The last two weeks have been a rollercoaster ride, and it is not over yet. We have gone from hopeful home sellers, to joyful contract signers, to home buying hunters, to disappointed bag-holders, to likely landlords. Here are the dirty details.
Last week, we reduced the price yet again on our home in hopes of generating some offers. It seemed to do the trick when we had two families come to look in two days. They both seemed to like what they saw, and we ended up with an offer from the first lookers. Since they were out of town, we signed a contract a couple of days later. Elation, excitement, eagerness ensued. Now that we had a buyer, we felt like we should turn on the house hunt in Amarillo. It would literally be cheaper for us to buy a home than to rent, at least when considering month to month cost.
I made some hasty plans, farmed out half of the kids, and jumped in the car. My oldest and youngest boys came with me on the almost 2000 mile roundtrip journey to find a place to call home for the next three years. We found a great realtor, searched the internet, studied maps, and drove tons of miles. I was glad to get a better sense of the areas in Amarillo, and I felt like we had narrowed our search to a handful of places. Theo was busy down in Lubbock doing his school thing and would have to postpone his looking until after we left to return to Page. We had an All-Star baseball game to hit in a couple of days, so we high-tailed it out of there.
So, we were feeling good, albeit very tired from the frenzied pace. The boys were troopers! Once back, there was quite a scramble of laundry, unpacking, gathering, and repacking (our All-Star trip was to be an overnighter). In the midst of all this activity, our buyers popped in for an unexpected visit on the eve of our next roadtrip. I have to say, this left me quite flustered. If you know me at all, you know I like to keep the house fairly tidy. Although I don't dislike an occasional drop-in, I do feel uncomfortable when my house is less than what I consider presentable. They wanted to walk through one more time. They turned on faucets, flushed toilets, asked about schools, daycare, and the peach trees in the backyard. We chatted. They wandered. They left. Something was off.
The next morning, as we were finishing our packing, the phone rang. It was the buyers. They had decided that even though they could get financing, they did not feel like they could afford our home. This was their first homebuying purchase, and they felt like they were trying to stretch beyond their means. How can you argue with that? I wished them the best, hung up the phone, and tried not to vomit on the spot.
Life goes on; that's the way the cookie crumbles; play ball. A few hours later we were on the road to Flagstaff for the baseball game, and my poor children had to tolerate a very grouchy mother. Since about March, all I had been doing was trying to wait patiently to work a plan. Too many unknowns had prevented much action. I thought we finally had a course, a way to move forward. I could start planning my work and working my plan. And then the rug was yanked out from under me. SNAP!
I immediately contacted a couple of people that had looked at our house before to let them know it was back up for grabs. At the very least, there seems to be a lot more interest in renting than there are houses to go around. Hopefully, we can find someone ready to move in and take good care of this place.
Now we turn to the rental hunt in Amarillo. With no down payment, buying has slipped from our grasp. The days are ticking away. It being the 4th of July on Monday, people seem to be taking an extended weekend starting somewhere around last Tuesday. We still hope to be out of Arizona on our way to Texas in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned, more to come.....
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