The Next Phase

What. a. week.

Nine days ago, Craig and I planned to meet after work at a house for sale that we had looked at the weekend prior.  However, when Craig inquired about that house in the sales office, he learned it had been sold.  So instead, he asked about seeing a different property in the same neighborhood.  Shortly after, I met him.  And from the moment I walked in to that other house, something felt different.  It was gorgeous.  What we wanted.  And in our price range.  I was ready to put in an offer the next day.  There was only one problem: our house wasn't even on the market.

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Rewind a few weeks.  Actually, a few years.  We contemplated putting our house on the market in 2012, a few months before Brantley was born.  We decided to wait.

We contemplated again a year later.  And again, we decided to wait.

In fact, over the course of the past three years, we've had realtors come into our home three different times to discuss the potential of moving.  But inevitably, it never felt like the "right time".

Around January 1st of this year, I made mention of the fact that I wish we had the features that a new house has.  And just like that, our search for a new home became serious.  We started cleaning and organizing our current house, in the instance that we put it on the market.  We spent two weekends driving around in the direction we hoped to move.  We stopped by open houses, familiarized ourselves with some subdivisions, got an idea of what was on the market versus what we could afford, and made note of our favorite neighborhoods. 

Meanwhile, we contacted a realtor about listing our current home and reviewed spreadsheets of our average monthly spendings.  I'm not sure one can ever be 100% sure the time is right, but this felt more right than it ever had.

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Which brings me back to that random Thursday afternoon, nine days ago.  We left that house that afternoon, yet we couldn't stop thinking about it.  We had an appointment scheduled with our realtor for the following Sunday (three days later).  He just so happened to be out of town at a real estate conference that entire week, so waiting until Sunday, even before we found that house, was excruciating.  Our plans were to look at a few other houses in our price range and make a decision about what to do with the whole ordeal soon thereafter.

Sunday rolled around, and we looked.  At four to be exact.  (In addition to the multiple open houses we had already walked through.)  Yet nothing compared.  Craig told me not to get attached to our favorite house, but I couldn't help it.  I already was.  And I was in love.

By Sunday night, we had decided definitely to list ours.  We decided that would be our first step, and we would base our next decision on the outcome of listing/selling ours.  Of course, I wanted to get it on the market as quickly as possible to keep the hope of the other house alive, but I also knew there was a slim chance it'd be on the market much longer.

On Monday night, we prepped our house for photos.  Luckily, we had deep cleaned a few things over the weekend, but there was still plenty to do to prepare.

On Tuesday, the photographer came to take photos.  We also filled out the 8-page disclosure and exchanged numerous emails with our realtor in preparation for the MLS listing.

The photos were back from the photographer on Wednesday morning, and by 10:45am on Wednesday, the listing was up and running.  Within ten minutes, we had received three texts about showings for that same day!  To say we were shocked was a huge understatement!  Kinnick wasn't kenneled and we still had a half-garage full of toys that were being moved to storage that afternoon!  Craig rushed home to kennel Kinnick, but the toys--they stayed right where they were because there was no time to do anything else!

Over the course of the next nine hours, we had 17 showings!!  We couldn't return home until 7:45 that night!  As for the number of offers - FIVE!  Three of which were major contenders and offered well-over our asking price!  We were blown away!  (I think, in the back our minds, we both assumed our house would sell quickly, but you never want to tell yourself that.)

Our realtor came over around 9pm that night to review all of the offers.  Because three of them were very similar, we had to choose based on what we knew about the buyers.  In the end, we choose the couple who made the first offer.  The wife apparently grew up in the neighborhood, the guy is a high school teacher, they have a little baby, and get this, they made an offer before actually seeing the house!  To us, that was huge!  We felt horrible for the other two couples with similar offers because, well, when you make an offer for over asking price, you probably assume you're going to get it.

And just like that, our house was sold. 

Because things fell into place so quickly, we were also able to make an offer that night on our favorite house ourselves.  The builders countered {the next day} and we countered again.  By Thursday at 5, one week after first finding it, we were under contract this new house!

 

Of course, there are still a couple of hoops.  The inspection on our current house is scheduled for Tuesday and then there is the appraisal.  We're most worried about the appraisal since we sold our house for over the asking price.  But assuming all goes smoothly, we close {on both houses} in 30 days.  That's right, four weeks from Monday!

Like I said, it was quite the week.  I felt like I never stopped moving.  From cleaning, to tidying, to tying up loose ends, to communicating with our realtor, to approving showings, to worrying about our favorite house, to checking MLS to ensure it was still listed, to excitedly/nervously calling Craig.  And that was all in addition to all things normal.  But it was all so worth it.  And now, we're 30 days out from owning a beautiful new home.

As for where we're headed, it's about 15 minutes northwest of where we are now.  It's on the outskirts of KC in a suburb called Lenexa.  (We actually both moved into our current home in Olathe from apartments in Lenexa six years ago.)  The house is in a large subdivision, broken up into three parts, but is built around a lake.  There is a pool, trails for walking, and plans for a future elementary school within the neighborhood.  Moving will definitely be an adjustment, as we'll be pretty far from any commercial development (...Target), but it's in the direction we've always wanted to go and we decided living in a place like this will make for a really happy childhood for the boys.

Buying and selling a home can be stressful.  The logistics of it all is so tough.  Can't buy until you sell, but what if you sell and can't find a new one you like?  I was so nervous that someone was going to buy our favorite before our current house sold.  So nervous that we'd sell and then be homeless.  So nervous that ours might not sell.

In the end, I decided to tell myself that if it was meant to be, it would all work out.  If our favorite house sold, there was probably a better one out there.  If our current house didn't sell, there was a reason for that and we were meant to stay put (which we had fully accepted).  And you know what, I'm glad we didn't follow through two and three years ago because if we did, we wouldn't have ended up where we're headed now, and where we're headed now beats where we looked two and three years ago by far!!  

It truly takes a leap of faith to make a major like change like this.  It's like jumping off a cliff.  If you're going to do it, you just have to go and trust that everything will work out.  And because it all worked so perfectly, I can't help but think it was truly meant to be.  And I am so excited for this next phase of this amazing and blessed life!