Getting Real (Estate), Part 1
Gretchen and I are putting an offer on a home today. After 10 years of renting, we’re ready to jump into being real live grownups, with a mortgage and everything.
Please pray for us. There are multiple offers on the property, and we’re trying hard not to get our hopes up, but it really feels like home to us.
Prayer submitted, Mike. Can we get some details? Location? Size? Estimated landscaping maintenance costs? (Damn, that lawn looks massive!)
From the photo, I’m gonna guess…..Glendale? Or Pasadena, assuming you’ve got some side-job we don’t know about.
3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2100 square feet, 9,600 square feet of yard, a pool in the backyard. The whole second story is a master retreat, with bedroom, bath, and a sun-room for reading. Hardwood and exposed beams throughout. The landscaping will cost us approximately 10 hours a week of me busting ass.
It’s in the far Northwest corner of Monrovia, tucked up against the mountains. 10 minutes from school, 5 minutes from the Metro, 20 minutes from our current house.
Basically in Sierra Madre.
Let’s just call it Sierra Madre.
Can I just say that MY hopes are up?! What an exciting time. Keep us posted.
Are you excited, Sharolyn? Excited enough to help out with the down payment? Aw, come on, you know you want to …
Wow, Lee Family. That’s great! Praying…
If my job exists next year, I’ll send ya a housewarming present!
I think Sara and I are coming over Thursday night to talk wedding flowers, etc. (Well, Sara and Gretchen will do that, while you and I get reacquainted with Bookers)
Can you try to make the home purchase before then? That gives you 3 days. Chop chop.
Yeah, shouldn’t be a problem. Can you and Sara do the home inspection for us?
No problem. I remodeled our bathroom, so I should be able to tell you if your new joint is structurally sound, or not.
I just checked our home value at Zillow.com – and apparently, our little house “Sold for 1.3 Million Dollars”. (Instead of the paltry sum we paid for it) Check the link:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/17515-Cohasset-St-Van-Nuys-CA-91406/19953009_zpid/
Apparently, everything you read isn’t correct on the internet. Hmmm…
Well, the offer has been submitted. We should have an answer back by 6pm tomorrow.
If we get our offer accepted can we fly June down to tell us what colors to paint the rooms please?
If not, I’m painting everything puce. June? Your move.
Oh, and I have it in writing that my husband promised to bust his ass mowing and taking care of the yard. Yes.
internet writing does not a contract make. thus spake … me.
You have my prayers, too, Gretchen & Mike. Buying our first house was the scariest thing we ever did – a duplex we bought with another couple. Take deep breaths.
Praying as we speak. It looks absolutely beautiful. Place for me to stay when The Dailies are recording?
Gretchen said ass.
June and Gretchen have potty mouths! Tee hee!
Oh, Gretchen has a total potty mouth. Everyday, she’s all like “frick this” and “shoot that” and “aw crap” the other thing.
Oh, and when you’re old enough to read this, Sophia, I’m totally kidding. Your mother is perfect. Don’t swear. And don’t flirt with boys. They are playing a different game than the one you’re playing.
Ain’t that the truth.
June would love to come down and talk paint colors. Lovelovelovelovelovelovelovelovelovelovelovelovelove it.
(Hmmm…and I could bring Chad and Erica’s painting and the one for Zack…that I haven’t done yet. Hmm.)
We plan on keeping our boys semi-locked up for years…due to the pre-programmed “game” they are “playing.”
Shuddershuddershuddershuddershuddershuddershudder.
Somebody swooped in and offered $25k more than us. We’re not willing to get into a bidding war, so it looks like this one is going to pass us by.
What a bummer. I have confidence that God has something even better for you in the future! And, I respect you for not bidding any more than a healthy price. Hang in there!
poo.
Gretchen, you can say the swear word and I won’t tease you.
Hi Michael,
Sorry to intrude on this thread, but I don’t know how to reach you otherwise. Whatever happened with your ganglion cyst? I too am a pianist, and have a ganglion on the palm side of my wrist. I’m particularly interested to know if you have a doctor here in L.A. you like. I’ve got a good one, but am thinking about getting a second opinion.
Thanks!
Bruce
Wow. Cysts. Awesome.
Michael and Gretchen;
I empathise with your house-hunting. It’s scary and emotionally draining, and I respect you for knowing your limitations.
We bought our first house, a two-family (do they have those in California?) with another couple at just about the peak of Boston’s previous housing bubble 20 years ago. That turned out to be a mistake. Not only did the market collapse within the year, but while we assumed this was a long-term commitment, they decided to move back to MS only a few years later, but not to sell (because of the “down” market), leaving us de facto landlords (sheesh).
Another few years, and suddenly it’s “must-sell” time for our co-owners. We thought briefly of buying the home we loved so much, but a) couldn’t afford it and b) now knew we REALLY didn’t want to be landlords, so we reluctantly went house-hunting again, while at the same time finishing all the cosmetic renovations we’d started and trying to time the sale of our two-family with the purchase of another home.
For half a year, we went to open houses most Saturdays and every Sunday. This was at the beginning of the most recent surge in housing prices (almost 10 years ago now – hard to believe), when real estate was turning very quickly. We’d show up at open houses only to be told the property had already been sold. Our agent advised us not to offer less than the asking price of anything we were interested in, and, indeed, most of the places we liked sold for much more than the listing price. We were trying hard to be realistic about what we could afford, and there was no way we could look at something in our price range and offer $10K more. Things got even more urgent when we accepted an offer on our current home, and now had only two months to find a place to move. We prayed. Janet kept telling me to be patient, just as Sharolyn said, “I have confidence that God has something even better for [us]…”
One week, in our local paper, there was a photo of our dream home – a modest 1600 sq ft colonial, about 100 years old (we have quirky dreams) – and the listing realtor was our broker. Janet called him to find out why he hadn’t told us about this house, as it met almost all of our qualifications, even down to the asking price. He told us the ad had gone in by mistake, that the sellers were hoping to fix the place up and get a bidding war going, and weren’t ready to sell yet. She told him to make an offer on the house (I have to tell you we’d not even been inside at this point), which he did, and they refused.
However, only a few weeks later, our broker called us up and told us the sellers, having run out of both patience and cash for the renovations, would like to discuss our offer. We finally got to see the inside, which had so many of the details we loved in the house we were selling, and, well, it was and still is the perfect home for us. Old, quirky (just like me), cozy, cluttered and – home. As Janet puts it, “My next home will be an urn.”
I only pray your waiting will be short and the reward will be as great.
Eric
Bruce – I dealt with the cyst in a manly way, by ignoring it until one day I put too much weight on my wrist, and the cyst popped. Hasn’t been back since.
To the rest, thank you for your encouragement. Eric, it’s helpful to hear stories like that. Right now, that house feels like it was perfect, and like all things that exist on in imagination, the flaws were minimized and the benefits maximized. It’s hard to picture what would be more perfect than this house, but I remain confident that something better is coming.
Oh believe me, Mike. Something better is coming. Sara and I looked at dozens and dozens of houses. It seemed endless. We put in offers, and each time, we never felt 100%. When we bought our current house, we put in the offer and literally FELT that it was the right house at the right price at the right time, etc. It’s strange how these things play out sometimes…
PS – Right now, I don’t care what your Realtor says, there’s no reason to offer more than a cent over asking. Your price range is falling, STILL. Don’t let ‘em scam you.
This house sold for $250k over the current asking price a year ago. At the peak, it appraised for almost a million. I know that what you’re saying is true for most properties, but this is one that had a ton of equity in it at the asking price.
Thanks, Michael. Yeah—sometimes it happens that way. Mine’s more stubborn, unfortunately.
Well, the deal is possibly back on. Pray for wisdom.
Praying.
I’ve been out of the loop for a few days. What’s the scoop?
We accepted their counter-offer this morning. If they re-sign the offer (which we think they will), we’ll be in escrow by the end of the day.
Holy smokes! Still praying…
AHHHHHGHGHGHG!!!! I can’t take the stress! Seriously, I thought I could just watch this unfold from the sidelines, but I feel somehow involved. Fingers re-crossed…..
We just bought a house.
YEAHHHH!H!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And now……the daily rape that is escrow. Call me when you need someone to just sit and cry with you.
are you busy tonight?
CONGRATULATIONS, my loves! I can’t wait to help you move in. (I think it’s our turn to help anyway.)
As a matter of fact, I’m not busy tonight. Email me back, and let me know what time Sara and I are coming over. And yes, we’re bringing the GOOD wine. Any excuse to celebrate, that’s been my official motto for about a year now. (Hence your mid-week, 30-something birthday bash)
Also, if anyone would like to hire Gretchen or I to babysit, or teach piano lessons, or do some light yardwork, give us a call. We’re now totally completely poor, and are willing to do anything for cash. Anything, Bobby.
Wow, turn my back and suddenly you’re broke like the rest of us! Congrats!
WHOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
That’s awesome. My wife and I just had our offer accepted on a condo in Orange County and we’re dealing with the wonderful process of escrow. Good times.
I’d like to thank Chad for single-handedly booking enough Dailies Gigs in January and February to pay our closing costs. Seriously, he’s been a maddog, and I love it!
Yeah! I’m excited in a scared sort of way! The house inspection is going to be a doosy me thinks. We will accept any and all offers of help to move, paint, do electrical work, drywall, install ovens (hi Bryan!) pull out hugely large palms, etc. etc. etc.
Thank you for your excitement and prayer friends. This has been all the more special with you all going through it with us. Continued prayer and support are appreciated :)
How long is your escrow?
Congrats guys!! IT is an awesome feeling in all kinds of ways. Awesomely scary, awesomely fun, awesomely real, and most of all awesome that you made the American dream come true!! Glad it went well. God is good all the time!
30 day escrow. It officially closes on Valentines day, but we’ll probably bump that up to the Friday before.
Is it too late to stop it? I don’t know if you’ve really thought this through. It totally adds like 12 miles to my drive for poker night.
Have you considered Reseda?
(asshat)
We considered Reseda, but neither one of us smokes crystal meth.
There’s a house in our neighborhood that I’m totally convinced is a grow house or a meth lab or something. It is meticulously maintained, clean as a whistle, and yet there is not one piece of furniture or decor in the front or back yard. I’ve never seen a human being enter or leave it, and the shades are perennially drawn.
I feel like Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window. I’m thinking seriously about hiring some Jehovah’s Witnesses to go knock on the door and report on what they see.
All that to say…
Drugs are for the suburbs. Porn is for the Valley. Get it straight.
Do people working at grow houses generally invite door-to-door religious nuts to come in and look around?
Only if they’re pre-destined to do so.
Oh snap. Dude hasn’t even closed Escrow, and he’s already slammin’ Valley-Dwellers. Reseda is dangerously close to Lake Balboa, my friend.
Chad’s right, we’re all about Porn here in the valley. “Meth-fueled, hard-core erotica” was actually one of the conditions on our home.
Once again, I wonder what AdSense is gonna do with this comment.
Adsense is out. We sell all of our ad space by request now. Which is why Addison Road serves up spicy links to modern furniture in NYC, online lottery sweepstakes, and wholesale coffins.
Thank you guys for the laughter.
I’ve always said, “If there’s one thing to buy wholesale, it’s coffins”.
I’ve heard you say that. I know you always try to work it into the conversation in a way that seems natural, but it never does, Zack. Never.
Gretchen: This is really good wine!
Sara: Thanks, we bought a whole case of it at Costco.
Zack: At Costco Wholesale Warehouse? You know what you should always buy wholesale …
Can’t have too many.
[...] michael lee ⋅ February 24, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment We got the call. Escrow closed, title is recorded, we get the keys at 3pm! We’re [...]