I don't remember it being this difficult to sell a house. Of course, I have only sold one in all my life - but this one is a nail biter!
While in Arkansas looking for a rental home, word arrived that we had an interested buyer. Of course in this tight real estate market, buyers don't offer anywhere near asking price. They get to low ball the asking price and then add on deductions like closing costs and such. Through 3 days of intense nail biting negotiations, we came up with an offer that was acceptable to the buyer. In the process, we agreed to let go of a big chunk of equity even though we had already remodeled the kitchen, rebuilt the lower bathroom, painted the entire house, replaced all the carpeting and light fixures and had dug up two huge gardens to plant grass for a yard. We reminded ourselves, the goal was to sell the house!
Next came the inspection. We knew there was a problem with the cracked cement in the front walk and that all the closet doors needed to be trimmed - the result of getting new carpeting! We also knew the deck didn't have railings. We didn't know that appliances that were working for us would be determined broken by the inspector. The house is 30 years old - so it's not like we were trying to pass it off as a brand new home.
The inspection took 5 hours to complete. The final report was 51 pages long. There were things on this report that I didn't even know existed in our house.
Now realize, everything is negotiable on the inspection repair list. That means the buyers can ask for anything to be fixed or replaced - or the deal is off. For us, it's now about 2 weeks into negotiations and we weren't doing showings anymore. Did we make a mistake? This really had to be taking way too long and the "SOLD" flag was still not hanging on our sign in the front yard!
The buyers didn't want to negotiate on any of the items we were expecting. But, the inspector had red-lined our furnace and the buyers wanted a new one. We felt it was still in working condition but that meant another inspection. We waited a week for the buyer's inspector to show up - he never did. Their Realtor finally called though and said heck, the furnace is 30 years old - it didn't need an inspection. The buyers wanted a new furnace. I wasn't convinced we needed to replace it so I took the furnace by the horns and started making calls. Imagine my shock when the second inspector said one of the heat exchanger sources was putting out a huge number of carbon monoxide molecules into the furnace and up the chimney. (Not in the house at all.) Of course as long as the squirrels and raccoons stayed out of the vent, we were fine. One slip though with an errant animal sliding down the pipe and we would be plugged. Guess where all that carbon monoxide would go. The forecast was for lows in the 20's and the furnace guy announced we should shut it down - just in case. But, for $300 and another house call charge, he could come back out and clean up the heat exchanger and see if that helped... We didn't want to throw away good money after bad so we started looking at new furnace solutions. If we were quick, we could get a furnace company to drop off space heaters until the furnace could be replaced. Who ever heard of negotiations being quick.
On Monday, feeling somewhat recovered from my surgery and no longer under the influence of pain killers, I gathered furnace replacement quotes and made an offer to our Realtor for a furnace replacement. We would pay 25 % of an 80% efficient furnace - five years worth of heat! We figured if the buyer wanted to upgrade to a fancy model, they could do that at their own expense. The negotiations began and the fingernails I now call stubs, disintegrated between my teeth. Now, not only was the furnace off, we were back into negotiations.
Two days later, our Realtor called to say the buyers had delivered their counter offer. They wanted an energy efficient furnace and wanted us to pay 2/3 of the cost. Remembering that our goal was to get that "SOLD" flag on our sign, we willingly negotiated again. But at this point, I was beginning to feel taken advantage of.
We negotiated away more equity and another 24 hours later, our counter offer was accepted. But, the buyer wanted to pick out the furnace and hadn't made up their mind yet on which type. A week later, and we were still waiting...
I have a confession to make. . . I hate being cold - that is part of why I am moving south. I couldn't imagine a squirrel would be so stupid as to climb down our vent pipe in the next few days so I turned the furnace back on.
I hear you all gasping.
It's only on high enough to keep the pipes from freezing at night and me from grumbling excessively. During the day it stays off. Fortunately we are expecting high's in the sixty's for the next few days. Carbon monoxide detectors (with brand new batteries) are all over my house and I pray nightly that the squirrels will continue to stay in the trees and out of our vents. I'm willing to buy that new furnace now.
So, with that... As I shiver and wrap my finger stubs in bandages, I remind myself - we sold our house! And, we finally have a "SOLD" flag on the sign in the front yard.
