A Sneak Peek at Our House

Assuming all goes well with inspections, we'll be moving on December 15.

We're excited. We'd looked at about 20 different houses by the time we saw this one, many of those documented in an earlier post, but when we saw this one we knew it was the right one for us. I'd actually seen the house online before and liked it, but at the time it was a good $25,000 out of our price range, so I put it out of mind.

But then the sellers dropped their price significantly, putting it in the range in which we were looking, and it showed up in the set of new listings our agent sent us. We immediately made plans to see it. And as soon as we walked in, I was hooked. It was what we'd been looking for: an old house with character, in a neighborhood within walking/biking distance of Duke and downtown, two stories, three bedrooms, and in move-in condition.

The Kitchen

The Dining Room

The Living Room

So after seeing it for the first time on Tuesday morning, we returned Wednesday at lunch time for a second look. We received answers to a few questions Wednesday night, and then on Thursday at lunch time, we made an offer on the house.

The Durham market isn't much different than any market around the country at the moment, and there are a lot of houses sitting a long time on the market. We'd seen a lot of houses that had been listed for 200+ days. This wasn't the housing market of a few years ago when you had to make an offer the moment you saw a house and sometimes even offer more than the list price.

But I guess a good house is a good house, regardless of the market. As soon as the sellers dropped their price, the house started to see a lot of traffic, at least according to the listing agent. We had time to see it twice, but this wasn't a house for sitting on. In fact, as we were putting in our offer, we learned that another couple was seeing the house for a second time at that very moment. Hoping to beat them to the punch, we put a short expiration on our offer. But we still took a gamble, offering them $7,000 less than list price. We are in a buyer's market, after all.

All evening, whenever the phone rang, my heart seized up. But we didn't get any news except that one of the sellers was on the way home from out of town, and we wouldn't hear until the morning. The expiration on our offer was noon. At 6:10 am, we had to be on a plane heading to Texas for a wedding. We let our agent know when we'd be available while on layover in Houston, and when we'd finally land in San Antonio.

Through our entire layover, we held onto the phone and checked in for messages a few time, but it didn't ring and we were told over and over no new messages. Then we get on the plane and go to turn the phone off and are suddenly told we have two new messages. We dial up and listen.

The first message: They've countered with an offer $3,000 higher than ours.

We're thrilled. We expected a counter-offer, and this will work for us. We're ready to call our agent back and say accept. But first we check the second message.

The second message: As our agent was conveying their counter-offer to us, she got another call. Deal off. The sellers were getting a second offer. We now had to put in our best and final offer.

Elation to disappointment within a minute. Of course at this point the plane is about to take off and the stewardess is making us turn off our phone. There's nothing we can do but spend the entire flight thinking about the situation and what we want to do.

Once safely on the ground in San Antonio, we're on the phone. First to our agent to talk about our options. Then to our parents in search of some advice. We weren't really looking to get in a bidding war. Damn it, this is supposed to be a buyer's market! But we feel really strongly that this is the house for us. We think and ponder and debate. We pro and con. I try to rationalize my emotional response. In the end, we go for it. We put in an escalating bid, offering to pay $1,000 more than the other people placing a bid, but capping our offer at $1,000 over list price. We want the house, but we decide that if the other people are willing to pay well over list, then it just isn't meant to be. We also figure that if we do win, we'll be paying full price + $1,000. Knowing they're in competition and have to put in a best and final offer, we figure they'll put in full price. Why would you do anything else?

Well, I still don't know the answer to that question, but the other couple offered $3,000 less than list price. This means the house is ours, and we still don't have to pay full list price in the end. Woohoo!

When the call came, we were thrilled...and relieved.

I have to say that I hated the whole experience once we got into the offer phase. I am not a gambler and that's what this felt like to me. That kind of anxiety is not for me. I also don't like that kind of disappointment. So thank goodness we won. I love the house. I love the location. I love the neighborhood. It's an exciting new move for us.

But I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I have some reservations. A house is so permanent, so tying. I can't just call up my leasing office and say I'm moving out in 6 weeks. I'm stuck with it. And the financial responsibility is pretty darn big too. I have to say that when we signed the contract, I felt thrilled, as well as completely sick to my stomach. Do you know how many times we could go around the world with that kind of money?