"After nearly three months of browsing Realtor.com every night, spending Sunday afternoons criss-crossing the DC metro-area visiting open houses, and a lot of emotional ups and downs, we are under contract on a cute little brick 1940's duplex semi-detached/twin home with a yard. Total fixer-upper, but great neighborhood and low-stress commute for us both. Let the adventure begin!"
This was my Facebook post from Tuesday night after we returned from an evening walk in our potential new neighborhood and decided to accept the sellers counter-offer after a drawn-out negotiation period that had started Saturday night. It had been a pretty intense week leading up to this decision. Eight days earlier, Kevin sent me a mid-morning text: "[the house we had our eye on] back on the market for [a lower price]. Buy buy buy!!!". My heart immediately started racing. We originally went to an open house at this place on June 8th, but thought the price was a little high and just weren't quite ready to commit. It went under contract at the beginning of July, at which point we both spent the next week saying "we should have gotten that one".
Now we were getting a second chance to make a move on it. I quickly e-mailed one of the real estate agents we had met at an open house a couple months earlier, followed up with a phone call, and scheduled a showing for later in the evening.
In the meantime, Kevin talked to the seller's agent and found out that the earlier buyer had backed out after getting the home inspection report back: "it needs a new roof, new water heater, and there is evidence of flooding in the basement" were the highlights. Hmmf.
Were we in for such a big challenge? Would it be better to just pay a little more and find and place that is already "done". We both agreed the neighborhood and location were ideal, and all the other places we had seen in our price rang were in less convenient or more run-down neighborhoods. This offered a nice neighborhood, with the potential for making it the house we wanted - if we could negotiate the price down enough to comfortably make the necessary repairs and remodel the kitchen. (just like Property Brothers!)
In the end, the sellers made a counter-offer that was within the range we had determined would be acceptable, and we decided to go for it. I'm sure we're in for more than a few surprises along the way, but for now, we're pretty excited about all the possibilities: Cookouts every weekend! Our dream kitchen! We'll add built-ins! A fire pit in the back yard! We'll DIY everything! I'll learn to do all the repairs myself and becoming a handyman on my days off (says Kevin).
For now, we'll have to content ourselves with exploratory walks in our new neighborhood, Aurora Highlands, which we are absolutely in love with. And I may just become obsessed with Young House Love (thanks, Mailena). Meanwhile, Kevin has committed himself to learning how to build a French drain "I'm going to need to buy a jackhammer", was a key quote from tonight).
And for those of you that have asked...a few pictures ( it doesn't look like much at the moment, but it has potential!!):
If all goes well we close Aug. 21st! Eeeek!
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| There she is! (all 864 sq ft of her) |
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| Back yard for Barkley (and cookouts, firepits, gardening, and doggie splash pools) |
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| Basement (I'm looking foward to finally getting to tear down some wallls like they do on HGTV |
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| The lack-luster kitchen we're hoping to replace with our mini-dream kitchen |
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| Living area - love the wood floors and sconces. Actually not too much to complain about here. |
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| Love the stairs and all the 1940's details. |
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