Let's Do This Again...

The reason I post updates about our house hunting adventure is not to keep you all informed. The reason I do it, is so that some day if/when we own a house and if/when we ever decide that we want to try buying another one, I can reread this experience and make sure I remember exactly how un-fun it is. Kind of like having a baby, when you remember that having a baby involves steps a,b,c you have to ask yourself if you are willing to be subjected to a,b, and c again, and if the answer is no, then don't get pregnant again. I want to have something similar to remind myself about house buying.

So, Thursday morning a new listing came up. I told our realtor we were interested in it, and he set up an appointment for us to go see it Thursday afternoon. We liked it, and knew that a lot of other people would too, so we decided to put in an offer right away. This one is also a short sale, so just like the other one we have an offer in on, we won't hear back from the bank for awhile, maybe months. But here's the house.

It's in Springville, in my dream neighborhood.
2000 sqft...so a little smaller than we'd like, but the space is arranged nicely, so we could make it work.
.18 acre lot
4 beds (3 up, 1 down)
3 full baths (2 up, 1 down)

So, compare and contrast with the other house we have an offer in on: House #1 is bigger by about 300 sqft, and since it needs new carpet and paint we'd get to decorate exactly how we want, which I am kind of looking forward to. House #2 is smaller, but needs zero repairs, and is already decorated cute, even though it's not exactly my style. House #2 is in a neighborhood I like a lot better, and the yard is layed out better. Conclusion: I'll be happier with either, and will probably take the first one that becomes available, provided that it passes inspection. :)

We were right about a lot of other people liking the house. Friday, our realtor called to tell us that 3 more offers had come in. Ours was the first offer in and highest by about $3,000.00 but the second highest offer was a cash offer. Saturday our realtor called again to tell us that the sellers had decided to accept the cash offer first, but that ours is the official back-up offer. So we'll see. Again it's just a waiting game. I guess lots of times people who offer cash won't wait around forever, so it's possible they'll find something else and move on. But for right now, we're just waiting out these two short sales to see what happens. And we're still watching to see what else pops up on the listings.

But please, I have to ask, please stop sending us listings. I know you are all doing it because you want to be helpful, and we appreciate that, but I have about 15 people, both family and friends, who are sending me listings on a regular basis. Aaron and I already follow the MLS, so we already see every listing that hits the MLS, and we look at the pictures and we drive by the houses we like and talk to our realtor about them. We've already seen the ones you are sending us, all of them. Please stop. We know what we're looking for, and we'll figure this out on our own. Besides it's always really awkward when someone sends us a listing and then asks, "So what did you think of that house?" "Oh, uh....we hated it actually, it doesn't meet our needs at all. But thanks anyway?" Let's just avoid that moment all together, shall we?

Ok, I just reread that last paragraph, and it sounds a little harsh. It's not meant to be. And we don't hate all the listings that people send us, I was just choosing the most awkward example. But a lot of them we've already seen, or we've already tried to go see but they have multiple offers in on them, or they just aren't our style, or don't meet one or more of our requirements. But the biggest thing is just that we already see them all on the MLS.  Our realtor's website is a good one, toptenutahhomes.com, and it has every house listed with an MLS number listed on it, so you can go to one place and see all the houses. Not to mention that our realtor emails us every day with updates on the market and so on. The reason we can't find a house isn't because we haven't seen everything on the market, it's because we're not willing to settle, and we're just waiting for what we want to come on the market. Okay, enough of this, right? I hope I haven't offended anyone.