Roller Coaster Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

The house in Hull didn't work out. The sellers didn't want to come down from their asking price and it was just more than I wanted to pay for my first home and according to my budget. It was a great house but not the one. That was on Monday. Come Tuesday, a 3 bedroom, 2 bath brick with a 2 car carport popped up on one of my daily web searches. It had just hit the realestatebook. I immediately contacted my realtor and went to look at it on Wednesday. I fell in love with it from the get go. The layout is classic ranch. The carport is huge. The yard is beautiful. The hallway bathroom has a tub and the master bath has a walk in shower. I immediately started seeing me tiling the bathrooms, ripping up the carpet and refinishing the hardwood floors.

I won't lie to you, it's a little rough around the edges. It has been a rental for the past 20 years. It has this hilarious faux wood linoleum in the kitchen and master bath and abused carpet through out. But the "bones" seem to be all sound except for a floor joist under the hallway bathroom. Apparently there was a leak that no one knew about and caused some problems there. However they are going to fix it. The open kitchen is perfect for me to tile and redo cabinets. The kitchen sink window looks out to the back yard and sliding glass door provides access to the backyard. Exactly what I want. I can see my custom patio with a saline hottub. Privacy fence with organic garden and firepit. The dogs frolicking...

Here's the big news. They are asking $80,000 with a $2000 retainer for carpet. My kind of price! Since I don't want carpet we're going to negotiate that. So we put in an offer of $78000. (Their asking price was about 9 grand below the tax assessed value and I don't want to dilly dally) I'm anxiously waiting to hear back today! Fingers crossed...

A Home in Hull?

It may be possible. My realtor showed me a beautiful 1965 brick ranch with an asking price of $94,900. It's a 3 bedroom with 2 full baths. That's right, 2 FULL baths. I would have a master bath. Totally sweet. It's got a 2 car carport with an added carport. All on a little over half acre in a nice neighborhood in Hull (about 15 minutes from Athens) I called my folks and emailed my brother. They all said go for it. I talked with my realtor and we both agreed on offering $87,000 (and they pay closing costs roughly $3000). So they countered with $96900 with them paying closing costs, which kind of through me off. This to them is $93,900 since they would have to pay $3000 in closing costs, so they came down $1000. It kind of turned me off, but my realtor said to not get discouraged; it's just a big poker game. They are trying to find my top and I'm trying to find their bottom. I counter-countered with $89, 500 which is $2500 up from my initial offer. I figured this would help show that I'm serious and interested by offering more than what they came down from. The frustrating thing is that it's an estate so there's more than one person having to decide on a number. It also hasn't been on the market that long so they might not be as motivated as we'd like. We'll see, they may just walk away. In the meantime check out the shots I took. It's an awesome house.

1 Step Back, 2 Steps Forward

There was a small 3 bedroom in a cul de sac over on the East Side. It had been on the market for over a year. I was kind of dragging my feet about it just because it didn't quite speak to me when I first saw it. Well I went to look at it on a Friday and talked with my parents and my brother and over the weekend started getting really excited about all I would do to it to fix it up. It had a great yard. Asking 86,900. The only real negative was that there wasn't central air. Well I was prepared to put in an offer on Monday, but my realtor emailed me and informed me that the sellers had accepted an offer that came in late Friday. I couldn't believe it! I checked a couple weeks later and indeed they had closed. I've been sort of kicking myself the past couple of weeks because of it. Just as well, it was pretty tiny, even for a 3 bedroom. I'm getting very close though. I can feel it! I'm going to look at 2 recent listings this Friday. They aren't in the exact location I want to be, but they do look promising. Wish me luck!