Putting our house up for sale [Archive]

firespirit

03-04-2009, 05:44 PM

Ack! What a horrible time to do this. But the advantage is, we don't need to sell it, it would just make things easier on us. Aiden is starting high school in the fall and the high school is about 30 minutes away from our house right now, so we are looking to move closer to the school. So if we don't sell it, we don't sell it.

This month we have the joy of giving it a fresh paint job and cleaning off all the clutter! The plan is to have it on the market the beginning of next month.

The one we have going is the fact that the floating home market is different than the regular house market and hopefully those people that want a floating home will be taking advantage of the lower interest rates...

For those that haven't seen a pic, here's a pic of it covered in snow this past winter (it's the gray house with the boat tied to it).

http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/1002/housefromboatstreet1.jpg

WebLady

03-04-2009, 05:59 PM

Good luck; hope it sales quickly!

SerendipityCrafts

03-04-2009, 07:04 PM

Good luck.

Seems to me that your location is good. I know that I would kill for a place on the water. BTW - is the boat included? <<< it looks like a beaut!

firespirit

03-04-2009, 07:13 PM

Good luck.

Seems to me that your location is good. I know that I would kill for a place on the water. BTW - is the boat included? <<< it looks like a beaut!

You know you want to move here :). Hehehehe!

We would have no need for the boat, so yeah, however, it does have one small problem, we can't get the darn thing to start, not even a tiny turnover of the engine, it's been that way for over a year.

NOTKT

03-05-2009, 12:12 AM

Good luck with the sale! We want to sell our house too, but we think we will have to move first, ugh! And no, we can't move to WA, husband is in the military, hehe. :)

MrsDM

03-05-2009, 09:14 PM

I know we are in different areas, but the housing market isn't horrible here in Wisconsin. We put our condo up for sale in mid-October and it sold mid-January. So 4 months. You never know, all it takes is the right person to walk through it.

Good luck!!

Danielle9608

03-06-2009, 09:25 AM

Good luck. There are still some parts of the country that have strong markets. Sadly for me, MA is not one of them. BTW your house is so cool!

firespirit

03-06-2009, 01:56 PM

Good luck. There are still some parts of the country that have strong markets. Sadly for me, MA is not one of them. BTW your house is so cool!

I think WA is falling into that slump now too, however, floating homes are a different market... I don't think there are any in forclosure and they do not tend to change hands very often, and with less than 500 in the area we might have a good chance, however, none that were on the market sold last year... so it's really hard to say.

Thanks! I'm really going to miss it, especially not having to do yard work!

SerendipityCrafts

03-06-2009, 06:43 PM

firespirit

03-06-2009, 06:57 PM

It never hurts to go to a few open houses in your area, just to see what others have for sale at the same asking price.

If you can afford to do so, do some little things to make it stand out from the rest. Give it a coat of paint, change out dated fixtures and make sure that you have good curb (or in your case dock :)) appeal.

If you are unsure about what might need "sprucing", ask your real estate agent. He/she should know the area and what is currently being offered.

p.s. our ultimate retirement dream is to have a house on the water but I also want some woods behind me (I'm picky, I know :)). If you want to fix up the boat though, I'll take that LOL

Yuppers we are working hard on that. Getting all that painting done and such, packing up all of the junk on the house, etc. I swear everytime I turn around i find another thing that just amazes me and I wonder "Where does he get all this stuff?!?" and then i ask him and he says "I found it near the trash." Hahahahaha, I love DH, but OMG!

In fact I found one oth these behind the desk a few days ago: http://www.ricesigns.com/real_pictures/school_crossing_signs.jpg

Our realtor found some floating homes for sale. There is one that is listed at the price she wants to start at, but looking at the pics they have online ours looks way better on the outside and it's about twice the size for living space, so I think we need to go physically see it and determine if they are about equivalent, since the other one has a brand new kitchen and bathroom, so you know, it's a give and take. Though, new owners could always update our kitchen and bathroom, but the other house cant get any bigger....

Hahahaha, I almost want to say that if you come get that boat, in the condition it's in, you can have it! (I'm not sure DH would agree to that one, but I think he's so tired of it, he doesn't care anymore...)

There's a wooded park about a mile away... does that count? :)

SerendipityCrafts

03-06-2009, 07:19 PM

Hmmmm as much as I would love to have a free boat, I would have to have a trailer hitch installed on the car, drive 2,289 miles crossing an international border and then turn around and return. :rofl: Even if your DH might agree, I think my DH might have something to say about it. Nah, it's better to keep it in Seattle :)

It's amazing what we will collect isn't it? I know all about that .... I haven't even unpacked all of our stuff yet but I had to move with it *argh*.

Re: the other houses .... a brand new kitchen and bathroom would get me. I am no source of comfort for you.

If the size of the house met my needs, I'd go for the new kitchen & bathroom. I have lived in two many places where my guy said, "not a problem, we will renovate" and yet, it never got done :( I won't fall for it again LOL

firespirit

03-29-2009, 11:58 PM

The house is almost ready to go on the market. We took pictures this weekend and our agent is working on the flyer. It will probably go in the system Tuesday or Wednesday.

I don't have copies of the pics that she took, but I took some too that she might use some of and put them online.

http://picasaweb.google.com/cyanrule/HousePhotos#5318754950914449650

I guess maybe I'd like some opinons (from people other than family). If you were looking for a house is there anything you see that would make you not want to come in and see this one?

Nekochanpurr

03-30-2009, 12:20 AM

firespirit

03-30-2009, 12:26 AM

May i just say.. Your house is BEAUTIFUL!!!!! And to be completely honest.. I wish more people would put more pics up like this!!!!! When we actually thought we'd be able to afford a house (joke was on us...) i would look online all the time to get an idea.. Omg, people taking pictures of walls and cr@p to get out of showing the bad stuff. I think your good to go!

Thanks!

And I totally know what you mean! I wanted to get descriptive pics up, because we've been looking for our next place and when I see a whole bunch of pics where I have no idea what I'm looking at I'm not compelled to go see it in person. Haha, I've seen one house with pics of what I think was the bathroom floor, just the floor, not one pic of the rest of the bathroom, so we could see the fixtures and the size, just the floor.

Nekochanpurr

03-30-2009, 12:47 AM

LOL!! Nice. I like the ones where they JUST show the outside. It makes you think 'what kind of dangers will i find in THERE?' haha.

Danielle9608

03-30-2009, 07:50 AM

Wow, your house is seriously awesome!!

MrsDM

03-30-2009, 10:39 AM

Coming from a person who just bought a house, I think your pics look great! The lighting in them, make it look bright and cheery and clean. I would seriousy have your realtor use your pics!

firespirit

03-31-2009, 05:34 PM

Holy Cow! Vultures!

So our listing went up today and about an hour after it went online I got a call saying they noticed our house was up for sale and they wanted to know if we want a quote on moving!

Like really, that's the last thing i'm thinking about. We need to get soem people in to see our house first for pete's sake!

SerendipityCrafts

03-31-2009, 06:19 PM

http://picasaweb.google.com/cyanrule/HousePhotos#5318754950914449650

I guess maybe I'd like some opinons (from people other than family). If you were looking for a house is there anything you see that would make you not want to come in and see this one?

Aside from it's location (ie too far away for us :)), I don't see a thing that would turn me off. It's lovely - all of it!

firespirit

04-03-2009, 06:42 PM

So I figured I'd just use this thread for the sale status ups and downs.

The house went on the market officially on Tuesday. The realtor had an open house on Wed. during the day. This was really an open house where she invited other realtors in the floating home market to come see the house.

So on Wed. 11 realtors showed up, and 3 of them have clients that might be interested in the house. Also one of our neighbors decided to come look at our house... And we got one potential buyer coming in to take a look.

Today I got a call from a realtor asking if it was okay to go take a look (I'm not sure if she had a client with her or not), but I'm sure my agent will follow up with her.

Then on Sunday she will have an open house with buyers as the intended visitors, one of the agents from Wednesday's visit said the client he has in mind for the house is available on Sunday. Our agent said she has gotten one email from a potential buyer saying they will be there on Sunday, but I don't know if this is the same buyer from before or if it's someone different.

Either way I'm not getting my hopes up at all but I am keeping my fingers and toes ang legs and everythign crossed.

MrsDM

04-03-2009, 06:57 PM

firespirit

04-03-2009, 07:06 PM

I give you props for not getting your hopes up. I wish I would have told myself that from the beginning, but everytime somebody wanted to go through, I would get all excited and thought, what is this is the one?!

I hope you get some interest this week! It sounds like your realtor is doing a good job getting people through it and marketing your house!

Hahaha, thanks! I think our realtor is great at crushing our hopes too! She keeps reminding us about the market and every conversation we have ends up involving our lease on the dock. (Most floating homes are moored at condo/co-op docks now there are very few on leased space, but ours is one of them.)

firespirit

04-06-2009, 12:41 PM

So we had the open house yesterday. 13 groups of people went through. She said there was one that was really interested but wasn't sure about financing, so she will follow up with him, but other than that, she did say most seemed like looky-loos.

Now one thing we thought was odd was that our agent brought her mother to the house with her and apparently her mother was there last week too. Not because she is another agent, but to keep her company. Does anyone else think this is odd? I can't imagine that would stop me from buying a house if I were interested in it, I would probably just think it's a little weird.

I think when we sell the house and are really ready to buy we may have to get a different agent. First, we want one that knows the area we want to move to and I don't want to go looking at houses with the agent's mom either...

Danielle9608

04-06-2009, 12:44 PM

That is strange and a little unprofessional I think ...

firespirit

04-06-2009, 01:01 PM

That is strange and a little unprofessional I think ...

Good to know i'm not the only one that thinks that!

And I agree I think it's a bit unprofessional, but I think I saw worse when I went to go look at open houses. One agent was stringing his guitar and hardly looked up and didn't know much about the house. Another had her nephew with her (which is probably equivatlent to our agent's mother being there). And the best one was sitting on the front porch, with her shoes off, gabbing on the phone, and smoking a cigarette when we pulled up. As we were looking at the house she mentioned she had left for an hour to show other clients of hers some other house and hoped she hadn't missed anyone. Hahahaha.

So yeah, at least our agent isn't like any of those!

MrsDM

04-06-2009, 01:12 PM

Definitely unprofessional and weird! I certainly hope that if she brings her mom with, she looks as if she were a realtor representing the company.

Danielle9608

04-06-2009, 01:18 PM

Good to know i'm not the only one that thinks that!

And I agree I think it's a bit unprofessional, but I think I saw worse when I went to go look at open houses. One agent was stringing his guitar and hardly looked up and didn't know much about the house. Another had her nephew with her (which is probably equivatlent to our agent's mother being there). And the best one was sitting on the front porch, with her shoes off, gabbing on the phone, and smoking a cigarette when we pulled up. As we were looking at the house she mentioned she had left for an hour to show other clients of hers some other house and hoped she hadn't missed anyone. Hahahaha.

So yeah, at least our agent isn't like any of those!

WOW!! I'm speechless. I guess the MA market is very cut throat right now cause you were never seen that here!

firespirit

04-06-2009, 01:23 PM

Definitely unprofessional and weird! I certainly hope that if she brings her mom with, she looks as if she were a realtor representing the company.

I was thinking that would have been okay if her mom looked like another agent or something, but our agent is like in her 50's or 60's and her mom is ancient, she definitely does not look like an agent.

firespirit

04-07-2009, 04:19 PM

So I've gotten two calls today from agents asking if they can show the house. One showing was today, and the next will be tomorrow. So we are at least getting a lot of looks for only being on the market a week. The showing today was with an agent that really knows floating homes and he said he feels good about the house, so hopefully that is something worthwhile.

Danielle9608

04-07-2009, 05:52 PM

I hope something comes of it! I know if I lived near you I would totally be interested :)

SerendipityCrafts

04-07-2009, 06:59 PM

Most floating homes are moored at condo/co-op docks now there are very few on leased space, but ours is one of them.)

Is that a help or a hindrance? Could someone move it to a condo/co-op dock when the lease was up & if they wanted to?

and just because I am curious - Where does your drinking water come from & your waste water go? Do you have a cistern for the water & a septic tank for waste?

That is pretty odd about the agent's Mom tagging along!

firespirit

04-07-2009, 07:33 PM

Is that a help or a hindrance? Could someone move it to a condo/co-op dock when the lease was up & if they wanted to?

and just because I am curious - Where does your drinking water come from & your waste water go? Do you have a cistern for the water & a septic tank for waste?

That is pretty odd about the agent's Mom tagging along!

Well it's kind of a hinderance because the lease expires in 15 years and the choices are to move it or the University will take it. However, that is what the last lease said and when the time came we got a 20 year lease instead of the standard 5 years. So there is no way to tell what will really happen.

Yes, we can move it at any time, in fact we can break the lease and move it at any time with 90 days notice. Right now I'm looking to see if any of those other docks have room and then if they do, how much the land under the water would cost.

The water comes in like normal and then for the sewer we have a small pump that fills up and every so often pumps the waste into a city sewer connection. This is what makes things more complicated about just up and moving. The place we move to would either have to have those connections or have to create them. It would also need power connections too.

NOTKT

04-07-2009, 08:16 PM

Good luck, I really like the concept of your house!

MrsDM

04-16-2009, 05:23 PM

Haven't heard from you at all! I was just checking in to see how things were going and if you had any more traffic/interest?!

firespirit

04-17-2009, 03:13 PM

Nothing really new to report. We keep running out of flyers because there is a lot of foot traffic and I wish people wouldn't take the one in between the plastic, since with that one gone, other people don't even have an idea of what is for sale...

firespirit

04-29-2009, 06:32 PM

ARGH!!!!

So we have an offer on the house (of course contingent upon inspection) and the inspection is tomorrow, so we will know more then, woo hoo! Buuuuuut the agent is driving me nuts! I understand that selling and buying is stressful, but she has already made some mistakes that could have gotten us in a lot of trouble! It's crazy!

So here are just some examples of the extra stress she has caused:

Because of the lease, the University has right of first refusal, and we let them know about the first offer and they did not want to buy the house at that price, well our agent said that was their shot, and we were free to continue negotiating after inspection. Well that's not true, the ROFR does not allow for slight variations, which means even after inspection, if we were to change the price, we would have to take it back to them. However, I was very diligent about this and the University granted for slight variations for this particular offer, so we are okay there, now.

There is also a new item on the offer paperwork in the state of Washington and she almost gave the buyers right to sue us in the case of negligence on the Seller Discloure form. ARGH!!!!!! Which I realize isn't technically a big deal, but we could have gotten nailed for something that "we should have known about" if they have a really good lawyer. She is not the one responsible in the case of a lawsuit, so she needs to not gloss over things like they aren't a big deal, because they potentially are.

I'm just so frustrated because she is causing way more stress than this needs to be by saying things that are just wrong. Ugh! I feel like because of her mistakes we could potentially lose some barganing power, since it forces us to call attention to some items. It's driving me nuts.

SerendipityCrafts

04-29-2009, 08:23 PM

I feel like because of her mistakes we could potentially lose some barganing power, since it forces us to call attention to some items. It's driving me nuts.

You have a point .... the reason people pay the commission is for the real estate agent's expertise. If you are finding potential issues on your own, you could have sold it on your own too. I'll cross my fingers for you!

I wish you luck on the inspection tomorrow too! I hope they don't find anything worth negotiating further.

Danielle9608

04-30-2009, 08:00 AM

Good luck today! I am sorry to hear about all the trouble you are having with your Realtor!

firespirit

04-30-2009, 03:25 PM

Ack!!!!! I'm going nuts here!!!! Just 4 more hours until the inspection is complete!!!!

I know it's really no big deal, because there is nothing wrong with our house (well of course as far as we know), but they are doing an underwater inspection so they might actually find something there that we are unaware of because the last time one was done was when Ryan bought the house.

So I'm totally going nuts here. Ugh!!!!!

Danielle9608

04-30-2009, 07:38 PM

Good luck! Let us know how it went. :)

firespirit

04-30-2009, 07:51 PM

Yay! It's over I can breathe again. There is nothing major wrong with the house. There were some minor things we were not aware of. So they have requested a slightly reduced price, which is fine with us.

Now the only real major thing left is the appraisal and financing.

We found our next house (of course it is contingent on this sale) and we are doing that inspection on Monday.

Danielle9608

04-30-2009, 07:57 PM

Well that is good the nothing major was wrong. Hopefully the process from here on is smoothing sailing. Your not using the same Realtor for the purchase of your new home are you?

firespirit

04-30-2009, 08:04 PM

Well actually we are. But that is more motivation for her to make sure everything goes smoothly. Plus honestly, at least we know her quirks.

firespirit

05-01-2009, 05:28 PM

Okay so all the paperwork was officially signed (Ryan had to accept their counter based on the inspection).

We also started our paperwork for a loan on the house we are purchasing, which is one of the things we have to do within 5 business days anyway.

Oh and I lost 3 pounds this week from all the stress. Ugh. Not that that's an entirely bad thing, it's just not really the way to lose weight.

SerendipityCrafts

05-01-2009, 05:38 PM

Yeah!!!!!!!

http://www.msn-emotions.org/emotions/animated_emoticons/stickman/flip_emoticon_jfo.gifhttp://www.msn-emotions.org/emotions/animated_emoticons/stickman/flip_emoticon_jfo.gifhttp://www.msn-emotions.org/emotions/animated_emoticons/stickman/flip_emoticon_jfo.gifhttp://www.msn-emotions.org/emotions/animated_emoticons/stickman/flip_emoticon_jfo.gifhttp://www.msn-emotions.org/emotions/animated_emoticons/stickman/flip_emoticon_jfo.gif

bichonlvr

05-01-2009, 11:18 PM

YAHOO!!!!!!!! Where is the new house? Send me pics :)

firespirit

05-02-2009, 01:23 AM

YAHOO!!!!!!!! Where is the new house? Send me pics :)

The new place is 2 miles away from Aiden's new school. I'll post some pics when we take them at the inspection.

firespirit

05-19-2009, 05:36 PM

Son of a #@$%@#@#$@#%%^@#$!!!!!!!!!!!

Any explicative I can think of.

The buyer's loan bank has been sitting and not getting an appraisal done. Last night the buyer's got an email from the bank denying the loan unless the buyers would keep guaranteed assets in their bank.

The buyer's still want the house and our agent is working the loan through two different banks as I type this, so at least they didn't just give up. But that is the most underhanded, ridiculous, proposterous, .... thing to pull.

I'm working with the Floating Home Association to get them to pull Viking Bank off their preferred list of lenders, because this is just a slimey business practice as far as I'm concerned.

firespirit

05-21-2009, 05:32 PM

Ok. So things are back on track with the buyers going to a different bank.

The new bank has approved the buyers contingent upon a new underwater inspection, by their preferred diver and the appraisal.

The only new snag is the buyer's sent payment via courier to the bank for both of those things to be done and the courier didn't get there yesterday, so that's in the process of being tracked....

But once both of those are done, we should be good. The new underwater inspection is being done by the company that is the only company that has done work under our house since Ryan has owned it, so if they find something wrong with the work they did, I'd certainly be taking it up with them.... hahahaha. The appraisal of course depends on the appraiser, so that's yet another variable out of our control but we have to hope our agent wasn't too far off.

We submitted the paperwork to move the date of our closing (for purchase) to June 11th.

NOTKT

05-21-2009, 09:58 PM

Good Luck! It's not everyday you hear (read) that a diver does an appraisal for a home! :)

firespirit

05-21-2009, 10:15 PM

Oops, my post wasn't very clear.

The diver does the underwater inspection. A regular appraiser does the floating homes, he's just one that specializes in floating homes. Our house is immune to the new appraisal law because it's a non-conventional loan.

firespirit

05-27-2009, 06:33 PM

Ok so I have an update.

I still know nothing. ARGH!

It's really frustrating. I'd just like a quick check in email or call from my agent every so often.

Like for example, I know the underwater inspection was supposed to be either last night or this morning and I'd just like to know if it happened or not, ya know?

We are still also waiting for paperwork to be signed by our sellers to change the closing date and I'm wondering where that is.

Danielle9608

05-28-2009, 08:14 AM

That stinks! I hope you get an update soon! I hope it a good one too.

firespirit

05-28-2009, 12:23 PM

Okay so I missed my agent's call last night and she left a voicemail.

She has not been able to get a hold of the diver, so she doesn't know if the inspection has been done. If she doesn't hear something by this afternoonn I'll try calling him since I've talked to him on plenty of occasions.

The appraisal should be happening as I type this (she was supposed to meet the appraiser at the house to let him in at 9).

The bank agreed to use the lawyer that we were going to use for closing. He has already done a lot of work in getting the closing paperwork together. (There is no title company for floating homes, a laywer basically does this.)

The seller's agent of the house we are buying couldn't find the addendum we signed last week to change the closing date, but our agent re-faxed that last night, so that should get back to us today.

FFC

05-28-2009, 12:32 PM

Good lord.... I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you!

MrsDM

05-28-2009, 12:39 PM

I really hope that everything works out!! Have you had the inspection on your new house yet?

firespirit

05-29-2009, 12:45 AM

I really hope that everything works out!! Have you had the inspection on your new house yet?

Yup. That's actually been done for a while now. Other than the closing date extension, the purchase is going pretty smoothly. If I don't hear anything about this then I might call the seller's agent myself only because I'm trusting my own a little less each day.

So the underwater inspection went fine, there was nothing that needed to be done that would cause any financing issues.

The appraisal report should be to the bank tomorrow morning.

I think worst case we are homeless for a few days and have to live out of a moving truck and hotel while we get an apartment, but we are okay with that.

Probably the most frustrating thing going on is that we locked in a great rate and that expires next Wednesday. Ugh.

MrsDM

05-29-2009, 09:46 AM

Probably the most frustrating thing going on is that we locked in a great rate and that expires next Wednesday. Ugh.

Wow, so are you going to have to pay a penalty for not closing before your rate expires??

I'm confused on one thing..you mentioned getting an apartment, can you not get into your house yet??

firespirit

05-29-2009, 01:01 PM

Wow, so are you going to have to pay a penalty for not closing before your rate expires??

I'm confused on one thing..you mentioned getting an apartment, can you not get into your house yet??

Well I think the penalty is basically a worse interest rate. We locked in at 4.625 and the current interest rates are 5.25.

It's a contingent purchase. If we don't sell our current house, we don't/can't buy the new one. Also, considering the closing date has moved, but we don't know what it is there are now potentially some timing issues. Also, technically I think the purchase contract has terminated, and we should get our earnest money back, however, if they agree to move back the closing date, then we are still under contract.

firespirit

05-29-2009, 09:00 PM

Ok so EVERYBODY is working hard to make this happen.

These people are amazing.

The appraisal came back and all is good. The buyer's bank is drawing up the paperwork and trying as hard as they can to have it done by tomorrow.

One of the buyer's is out of town he will be back on Sunday for a few hours and then gone again until the end of next week. This is a potential wrench in the gears now.

The lawyer handling escrow has his side of the papers ready to go and is available for the buyer to come in and sign papers on Sunday. He's just waiting on the Buyer and the bank papers.

If all the papers get signed, the buyer's bank should be able to fund by Tuesday, and that house should close, then we can fund our new house and close by Wednesday, keeping our locked in rate.

We've signed our buying papers, If all goes well we will sign our selling papers on Monday. If all doesn't go well, we go in and get a new lock on Monday to carry us in to the following week.

MrsDM

05-30-2009, 11:01 AM

Sounds like things are slowly falling into place! I hope everything goes smoothly from here on out!! Good luck!

firespirit

06-01-2009, 04:37 PM

ARGH!!! I do not understand what is going on!

This morning I thought we were ready to go and now I'm hearing the buyer's bank is waiting on the work of one guy who has been out of the office all day to determine if they are going to accept a Power Of Attorney?!?! (The husband is out of town and he gave the wife POA).

I really don't understand why they wouldn't accept it or what is going on. I mean the whole thing is just getting ridiculous!