House: SOLD!

Ted

Ted

Twin Engine Ted
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Yesterday I got the best call I've ever gotten from our real estate agent: the closing had just finished on our old house in Pennsylvania. It's done, the house is no longer ours. We'll be receiving a check shortly.

This was the first house I had bought, now a bit over 6 years ago. For Laurie and me, it was our first house together, and we (mostly her) made it into our home, repainting every room, putting in new lighting fixtures and floors, and also redoing the kitchen, new appliances, etc. Details like a full walk-in cedar closet for the master (that was a lot of cutting) added quite a bit.

In the end, we sold the house for a profit vs. the initial purchase price plus all the money we put into upgrades. Once you factor in things like interest on the mortgage and such, we come out behind, but that's also just the price of living somewhere. We were fortunate that our block allowed for a good amount of upward mobility in price, and the oil and gas drilling boom in Pennsylvania has driven up property values.

It seemed that I had put the last nail in a piece of trim work when I got the job offer to move to Ohio, and so you could say we made the house exactly what we wanted, just in time to move. The new house we found is very nice, and actually an upgrade overall. Still has things we want to change, but those will come later. Right now, we're a bit busy. We'll miss that house, but are even happier with our new home and new situation.

So, the chapter of our lives on living in Pennsylvania has officially closed (pun intended). Now to get things finalized on the sale of the Aztec and we'll have removed the two big weights from our shoulders.
 
Mazel Tov Ted. I'm sure its a huge burden off your and Laurie's shoulders.
 
Congrats. All that work to just up and move! Well it happens. The house is a never ending project. I am finishing a basement right now:mad2:
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Already did. We moved to Ohio back in July. We like our new home very much. :)
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Sweeeeeet!

Great time to buy a home.

We just closed on our new construction and got 1.75% 15 year. :eek:

Energy Star deal. 1% off the going rate, and it dropped down to 2.75 and I locked! We are fixed for 15 years. :D
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Details like a full walk-in cedar closet for the master (that was a lot of cutting) added quite a bit.
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Thanks for confirming this, we are just about to embark on such an upgrade.

How thick was your cedar floor??
 
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olasek said:
Thanks for confirming this, we are just about to embark on such an upgrade.

How thick was your cedar floor??
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I should clarify - I didn't use cedar on the floor, for that was a bamboo. The walls and ceiling were 100% cedar. We used whatever they had in Lowes.

If you want any tips, shoot me a PM.
 
Congratulations Ted. :cheers:

I'm hoping for similar good luck selling my parents' home. Just went through a heartbreaker with a couple that put down money, signed a purchase agreement, got a mortgage -- and then had it rescinded at the closing. :(
 
azure said:
Congratulations Ted. :cheers:

I'm hoping for similar good luck selling my parents' home. Just went through a heartbreaker with a couple that put down money, signed a purchase agreement, got a mortgage -- and then had it rescinded at the closing. :(
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This ended up being the second round for the house. The same people who ended up buying it competed with another couple the first time around. First couple offered cash and asking price, this couple offered a couple thousand less and then wanted some money towards closing costs. So, you can guess which offer we went with.

Turned out the cash people were nightmare buyers. Despite their higher deposit and seemingly greater means to afford the house, they then took this as a sign that they could be extremely picky. They nit-picked the inspection. Ok, fine, we'll pay to get those items fixed. No too bad. Then the appraisal came out $10k low, because they picked an appraiser who had a reputation for doing this sort of thing. And it also turns out their late mother was in real estate. Hmm, sounds fishy. In the last week before closing they negotiated some, doing a lot of flip-flopping, and ended up just ceasing all communication 2 days before closing. We didn't get the deposit since the house didn't appraise out. They said that they'd make another offer if the house was available still a month later. I told them if they wanted to do that, they better come back with $10k over asking price and a 1 week closing, and that was non-negotiable.

Fortunately for us, the first couple was still interested, and came back with the same offer they had before (which wasn't a bad offer at all, just not as good as straight cash for the asking price). Since the inspection had already been done, we were able to speed through that, and funny enough, the house appraised out just fine this time. They seemed like a nice couple, and were very easy to work with through the process. On the whole, this deal went easily.

So my point is, hopefully you will find buyers like we had, it just may not happen the first time around. :)
 
Who paid for the appraisal with the first couple? Hopefully they paid for it and got their bupkiss, but maybe that was the plan all along. They may have found another house to buy after locking in with your deal. I've had buyers do that before.

Congrats on the sale. If you aren't upside-down on the price you did just fine.
 
Nice to hear Ted. Hope your new place provides many years of happiness.

Best,

Dave
 
docmirror said:
Who paid for the appraisal with the first couple? Hopefully they paid for it and got their bupkiss, but maybe that was the plan all along. They may have found another house to buy after locking in with your deal. I've had buyers do that before.

Congrats on the sale. If you aren't upside-down on the price you did just fine.
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The first appraisal was paid for by the potential buyers. So they were out the appraisal cost, as well as the inspection (which ended up saving the second couple money). We weren't directly out any money, but it did delay the sale of the house by 1 month, which meant paying an extra month's mortgage, electric bill, insurance, etc.
 
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