We're #1...or are we

WARNING: this is Danny writing this post and Mary has written all of the others so this might go on and on...

As you can imagine, our life is crazy. Soon after we bought the truck, we switched entirely into "house selling mode" which, if you've never done, is a great way to save money on food and extend your work day because you can't eat or sleep properly because of the nerves, the stress and the phone calls. Also, we've been doing this without any proof of residency or anything.

I'm going to try to recreate the circumstances of the whole thing so you understand that the last fortnight has been like.

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The following might be boring to those of you who don’t like numbers, but it is interesting to me so….

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Around January 14th we received an offer on our house, only four weeks since we had put it on the market. The offer was low and they wanted a lot of closing costs assistance, but we negotiated something fair in the middle ($206,400 and $9500 in closing cost assistance [aka CCA]). That means a net sale of $196,900. Since we owed only about $168,000 we were excited to be getting some equity out of the house (above and beyond the money we had pulled out for the truck which was just totaled).

Having walked through the house, the offer also came with a “to do list” of basic/minor repairs on the house (completely cosmetic stuff). Then there was the home inspection which yielded its own share of slightly more expensive/extensive repairs including a requirement to get a specialized chimney inspection for our fireplace (which we used twice in two and a half years). As is turns out, that inspection turns up its own problems. So we hire a chimney company to do their repairs ($800) and hire Nahum’s company (the guy in our church) to do the rest ($1100).

To do repairs, you must be able to get into and out of the house (which the other agent and buyer took the liberty of doing a few times without permission and were appropriately scolded by our agents, who, by the way I recently met playing volleyball at the YMCA while Mary and I enjoyed a $25 three month trial membership won at a silent auction that her prior employer had invited us to, etc.). [That by the way is my ode to long sentences.]

Now getting into the house was not always easy, although there are four keys. Mary and I have one, David and Jessica have one, Mom and Dad have one and finally there is one in the lockbox which you can get at if you are a realtor. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I got calls from contractors asking to be let in just to be told “There’s one under the flower pot n the left side of the front door. Just go ahead in.”

I fielded about 25 calls every day for a week between my realtor, the contractors, their realtor, the buyer, the chimney people, the scheduling people, the main offices, the title company for the closing, etc. It was craziness. Every time the phone rang something was wrong so I was doing a lot of problem solving from 8 hours away.

There were so many unexpected things going on all the time. We had to pay for the work [even though it wasn’t done] before they could get financing or close. This required some financial gymnastics because we had to strategically plan onto which credit card the charges would go so we didn’t go over our limits. Fortunately, as He does, God provided just the right mount at just the right time. Then, we had to suddenly sign 5 documents the day of closing, and get one of them notarized, fax them and then copy and overnight them even though we had previously given the title company power of attorney. We found this out at 4:05 p.m. while I was at work and Mary was too so I printed them and raced them over to her (at Pier 1), got them signed and faxed them. The next day we re-printed one of them and got it notarized at a local bank. And many more…

Overall, the fact that we sold our house about 15 days after getting an offer and 6 weeks on the market in Hampton Roads terrible housing market, is a true sign of God’s love and care for us. We actually closed a day earlier than we had originally intended to.

In the midst of all of this craziness, God’s providence is amazing. I am one of three church staff (on Monday we’re getting an new secretary which is sweeeeet!) on this campus (the church has two locations running simultaneously) and one of the other employees, Gaynelle Albright, was/is a Realtor on the side. She has been not only a great co-worker at the church but an awesome agent. We have toured already 15-20 homes with her and, from our own experience of driving around the neighborhoods, know generally where we’d like to live. While Jessica, Isabel and Ashley visited last week we toured our “dream home” in 3 different forms (the same design and neighborhood, decorated, lived in differently). This is one of the houses.

We actually put in a offer on this exact house last night but found out that someone else had already put in a higher lease to own offer which the owners have accepted. If we had gotten this house we would have been living at 1 Broadland Circle, thus the title of the posting. So tomorrow after church we are going to put an offer on another house (pictured below).

Something that you should know is that real estate in South Carolina is cheap. The house above is listed at $199,000. If you remember what we were living in and that it sold for essentially $196,900, you can see what the difference is. It has 3 bedrooms (the master suite on the first floor), a huge cathedral ceiling in the living room (maybe 15 feet at the peak), a dining room, breakfast area, a mudroom/laundry room, and, best of all, an unfinished bonus room over the garage which we can easily convert into a play room or eventually a 4th bedroom. Overall, it’s about 1800 square feet.

This is not intended as a show off thing. We didn’t really want to leave VA but we were called to and He provided, even in the real estate market, for us now that we’re here. God is good! Also, we almost put an offer on a house numbered 666, but we couldn’t find the lock box to get in and tour it. I’m not sure if that was God or not...

I need to stop typing because my back and fingers are hurting and I have a lot to do here at the church. Also, one day I’ll write about my job and the ministry which are ultimately more important than where we live and all of that.