I had no clue that selling a house would involve so much work. Once the house was staged and cleaned, we had to ensure that it remained in that pristine condition even while we lived there. On Madhu’s insistence, we boarded Shayna at Petsmart for the week – thank God I listened to him (at first I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her elsewhere)! Her hair would have floated on to every surface at home and there’s no way we could have kept cleaning them every day. We still needed to do quite a bit of cleaning … especially the family room, kitchen, master bedroom and bathroom, that we used. We did not use any other room in the house. I didn’t do any cooking either as the smell of the food could linger in the house plus that would be an additional chore.
The other annoying part was that we had to leave the house during the Open House hours and also when an agent wanted to show the home to a client. Madhu didn’t want to wander off to far from where we lived, in case our realtor needed us for anything, so it was hard to figure out what to do when we couldn’t be home. We watched 3 movies (technically, 2 and a quarter – Kamabakht Ishq was a disaster), ate out and lolled our time away at the Rivermark cafe.
So far it’s only been a few days of doing this, but Madhu and I can’t wait to get the house sold and continue on with our lives. I can’t imagine how people cope when their home doesn’t sell for months on end! I hope we don’t have to deal with that …
Well, in most probability we won’t have to deal with that. Since the previous home in our neighborhood had received 7 offers in less than a week and had finally sold at $55k above asking, Madhu and I have been quite hopeful of our prospects as well. Our realtor was expecting to receive offers from potential buyers over the last 2 days. We received 5 offers. Madhu and I were thrilled to bits. Our realtor stopped by in the evening and gave us a letter sent by the highest bidder. It was a very sweet letter. It had a picture of the couple – a wedding picture. They wrote that they are a newly-married couple who are looking to relocate to California and love the Rivermark community; they would really like to live here. They liked our floor-plan a lot as the bay window in the living room gives them the perfect space to place their piano. They loved our backyard as well, especially the flagstone patio and mature plants (Madhu’s hard-work really paid off!). Overall they claimed to be able to picture themselves living in this house comfortably and also raising a family. I loved their letter and thought it was a very sweet gesture. We happily accepted the offer last night itself, completed all the paperwork and sent it back with the realtor. To celebrate the occasion, we then walked over to Piatti for a glass of wine.
However, we cannot claim the house to be SOLD until and unless the buyer’s financing comes through. The offer has a 14-day contingency. This gives the buyer 14 days to get the home appraised and secure the loan required to buy the house. Banks give loans based on the appraised value of the house and not the selling price (I had no clue this is how it works; but then I barely knew anything about the home-selling process)! So if the house is appraised for a value less than the selling price, then the buyer needs to provide cash or take a second loan to take care of the difference. As per the offer, our buyers will be putting down about 23% pf the selling price as down payment and taking a loan for the rest. They have been pre-approved by Wells Fargo Bank for this loan. They’ve also mentioned in the contract that if the value of the house is appraised to be lesser than the selling price then they will be able to pay the difference on their own. So there shouldn’t be any problems in buying this house. However, I’ve heard of cases where financing has fallen through after an offer gets accepted. In fact, a colleague at work who is trying to sell her house, just experienced this. The buyer was pre-approved for the loan but at the time of execution something went wrong and they had to back out. I hope and pray that doesn’t happen to us – we are keeping our fingers crossed!
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