Risk
Doni, Ava, and I saw a couple of houses on Saturday. The second house we went to is an inventory home that is nearly completed by the builder. We had seen this same house once before several weeks ago. After they finish painting a couple of things and give it a good top-to-bottom cleaning, it'll be finished. Oh yeah, the entire yard also needs to be sodded. Rock-filled dirt might cut it in the winter, but not when it is 70-some degrees out in May. Doni and I REALLY liked this house. This was the first house that we've looked at in 6 months that we both REALLY liked. Ava REALLY liked the "yard". She's been playing in the dirt next to our driveway from when we had our water line repaired. Not exactly good, clean fun, but good fun nonetheless. We went with our realtors (they're a team) to ask the guy in the front office some questions, but he was out momentarily. Ava was getting to be hard to wrangle since we were cutting into her nap time, so it worked out well that he wasn't there.
Our realtors went back over later that afternoon and talked to the builder's representative. Little did we know how crazy of a day this would become. After they finished talking with the representative, they gave me a call to fill me in. It turns out our realtors were able to negotiate several scenarios. In the most attractive scenario they would give us a $20,000 price break on the house, a competitive interest rate locked in for 60 days (they were specific about the exact interest rate, but I'm not going to be here), and they would cover closing costs. Tempting enough for you? The problem: They would not accept an offer that was contingent on us selling our house. Oh yeah, and they required a nearly 2% deposit that was non-refundable if we didn't close within 60 days.
Our house has been on the market for 6 months and we haven't even had an offer yet. In this scenario we would need to receive and accept an offer in 30-40 days so that we could close on our current house in time to close on our future house. If we chose to take up the builder on his offer, our realtors were willing to commit two of the three of them to intensively marketing our home and finding buyers. They were extremely confident that they could get this done. Given the scenario, we would need to consider how low of an offer we would accept. We would need to get back with them by the next day or risk losing the interest rate we were quoted when the markets opened on Monday.
Bring on the headaches. That night I took maximum does of ibuprofen and tylenol for my raging tension headache. Doni took some as well. Initially I was more resistant to the idea than she was. Doni wants to get out of our current house. It has worked well for us for four years, but the size of the house and the neighborhood are getting on her nerves. We talked about the scenario throughout the evening. After determining how low of an offer we would accept under this scenario I began to warm up to the idea more. If we were offered the lowest amount we were willing to accept for our current house, we would be losing a significant amount of money in equity. However, when the housing market rebounds the value of our new house would increase significantly (we were offered a $20,000 discount). Needless to say, that $20,000 would easily eclipse whatever we would potentially lose in selling our current house.
Let's take a look at the worst-case scenario. We get to the end of 60 days, haven't had an offer we can accept, and have no buyers that seem interested (thus there wouldn't be any reason to negotiate an extension of our offer at the new house). In this case we would need to walk away from our offer, losing our deposit. Ouch. However, it turns out that the amount we would lose if we had to back out of our offer is not that far removed for the amount of equity we would lose if we sold our house at the lowest amount we would accept. It is in fact less. This was one of the major things that began to change my mind.
We continued to think, discuss, and, most importantly, pray about this scenario over the evening and the next morning. Most times I sense that there is a specific way that God is directing me when it comes to decision making. These are the easy decisions. Sometimes, however, I feel like I don't have a clear picture of his intent. Maybe I'm "blinded" in these situations because I'm emotionally involved. I read somewhere that when God's will isn't clear, you sometimes need to make a decision and start moving in that direction. His will can become more clear through the process and your decision will either be affirmed or not. Personally, I got to the point where I had to say, "God, I don't know what your will is, but I'm mentally deciding to go through with this. If it is not your will, please make that clear to me before we have to make it final." From this point on I felt better and better about going forward with purchasing the house. We went to church the next morning and Doni and I both felt like this was the direction with God's blessing.
That afternoon we went to the builder's office and filled out the pages and pages of paperwork with our initials and signatures. After we finished, we walked through the house and pulled the "For Sale" sign out of the ground. It feels good.
Are we taking a risk? Absolutely. But we would be taking a risk by not going through with this as well. In 60 days I will have started residency and will be on call at the hospital every 5th night. Between now and then I basically have a two month vacation. NOW is the time to move. NOW is the time to get things done.
I believe that God's will is the best possible way for me to live. Sometimes I don't like it in the short-run, but I am never disappointed when the smoke clears. I believe that it was God's will that we went forward with this. Even if we get to the end of 60 days and have to walk away, I will still believe this. I know that, if that happens, I will have learned something and be stronger because of it. In God's will there is no endeavor that is not worthwhile.
We appreciate your prayers in this exciting and stressful time in our lives.
"The hardest part of the journey is the first step." - Anonymous
Our realtors went back over later that afternoon and talked to the builder's representative. Little did we know how crazy of a day this would become. After they finished talking with the representative, they gave me a call to fill me in. It turns out our realtors were able to negotiate several scenarios. In the most attractive scenario they would give us a $20,000 price break on the house, a competitive interest rate locked in for 60 days (they were specific about the exact interest rate, but I'm not going to be here), and they would cover closing costs. Tempting enough for you? The problem: They would not accept an offer that was contingent on us selling our house. Oh yeah, and they required a nearly 2% deposit that was non-refundable if we didn't close within 60 days.
Our house has been on the market for 6 months and we haven't even had an offer yet. In this scenario we would need to receive and accept an offer in 30-40 days so that we could close on our current house in time to close on our future house. If we chose to take up the builder on his offer, our realtors were willing to commit two of the three of them to intensively marketing our home and finding buyers. They were extremely confident that they could get this done. Given the scenario, we would need to consider how low of an offer we would accept. We would need to get back with them by the next day or risk losing the interest rate we were quoted when the markets opened on Monday.
Bring on the headaches. That night I took maximum does of ibuprofen and tylenol for my raging tension headache. Doni took some as well. Initially I was more resistant to the idea than she was. Doni wants to get out of our current house. It has worked well for us for four years, but the size of the house and the neighborhood are getting on her nerves. We talked about the scenario throughout the evening. After determining how low of an offer we would accept under this scenario I began to warm up to the idea more. If we were offered the lowest amount we were willing to accept for our current house, we would be losing a significant amount of money in equity. However, when the housing market rebounds the value of our new house would increase significantly (we were offered a $20,000 discount). Needless to say, that $20,000 would easily eclipse whatever we would potentially lose in selling our current house.
Let's take a look at the worst-case scenario. We get to the end of 60 days, haven't had an offer we can accept, and have no buyers that seem interested (thus there wouldn't be any reason to negotiate an extension of our offer at the new house). In this case we would need to walk away from our offer, losing our deposit. Ouch. However, it turns out that the amount we would lose if we had to back out of our offer is not that far removed for the amount of equity we would lose if we sold our house at the lowest amount we would accept. It is in fact less. This was one of the major things that began to change my mind.
We continued to think, discuss, and, most importantly, pray about this scenario over the evening and the next morning. Most times I sense that there is a specific way that God is directing me when it comes to decision making. These are the easy decisions. Sometimes, however, I feel like I don't have a clear picture of his intent. Maybe I'm "blinded" in these situations because I'm emotionally involved. I read somewhere that when God's will isn't clear, you sometimes need to make a decision and start moving in that direction. His will can become more clear through the process and your decision will either be affirmed or not. Personally, I got to the point where I had to say, "God, I don't know what your will is, but I'm mentally deciding to go through with this. If it is not your will, please make that clear to me before we have to make it final." From this point on I felt better and better about going forward with purchasing the house. We went to church the next morning and Doni and I both felt like this was the direction with God's blessing.
That afternoon we went to the builder's office and filled out the pages and pages of paperwork with our initials and signatures. After we finished, we walked through the house and pulled the "For Sale" sign out of the ground. It feels good.
Are we taking a risk? Absolutely. But we would be taking a risk by not going through with this as well. In 60 days I will have started residency and will be on call at the hospital every 5th night. Between now and then I basically have a two month vacation. NOW is the time to move. NOW is the time to get things done.
I believe that God's will is the best possible way for me to live. Sometimes I don't like it in the short-run, but I am never disappointed when the smoke clears. I believe that it was God's will that we went forward with this. Even if we get to the end of 60 days and have to walk away, I will still believe this. I know that, if that happens, I will have learned something and be stronger because of it. In God's will there is no endeavor that is not worthwhile.
We appreciate your prayers in this exciting and stressful time in our lives.
"The hardest part of the journey is the first step." - Anonymous
posted by Jeremy @ 3:39 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
At 7:15 PM,
Anonymous said…
Good luck!!! The market's not so great right now, but your house really is nice and its in a good area. I think you'll be fine.
Now I want to see your NEW house!
I'll be thinking about and praying for you guys! See you this weekend!
At 11:10 AM,
Jessica said…
Wow!! I almost got a headache myself, just reading all of that! I sincerely hope and pray it all works out for you guys!!
At 8:49 AM,
Anonymous said…
whoa....that sounds stressful!
we'll be praying for you guys. give ava our love...sorry we weren't able to make it for her birthday party :( the pictures look like you guys had fun!
jill
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