What a Difference a Day Makes
We weren't sure what to expect when we started out yesterday but by the end of the day we had bought a house!
We met up with our agent at his office and set up our plan for the morning. He already had several appointments set up for us and then arranged a couple more while we were there. We really can't believe the speed of this market and how we can have an appointment made only to find out that it has been conditionally sold. There was one house that only started accepting visits yesterday. We were in there just after 9:00 am. We really loved it. It was a great place, an end unit townhouse that had been well maintained. Really the only things we didn't like about it were the carpet and a weird built-in bar they added to the dining room.
We left that house and went to some others. Some we liked and some we didn't. In one house we saw a gold wedding ring that looked like it had been thrown onto the floor of the downstairs family room. It just seemed so odd to have that ring lying there. It made us wonder if there was a relationship break up that was leading to the sale of the house. Bad vibes! There were other things we didn't like about the house too.
The next one we really liked was a vacant townhouse but it wasn't an end unit. We liked everything about this one too. It was big and bright and seemed perfect for us. Our agent noticed some weird spray paint on the basement ceiling and that made him suspicious. Everything had been sprayed. We were really interested in this house but we needed to find out what that was about. We took a bit of a break in the afternoon and our agent was going to set up second appointments at the two places we liked and he was going to try to find out what was up with the spray paint.
It didn't take long for him to find out that the house had previously had what seemed to be a fairly serious mold problem. There was a HUGE window in the back of the house (one of my favourite features of the house) that apparently had a leak of some sort. We don't know how it happened but the mold eventually spread through the whole house. We were provided with a lab report detailing the work that was done and the new clean tests that had been done on the house. There were a few things that still made us uncomfortable though. First of all is the stigma of a house that had previously had mold. When we ever want to sell the house it could prove to be a problem. Secondly, all that work had only been done in February. Could we really be sure the mold was gone permanently? Thirdly, the window that had started the problem was still there. There was still obviously water damage around the framing and that made us really uncomfortable. The window would be really expensive to replace and it was just too much for us to take a risk on. As much as we loved the house itself, we decided to walk away from that one. Too many risks.
So that brought us back to the first house we saw yesterday morning. We did the second look there and still liked what we saw. It has a nice layout, a good yard and good-sized rooms. The master bedroom has a walk-in closet and an ensuite bathroom. That's pretty exciting. It's a beautifully bright room too. One of the bedrooms is already painted purple and we know a little girl who will love to move right in there. We will need to replace all the carpeting before we move in but that shouldn't be too huge a job.
So we made the offer at 9:00 last night, 12 hours after seeing it the first time. We knew we had to act quickly because it wouldn't last long. We spent an hour going back and forth about the price and the closing date. We ended up getting close to the closing date we wanted (May 26th, we wanted May 20th, they wanted June 14th) and we're OK with the price. So now we need to wait for the home inspection which is set for Monday morning. This morning has been spent on the phone with lawyer's offices, mortgage people and all that sort of fun stuff. We're on our way to Darcy's new school shortly to get her registered. It's all going to happen very quickly from here!
We met up with our agent at his office and set up our plan for the morning. He already had several appointments set up for us and then arranged a couple more while we were there. We really can't believe the speed of this market and how we can have an appointment made only to find out that it has been conditionally sold. There was one house that only started accepting visits yesterday. We were in there just after 9:00 am. We really loved it. It was a great place, an end unit townhouse that had been well maintained. Really the only things we didn't like about it were the carpet and a weird built-in bar they added to the dining room.
We left that house and went to some others. Some we liked and some we didn't. In one house we saw a gold wedding ring that looked like it had been thrown onto the floor of the downstairs family room. It just seemed so odd to have that ring lying there. It made us wonder if there was a relationship break up that was leading to the sale of the house. Bad vibes! There were other things we didn't like about the house too.
The next one we really liked was a vacant townhouse but it wasn't an end unit. We liked everything about this one too. It was big and bright and seemed perfect for us. Our agent noticed some weird spray paint on the basement ceiling and that made him suspicious. Everything had been sprayed. We were really interested in this house but we needed to find out what that was about. We took a bit of a break in the afternoon and our agent was going to set up second appointments at the two places we liked and he was going to try to find out what was up with the spray paint.
It didn't take long for him to find out that the house had previously had what seemed to be a fairly serious mold problem. There was a HUGE window in the back of the house (one of my favourite features of the house) that apparently had a leak of some sort. We don't know how it happened but the mold eventually spread through the whole house. We were provided with a lab report detailing the work that was done and the new clean tests that had been done on the house. There were a few things that still made us uncomfortable though. First of all is the stigma of a house that had previously had mold. When we ever want to sell the house it could prove to be a problem. Secondly, all that work had only been done in February. Could we really be sure the mold was gone permanently? Thirdly, the window that had started the problem was still there. There was still obviously water damage around the framing and that made us really uncomfortable. The window would be really expensive to replace and it was just too much for us to take a risk on. As much as we loved the house itself, we decided to walk away from that one. Too many risks.
So that brought us back to the first house we saw yesterday morning. We did the second look there and still liked what we saw. It has a nice layout, a good yard and good-sized rooms. The master bedroom has a walk-in closet and an ensuite bathroom. That's pretty exciting. It's a beautifully bright room too. One of the bedrooms is already painted purple and we know a little girl who will love to move right in there. We will need to replace all the carpeting before we move in but that shouldn't be too huge a job.
So we made the offer at 9:00 last night, 12 hours after seeing it the first time. We knew we had to act quickly because it wouldn't last long. We spent an hour going back and forth about the price and the closing date. We ended up getting close to the closing date we wanted (May 26th, we wanted May 20th, they wanted June 14th) and we're OK with the price. So now we need to wait for the home inspection which is set for Monday morning. This morning has been spent on the phone with lawyer's offices, mortgage people and all that sort of fun stuff. We're on our way to Darcy's new school shortly to get her registered. It's all going to happen very quickly from here!
posted by Sue Matthews at 12:15 PM
2 Comments:
It's enough to make your head spin! Sounds like you've made a good choice.
Just read this post for the first time. Whoa! I forgot that buying a house involved so much and even moreso for you guys living in a different city. Everything needed to be done before your return to Windsor. I thought I was going to read the story behind the wedding ring - or is there one? I will just have to wait until I see you this weekend to find out. All the best!
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