Thanks, Atlantis!
Tesla is 6 days away!
So, we bought a house for B this weekend! Holy fuck balls, right?! Bond and I have been talking about investment property and with her need to get a place to live in a certain school district by the time school starts we were motivated to make it happen sooner than later. But even with that motivation we didn't anticipate buying the second house we looked at. We had an actual direct discussion with her Friday night, she sent a text to WP (her ex), who is a licensed real estate agent and we waited to hear back. Saturday afternoon he messaged back and I sent him links to houses I had been scoping out. (I have been sharing listings with Bond and B for the past month or so, especially the past couple of weeks.) This school district is much sought after and properties are steeply priced. WP has access to a direct MLS to check listings and three of the properties were gone already, even though the websites didn't reflect that. He scheduled a walk-through on two properties for Sunday. One of the two had an accepted offer, but they were still holding an open house.
Bond set about getting pre-qualified which proved difficult, because it was a holiday weekend. WP suggested that if we found something we wanted to write an offer on, that we could write a cash offer. He has money he could temporarily commit to it, and we have the rest available in cash. The end game plan, though, would be to get a mortgage. He said we'd have to move quickly, because things are selling in a day - that's what I was finding over the past six weeks or so that I had been tracking things, too.
That night I struggled to fall asleep, so I pulled my phone out and redid searches for places and I found two that surprised me that they were in the school district, but they directly stated that they were in that school district in the listings and they were on the same street. I sent those off to WP. In the morning he let us know that one of the two had an accepted offer, but that the other had an open house that day, so we added that to the list of places to see.
The first place we looked at had almost no yard and a deck that was as wide as a chair, seriously. The rooms didn't let in much light, but it wasn't bad. One of the bathrooms had an issue with venting and would have needed repairs in the shower. The positive thing about it was that it was very close to a large park that has camping, and the lake, and that would have been so wonderful for her son who fishes all the time.
We skipped the one with the accepted offer and went directly to the one I had found in the night. It was cute, B liked it better because it had more light inside, and it had a hot tub and a neat upper level deck above it. The kitchen was small and would drive me nuts, but she said it wouldn't be a problem for her. Overall, it was a pretty nice little three bedroom with a smallish living room on the main floor, and a long family room in the lower level with a patio door to the backyard and the hot tub. The master bedroom was in the lower level and quite private with a bathroom that has a big soaking tub, which she fucking loved.
We went to a pub and discussed things and then WP went home to write an offer. He sent docs to Bond and he signed things electronically and that went through a couple of iterations before things were right. We didn't put any contingencies and made a cash offer. WP set a short window (2 hrs) for them to respond, as they had another offer they were about to accept until WP let their agent know we were writing one. And they accepted our offer!
Holy cow the whole thing was whiplash fast! Poor Bond, he likes to mull things over, so this really took him out of his comfort zone. But once he made a decision he was okay with it.
I think all three of us are reeling a bit. It feels surreal. B is so relieved and happy. Her kids are excited and happy. We're all so glad, and especially B, that the kids are feeling positive about it.
Closing date is 7/16/18.
Yesterday we spent the day at a beach, followed by ice cream, and then home for a couple of hours, and then a short splash pad visit with S3. OMG, exhausting day out in the heat and humidity.
Tonight we have a 50th bday party for a friend and Friday we are going to dinner with Michelle and the Drummer.