Waiting to hear from my agent

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve been looking for a place to move to for a month and a half or something like that while Mrs. ToKnow has been very patiently getting her refinancing done for the house she’ll keep. That all got taken care of a week ago, so I’m technically a tenant now, and I can hear the clock ticking much more loudly.

I’ve had a couple of little condo subdivisions/complexes/neighborhoods where I’ve really wanted to find something that felt right, but none of the units that came on the market were the right thing. These two neighborhoods are ideal for me: close to work, centrally located for my haunts, and mature,well-established neighborhoods (new construction in Charlotte is terribly suspect due to the housing boom here: there are all kinds of horror stories about poor quality).

I get daily updates in e-mail from the realtor’s office with new listings, and last week I met my agent and we looked at the insides of a couple I had scoped out, neither of which were in my two favorite areas.

One was good enough, though, that I figured it was time to get serious and make an offer, so we did that yesterday. It’s further away from work than I really, really want to be, but it’s a great location in its own right (walking distance to good shopping and restaurants) and what’s more is it borders one of the very popular areas of town and so is arguably the better investment, especially since it’s cheaper than I’m liable to find in either of my ideal subdivisions.

Weird situation: my agent is the seller’s agent husband. The wife went home sick yesterday, so he told me as I was leaving that he’d deliver the offer today, for the sake of marital harmony. The seller had another buyer taking a second look today, which is worrisome from the standpoint that I’m offering less than the asking price and can’t afford a bidding war, but I guess that’s the risk you always take.

This morning, while looking over my daily update, there’s a unit in one of my ideal neighborhoods for a reasonable price. So, naturally, I’m expecting my offer to be accepted. :stuck_out_tongue:

2

Wait, so you have an unaccepted offer out on a place that’s not in your ideal neighborhood, and you just say a listing for a condo that IS in your ideal neighborhood. Correct? So are you going to go look at the new listing, right?

I would be very interested to hear what other realtors here say about the husband-wife pair as the buyer and seller’s agent. Personally I’d be cautious, but I’m sure you’ve been working with this guy for a while so you trust him.

3

Only if the offer isn’t accepted. If the offer is accepted or the seller makes a counter-offer, I’ll go look. No sense torturing myself on the off chance that the new listing is swoon-inducing.

4

D’oh. The above should say “If the offer is rejected or the seller makes a counter-offer…”

5

Well, my agent called today. There’s another offer on the condo, and then a whole bunch of words to the effect of increasing our offer, etc.

So, I told him I wouldn’t do anything about the first offer before seeing the new listing in the ideal neighborhood (which for purposes of simplicity I shall refer to henceforth as Cozy Corners). Get me comps, get us in to see it today if at all possible.

Good guy. He got me the comps post haste and we got in to see it at 5:00.

Hot Ziggity.

Long story short, the first offer has been withdrawn and we’re writing an offer for Cozy Corners tomorrow morning at 9 AM.

6

You know, lots of people told me that I was crazy for holding out for a house that made my heart go pitter pat. But it was so worth it; I still love this place, and it’s so peaceful. It makes me happy to come home, and happier just to lay on the couch reading, watching the sunlight dapple the floor through the leaves of the trees outside.

I’m glad you’ve found the one to make your heart go pitter pat. I hope you get it!

7

You always know it when the right place shows up. When I found my dream house - twenty years ago! - in southern California, I knew immediately that it was the one. Fortunately it was a new listing not even on the market yet, and I was able to get my offer in and accepted immediately. It was the best thing I ever did (real-estate wise, anyway).

8

Monday morning we wrote the offer. Tuesday morning they counter-offered.

After talking with my lender at length and assuring myself that I could make the numbers work and still eat red meat on a semi-regular basis, I told my agent to accept the counter-offer.

Then stuff got weird. Apparently, accepting their counter-offer wasn’t quite good enough, so I had to go to my agent’s office and re-write my offer to meet their terms. My agent thought this sounded flaky, but didn’t suggest there was anything completely unheard of about it, so we took care of that yesterday afternoon.

So now, I’m back to where I was when this thread started, only this time I’m waiting to hear from my agent that we’re under contract.

9

Houston, we have a contract!!

Cozy Corners will soon by my address!

10

Yee-ha, my inspection, termite inspection, and appraisal all happened simultaneously this morning, plus I was there measuring rooms.

I counted 4 tape measures in use at one time. :smiley: