Despite what at first appeances threatened to be a real bummer, today ended on a high note, if you can say that spending $20, 000 more on a house than you intended can be a high note.
We had made an appointment to see a house in Tacoma that we were unable to see last weekend when we were there. We also figured while we were there that we would look at one other house that looked good online. While we thought it looked very nice online, and wasn’t TOO far beyond our budget, our hopes weren’t too high because most homes look better on the web than they do in real life.
Anyway, we ended up making an offer on the second house, the one they wanted $237, 000 for. While the lot is smaller than we wanted, the house itself is quite beautiful, if you like contemporary style. And while the yard is relatively small the landscaping it to has some beautiful gardens.
Most of all the location is ideal, right across from the Pt. Defiance Park, for me one of the real highlights of the Tacoma area. Trails into the park originate right across the street from the home, and it’s not too far from where you can launch kyaks. Although there are no real views from the home, it’s merely a hop-skip-and-jump to views of the Sound and the Olympics. Practically speaking, my backyard will be the whole park, waterfront and all. I planned on spending a lot of my free time there while Leslie’s working.
Unfortunately, right after we made our offer we discovered that there was already an offer and a counter-offer on the home, something we didn’t discover until we were on our way back to Portland because Leslie needed to be in the office by 1:00. Needless to say, it felt like the day had been a total waste of time, and Leslie said she was starting to feel she was manic-depressive.
Finally, after raising our offer to the asking price and submitting all the paper work, I got a call at 4:15 saying that the seller wanted a letter of prior approval of the loan by 5:00. Since I hadn’t even started to apply for a loan, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to provide that, especially in an hour.
I was on the cell phone trying to get information from Leslie, while talking to the loan officer on the other line. Ain’t modern technology marvelous? After 45 minutes on the phone, and a $250 deposit, I did manage to get the loan appoval faxed in time.
And I just got the message a little while ago saying that we did, indeed, get the house
. Looks like we’ll be moving to Tacoma this month.