Another Offer

So, we made an offer on another house.

No, we still haven't heard back about our offer on that other house near the high school (which I wrote about  here), even though we submitted the offer about a month ago now and our realtor insists that the very longest he has ever seen a bank take to accept an offer on a house that has already been foreclosed is 10 days.  So we're not holding our breath on that house.  Although about every week or so the bank asks for more information or paperwork about our offer, and they continue to assure our realtor that they have not yet decided on which of the offers to accept for this house, so I guess there's still a chance.  We'll see.

The other crazy thing is that there are still so few houses on the market here right now (supposedly because everyone has seen that house prices have just barely started to increase over the last several months and they think the prices are going to continue to go up, so most people are waiting to sell to see if they can list at a higher price in the future).  We have mostly been looking at houses in the two neighborhoods of 4S Ranch and Del Sur, and since we made the offer on that house near the high school about a month ago, only two other houses with at least 4 bedrooms have come on the market in these two communities anywhere near our price range.  One of the houses was in Del Sur, and it was a nice little house, but everything about it was very small -- the bedrooms, the kitchen, the living space, the nonexistent back yard (it has an alley in the back instead of a yard) and the minuscule patio of a front yard --  so that one wasn't even a consideration.

And the only other house that has come on the market here in the last month is this one that we made an offer on yesterday.  So, we were not surprised that with lots of people looking to buy, and just a few houses available, that there are multiple offers on this house, and the house will almost surely sell for well above the asking price, but we made an offer anyway, just in case it might end up working out for us.

The house is just a few houses down from an elementary school, several playgrounds, a large park with sports fields, a Boys & Girls Club, and access to open space with trails (we went yesterday on a family walk on the trails over there, and found that part of the trail loop goes right where I remember riding my bike as a kid -- which was way out in the middle of nowhere back then when 4S Ranch was a cattle ranch and not a housing development).  And it's near a middle school, and within walking or biking distance of the high school, so it fulfills those important requirements for us.  So the location is nice, and the back yard is great -- not only is it a larger yard than the other house we made an offer on last month, the yard has a built in grill, a nice covered patio, tall mature trees that give privacy, it's beautifully landscaped, has some space for a garden, and has a little fenced off dog run with a dog door into the house -- basically, if we ended up getting this house we would never leave the back yard.

And the inside of the house is completely done.  It's got a beautiful kitchen (ok, so if I had designed it I would have chosen darker wood for the cabinets, but I wouldn't be complaining about this kitchen).  The kitchen opens onto the dining room and the family room, and there is a den/office that has beautiful built in bookshelves where we can fit a large piano.  It has 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, with 2,492 square feet (so it is smaller than the other house we made an offer on before).  But it's nice to think there wouldn't be any necessary work in this house -- it's already got wood floors, nice carpet, granite counters, crown molding . . .   The only things that could possibly be upgraded at some time in the future are the tile (and wallpaper removal) in the master bath & the kids' bathroom upstairs, and maybe just switching out the two pendant lights in the kitchen just because they're not quite what I would have chosen, but you seriously wouldn't have to do any work on this house if you didn't want to.  That's part of the reason I'm assuming we will be outbid -- people are going to see the value in all the upgrades and likely offer more for the house than we were able to, but you never know.

We do know that we will eventually end up in whatever house we are supposed to be in, right now it's just a matter of figuring out which one that is.  (And even though you can see that I continue to remind myself of all the reasons why I shouldn't get my hopes up, I am still hopeful that there might be a chance we'd get it).  Anyway, this house is a normal sale, so we should find out if we got it or not within the week.  Keep your fingers crossed for us.