Day 4: Worth a Shot

As with most things in the world, timing is everything. In order to even consider putting in an offer on this new property, we would need to prepare our current one. In this market, we felt strongly it would sell quickly, but we also knew there was plenty of work to do to increase the potential purchase price. As our realtor said, creating space and a can of paint can work wonders. We also knew that if we ended up not even offering on the new house, sprucing up our current residence wouldn't hurt. But as we continued to learn more about this new property, the stars seemed to align that this was meant to be. Besides being in the school district of our choice, having more space to handle our growing family, and including a gorgeous nature space brimming with potential, one other tidbit of information helped seal the deal that we should move forward. The back boundary of the property shared two owners: a golf course and a nature conservancy. The nature conservancy was a forty-acre plot of land managed by a group we already volunteered for. Instantly, we thought of the potential of being able to work on our land while simultaneously having easy access to more acreage. It’s like we would have our own mostly private park in our own backyard.

But preparing our place wasn't the only hurdle. Money makes the world go round and we knew the asking price was not something we felt compelled to accept. We knew there would certainly be a negotiation, so we wanted to be responsible with our initial offer. Our research showed us the house had been put on the market on and off for a number of years. Every time it was re-listed, the asking price decreased. Though deep in a seller's market, it seemed we as buyers had certain leverage. We wanted to use that leverage and start negotiating on our terms. When we told our realtor our thoughts on a potential offer, he insinuated we might want to start off even lower. I wouldn't say we low-balled the owner with our first offer, but we certainly didn't wow him either.