08_Second House Hunting

By this time, we couldn’t find any house in Haymount and Cottonade for under $100K anymore. Even though we still had more on our budget, we preferred to use one third of it for renovation. However, things didn’t go our way and we had to adjust. The most rational thing to do was expanding our price range with hope that we would find a move-in ready house that needed little renovation.

While waiting for the Fenwick house, we prepared a backup plan that was keep looking for potential houses on Zillow. This time we expanded the budget to $200K and mentally prepared ourselves for having a mortgage. We found 6 houses that we like in Cottonade area.

On June 3^rd, we had house tours to the 6 properties. Of all the 6, we liked 2. The one that we liked the most was, not only, the most expensive one; it was also a new listing, only 1 day on Zillow. The house was on Hallmark Rd. for $163K. If we put our offer on this house, we would most likely encounter the multiple offers situation again. So, as much as we liked it, we had to be realistic and crossed it out from our list.

Our second best was a house on Southwick Dr. for $140K. The good thing about this house was it wasn’t a flipped house. In fact, the house had been owned by a couple for the last 10 years, so the house had been taken care of. Furthermore, this house had been on the market since January; the multiple offers situation would be unlikely.  

Putting Fifth Offer

After receiving a rejection on the Fenwick house, we move forward by putting our fifth offer to the Southwick house. We put an offer for $130K on June 6^th and received an answer instantly; they accepted our offer!

Another Home Inspection

On June 7^th, we had another home inspection. In general, the house looked solid. There was a drain problem at the kitchen sink and we also found an oil tank. However the oil tank was clear, no more oil remained when we put a stick in it so there wouldn’t be any soil contamination problem.

Luckily, the owner stopped by during the inspection. We got to meet and showed him the problems. He was surprised to know that there was a drain problem, and he also didn’t realized that the oil tank could cause any problem. Anyway, it was nice to meet the seller directly, so we didn’t have to be in a ‘he said, she said’ situation on discussing the house.

Plumbing problem and oil tank at the Southwick house.

On June 8^th, we received the home inspection report. This house was more solid than the Wakefield one. The main problem was plumbing system. The pipes were old and the plumbing had a history of water damage. By now, we realized that plumbing system seems a feature that people consider the least, because we kept seeing water damage problems in houses that we visited. People seemed careless with small leaks and the marks caused by them. Over time, the leaks might corrode woods and other stuff.

Another problem was with the roofing. Although some parts of the roof had been improved by covering them with new patches, the roof itself was an old one. It was better to replace it with a new one. Considering these two problems, we contacted roofing and plumbing company to get estimation of the repairs. If the costs were to high, we would ask for further reduction of the house price.

Renovated roof.

Roofing Cost

On June 10^th we had MNDConstruction to estimate the roofing work. In the beginning, we wanted a steel roof because it lasts forever; but of course the price wouldn’t be cheap. After talking to Ruben from MND Construction, we decided to go with architectural shingles. It wouldn’t last forever, but it had warranty for 50 years. Since we were 99% sure we wouldn’t stay there for 50 years, we thought this was the best option. Beside, the price was reasonable. For our 34 sq. ft. roof, the cost was $7,990. This was a relief; we thought we were going to spend almost $20K for the roof.  

For the color, Ruben suggested us three options that match with our brick house. They were hickory, misty brown, and bark wood. He gave us addresses to see those roofs in real; and after seeing all of them; we decided to go with hickory color.

Plumbing Cost

However, none of the plumbing company replied back to us. My husband browsed on the Internet about DIY plumbing. After being confident that he could do it by himself, we checked the price for the materials. They cost for around $1K! So we decided to do the plumbing by ourselves.  

Buying A House, Finally!    

After having some estimation on the roofing and plumbing works, we contacted Kristin to inform about our decision in buying the Southwick house. We decided not to lower down the offer further because the price we had now was already $10K less; and we didn’t need much for replacing the roof and plumbing system. If we asked for more reduction, the seller might reject it and the loss might be bigger on us than them. The Permanent Change of Station (PCS) season had started; there would be more buyers flooding the real estate market. We would found more competitions in getting a house that made us more stressful. So it was a ‘now or never’ time for us.

On June 14^th we signed the purchasing agreement for $130K. We paid it cash by wire transfer. Finally, we owned a house. By this time, all houses that we had put offer on were still on the market, including the first two houses that we were interested but never put any offer onto.

Receiving The House Key

Even though we transfer the payment for the house on June 14^th, we didn’t receive the key until June 20^th. We didn’t really sure why it took so long, we could only assume that the seller needed some time to take out of their leftover belongings from the house.  

Some leftover belongings. 

When we decided to buy the house, we had started to talk about renovation. The house has many walls that we thought unnecessary. We wanted to open some walls at the living room, kitchen, and dining room to create an open space. We also wanted to put hardwood flooring to replace tiles on the kitchen and laminate floor on the dining room. Those were the most priority renovation for us, because our stuff from Germany had limited time to be in the storage. If we didn’t unload them by July 20^th, we had to pay for the extended period of storage. So we had to arrange that the furniture come after we fix the walls and floors, rather than covered them from dust during the renovation. Further renovations might follow afterwards, as we had an apartment until end of August.

So when we received the key on June 20^th, we rushed to the house to start our renovation project. However, we found out that all the energy was being cut off. No electricity, no water. So nothing we could do other than contacting electricity and water & sewer companies to get their service. We closed the day by unloading our tools that we brought from Pennsylvania.

For stories about our renovation projects, please see House Renovation topics.