We Bought a House

After, I don’t know, 3 months (maybe 2), 3 other offers, probably 30-40 house viewings and a lot of stress, we finally got a house.

Last weekend, we scheduled time with our realtor to go see two condos in an area just east of where we live now. I really didn’t want to live in a condo or a townhouse, but after so much time we thought we should explore all options. There was nothing in the areas we could afford (or if there was we put offers in, but they were not accepted) and the houses that we could afford were 100 years old, needed a ton of work and were at the top of our price range. So, we thought we might have to settle for a condo. That would be our compromise. We would have to deal with a condo board, little outdoor space, basically the same size as our apartment now and we’d hear the neighbours coming and going constantly. We took a couple steps around both condos and just said—nope, can’t do it.

But, not all hope was lost because our realtor had an idea. He had a listing in the south that we might like. We had briefly looked into the south, but it would require a longer transit period and most of the places were just cookie cutters. House after house of the exact same architecture. But our realtor rarely suggested anything (which was fine), so we took him up on the idea (if only to encourage more suggestions).

There is something about buying houses that I didn’t know—it’s a lot like playing poker. I do not have a good poker face. The place was amazing and I was running around the place, from room-to-room, giddy and hyper like I had drank too many cans of coke. That’s a pretty good simile for quarter to eleven on a Sunday evening, wouldn’t you say?

The house was part of an estate sale, meaning that the previous owner had passed away (hopefully not in the house) and his children were selling the property. In this case, our realtor was representing both the buyer and seller (so he got double the commission). Let me just say now, that I completely trust him and that he had told us on numerous occasion that we weren’t interested in houses before Leah or I had even formed an opinion. If he were just in it for money, he would have gotten rid of us a long time ago. The fact that he represented both sides and that this was an estate sale made the whole process a lot easier. Frankly, we didn’t have to play poker, which is one of the reasons I felt more comfortable to show my emotions when viewing the property (but I still did due diligence and asked all the important questions). We gave Bob our fair offer, Bob presented it and…

As I said before, we had put three other offers in prior to this one. So, even though I felt confident, I had felt confident before and it didn’t go through. For this estate sale, there was one child (of five siblings) in charge of selling the house. He was authorized to sell at a set price. We offered below that price (which was fair considering some of the work that needed to be done on the house). Therefore, the other siblings all had to agree on that price. We gave two days for them to return with an answer just so they had time to track each other down, etc. We made the offer last Saturday. On Sunday morning, our realtor called and 4/5 siblings had agreed and the last one wouldn’t be a problem. I couldn’t believe it. We were going to have a house.

Well, this week we had an inspection done and the financing is all setup, so I feel comfortable telling you that we are well on our way to home-ownership. During the inspection I took some video of the house, it was with our camera so its a bit shaky and I walked too fast. But take a look. I will get some better quality video when we move in and as the renovations begin.

House Walkthrough from Rhett Soveran on Vimeo.