More on the housing market

"Tristan" (casselts)
06/29/2018 at 00:28 • Filed to: None

Pictured: muh house. Yes, my street number is 327. No, I don’t have a Chevy smallblock-themed mailbox... my wife vetoed it.

It went live on the MLS Friday at 2:00. By Saturday at 10:00 we had an offer for $12k over asking. A young couple using a VA loan. I related immediately and knew they came in fast and strong because they’re using a VA loan and have probably lost on about 14 other offers because of it.

I took their offer and cancelled my open house. Yes, I’m making money off of this house, and yes it’s a terrible market for a young couple starting out. But I still feel like I did a nice thing by taking their offer. I never thought the stupid letters that people submit with their offers did a bit of good, but theirs made me want them to have my house.

Pictured: Muh other house. It also went pending on Saturday. In Florida, on the panhandle where houses move sloooooowwww. It was listed for 3 days. I fully expected it to take a month or two to sell. It was a full price offer. They wrote no letter. Another youngish couple of the active military type. They wanted me to pay closing, so I countered back at my list price + closing and they accepted. Yay!

It’ll be bittersweet seeing both go. The Florida house was the first home my wife and I bought together, but we only got to live in it for a lousy 6 months. The Oregon house is where we brought our daughter home. It has so much mid-century subtle class, and everything in it is original and amazing— it kills me to think about someone gutting the kitchen and bathrooms for “improvements”, but in the end, each one is just a pile of sticks on a mound of dirt.

Now to dump my newly found buckets of cash into my new money pit!

DISCUSSION (16)

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Tristan
06/29/2018 at 01:00

We had an offer come in on ours with a VA loan and the letter right after we had accepted another offer. I was a little sad that they hadn’t come in sooner because they did seem like the perfect couple for our house.

AC2 - The Now 15 Year Old Jalop > Tristan
06/29/2018 at 01:27

Your newest house wouldn’t be in NJ, would it? It’s beautiful by the way

Tristan > AC2 - The Now 15 Year Old Jalop
06/29/2018 at 01:41

Nope- Oregon. The other place where you can't pump your own gas.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Tristan
06/29/2018 at 01:49

I had nine offers on my home. There were 6 letters, three of which tugged my heartstrings. But the strongest offer had no letter, highest base offer, highest escalation clause, and highest money down. We did a little bit of digging and found they were a young couple hoarding money from good honest careers to afford their first h ome , much like we did on ours. And th eir offer allowed us to afford a home I never thought I’d be able to find at this stage in my life.

I found that the more heartbreaking the letter, the weaker the finances were. Including one offer that asked us to pay *their* closing costs. In this market, that’s just suicide.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Tristan
06/29/2018 at 01:56

Also, that home is beautiful! I wanted to a very similar split level in Edmonds, but my wife wasn't into the area.

cbell04 > Tristan
06/29/2018 at 07:22

Sold our last house ourselves. Forgot about the stupid letters we got. We got 6 offers on the day it went up. Some offers were higher but one guy offered 10k over and zero I repeat NO INSPECTION on a 60 year old house that any inspection would have found 10k easy just because it was a 60 year old house in western NY. The jerks ruined the house, cut down all trees and landscaping. Put up a huge chain link fence. It just looks awful.

Tristan > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
06/29/2018 at 07:37

Thanks! We really like the floor plans on split levels. They also tend to have deeper garages!

Tristan > cbell04
06/29/2018 at 07:39

Sad! It sucks when you pour your heart into something and the next owners just don't care. I'm glad I never see any of the cars I've sold.

Tristan > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
06/29/2018 at 07:42

I’m a bit nervous about the Florida buyers asking for us to pay, but that's fairly common with VA loans. It's the only way to get closing costs wrapped into the mortgage and it's why we countered back higher. I'm more nervous that they originally wanted to wait until payday to deposit earnest money...

BrianGriffin thinks “reliable” is just a state of mind > Tristan
06/29/2018 at 08:00

I have a small condo on the Atlantic up for sale for a couple of months . I’ve had no offers

Tristan > BrianGriffin thinks “reliable” is just a state of mind
06/29/2018 at 08:28

Uff. A coworker just bought a small condo in Portland. He had to make offers on about 8 places before he got one- everything is going crazy fast here.

AC2 - The Now 15 Year Old Jalop > Tristan
06/29/2018 at 12:37

What’s up with that anyway? It’s so much more of an inconvenience to have to wait for a summer teen to get his butt to your station.

Also, do you vape and/or drive a Subaru?

Tristan > AC2 - The Now 15 Year Old Jalop
06/29/2018 at 14:13

It frustrates me to no end because I'm not a native Oregonian. I have lived the majority of my life in places where getting gas isn't a 45 minute ordeal.

Tristan > AC2 - The Now 15 Year Old Jalop
06/29/2018 at 14:15

Also, no- I do not ingest aircraft deicing fluid vapor into my lungs, but my wife had an Outback for a little while.

Stef Schrader > Tristan
07/01/2018 at 04:45

Oh, I love that first one.

What’s the deal with VA loans being tough? IIRC, that’s what my parents used when we moved so much. I had no idea and still don’t; homeownership is a luxury I’ll probably not get to experience for a long, long time thanks to my garbage student loans.

Tristan > Stef Schrader
07/01/2018 at 10:45

Thanks! We’ve lik ed it too!

VA appraisers always seek out dumb stuff in a seeming mission to make the deal fail. On this house, they wanted the owner (it was bank owned) to repaint the wood fence and back patio before they’d give it the okay. It was January in Oregon and it had been raining for 90 days straight...