house-hunting. part four.

read parts 1-3 here, here and here.

i couldn't believe it. tears welled up in my eyes and it felt like i had been punched in the stomach. perry explained that the sellers had been alerted to the fact that at least one if not two other offers were coming in and that they would be accepting offers until noon. despite the fact that our 9pm response deadline had long since expired, we really couldn't do anything besides withdrawing our offer, waiting, or offering more. honestly we didn't want to do any of those, but waiting seemed like the lesser of three evils at that point.

i cried for a bit, then decided that i needed to distract myself. i poured myself into playing with my precious babe and soaking in his big smile and the sound of his laugh. the verse we chose for bennett when he was dedicated was psalm 25:5. while i will admit this verse didn't come to my mind in the midst of the stress, i think spending quality time with him this morning helped remind me of its truth.

"guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." -psalm 25:5

later that morning, perry called me and told me that the sellers had received a second offer that was "ridiculously high." the listing agent and sellers were concerned that the house wouldn't appraise at that offer price. the listing agent also mentioned a number of times that the sellers, who have owned the home since 1986, really liked meeting us and liked the idea of having a nice, young family move into their house. so, the listing agent said that he and the sellers were working on a counteroffer asking just above list price. the sellers were signing it and if we signed it would be a done deal.

i prayed. i asked God to make it clear if this was the house for us. i asked Him that, if it was right, joe and i would agree about accepting the counteroffer and that He would help the pieces fall into place.

after finally having a chance to discuss everything (joe had been in a case all morning so we had only been communicating via text), we knew we wanted this house. after crunching the numbers, we saw that the price they were asking would have very little impact on our closing costs, down payment, or monthly payment. because it worked financially, we decided to move forward and sign the counteroffer. i spent about 6 hours at edina realty waiting, signing, waiting, signing, waiting, signing. finally, at about 3:30 on friday, we had a contract signed and delivered. 

celebrating at green mill with pizza and diet cokes :) we keep it classy

our inspection was today and it went really well. i was anxious something was going to pop up that would jeopardize us being able to get the house. but the inspector only pointed out some minor things that we can fix relatively easily. we get the results of the radon test (recommended for older homes) on wednesday and that'll do it for the inspection. next is the appraisal. perry said he doesn't think there will be any problem with the appraisal. after the situation with the other house, i guess i'm having a hard time letting myself fully trust that this is happening. assuming there are no issues with the appraisal, we'll close on july 15th. our renters move in august 10th, so we'll have nearly a month to paint, move, and get our townhouse move-in ready for the renters.

this process, while relatively short time-wise, has been emotionally draining. the highs and lows of the roller coaster have been a challenge to ride out while still keeping the faith that everything would work out as it should intact. real estate can be a nasty game. and with it being a seller's market and an area where properties are being sold within hours of being listed, that's even more so the case.

but here's what i know to be true, and what we have been shown through this process: God provides. God answers prayer. God has a plan and his timing is better than ours.

"'for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'" -isaiah 55:8-9