top of the list of people trying to buy the place. Deposit gets put down Monday, the inspection is scheduled for Wednesday, we are already pre-approved for the mortgage…holy shit I think we are actually buying a new house! :eek:
I’ll be asking all sorts of advice as this progresses. But our realtor is uber-competent and the agent who sold the place to us is a former student who liked my class, so we are in pretty good hands, I think. Details on the place will follow later, as we are out the door to go see John Cleese and Eric Idle in Pasadena tonight.
I haven’t made this big a commitment since I got married. Pray for us.
The cat goes with the sellers. That’s ok, we have 4 of our own. I also saw 4 other cats wandering around the various neighbors yards, so it’s a feline-friendly area (not like ours will ever go wandering. They are strictly house cats.)
Congratulations! When I bought my first house, part of the deal was that we wanted the seller’s dog to go with it. It was an unusual request but we were serious. The dog was a gorgeous giant Samoyed named Bear that was about 6 years old but obviously neglected because the owner was elderly and in poor health. He agreed and Bear got to stay and be pampered until he passed away at the ripe old age of 15. He was one of the most gorgeous dogs I have ever seen in my life and would literally stop traffic when I walked him.
A cat named Simon sold me my house. He very nicely showed me around when I toured and drove the inspector crazy by sitting on his papers. I did ask jokingly if the cat conveyed and the husband said “sure” while the wife looked daggers at him. I think they had a long discussion that night but I do wonder if they chose me because I praised their cat since they had three bids over asking price.
A friend bought a house here in the Bay Area over the summer, and also sent a personal letter and cat pics along with the offer. She’s convinced it’s what got her the sale, even though she offered only asking price – around here asking +20% isn’t unheard of.
Apparently, like my friend, the seller was a teacher with a penchant for orange tabbies. And it’s a marvelous house, with a full 1/3 acre backyard!
By the way, in the last three weeks I’ve painted my house (did it myself for a quarter of the estimate), put on half a roof (fuck, a twentieth of the estimate? No, more!), winterized the swamp cooler and since the ladders were all out there and the weather is simply awesome, hung Christmas lights early, since snow is coming next week.
Congrats! There will be a few weeks of OMG WTF DID I JUST DO and all the disclosures and inspections and the vague fear of buying at the market peak will scare the shit out of you, but when it’s all over you’ll love having your own place.
