Madcap Adventures in Real Estate

It's been an exciting 48 hours in the This Sorta Fairytale household.

First off, my going away party at work was yesterday. It was actually a lot of fun, even though most of my favorite people couldn't make it because they were at an out of town conference. Still, we had a blast (i.e. we got a little tipsy) and I got a pretty cake (decorated with candy rocks and cowboy boots) and some gorgeous crystal champagne flutes from Waterford. Why champagne flutes I have no idea, but they're very pretty and will collect dust very nicely in our new house.

Wait, did I say new house? Because if I said NEW house, that must mean something has happened with the old house, right?

Why yes, yes it has.

We got an offer this morning. We knew it was coming, but I didn't want to say anything before we were really and truly sure about it. Ironically, if I hadn't been running late coming home from work on Monday, we wouldn't have it at all.

Monday night was hellish. My boss called me in for a meeting right at 5:00 that lasted awhile, then I missed my train, then I hit every red light. I just wanted to get home already! When I pulled into the parking lot, though, I saw three people standing outside our building with papers in their hands. They were looking up at the "For Sale" sign on our building, and I figured that they were probably going around to all the units for sale in our neighborhood.

I jumped out of the car and asked if they were in the market for a home. They said yes (probably thinking I was some crazy person) and I asked if they wanted to see the unit in our building since I was the owner. They were pretty enthusiastic about it, so I let them in and J and I waited in the hallway while they looked around.

They looked and they looked and they looked. They probably spend 15 minutes in our teeny tiny condo. Most people go through it in under 5 minutes, so we knew they liked what they saw.

They came out, asked a few questions about the neighborhood, and then asked for the disclosures. We didn't have any, but told them that our agent would fax the forms to them ASAP. Then we ran inside and called our agent who practically had a coronary when we told her that we thought we had a buyer. She faxed the papers and then we waited.

Tuesday we got a call that they wanted to tour the condo again. Both J and I raced home to be there when they arrived, and again they spent a lot of time inside. Over 20 minutes. They came out, and the wife seemed anxious which made US anxious. We didn't hear from them again until Wednesday morning when they asked us to get a letter from the HOA about some repairs that are going to be made. Still no commitment to write a contract, though.

Finally, late last night we got word that the contract had been signed and that our agent had it in her hands. It's not a bad contract--we'll counter it because they want more than we want to give in terms of concessions--but we're pretty certain that these are our buyers. The final decision will be made on Sunday/Monday after our next open house.

Then, as if that wasn't good news enough, Juan got a call from our agent in our new city this afternoon. Remember the house we had a contract on there but lost because we couldn't waive the contingency? Well, it's back on the market! For some unknown reason, the sale fell through, and now they must be absolutely desperate for a buyer. We don't know why the sale didn't happen, and our agent is trying to find it out as I type, but there's a very good chance that we're going to get a second shot at our dream house!

I'm so excited I can barely see straight! Everything seems to be going our way today, and part of me is afraid to think about it because something bad could still happen. Still, it's been so long since I've been happy like this, I think I'm just going to bask in the knowledge that we WILL be okay, and that our luck is finally starting to change. It's a very good feeling.