Day 3 - The Perfect Buyer
The first scratch involved occasional drive bys. Considering this twenty-acre, semi-wooded property was about a minute away from where I teach, it wasn't out of the way to take an extra turn and check everything out. Every day, I’d drive by, secretly hoping to not see an “Accepted Offer” sign. My wife and I researched the property, connected with our realtor, and decided to get the ball rolling by scheduling a showing. In our research, we found out that this property was on and off the market for a number of years without any offers. The red flags were waving high when we found this out. There had to be some major issue with the house. No offers on a twenty-acre property in this seller’s market was a cause for concern. Further investigation uncovered that while there was a sizable chunk of land, its designated status as a wetland made it ineligible for future development. Though it was starting to make sense, we still weren't sure if this was the sole reason no one was biting.
At the showing, we got a bit more of an inkling. The house seemed in fine, livable shape. It had no major identifiable or expressed issues. While the previous owner loaded up the house with items, it was quite organized and clean. Storage tubs lined a number of the walls. The house was fine. Except it was stuck in the 1980’s. The carpets, wallpaper, and accessories made it very clear this house rocked the same look as it did when it was built a half century earlier.
Slowly but surely, it was becoming clearer why this property wasn’t flooded with offers. The property included plenty of land. Land that most people would find unusable. The house also had plenty of work. Work that would cost plenty of money. Speaking of money, the asking price was also quite steep for a house in need of major updating, even if the majority was aesthetic. It would take the perfect situation and the perfect buyer to make this transaction work.
After checking out the house and seeing that land, we were starting to think that the perfect buyer might just be us.
