Before Closing

Before Closing

We must be crazy. When Katie and I uttered those words to each other over dinner after three separate trips up to Cincinnati for house hunting I think we crossed a line somewhere. Are you trying to convince yourself of the fact or are you just trying to comfort yourself by eliciting that your spouse must also be a bit insane. There is comfort in knowing you're not alone in what you are attempting to undertake. We have joked about the Money Pit (see here) and for me this is the second go round. This time however I was told the house had (read must here with my wife's eyes the deepest of red laser beams) be move in ready. Not just any move in ready mind you, VERY move in ready with our agreed upon finishes completed. 

How did we get here? 

House 1: 

Made a trip up. Made a second trip up and drove the family all night on a Friday to see it on Saturday morning. Was told there was an offer on the table and we needed to decide by 3pm. We were scheduled to see the house at 1pm. When we saw the house, the listing agent interrupted our showing with her own client even though she knew we were scheduled to be there. We made an offer. It was the highest offer and was told they would fax it back by 5:30pm. 5:15pm we get a call. The owner signed another offer. The agent pulled in another buyer so she could get double the commission and we were never allowed to counter. We had no other houses lined up to see on the trip so that was a waste. House was sitting for 183 days and went multiple offers the morning we got there. #gah

House 2:

I had flown up for a 3 day house o poluzza tour and settled on a solid choice. Stain glass, decent neighborhood, had amazing charm. Took a ton of pictures, saw the house three times and knew the modifications that needed to be done on the house to make it fly for years to come. It was on the higher end of the community and we would be break even on the house but we were committed to being apart of the change in that area. The house had been sitting for 284 days. We made an offer on Monday, Seller Counter Tuesday, Wednesday we countered and they rescinded our offer. Our agent called them and asked them what number buys the house. They supplied a number, we wrote it up with their number and... they took another offer. #gah x2. We were planning on flying up Friday to look at house 2 under contract, but we ended up booking a flight to restart our search... again. 

So that brought us to Werk Rd. It was on the previous two trips but we couldn't get in the first trip and the 2nd I just didn't have time to get to it. It only had one exterior picture (we know what that means) so it never hit the "must see and be move in ready" list. Katie and I flew up in the middle of the blizzard and looked at 9 more properties. One we had to park a block and half away because the snow was so thick the cars would have been stuck. I was just ready to pick anything. Seriously, after the last two offers gone back, I didn't care. Did it have heat, A/C and would pass an inspection - sign me up. We showed up at Werk. It was a mess. Old, nasty, and full of damage everywhere. But did it have charm. You could tell this was the house to be on the block. 3500 sqft of space on the first two floors alone. 1600sqft basement that could be finished and a loft area of 1100 sqft. No shortage of space but it needed work. Katie did not approve(see here) and was quickly moving me out of the house. Over an amazing dinner we crunched the math. It was nuts. The only one that made sense on paper was Werk. 3 were out off the bat because of neighborhoods. 3 more were too small for future family growth. 2 we were going to take a bath if we bought them which left... Werk. We went the next day with phrases like "I'm not saying we are going to get it but if we did...". We looked at it again during 5 inches of snow coming down and walking through the house with a fine comb to understand the scope of our insanity. 

We flew home. Slept on it. Put in an offer and it was accepted immediately. #scary That's when you should feel sick. It was hard to be happy. Did they know something we didn't and we were the suckers? Don't answer that - I would rather live in bliss. 

UPDATE: 3 days after the Werk Rd. house went under contract we received a call saying the buyer didn't like the inspection report of house 1 and walked away from the deal. The house was ours if we wanted it. #bangshead We politely declined. 

UPDATE 2: 2 days after the previous phone call we get a notice that house 2 is ours if we want it. It seemed the other offer was a cash offer which is why they took the lower deal (why if its less in the seller's pocket in the end I will never know) but the person backed out with cold feet. Although tempting (really, really tempting) it just didn't add up to what Werk could be after we renovated it (a lot). The numbers heavily favored Werk, bigger yard, better neighborhood, and on a dead end street. 

I don't know if we were supposed to buy this house. Some say Jesus choose this house for us. It was quite an unusual ride to get here that I can't explain really. Would God give you a scorpion if you asked for bread? Perhaps we were asking for rocks and God refused to hand them to us. They might not have been the right homes for us. This is not the house a normal person would pick. We wanted bread and just perhaps this house holds the key to that recipe.  

So that's where we are now. At this point we are supposed to close next week. Who knows at this point. If it does go through it will be yet another amazing adventure.  

Full disclosure by the numbers:

289,000 House up the street is pending for  (see here)

9 weeks after closing (yikes!) = Total time to get the job done: 

June 23rd =Move in date: