The perfect rental

The rental market in our town is much more limited than I expected. I gave our agent an impossible list of things I wanted out of a rental. 4 or more bedrooms, a room to do my massages, a room for workout equipment, a basement for storage, a fence and a pool in the neighborhood. And I want it available in three weeks. Oh, and they have to allow my dog. She practically told me it was impossible. Still, she was up for the challenge. I'll be damned if she didn't deliver on every single wish on my list. She even got the price for the exact target I had in mind. She's good; she's very good.
Got the papers signed today and wrote the deposit and POA dues. We are moving in 3 weeks. One week ago today, we didn't even have anyone looking at our house. What a week.

Sold

Over the past two years, I had almost decided I would never be able to see that word on the real estate sign in our yard. Two years. It was so stressful, I can't even explain. During the time we had our house for sale, I got pregnant, had the baby, and now he is almost 14 months old. Having three boys in a house for sale was no fun, to say the least.
I don't want to revisit the whole situation right now. We closed this afternoon, and we are so relieved. We have about 3 weeks till we move. The rental is still in final negotiations. "Onward and Upward," as my husband has been saying all week.

almost there

Today is the last day of the buyer's three day due diligence period. We are almost there. At 8am today, we are having a heating and air man come out to figure out why one of our units is "making a noise" that has the buyers "concerned." Even the inspector can't figure out why they cared about this. He simply recommended a service. So, that's what we're gonna do. Otherwise, the inspection was "perfect." Gotta admit, when I first heard that I freaked out a little that the sale was gonna go bust because of a noise from the air conditioning unit. My agent is slowly realizing that I'm a little bit crazy and a lot insecure.
The rental market around here is bleak. There just aren't many rentals with at least 4 bedrooms, room for me to do my massages, room for our workout equipment, a fence, and access to a neighborhood pool. All for the relatively low price I wanted to pay. Go figure. I have driven the streets for 3 days and my agent has been searching too. I almost decided to pay too much for a house that fit most of our needs when I got a call yesterday from the agent. She had just found a house with every single feature I listed! It was just available for rent (was for sale), and someone was going to see it at 6pm. So, of course, she had gotten us an appointment for 4:30. I made the offer on the spot. Now I couldn't sleep last night waiting to hear. The couple wanted to talk it over last night and let us know today. I'm a little scared because I took my baby with me. They are middle eastern, and we, first of all, forgot to remove our shoes. Then he mentioned how baby's "eat cereal everywhere" and he has white carpet. My agent insisted repeatedly how spotless my house is, and I threw in the fact that we are very strict and I own my own carpet cleaner, etc. Guess we'll have to wait and see. Still, I give props to my agent for even finding it. That's why she's got the reputation she has.
When I can, I'll update about today's events. It will be a big day. Hell, it's been a big week. Best birthday ever.

Suck it Monkeys!

Sorry. That's what I plan to say to the owners of this golf course when my house finally closes. That's right, our house is finally under contract! I'm still in disbelief and shock, but the agents feel sure it will close. I've been keeping it a secret until I felt sure. It was all so weird and sudden. On our bike ride Saturday, I had talked to hubby about just taking it off and forgetting about it. Then, I got a text, A TEXT!, from our agent with an offer from a couple who've not even seen it. They wanted to close this week. After that, it all happened so fast. They couldn't come, and their parents were buying it anyway (I know. I know!), so the parents flew in and out of town Sunday to see it. Loved it, made the offer, and Monday morning my phone rings off the hook with appointments. Got the inspection done, the appraisal done, both agents finding us rentals. If all goes well, they want to close tomorrow. That's 4 DAYS from first contact. My head is spinning, and I'm a little nauseous. It's not anywhere near the price we wanted, but these days, it is acceptable. If we didn't take it, who knows how long it would be before a great offer came along. And these people are a dream to work with. No contingencies. They are letting us stay till the 25th without paying rent. They offered to pay all the closing costs. And they are quick and decisive, which we love.
So, that's (hopefully) the end of my real estate saga. I see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it is bright and happy.

who turns down free banana bread?

Got the house clean and had the showing. I made the banana bread for tomorrow's party and left it on the cooling rack with a knife and a note saying, "please help yourself. There's fresh coffee." I was offended when I got home and they had neither had banana bread or coffee. Don't they appreciate southern hospitality? Oh well, it's their loss because I make kick ass banana bread.

Same old...

It's becoming embarrassing that all I can blog about it real estate. But here I go again. Tomorrow, I will try to blog about something, anything, else. The showing Saturday went really really well. So well, in fact, that my agent asked me to keep it a secret. If you know anything about me, that's gonna be hard. Even harder? They won't be back until March to make a decision. What the hell's up with everyone waiting a month or more to make a decision? I'm still waiting on the couple who came in early Jan to come back.
Other good news is that we have another showing this Saturday. I'm so thrilled with the increased action. It's more work for me to keep up the house, but it does worlds for my depression. I'm sure my hubby is thankful for that as well.

can I think of anything but real estate?

I think I need to rename this blog "My real estate obsessions." Heard from our agent today, and we have a showing tomorrow morning. It's the agent who sold us this house, so that's neat. I've already started cleaning. Just finished scrubbing 3 of the 5 bathrooms. I don't see the other two getting cleaned, honestly. I need to find a chance to clean the living room carpet again. Problem is, it's too loud to do while the baby sleeps, and it's impossible to do it while he's awake. Which is why they are filthy! I plan to never use carpet again, if I can convince my hubby. Maybe I have a chance, though, because his initial plan was to carpet the whole new office, and there is NO carpet in there. One point for me!
Seems like my chances of finishing the grout in the office are diminishing this weekend. We have the showing, the Superbowl, and G has a beer tasting he wants to attend Saturday. If all goes well, I'll be busy signing a contract anyway. Oh, to dream...

Tiki and real estate

Tiki already shows a love for music and dancing. All three of our boys have from an early age. He started walking last week, and he was standing up and dancing to the beat even before that. He's such a sweet and cuddly baby. Even so, he is the clingiest one we've had. I've never been able to put him down for very long.

When we came home from picking up S from school yesterday, there was an agent in our driveway. She had a man with her, and it was obvious they had been looking at houses. He was an Asian man with a strong accent wearing a suit. She had my flyer and asked if she could see it right away. I asked if I could go in and flush toilets and remove diapers. I had about 5 mins to throw things in drawers and shove an armful of stuff in the van. We drove around for about 10 minutes, and they were gone when we came back. You can't really look at this house in 10 minutes, so I assume he didn't like it. Oh well. I'm just glad I didn't know the day before and spend 8 hours cleaning and 24 hours being stressed. It's almost better this way, with no appointment.

I'll let you know if I get any feedback. My agent seemed irritated it happened that way. She said she had just shown one of that agent's houses. I hope I hear from her today.

more rambling on the office

It seems all I can think or blog about is real estate and the office. I got about half (or less) of the tile grouted yesterday. It looks AWESOME. I have to brag and say that all the men working on the project are really impressed. To me, that's way more of a compliment than if a friend says they like it. The senior builder said "I'd recommend you", which for me was huge. It is such satisfying work. There is instant reward and you always know your end point. It's peaceful and steady. Who knows, maybe I have much more tiling in my future. I'm pretty sure my husband will insist upon it! As for him, I have to brag a little. Yesterday, he took a day off so I could grout. He took the baby to the grocery store, got all the right things, and put everything away! He picked S up from school, then he brought the three kids to see me. Finally, when I got home, he met me at the door with a glass of wine! The house was picked up and the kids were happy. Honestly, I could get used to that.
They finished the bamboo floors today, and I love them! I've always wanted to test those out, so here we go. I consider the office a big test for (hopefully) building a house one day. As for that, I did talk to my agent today. Someone who looked at the house a long time ago (maybe 9 months!) must still be thinking about it. Their agent asked her if I would take $400,000 for it. We're asking $479,000, so it's almost an insult. I told her to tell him we could only go to $450,000, and that is a give-away! But at this point, we would if we could.
She mentioned other leads, but I don't have any showings scheduled, if that tells you anything. I think this is the "I know my contract is running out soon" dance that we do every 3 months or so.

New year, new real estate obsession

We have a showing again tomorrow! They've become so few and far between that I'm always a little shocked to see our agent's name on the caller ID. I'm gonna go start obsessively cleaning now, but I'll update when I get some feedback.

Today's Adventures

Today, me and the kids hopped in the van and went to the Fernbank Museum in Atlanta. We had such a nice day. The kids were awesome. They have a great cafe with a yummy chicken salad sandwich. It was so nice to get out of town and have fun. I didn't want to wait here to hear back from our agent. She did call and said she couldn't get much feedback from the other agent. The couple plans to return in January and select a house then. I guess they don't want to reveal their cards yet. Not terrible news, but not the news I wanted either.

S actually took this picture of me and Tiki! I thought he did such a great job.

They were polar bears.

They were penguins.

They listened intently on a 25 minute lecture on reptiles, and of course they were in awe of the giant dinosaur displays.

After tomorrow, G will be home for a four day weekend, then school will resume Tuesday. Three weeks is a long break, and they've been bored, but it's been nice too. We're almost there!

Market update

Okay, so I'm not gonna get all excited and convince myself that this is "the one." Well, I am, but I'm gonna try not to. We had a showing today. It is a couple coming to town, and they handpicked the houses they wanted to see in four subdivisions. I'm hopeful. They will come back in January to make a decision, but my agent will try to get some feedback for us tomorrow.

Also, we closed on the new office today. It's good to be on the buyer's side of things. We got a great price and awesome terms and rates. Everyone who's sitting on the fence just needs to jump in there and stimulate the economy.

It will be so wonderful if we both buy the office and snag a buyer for the house in one day. I even asked my mother to annoint and bless the house today. Please, God, let us move on and sell this place.

I can relax.

The open house is over, and I'm so relieved. I've done nothing but stress about it for a week! We just knew nobody came when I picked up the phone to call the agent when it was supposed to be over. We were so happy to hear that she had been busy the whole time. My husband dropped me and the baby off, and we let the realtor go. I stayed another hour and a half until the Tour of Homes was over, and I got two more couples. In all, we had 14 to 16 visitors. It was all worth it!
Now, these people were not in the market for a house. But you never know who they know, and it can only help to have people come see the house. One of the women that came while I was here said the reason she came was because she heard other people talking about how beautiful my house was at one of the houses on the tour. I thought that was great. Many people took fliers and said they would spread the word for us. I guess only time will tell. Still, we accomplished what I was hoping for.

busy week

I have so much to do this week in preparation for the open house. Sometimes it feels like trudging through mud to do stuff with these three kids, though. The baby pretty much demands to be held all the time, and when he's sleeping I have loads of other chores to do. Like right now, for instance. This internet is not gonna browse itself!
That mostly leaves the time after my husband gets home from work. It seems like a mad dash of dinner, dishes, bath and bedtime most nights, though. Tonight, we have an art show. I'm very excited about this one, as it is at my son's elementary school. As a fundraiser, every year they have a show with your child's art framed and displayed. You have the option of buying your child's art. If that is any option at all. hehe. This year, I think it is gonna be quite good. I have a tree with fall colors that he did earlier in the year with sponge paint that turned out so beautiful that I had it matted and framed. He's becoming a pretty good little artist. He is left handed, so if there is any truth to the myth, he'll turn out to be the creative type. My little temperamental artist.

Another Open House

We made a decision about participating in the tour of homes. My husband and I don't think we decorate in the way people expect on such a tour anyway, so being on the tour was pretty much out. Then, our agent called back yesterday to say it was too late anyway. The surprising news was that the lady organizing the tour didn't want us to even have an open house on that day. They are friends, so my agent felt awkward about "stepping on her toes." Unless, she said, I really want to do the open house. Usually, I shrink in these instances and do whatever the person wants me to do. I was proud of myself yesterday for saying, "I'm sorry, but I really do want to do it." I told her that I would understand if she wanted nothing to do with it, and I didn't mind holding the open house myself. She immediately stepped up and said, "no, you're my client and I'm gonna do what you want." So, we planned for her to tell her friend that I was adamant on it, and that it was just business. I'm okay with playing the picky client. Especially because I suspect I am a picky client sometimes.

So, we are gonna have another open house next Sunday. That gives us one week to prepare. I still feel like I have to do some tasteful Christmas decorations, so I'm gonna try to start that today. I can't get much done on week days with the kids around. I really want to have some baked goods and hot apple cider too. I know these people aren't necessarily looking for a house. I just want them to see mine, and maybe they know someone who it's perfect for.

My house is one of those that looks much more modest and small from the front, but is quite large and nice when you get in. So, it's important to get people in so they can see that. Many of the houses in my neighborhood look huge from the front. Sometimes those are actually smaller than mine. I feel like the curb appeal keeps people who want a large house from even considering mine.

This is the back of my house, where you can tell the size of it. I've got pictures on the listing information. They say there is a perfect person for every house, but I'm starting to wonder if it's ever gonna happen.

New Strategy

I may have a new trick up my real estate sleeve. A friend (who's a builder married to an agent in my neighborhood) called today to suggest this plan to me, and I like it. There is a Christmas Tour of Homes in my neighborhood in a week and a half. I knew she was doing it, but I didn't think to tag along. She suggested I have an open house on the same day. There are only 4 homes on the tour, and they are all in my subdivision. She estimates 200-300 people will be coming through. She has a home in this tour every year, sometimes even when they are for sale. Now, the people won't necessarily be in the market for a house, just browsing at other people's decorating. For the record, I'm not a decorator! But my oldest friend is, and I've already had her come over and help me out for a recent open house. I have other friends here who could help with the Christmas decorating, and my husband actually has a very good eye.



My agent is sceptical about the idea. She is calling now to see if she can just add my house to the tour or at least ask the organizer of the tour if she'd be comfortable with me having an open house at the same time. I guess it'd be better just to join the tour. Honestly, I can't imagine we'd need to get permission, but I know they have a relationship that my agent doesn't want to disrespect.



If it does happen, my next issue will be the holiday decorating itself. See, were we live, people have other people decorate their houses, and it looks like everything came out of an interior decorating magazine. Not one of the magazines I would read, either. We have more of a "lived in, family" style. While we don't keep clutter around, we also don't have 2 lamps on the mantle and over sized candlesticks and all that stuff I feel like people expect on a tour of homes. For Christmas, we use colored lights and passed down ornaments that have absolutely no color scheme. I don't know if we should do business as usual, or if we should switch to white lights and blue and silver matching tree stuff.



Funny story, our first Christmas here, I'm pretty sure we were the ONLY house with colored Christmas lights. Every year since, a house or two would go to colored. Last year, there was a good mix of colored and clear. Hehehe. Maybe we're rubbing off on 'em.



Anyway, what's your advice?

Getting Better

We had a much better day today. My mom and I took the kids to the mall. I always feel better at the mall, even though I'm not a huge shopper usually. I had a gift card to Macy's I'd been wanting to use, though, so I got three great pair of pants. I wanted shoes for the kids, but the guy at Stride Rite said to wait until black Friday for their sale. I stopped by Party City to get eye patches for all the kids coming to Booboo's party on Saturday. It was a MUCH better day than yesterday. The kids seem to be climbing out of the germ pit. Maybe I can even send them both to school tomorrow and get started on the cake!!!

At the office, the builder started the demo this week! I love the smell of construction. Or in this case, I guess it's deconstruction. I thought I smelled the hint of cigarette smoke too. I love that smell... construction and cigarette smoke. It always reminds me of my dad when I was a kid. Thank God he stopped smoking a couple months ago! I never thought I'd see the day that happened. So, things are looking up around here after a very hard week.

On a good note...

Let's move on, shall we? Surely I have more going on in my life than a depressed housing market. There is some real estate news I am very excited about. We seem to have come to an agreement on the office space for my husband's practice.

We weren't in the market for any space and have been renting forever. Someone in the same building selling his space began pursuing us, but we couldn't afford it. Because he had no other prospects, he continued to call us. Finally we had a meeting and decided to go for it. That was a month and a half ago, and today we finally seem to have made a solid agreement and got all the details in order. We are to close just before the year's end. Now, my husband doesn't count his chickens before they hatch, but I am very excited!! The space will need complete demo and rebuilding, so it will be a nice project to distract me. Also, it will be wonderful to pay a mortgage instead of rent, and this is one of the prime medical office buildings in our town.

We are picking a builder by Monday (hopefully), so construction will begin soon. The wonderful man we are buying from is allowing us to work on it before we close so we can get in at the new year. Our last obstacle is the lease for our current space. It lasts through 2009, so we just have to pray we find someone to sublet. I'll try to get over there to get some before pictures so I can document the journey. Maybe we'll be rewarded for buying in this down market by getting a buyer of our very own.

The results are in.

One loved it and can't afford it. The other doesn't love it. My agent suggested I drop my price FIFTEEN THOUSAND, and I did.

Second Showing!

As soon as we got home from the first showing today, our agent called and asked if she could bring someone else for a showing at 5pm. Thats wonderful for two reasons. The obvious is that we got another showing. The second is that I didn't have to clean the whole house again for the second man! Two birds with one stone~