Adventures in Buying and Selling

When we found out back in November that M had a great job opportunity back in Birmingham, we were elated but nervous at the same time about trying to get our house here in Houston sold.  When we originally bought the house 2 years ago, it was under the assumption that we would be staying here at minimum 3 years... Nothing in life is a sure thing :)  Come January, M and I discuss putting the house up for sale, we talk through all our options and decide that once February rolled around we were going to find an agent and get this thing on the market.  We were sure that it would take a few months to get it sold, and even if it did happen to sell quickly, we were very open to the option of having to move into an apartment for a short period of time.  ANYTHING to get it sold.

The beginning of February, I start looking around on-line for great agents in the Pearland, South Houston area.  I came across 2 that I thought were good options.  We met with both, and after a week, decided to go with one.  A week or so after that, our realtor came over to help up "stage".  In my humble opinion, there is nothing wrong with my house.  I doubt anyone in this neighborhood has less clutter than me.  Nonetheless, our realtor wanted me to take all of our pictures down (even of my precious baby!), take things off the counter tops (I hardly had anything on them in the first place), etc...

2 days later, our agent calls me around 6:00 PM.  M was not home yet.  She asks me if it would be ok to have a couple come by the house to look at it, and that they were about 15 minutes away. Our house was not even on the market yet.  I had literally just pulled Avery out of the bathtub and was in the middle of her nightly bedtime routine.  My first thought was to say no, and that they could come back at another time.  Avery's bedtime was approaching, I hadn't cleaned up her dinner yet, etc... But in the back of my head, I had this nagging feeling that I should say yes.  So, I did.  At this point I started running around the house like a mad woman trying to turn every light on, open all the doors and blinds, hide Avery's toys, put away things in the kitchen..... Poor Avery had to be set down in the den and kept watching me run around all the while crying... like I said, it was bedtime.

They showed up and stayed for about 15 minutes or so.  After they left, I went to Ave's room to rock her to sleep and our agent calls.  She said, "Well that went great!"  I said, "oh good, I'm so glad".  She said, "No, I mean that went really great!  They want to put in an offer!"  Long story short, after wheeling and dealing, inspection negotiations, and an appraisal, we officially closed on this house March 22nd.  Praise God!  The best part was that the couple had a lease through the end of May, so we are now currently renting back from them until then.  We will not have to move twice!  M and I say at least 3 times a week that God could not have been more present in the whole situation.  What a blessing it was to be able to sell this home at all, let alone so quickly, and in the perfect time frame.  God is so very good!

Because of the quickness of our home selling here, we were able to go ahead and fly to Birmingham and look for houses to buy there.  About a week before we were supposed to go and look, at least 5 of the homes we had been looking at went under contract.  I was so bummed.  We still had about 6 on our list, but most of my favorites were gone.  We briefly contemplated waiting and going a month later, but it would have put us in a time crunch to close in Birmingham and get out of this house on time.  After looking at all the homes in person on a Friday night and Saturday morning, we were for sure we wanted to put an offer in on one we saw.  We felt like it was absolutely perfect for our family.  It is in the exact (as in within a half mile radius) location of where we wanted to be, in the school district we love, near all of our good friends, 5 minutes from J and K, 10 minutes from church, and 10 minutes from downtown Birmingham.  We have always dreamed of wanting to live in Vestavia Hills, and now we are!  After we moved to Houston we swore up and down we would never live so far away from the city/work/church ever again!  I know you pay a premium to live closer in, but to us it is worth it.

Now that we are done with the inspection and appraisal on the new house, all that is left is a termite inspection, and we will be set to close on May 1!  Barring any huge issues before then of course. While M and I will be sad to leave our first house, and the house we brought Avery home; we cannot wait to be back in Birmingham.  To us it is home, and we can't wait to raise Avery there.

We can't wait to call this house our home!  Already dreaming up things I want to redo, how I want to decorate, etc..  Can't wait!