Rundown of the week
We didn't end up getting either house I posted about. We put in a bid on the first one, because the second went under contract the day after we saw it. Given the market analysis for the area, which said that the most anyone else in the neighborhood had gotten for a house was $145 per square foot, we put in an offer of $145000 (it was a 1008 sq ft house) in spite of the $174900 list price. They came back with $173900, and gave us a copy of the inspection from a previous contract that fell through. The house had some problems, most notably an old roof and a foundation that needed probably only minor restabilization. So we were a little uncomfortable, but we raised our offer to $165000. And their counteroffer was $170900. Needless to say, we ceased negotiation at that point - they probably wouldn't compromise on say the upstairs carpet needing to be replaced if they would only budge $4000 on the price. And there was no way we could afford to do the necessary repairs if we had to pay that much for the house.
So we went up to St. Louis on Sunday. Left at 6:30, arrived at 12:30. Looked at houses from about 1 to 5. We saw much better houses than we had on the earlier trip - almost all were actual possibilities, unlike most of the houses we saw the first trip, when we would walk in, see one or two rooms, and know right away that we would never want to live there. Like the two-story house with all the bedrooms upstairs and the only bathroom on the first floor, off the kitchen (I opened it expecting a pantry or basement access, but no, there was the full bathroom).
The last house we saw was not actually on the market yet - it was in the process of being listed by our own agent. And we loved it. And decided to buy it before we left. We got the house for $147500, very close to the list price of $149900, but considering its size and condition (both noticeably better than the original house we bid on) we think it is worth it. We headed back to Tulsa around 6:45, and got in at 1.
On Monday, we drove down to Houston, visited Terry's family for two days, and drove back on Thursday.
Yesterday, we got our marriage license. Yay. And ran many other errands, like meeting with the photographer at his office in Sand Springs.
Busy week indeed. We were originally going to drive back up to St. Louis today to do the inspection on the house, but it is a holiday weekend, so we can't do it until Tuesday. Looks like we won't be in town the whole week before the wedding like I wanted, but oh well.
PS - our trip odometer for this week is 2000 something. Yikes.
So we went up to St. Louis on Sunday. Left at 6:30, arrived at 12:30. Looked at houses from about 1 to 5. We saw much better houses than we had on the earlier trip - almost all were actual possibilities, unlike most of the houses we saw the first trip, when we would walk in, see one or two rooms, and know right away that we would never want to live there. Like the two-story house with all the bedrooms upstairs and the only bathroom on the first floor, off the kitchen (I opened it expecting a pantry or basement access, but no, there was the full bathroom).
The last house we saw was not actually on the market yet - it was in the process of being listed by our own agent. And we loved it. And decided to buy it before we left. We got the house for $147500, very close to the list price of $149900, but considering its size and condition (both noticeably better than the original house we bid on) we think it is worth it. We headed back to Tulsa around 6:45, and got in at 1.
On Monday, we drove down to Houston, visited Terry's family for two days, and drove back on Thursday.
Yesterday, we got our marriage license. Yay. And ran many other errands, like meeting with the photographer at his office in Sand Springs.
Busy week indeed. We were originally going to drive back up to St. Louis today to do the inspection on the house, but it is a holiday weekend, so we can't do it until Tuesday. Looks like we won't be in town the whole week before the wedding like I wanted, but oh well.
PS - our trip odometer for this week is 2000 something. Yikes.