Last Ditch Effort

Tonight, Mike and I are seeing 11 houses, a huge amount for a weekend day, let along a week night.

This is our last chance to try for the tax credit, as we will be in Door County for my half marathon this weekend (yay!).  So, if we aren't successful in finding something today, we won't be back out until the second weekend in May.

Keep your fingers crossed!
♥H

Whirlwind? More like tornado.

My goodness.  So much, so fast.  We have literally been so busy this past week that this is the first moment I've found to really sit down and tell everyone what's been going on.
♥H

So, here's a complete and concise look at the past 10 days in our homebuying adventure:

Friday, April 16th:  Peruse MLS site and find a house in Evanston that came on the market Thursday (4/15), decide to see the house on Saturday before a gaggle of people fall in love with it at the Sunday open house.

Saturday, April 17th:  See the house in Evanston, fall madly in love.  Decide to give up on the Lake Forest offer and put offer in on this house.  Realtor recommends repeat showing in the morning.

Sunday, April 18th: See the Evanston house again first thing Sunday morning.  Sign offer papers.  See about 8 more houses.  Hannah's ability to judge houses is completely compromised by intoxicating love for aforementioned Evanston house.  Give offer papers to realtor to submit asap.  Go back to Evanston house for open house at noon to ask a couple questions of the listing agent.  Find out house went under contract 9:00 PM Saturday.  (Hannah) cries in car.  Contemplate offering list price to see if other buyers can be beat.  Can't believe list price offer is being considered.

Monday, April 19th:  Find out Evanston deal is solid, hearts and minds move on to another house in Highland Park seen Sunday that is also only a few days on the market.  Discussion and reevaluation occur, decide love for this house is just as strong as Evanston house.  Sign more offer papers.  Feel extremely positive about new love in Highland Park.

Tuesday, April 20th:  Early morning find out there are multiple offers in on Highland Park house, biggest and best offers must be in by 5 PM Tuesday.  Write heartfelt note to sellers about our love for house.  Find out we lost out to non-first time homebuyers and possible investors/rehabbers.  Many more tears and angry, non-Christian thoughts fill head.  Decide to put in offer as backup in case financing falls through for Mr. & Mrs. Satan.

Thursday, April 22nd:  Go out in evening to see several more properties.  Nothing floats boats.

Saturday, April 24th:  Go out from 9-1, nothing thrilling.  Hannah loves one house in Deerfield, Mike explains that houses that need foundation work are not quite in the budget.  Hannah understands, grumpily.

Sunday, April 25th:  Take break from househunting.  Come to accept that house will likely be found mere days after the homebuyer tax credit expires 4/30. 

Wish us luck.  We sure do need it.

And for those of you interested in the houses we lost:
Evanston House
Highland Park House
And the house in Deerfield we loved but has structural issues.

A bit like a pregnancy test...

I imagine this waiting for the counter offer is quite like waiting for the result of a pregnancy test. 

Except we have to wait waaaaaaay longer.

Oh well.  I'm trying to keep my my focused on anything and everything else.  But I'll let you all know as soon as the news comes in.

♥H

So, clearly, my blogging skills leave something to be desired.

Okay, okay, I know.  I have been a rotten blogger the past month.  I won't even make excuses, but I will vow (for the second time I believe) to not be neglectful of the blog!
♥H

So now for an update.

The weekend of March 20-21, we saw 10 houses and weren't particularly thrilled by any of them (except one in Vernon Hills that quickly went under contract).  We still really had our minds lingering on the house in Lake Forest, so we scheduled an appointment to see it again (along with a couple other LF homes) on Thursday, March 25th.  Lo and behold, we still loved it just as much and on Friday, March 26th, Mike & I put our first offer down on the house.

While waiting to see if we would get a counter offer, we ventured out again the weekend of March 27-28.  We didn't like anything we saw, except for one.  I fell in LOVE with an adorable older house in Evanston (with a full attic like my parents--which I absolutely adore) but after taking off the rose-colored glasses, I realized that the fact that there was no yard, no garage and a conveniently located ComEd transformer right outside the front door made it a no-go (Mike of course had immediately ruled it out for these reasons, which was impressive considering the massive amount of oohing and ahhing on my part).  The positive part of the whole deal was that I found out what it's like to "just know" about a house.  If only we could move that house... :)

On Monday, March 29th we heard word from our realtor that unfortunately the seller of the Lake Forest home would be trying for refinancing instead of going into short sale (at the request of the bank).  It was pretty disheartening to hear, but we decided to keep the offer in...just in case.

We spent a wonderful weekend with my parents and my little brother, Caleb, in Door County for Easter and came back feeling positive and refreshed.  So once again, we compiled a list and ventured onwards this past weekend.  After seeing about 6 houses, we ended at a house in Highland Park that Mike absolutely adored (he felt the way I felt about Optimus Prime...aka the house in Evanston with the full attic).  There is some work to be done, including a pretty expensive structural fix, but we both loved the feel of the house.

Late last night as we were discussing the HP house, we got an email from Lisa, our realtor, telling us that the Lake Forest seller had resurfaced and we should be expecting a counteroffer late Sunday or Monday. 

So, my friends, we come full circle, as we anxiously await a counteroffer on the 2nd house we ever saw...that we hadn't even picked out.  Just another reminder of how great Lisa is.  We are SO happy to have her guiding us on this topsy-turvy journey.

So, keep your fingers crossed.  I hope to have an update on the counteroffer by this evening!  Who knows? Maybe we'll get lucky enough to squeek in before the first time homebuyer tax credit expires on April 30th!

Love you all...thanks for reading!