We might be crazy but...

We have been trying to decide what to do with our living situation for about two months now. When we moved into the dew in January we figured we would be here for about a year. The only problem is I don't think we realized how antsy we would get and how quickly that would happen. Its not that the dew is so nasty or that it so small I think the main problem is, is the fact that you feel like you have no privacy when someone is sharing a building with you and the only thing separating the two of you is one very thin wall. (well and the very small thing of, I LOVE CHANGE!) Every morning I can hear the tenant on the other side of the wall listening to US101. What if I don't to listen to Country music that morning? Plus we really don't have too much of a yard and we can't really use the garage because it is full of our junk the doesn't fit in our unit. So needless to say it was about time to move on.

We went into buying this property thinking that we were going to look for a long term house. (Keep in mind that long term for us is between 2 and 5 years. We really don't plan on living anywhere for too long.) So we starting looking at houses that were about 1800 to 2200 sq feet. Mostly new construction, nice neighborhoods. But every time we looked at something we didn't feel like the numbers added up. It seems like everyone right now is trying to sell their house for more than anyone else has sold for in the neighborhood. About half way through looking for a house we got a little bit fed up with the prices. So we moved back into the investment property mode. We started looking for basically one story ranchers that were between 25 to 50 years old. But literally every time we found one that we wanted to look at, it would sell before we could even walk through it. So the other night we were walking down our street and there is another street is that basically connected to our street, but on other street it has all houses not duplexes. Well there was a great rancher for sale and they had just dropped the price by around 10k. So we set up an appt on Tuesday for a viewing.

Yesterday (Wednesday) we made our first offer. We felt like the house was fairly priced but the realtor told our realtor that the seller was "very motivated." So we decided to low ball them to see what happened. We offered them 12k less than their asking price and asked them to pay 3k at closing. Now when we look at a house, I really never get too emotionally attached to the house. Because if the numbers don't make sense then there is no reason in buying it. But not all realtor's look out for their clients best interest, we definitely learned the hard way on our last duplex buy, but that story is for a different day. Most Realtors just want to get the sale closed no matter what, especially the listing agent.

So first thing yesterday morning I faxed my offer to the realtor. He then turns around and faxes it to the seller's realtor. She comes back to him at about noon and tells him that they have two other offers on the table, and that we really need to up our asking price or we will be out of the running all together. So we verbally say that we will go up 5k, with them still paying 3k in closings and up to 1k in home repairs per the home inspection. My thing is how do you really know that there are two other offers on the table? There is really no way to prove it. I just feel like it is a ploy to up your price. Well it worked because we went up 5k. So a couple hours later they call and say the seller has come back with a counter offer of 4k more than our second offer. So I turn around and counter again at the second offer. Its really bad to put me in situations like this, because now I just want to win with my second offer. Its all a game to me. So the owner decides that they don't want to take the counter. At this point my realtor has told me that somehow the other offer on the table has fallen through and I truly don't think there was ever a third offer on the table. Because yesterday evening we were told by our realtor that we were the only offer on the table and that the owner was desperate.

So we basically let it die last night. This morning I emailed the realtor to see if the seller had come back with anything else and he said no that it was basically dead when we wouldn't come with anything other than our first counter offer. So Davy and I talked and decided that we would offer them 1,500 more than the first counter because we know he is desperate and he has no other offers. So sure enough 1,500 more is what bought us the house!

So since Jan 2007 this will be our 4th property! And it will be our 5th property since last August! We had a goal of having at least 4 properties before we both turn 25. Davy turns 25 August 14th and I turn 25 September 25th! So all in all we are really excited about what we have been able to buy and we feel like we have gotten really good deals on everything so far.
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So now the fun part begins...renting out our unit in the dew. I am sure there will be plenty of entertaining stories from this experience.