As we were sitting at dinner at my parents house, my childhood home, where I had grown up on Gibson Way, we started thinking about the house that was listed across the street. We were in the thick of our house hunt and nothing seemed to be working out the way we thought it would. We had made several offers on homes, some for as much as $60,000 over asking price. We were pushing our budget to the max trying to get what we wanted but were having no luck securing a home. This house on Gibson Way had just had a price reduction and we knew the couple that lived there was relocating to Alaska for work and were anxious to sell the home. Ironically we had considered buying this home before, back in 2015 but at the time concluded that:
A) It was at the TOP of our price range.
B) It needed MAJOR renovations... too much of a project to make it work for our family.
C) We could NEVER live right across the street from my parents!
Fast-forward to our current situation and we were exploring any and all options to put roots down in this area for our very young family. The dream of a new build was likely not going to happen (at least this time) and none of the other homes we had toured were feeling like the right option.
And we looked at A LOT of homes! Thanks to our extremely patient realtor!
My husband and I discussed 'the house across the street' over the next couple days and then decided to look at it with our realtor, almost as a joke.
Our takeaways gave us a little déjà vu:
A) It was towards the TOP of our price range.
B) It would need MAJOR renovations to make it a good fit for our family.
C) Could we EVER live right across the street from my parents?
The more we thought about it, this house did check most every box that we had on our list. Yes, the 1978 ranch-style, single-story, red-brick house was old and very outdated, but it had the amount of bedrooms, bathrooms, and even some bonus space that we were hoping for. It had a nice size lot, an east facing backyard, RV parking and was in a great location in town. The main difference between the 2015 house hunt and this one was that we had a better idea of what our family would look like long-term.
We knew that if it was going to work, we needed to get in well below the listing price. We had already begun dreaming and scheming about a potential remodel and knew it wouldn't be cheap. We submitted an offer that we were comfortable with, along with a sweet letter from our hearts about our situation.
In a housing market where homes were selling for cash well over their asking prices, it felt like a long shot ( I think our realtor thought we were a little crazy). We felt confident that if it was where we were meant to be the offer would be accepted. All we could do is pray and wait for a response to our offer.
Then, much to our surprise, our low offer was accepted almost immediately.
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