Once again we are going house hunting this weekend.  You probably know that a couple of weeks ago we spent about a week going house hunting.  We found a house that we really liked but could not get the sellers to come down in their price.  So we decided to walk away and keep looking.  I really wanted the house and it was hard to walk away from it, but the price the sellers wanted was not a fair price when considering recent sales in the same neighborhood.  And the fact that the house is still for sale and is holding an open house again this weekend (it’s been for sale since December) confirms to me that the price is too high.  I do have to mention that the area we are looking in is not like much of the country- it is not a buyers market where we are looking.  Houses tend to come up for sale- and if the price is good it sells very quickly because there isn’t a whole lot of choice.

So, we have been watching for houses the last couple of weeks and have a big list of houses we want to see this weekend.  Our real estate agent has appointments set up for us for most of the weekend and we are really praying that we are going to find the right house this weekend.  Our home we are living in now will be closing on May 6th.  Since that is only a  little over a month away I am getting really nervous that we might not find a house in time.  I know the right house is out there for us and we just have to be patient until we find it.

Pray that we can find the perfect house for us this weekend.

This house hunting thing is frustrating! 

We spent about a little over a week at my parents house looking for a new house.  It seems like there are a lot of crazy people who have priced their homes really high.  I thought this was supposed to be a buyers market- but in the area we are looking- there are plenty of buyers and not a whole lot of sellers.

So we looked and looked.  And every day we ended up disappointed.  And then the next day I would start out hopeful again about the houses we were going to see- and end up disappointed again.  Finally we decided we would just head back home and come back in a couple of weeks to look again. 

Then our agent called to say that there were a couple of houses she found and thought we would like.  So, we decided to stay one more day and we ended up finding a great house.  The house is actually in the same neighborhood we lived in before we moved away 6 years ago.  The house we liked had been for sale since December and we couldn’t figure out why it had been for sale for so long.  Everything was absolutely perfect. 

Our agent checked out some comparable homes in the same neighborhood to see what they had sold for and we decided on the price we wanted to pay.  Then we made an offer that was lower, hoping we’d be able to get the sellers to meet us in the middle.  They came back with a counter offer, not much lower than their asking price.  There have been other houses in the neighborhood that have sold for the price they want- but those houses had updated kitchens, new appliances, and many other updates that this house does not have.  We raised our offer a bit but not to the level they wanted.  So they decided they weren’t coming down anymore and we decided we weren’t going up anymore.  Now we know why the house has been for sale for so long- they refuse to come down in their price.

Anyways- we are back to square one.  It’s definitely frustrating.  Right now we are at home packing up our house since we have our closing date here in a little over a month.  We’ll be heading back down to my parents house again (thank you sooooo much Mom and Dad for everything you have done for us!!) so we can do some more house hunting.  I am praying that the perfect house for us will be going up for sale in the next week or so.

We have been pretty busy lately and I haven’t had much time for blogging at all.  So- what have we been up to for the last week?

One day last week we went to one of our favorite local restaurants.  Once a week they have family night with games, face painting and balloons for the kids.  We love the food and Hailey loves the fun.  Since we won’t be able to go anymore after we move we have to get our fill now.  When we went last week Hailey decided she wanted one of these huge balloons:

Hailey loves this balloon!

We’ve been very busy packing up our house to get ready to move.  And we have been very busy trying to find a new house.  We’ve been staying with my parents while going house hunting.  They have been sooooo great- watching Hailey for us so we can look without dragging a 2 year old around with us.  So far we haven’t found anything we like at all.  It’s been a bit discouraging.

The weather has been great so the other day we enjoyed a fun afternoon at the park.

Hailey loves the swings.

She enjoyed digging the sand box.

But the slides are her favorite!

We have one more day of doing some house hunting and then we have to head back home.  So we are really hoping and praying to find something.

And that’s my summary of the last week.

Since I am sure you are all on the edge of your seats waiting to hear what is going on with the sale of our house I figured I’d give you an update.  As you know we had an offer last weekend that we accepted.  On Friday evening the buyers had the inspector come to inspect our house.  Our real estate agent (I’ll call him “R” for the rest of the story) told us that the buyers were first time buyers and were feeling a little nervous about the whole process.  So, R recommended that we not be at home during the inspection so that they would feel more comfortable to talk to each other about whatever they were thinking.  R would be at our house and report to us as soon as the inspection was over.  I really wanted to meet the buyers so I was a bit disappointed, but we wanted them to feel comfortable- so we spent the evening at the mall.

We had a nice time at the mall- Hailey rode the carousel, we had dinner and then ice cream at Friendly’s.  It was lots of fun and nice to get out of the house.  As we were finishing up our ice cream R called to tell us they were done.  He said there was a lot going on and he wasn’t sure of everything the inspector was telling the buyers.  R said that he thought the inspector overdid the inspection and found a lot of little and normal things.  R reminded the buyers that they were buying a used house and that these were normal things.  He said the buyers seemed a little scared by the things the inspector was saying.  R also told us that the buyers had decided not to do the radon test (which they had originally planned to do).  So I started thinking that meant they were going to back out of the deal over something the inspector said.  Our contract gave the buyers 3 days to decide what they wanted to do.

I spent the weekend wondering what was going on.  If they were going to back out- why couldn’t they just tell us?  If they still wanted the house- why couldn’t they just tell us?  If they wanted stuff fixed- why couldn’t they just tell us?  Finally we heard back from R tonight.  The buyers signed off on the inspection and didn’t even ask us to fix anything.  Why they made us wait 2 days before making their decision I have no idea.  I’m just glad that step is taken care of.  So now the only thing they have to do is get their mortgage approved- they were already pre-approved for it so it shouldn’t be a problem.

Our closing will be in the beginning of May- so we need to get started looking for somewhere to live.  Fun, fun, fun!