23 hours later: Accepted offer!

WOOOOO

Here's how that went:
7pm: Put in offer & email pre-approval letter to our realtor so she could forward it to the seller's agent.

11pm-6am: Have nightmares of rejected offers.

7am-12pm: Research mortgage lenders. (Because oh yeah... we might need one.)

9am: We receive a counter offer for substantially more, but it was still reasonable & affordable. In order to get closing costs covered, we had to go above their counter offer. So basically we are financing some closing costs in the mortgage. We knew they would counter offer for about what they did because a comparable condo, 3rd floor in the same association, sold for even MORE in November.

9:30am: Submit acceptance of counter offer.

(9:31-6:00): Check email every 5 minutes to get confirmation from seller of acceptance of counter offer/ Freak out.

3pm: Get phone call from our original realtor who went on vacation for Easter and now wants to take us back; we like our new realtor better so we had to contact the district manager to keep her. The district manager called and thanked us for our kind email and switched us officially to her no problem.

5pm: Schedule home inspector for Saturday and notify our realtor.

6pm: Realtor notifies us that seller has confirmed our accepted offer and that the papers are off to an estate manager for additional signatures.

6:01: Freak out.

The end.

The longest 22 hours of our lives

We put in an offer at 7pm today!! 12 Bourbon St #24, Peabody


Living room (19x14) with balcony that has a closet!


Living room, looking into kitchen/ dining area


Kitchen with dishwasher, disposal, electric stove, little adorable island


Dining area with 2nd entrance and CHAIR RAILING


Master bedroom with enormous closet; the 2nd bedroom is similar


And our favorite, laundry in-unit :o)

So now we wait to hear back by 5pm tomorrow. We are fully expecting a counter offer but our agent doesn't think we'll get rejected. That would be a bummer! Ha. Not funny.

"redfin.com saved my life!"

It's a good thing that Jon and I don't have, you know, full time jobs, or part time Master's degrees, or job hunting, or half marathon training, or social lives. This is because searching for a home is an all-consuming, can't-think-of-anything-else, OBSESSION/ addiction once you decide to go for it.

Before I go on, Jon and I went (swam/ kayaked) back to 11 Gardner St last night and decided it's a no go. We wanted to change too many things in addition to not being crazy about Salem

Today I discovered a marvelous tool called redfin.com that I'd seen come up in google searches but had never explored. This real estate site is brilliant, for the following reasons:

a. No typing in search towns; manipulate a map to show your search area
b. See when/ at what value the previous sales were for the property
c. See what comps sold for/ are listed for in your area
d. See the average home price in your area
e. See the status of the sale: under agreement? Accepted offer? Or is the property really "active"?

We are making plans to see two properties Friday night; one is in Wakefield and one is in Peabody. Stay tuned :o)

So why is the assessed value $20K below the listing price?

Today, Jon and I visited three properties. We felt going in like we were on one of the HGTV shows because we expected one to be nice but tiny, another to be nice but on a busier street, and the third to be ugly but big. Which one will they choose?!?

Note: Our realtor was early and had already retrieved the keys etc to the first location. We like him now. Nice guy.

Stop #1: 1 King St #102, Peabody, MA $165,000
2br 1 bath 810sf, 2 off street parking


Pros: Price. Closet space. Nice layout for 800sf.

Cons: You have to go outside for the laundry!!!! Never again. The bedroom windows on the back side of the house are at street level. If the Hamburgler wanted to walk up and kick in our windows, he could do so with ease.

The decision: DEFINITELY not.

Property #2: 24 Wisteria St #1, Salem, MA
Listing: $189,900..... 2010 Tax Assessment: $171,400?!?!?!??
2br, 1 bath, 1000sf, 1 off street parking, laundry in-unit


This is the large eat-in kitchen, showing one of the 3 entrances. Notice the sink/ most cabinets are in a separate alcove. The laundry room is beyond the sink room. One bedroom you can see to the right, and the other bedroom is where the photographer must be standing. The living room/dining room is to the back/left of the kitchen.

Pros: Some new appliances and nice paint and updating. Space. LAUNDRY WOOO

Cons: Our biggest concern was the itty bitty closets (I mean, barely big enough for hide n seek. Really.) in bedrooms that are too small for ample furniture in which to store clothes. It didn't seem like walls could be knocked out because of oil heater thingy placement and what seemed to be the original chimney hidden behind a wall. Lots of dead space too.. very large eat in kitchen, AND a dining room, and then an ok size living room. Also there were THREE entrances, two of which we felt we'd have to barricade with furniture. And the oil heater in the basement was last replaced in 1970. That's a little scary.

The Decision: Pretty. And pretty useless.

Property #3: 11 Gardner St #4, Salem MA
Listing: $189,900; 2009 Assessment (2010 not done yet?): $179,400
2br 1 bath, 967 sf, 2 floors, 2 off street parking, laundry in-unit

We showed up a few minutes early to this one and sat in our car while the family got ready to go to church. Finally we got out of the car and were going to meet our realtor who was parked a few feet down the street, when the seller's agent promptly greeted us and basically told us not to go get our realtor. It was weird, and we felt bad for our realtor... because then we were inside for probably 10 minutes before eventually he wandered in and was like, "Uhh.. what's going on???"

Seller's agents are obnoxious.



This is the back of the building. The unit we saw was an addition to the original house, 11 years ago. The two porches would both be ours; we don't know what's on the 3rd floor. The first floor bay window is the living room. The 2nd floor bay window is the kids' bedroom.



Living room (first floor) .. please don't be distracted but what appears to be the worst decorating job ever. Kitchen is to the left. Person taking picture is standing at steps/ laundry room.



Kitchen (first floor) .. floors need to be redone. We'd replace cabinets at some point. Person taking picture is standing at porch entrance

.

Kids bedroom (second floor)... nice! So is the master bedroom. Both have great closet space.

Other: Garage storage and basement storage. Electric stove could be replaced with gas stove. New heater in (remarkably dry) basement.

Notes: They had the windows open and their heat turned to 62 degrees, when it was 40 degrees outside. Why? Does it smell funny? We noticed the common hallways of the building smelled smoky but we would think that we would have sensed some of the smoke in the unit if it was a real issue. That's not usually the kind of thing you can mask. Also the stairs unfortunately are weird (rod-iron spiral staircase.. classy..) but... I feel like they could be changed over time. And the realtor said there's been NO offers-- (a mistake for her to offer?) even though the place has been on the market for a year now.

It must be because of the stairs. I don't know though... we could live with them.

Pros: Everything we want. The issues are solely cosmetic.

Cons: Do we want to live in Salem/ on the North Shore for the next 5 years? And.... we googled the address and found police reports for the 29 year old woman in Unit 3 from 2008, and for the 28 year old woman in Unit 1 from 2009. The 29 year old apparently assaulted someone with a wine glass. The 28 year old was with a 23 year old who was arrested for fake license plates and driving with a suspended license... So that makes 2 out of the 4 units occupied by idiots.

The Decision: Location, location, location. Stay tuned!

"That one's not FHA approved."

Oh well, thanks anyway??

We requested to see a few more this weekend, anticipating that there would be issues with some of them. Out of the 6 we requested, the realtor is going to try to set up showings with 4; here's what happened to the others:


33 Essex St, Salem MA (sorry Michael & Siobhan, we tried)
2br 1.5 bath, 1000 sf, 2 car parking; townhouse (2 stories) w/ roof deck. $159,900


For whatever reason (the realtor couldn't quite say), this people selling this unit never chose to have it approved for FHA loans. I'm not sure if it's because it's not FHA approved, or because the owners are absolutely redic, but they also required 15% down.

I'm pretty sure if I were able to put down $24,000 (15% of $160k), that I would not be looking at $160,000 properties. So that explains why this has been on the market for 6 months. Good riddance!


50 Conant St, Danvers
1000 sf, 2 br 1 bath, 1 car pkg; townhouse (2 floors)


Apparently 50 Conant St has just been converted into condos, and this is the first one that is for sale. With an FHA loan, you cannot be the first one to purchase a condo in a newly converted building.

If you ask me, that kind of rule is about equivalent to needing to hop on one foot while patting your head and rubbing your belly in order to win the prize. However I'm sure it has something to do with the potential for disaster if the building should need improvements while you are the only one there paying the fees.

But again.... good luck getting someone who has a better loan than FHA to be interested in that size of a property.

Stay tuned this weekend for updates on:
24 Wisteria St, Salem
25 Wisteria St, Salem
11 Gardner St, Salem
1 King St, Peabody

Over and out.

"That one already has an accepted offer."

Ok.... if something is not actually able to be considered for real because it is under contract, then there should be some way that buyers can tell by looking at realty websites. I suppose if you use a traditional realtor that they would suggest places to see instead of the other way around.

But again today I asked to see a property that looked fabulous and was told it, too, already has an accepted offer!

35 Locust St, Danvers, HOA Fees included heat AND electric! (and the usual water, sewer, maintenance, master insurance) for $400.



Stupid.

Our First Open House

Jon and I have been perusing the realty websites for some time now without any real intentions of making a move. Last week I decided that it might be worth it to take a look at some of these properties; if we really didn't like the ones we could afford, then we could stop looking until we were in a different financial situation. I contacted our assigned realtor on Zip Realty and requested to see 3 properties that seemed to fit our criteria;

Property #1, 13 Fayette St, Beverly ($169,900) was already under contract.



Property #2, 2A Linden St, Salem ($179,900) was already under contract.




Property #3, 40 Bow St, Beverly ($180,000) didn't actually have off-street parking; you had to rent it from the house next door for $25/month! Given that we didn't really like the property to begin with (it had slanty ceilings), we decided to pass.


Then I requested to see 4 different properties that seemed to fit our criteria:

Property #1, 75 Walnut St Peabody ($175,000) was already under contract.



Property #2 was having an open house (yay!)
Property #3 scheduled a showing for 2:30pm
Property #4, 11 Gardner St, Salem ($174,000) never returned the realtor's phone calls.



Property #2: 31 Lenox Rd, Peabody; 2br $164,000 826sf


Jon and I went to the open house today around 12:30 on our own; realtors did not need to accompany the buyers to this one. The property was 31 Lenox Rd in Peabody and had previously been listed as a pre-approved short sale for $181,000. However, someone made a $181,000 offer and the bank realized that the property was worth less than that so would not allow the sale at that price! It was pre-approved 1-2 months later at $164,000; the original buyer had since found a new property to purchase.

When we arrived, the seller's agent handed us a print-out of the property details. He was very nice and did not harass us. He had soft music playing in the background.

For $164,000 on a quiet side street in Peabody, you could get 826 sf, 2 bedrooms @ 10x12, 1 bath, a small living room with bay window, a dining room with a built-in cabinet, an oddly designed kitchen with gas stove and built-ins, a NICE porch and yard, laundry hookups in the basement, and 1 off street parking spot.

Pros: The porch and yard were amazing. The layout was such that it did not feel like 800sf. The location was good. The laundry was easily accessible. The porch will definitely be what sells that place.

Cons: The hardwood floors DEFINITELY needed to be replaced; we wondered what an inspector would say. The floors were pulling away from the walls in some places. The bedroom closets were nearly completely unfinished and needed a lot of work, with cement/brick/ electrical stuff sticking out everywhere.

Our decision: Too much work to be "move-in ready" to our standards.

Property #3: 25 Wisteria St Salem, MA; $189,900 2br 1150sf

Our realtor was 15 minutes late to meet us. It was our first time meeting him so this was
probably not a great first impression to make. The condo had a lock-box outside that is supposed to hold the key, but apparently the people from the last showing took the key with them. We stood outside in the rain and cold for about 10 minutes while our realtor tried to figure out what was going on. It was not his fault, but perhaps if he had showed up on time (or heaven forbid, a few minutes early!), we would have not had to stand in the rain for so long.

He did give us a folder with a print-out of the property details and we noticed that it was last assessed at $230,000.

I am going away this week to Philadelphia so we won't be able to schedule another viewing for 2 more weeks. The realtor didn't seem to like that. Oh well??

Thus, we have officially seen our first property. We realized that 800 square feet is not as bad as we thought it would be. We were also reminded that we have to decide where we are willing to make concessions if we are going to purchase property on a limited budget. We DON'T want to have to replace all the floors as would have been the case at 31 Lenox Rd. It is a learning process!


Getting pre-approved.... not pre-qualified?
Also this weekend we began the pre-approval process. We went to TD Bank thinking we would walk in and be easily pre-approved; everyone we've talked to said that it was a very easy process. The lady at TD Bank said "most banks" no longer do pre-approvals because it costs them money and we are in no obligation to then use them as a lender. However our realtor said that Bank of America does them all the time, so that was interesting. She said they can do pre-qualifications where they essentially use a calculator to determine what you can probably afford. It just does not involve a credit check and doesn't carry the same validity as pre-approvals. Jon and I left, disappointed, to walk back home in the rain.

So, this morning I sent in an application online with Beverly Co-op. I thought it would be an automated, quick process but instead at the end of the application, I was told that someone would be contacting me during the week. More waiting.

But like I said, we are in no rush!