Wednesday, November 20, 2013

An Offer on the Table °o°

Last night we got a call from our real estate agent... a cash offer on the house for $4000 less than our asking price of 144 thousand. Now, I don't want to jinx anything, because there is paperwork to complete, inspections to pass, repairs to be made, and any number of loopholes to close up, but if this sale goes through they have asked us to vacate the house by December 16th, exactly 4 weeks from yesterday. It's close to official, but still too early to pack up the toothbrush and deoderant.

Let me rewind a bit, for anyone join catching up recently and haven't read a year's worth of blog postings...



3 years ago Mark and I were talking about the future and where it might lead us. Mark is an Army veteran, having served in Iraq, and was just about to begin life as a full-time student through Culinary School. We first thought about moving to Colorado, but after more discussion it hit us that it was a no-brainer for two like-minded, life-long Disney fantatics should move to be near our favorite thing in the world.. Disney World.

Fast forward three years...




There were tough challenges and obstacles along the way for both of us to face, but Mark officially graduated in September, and we agreed that that would be the time we put the house on the market.  This was the culmination of three years of planning, budgeting for the relocation, socking money away, working over-time, and hard studying to pass difficult classes.

It took far longer to get the house ready that I imagined it would.  Instead of just 3 or 4 weeks, it was 10 weeks of painting, minor repairs, and cleaning but it was finally done (except for some small details), and we listed on November 14th.

We got our first call to show the house early the next morning.  The process of showing a house to prospective buyers is not difficult, but it is time consuming. We have a boisterous chocolate lab, so any time someone wants to see the house, we asked for 1 hour's notice, so that we can stage everything nice and pretty, and take the dog out of the house so they can look around and kick the tires comfortably.

For the last 4 days, we have had 5 showings, so each time we were swiffering floors, wiping down sinks, pulling back curtains, turning on nearly every light in the house, hiding the dog beds under the couch, emptying trash pails, setting up soft background music and lighting nice vanilla cookie scented candles.  I mean to tell you, we are exhausted after all of that, and sometimes, we can't even tell if the buyer was finished or not (we would leave before they arrived, and could not tell if they had come in and left, or had not yet arrived 30 minutes later).

It turns out that the first person to view the house on Friday morning, is the same as the one who came the next Monday, for a second viewing. We had an offer that evening, we accepted their terms and now the house is "on-hold" (in escrow) while we wait.

We had been dreaming for months, even years... you can plan and stratege until you are blue in the face, but it can all change in the blink of a withdrawn sale offer.  Now, we wait for the 10-day inspection period to pass, and we will be able to secure a moving pod.

Next post I will write a little bit about our vision for the future... both living in Florida, near Disney World, and for this blog. I hope you will stay tuned, and will follow along with us.. we want you to join us on the ride!


°o°

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Mouseketeer Ken and Mousekteer Mark