Seven Quick Stomachaches

1. Before we had our offer, no one came to see our house except on the weekends. Every day I ran around like a madwoman making it Picture Perfect and was the epitome of Crazed Anal Retentive every time we left the house. Every single time we left the house. Even when I went out for a 30 minute run at eight in the morning, I made sure the pillows were in the right place, the dishes put away, the entry way swept. No one called, no one came. 

The day we accepted the offer and every day thereafter (admittedly, not that many days) people have called to come see the house. And the agent who called five minutes ago said, "Oh, my buyers are going to be disappointed." 

THIS IS MAKING ME ALL RE-THINKY, INTERNET. Your job is now to say, "Yes, you did the right thing, that couple to whom you are somewhat emotionally attached is the couple who are supposed to have this house, there is no reason to think any of the other showings would lead to an offer, heck, half of those showings were just agents coming to check out the competition, maybe you didn't do the MOST right thing but you did the BEST right thing AT THE TIME and THAT IS OKAY." 

Thank you, Internet. You are SO much cheaper than a therapist. 

2. My kids are sick. Again. I think we had a two-week reprieve in between Monstrous Jack and this newer Pathetic, Sickly Jack Who Just Wants To Sit On The Couch With His Sippy Cup Watching Caillou. Who I will take, trust me, over Monstrous Jack, but is still sort of a bummer. 

3. I just used my father-in-law's Costco credit card to pay for our entire Hawaii vacation (airfare and hotel for seven nights). Unfortunately I will have to pay my share one of these days. On the other hand, you have no idea how thrilled I am that this whole house business will be finished LONG before we go on that trip. How we would manage things from three time zones away crossed my mind more than a few times.

4. Of course, IT'S NOT FOR SURE. We still have to have the inspection. And every time I tell one of these agents that, "Sure, you can come see the house, but I have to tell you we accepted an offer" they say, "Oh never mind" and WHAT THEN? I honestly can't think of what would come up in the inspection to make the deal go awry, but you never know, right? I am totally entitled to feel stomachachey about that. 

5. And then we have the issue of Rental Houses. DRAMATIC SIGH. I thought I found The House tonight. It's huge! New! Beautiful! Not super far away! And only (clears throat) $50 more than my mortgage payment! When the kids woke up I said, "Who wants to go look at houses!" and they both said, and I am not making this up, "YEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!" (with an additional "Hooray!" from Jack) so I packed them up and drove them over and peeked in all the windows. LOVE. Then we called the number that was on the sign outside and the guy was all, "Rent? Um, it's for sale, but I'm sure you could rent it for $2500 a month." Which, COUGH!? When we got home I looked up the ad again because how could I have mixed up my information? But no, there is the ad, and the same address, and at a rent DECIDEDLY lower than $2500 a month. GOOD GRIEF. Stupid Craigslist. Stupid people who make you feel stupid on the phone.

6. So I don't know about rental houses. We are all (all!) going to look at one tomorrow morning. I really like the house. I am not so hot on the street/neighborhood. Then again, it also backs up right onto a high school football field/track which most people would probably not enjoy but when I saw that my brain flashed "RESEARCH!" Heh. We'll see. 

7. In other news, if you don't follow me on Twitter, I saw this posted on a Redfin forum: "...can comfortably hold a family of 4, the largest anyone should have nowadays..." Discuss amongst yourselves!

Comments

[Jess]

You DID do the right thing. For all those reasons that you mentioned and also because $15k below asking price is actually a really freaking good offer in this market. Even if every single other person who called had made an offer on the house, I bet that not one of them would be higher than the one you accepted.

PLUS, what you said. These people SHOULD have your house and the other people WOULDN'T have made offers and you DID THE RIGHT THING, absolutely.

P.S. First of all, I do not understand why people feel the need to judge others' families. Second of all, even if you ARE going to judge, WHY would you do it when you're trying to talk up your house? That is NOT the appropriate forum for such opinions. Though it does sound vaguely defensive. Like, "Well, my house is too small to fit more than four. But only dumb families have more than four people anyway, so there."

[C @ Kid Things]

Yes, you did the right thing, that couple to whom you are somewhat emotionally attached is the couple who are supposed to have this house, there is no reason to think any of the other showings would lead to an offer, heck, half of those showings were just agents coming to check out the competition, maybe you didn't do the MOST right thing but you did the BEST right thing AT THE TIME and THAT IS OKAY.

There.

[Manda]

You don't want a house that backs up to a football field on Friday nights what with all the LIGHTS and BAND MUSIC and CHEERING! And then there's Tuesday soccer games ... you get the idea. It could wake your children. which, NO.

[Elizabeth]

Um, hi. If your house backs up to a football field, that means TIM RIGGINS could be out there EVERY SINGLE FRIDAY NIGHT AND DON'T FORGET PRACTICES. I REPEAT: TIM RIGGINS, IN YOUR BACKYARD.

[A'Dell]

Do not tell the other agents you have an offer. They can figure that out on their own. You WANT other offers. You WANT back up offers. You want other people to be in love with your house, JUST IN CASE.

If they find even one thing they're uncomfortable with, they can terminate. If they find a house they like better, they can terminate. If they don't have their financing in order, they can terminate. If they are flaky and just second guess themselves, they can terminate.

If you have other offers, this gives you leverage to refuse to repair items.

Keep people coming through the house until the option period is over.

[Ashley]

1. Of course you did the right thing. Wouldn't you rather be writing about it this way than how you turned down a decent offer and now no one else seems interested?

2. I think I would rather have a Monstrous Child than one who wants to watch Caillou, because that show? Makes me want to rip my own ears off.

[Raven]

What A'Dell said about the option period. When I was looking at houses on HAR I could see if it had an option pending. Hell, I was leaving a house when another couple was showing up and they were the couple with the option. If it didn't work out with them, we were going to snatch that puppy.

What everyone else said about game nights and houses. We live across a busy road from the elementary school and middle school and on some days I can still hear the bell schedule all day long and then the games on weekends.

Was the number on the craigslist ad the same as the sign in the yard? My SIL and BIL feel pray to a scam on craigslist where someone listed a for rent ad on a house for sale and then tried to take their money for a house they didn't own or have any claim to. If I hadn't done a search for the owner information in HCAD (tax appraisal info) online, they would've lost a boatload of cash. The guy had broken a bathroom window and that's how he was able to show them the house even. SKETCHY, SCARY STUFF.

[Kathleen]

You did the right thing. Just wanted to throw you my support and try to help your stomach!

And as for the quote, well, guess that means I've screwed up since I have 4 kids. Sure glad some stranger wants to judge lives and put restrictions up for all. How helpful! **rolling eyes, sighing deeply, and praying my prayer for people to mind their own business gets answered soon**

[HereWeGoAJen]

Oooh, that makes me so mad that I want to have a bunch more kids and then mail pictures to the person who wrote that.

You did the right thing! In fact, I told my husband about your sale and he hopes we get a similar situation.

[antonia]

I think you did what was best given the circumstances at the time. It is always so difficult knowing whether there will be other better offers.

Also, reading between the lines, it sounds like a part of your heart was acting in charity and love for this couple; wanting their well-being above simply pushing for more money.
have faith that any act done in charity for someone will be rewarded by God with an abundance in return. You may be getting 15k less than you hoped....but God can make it so that those 15k are never needed anyway.

And as for the ridiculous 'family of 4' thing...it's just the typical materialistic rambling of someone who views human life as a commodity, and not a valuable treasure.

[Christiana]

You did the right thing. And there's likely nothing that you aren't aware of that is so terrible that the inspection will fail, so I think you're likely pretty safe there.

WHY on EARTH would someone make THAT comment in THAT place? That's insane. And I know so many friends who have plenty larger families than 4 and are beautifully happy. Ugh. Insanity.

[Christina]

I feel so very late to the game. Everyone has already said all the things I was going to say. But I'll say them anyway. ;-p

6. We rented a house that backed up to a highschool football field (in Redmond!). I like the neighborhood and it wasn't horrid being next to the field. Most of the time it was pretty quiet and sort of like having a park nearby. But, on Friday nights, out of nowhere, we'd hear the Voice of God - announcing the football games. It sounded a bit like he was standing in our family room. But, other than that? Not a bad place to live.

7. That person? Is very sad. And has no idea what they are missing. Says I, the youngest of four and the mother of four. :)

[Lisa]

Wow. THAT'S a judgemental ad. Exactly what business is it of the ad writer's to decide what the ideal family size is for anyone but himself? Weird.

[bw]

Gosh, am I the only one who sees what that person means (#7)? It is a pretty judgmental way to say it, but there's a point there. The world today is overpopulated. Period. That is not an opinion. Don't "limit" your family size if that's not what you want to do, but also don't judge someone who thinks it's the right thing to do. It's not about happiness, it's about giving your children a good future. And how is it materialistic to conserve?

[Jessica]

If you rent the house by the football field, buy blackout shades! Before we had kids, we lived in an apartment across the interstate from a high school. On friday nights, it was so bright in my bedroom (all the way ACROSS the interstate!) I had a hard time sleeping. It felt like the middle of the day. And once I'd start to drift off, there'd be a touchdown or something and a lot of noise. This also happened during baseball season. WHY do baseball games last until 11 p.m.??? (And yes, I'm a loser for going to bed before 11 p.m. when I didn't have kids, but I was pregnant and TIRED!)

[janey]

A bird in the hand is worth 10 phone calls and potential showings! But, I agree with all the keep showing it postings. AND, other agents totaly know you have an offer already. It says it on that little info sheet they print up. As for that other comment... That person probably hasn't heard that many industrialized nations now have birth rates below that which is necessary to repopulate. Those countries are starting to fail economically, and it will only get worse as their tax base decreases in size and their population ages. Also, life isn't a zero-sum game. Just because I have food, a place to live, and cleanish air doesn't mean another person can't have it, too. There are plenty of resources in this world, if we could somehow just get them to people. But, none of those are great reasons for having or not having kids. Wanting or not wanting kids and the ability to provide them the necessities are the only things that really matter. I only have one, but that comment would have totaly turned me off from buying that house.