So Saturday at noon I booked a flight for Natalie and I to Denver, for our 5th trip to Colorado for house shopping. There were two homes that popped up last week, at the end of the week, that we thought looked great as prospects for us. We considered putting in offers without even going out and seeing them, but just couldn’t quite pull that trigger.
After skating 12 miles Saturday morning, well to be honest I skated 11 and walked the last mile due to hardware issues with my skates, I came home and talked to our agent, and then started looking at flight options. I tried and tried to make Priceline work for us, but the best deal we could get on Priceline was $350/person, way more than we wanted to spend. After a few hours of effort I finally came across a last minute deal on Travelocity with airfare and two nights hotel in the Denver Tech Center for $280/person, I booked it and less than four hours later we were on our way.
We got into town late, after a delay leaving Chicago, and drove around the neighborhoods where both of these two homes were, checking out what things looked like at 10pm on a Saturday night. We were impressed with both neighborhoods as things looked good. Sunday morning we got up and met with our agent at 9am to head out and look at the homes inside and out in the daylight. We actually had three homes lined up, with a new one showing up for listing at the last minute as well. The newest of the new was the second home we looked at, and really didn’t stand a chance compared to the other two.
The first one we looked at was on Domingo, one of the more southwest homes in Parker, really on what is now the outskirts, though in a few years if building starts again it won’t be. The home is beautiful, 2500 sq/ft 1st and 2nd floor while the basement was a measly 900 sq/ft, but was at least usable. The yard is tremendous, being the largest or second largest in all of the neighborhood due to it’s semi-corner lot. Right out the back door is a nice brick patio, lots of trees, while off to the side is a large fenced yard (the fence goes around all of the back yard) that will be perfect for our dogs. The fence even has existing electric fence top and bottom, which I think will go a long way to keep our dogs from jumping over, or trying to pull it down with their teeth.
The inside of the house is great, some nice hardwood floors, a short carpet, and very nice upgrades throughout. The garage is actually a bit oversized, with the primary two spaces being 24ft long as opposed to most we’ve seen at 20ft, and extra width between the third car and the double door, which should work out nicely for us. The only concern we really have with this house is that the neighborhood isn’t quite finished. There is a pool/rec center, parks, etc, but from what I hear there are 4k more homes planned. Planned for when who knows, and that is the big concern.
The second of the primary two homes (we’ll call it Song Bird) we looked at was in a much more developed and older neighborhood, even though the house itself was 1 yr newer than the first home. It has stone front look that we like, and is huge at somewhere near 4200 sq/ft with the 1400 sq/ft basement included, but unfinished. The interior of the house is actually a familiar floor plan that we’ve seen in quite a few homes we’ve looked at over the trips to Parker. It’s done well, but needs some love. The house has been a rental for some time, so there is some noticeable wear and tear that needs to be cleaned up such as a few rooms that need new carpet, scratches in the woodwork, dings here and there. But overall the house looks great, the backyard is nice, just needs some love, but is far from the worst yard we’ve seen. The garage on this house is smaller than the Domingo house, but is a tandem, which would possibly lend well to a full sized pickup with long bed, though I think the 24ft garage in Domingo would work as well.
Come Sunday afternoon we put in an offer on Song Bird for 5.3% less than the asking price. We actually figured we may need to respond to a counter offer, so we started down a bit more than we planned on paying. The deadline for the offer was 1pm CST today, we landed in St. Louis just before noon, and finally made it to our gate about 12:30pm (United Sucks!). At 5 to 1 I called our agent, he said he hadn’t heard a word from the seller/agent (agent owned rental). About 40 minutes later we got a call and the seller was debating on whether to sell the house, or lease it to someone else, taking a loss due to having to redo his note that has come due. He wanted until 5pm tomorrow (6/30) to decide.
5:55pm At first we said okay, but then I called our agent and told him to up our offer to our max price for this house, and tell him that he had until 6pm CST to decide. As of the time I am writing this there are just over 5 minutes left to that deadline. Because I’m at a meeting tonight and don’t have internet access currently this post won’t be made until I get home, so if I hear anything I’ll update the post below with more info. For now it’s time to grab something to drink.
5:59pm Nothing yet, I am an impatient bastard, I hate this!
So it’s 6pm, I guess it’s time to get the contract together on the Domingo house. Hopefully those owners won’t jack around. I really feel like the way this seller/agent has handled this it’s time for a Mad Blogger posting calling him out so that future people looking to buy a house don’t bother trying to deal with him.
6:15pm I just sent a text message to our agent, telling him if he hasn’t heard from Song Bird to go ahead and write up our contract on Domingo. I want to have it DONE (signed/accepted) tomorrow, we’ll see if we can’t make that happen.
6:25pm just got off the phone with our agent. He apparently talked to the selling agent and he “hasn’t been able to get in touch with the guy who wants to lease to buy the house” so he can’t accept our offer. I don’t know what kind of BS that is, but we’re done with this house. Moving on to Domingo, our agent should have a contract ready within an hour.
6:30pm I’m still fuming! I hate this house hunting process. Actually I like the hunt, I hate the offer process, or I just hate the people that are trying to sell their homes in Parker.
6:40pm yup still pissed off
7:52pm I’m still at my meeting but have received the new contract to submit. I’ll get it signed and we’ll scan it and send it back tonight with a 5pm tomorrow deadline.
11:11pm Alright I’ve calmed down a bit. We’ve made out 13th offer (hopefully lucky 13). Moving off of Song Bird and on to Domino. I uploaded about 74 photos to flickr
