Frugal Babe

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We Got An Offer On Our House!

May 16, 2009 By Frugal Babe

And they offered our full asking price!  Doing a little happy dance…. Ok, I’m back.  We had three more showings today (that made nine total), including a second showing for a buyer who was here on Thursday.  That showing ended at 6:30 this evening, and by 7:45 they had made an offer.  Our realtor said that another buyer who looked at the house today was ready to make an offer too, and might come in with a backup offer.

Obviously, we are thrilled.  A full price offer after 72 hours on the market is awesome.  And it makes the last four months of working pretty much non-stop on the house seem very much worth it.  But now there are lot of hoops to jump through.

First, there is some concern that the buyer’s lender’s appraisal might not agree with the asking price, just because there are some low-value homes in our neighborhood that drag down the comparable home values.  Bummer, but our realtor said that there is a good chance that the appraisal will go through without any problems – she just mentioned that this might be a bump in the road.

Then there’s the inspection.  We’ll just have to wait and see what comes of that.  The big stuff should be ok – new roof, the furnace is only 6 years old, there are no leaks or pipe issues, etc.  But everyone we know who has sold a house (including the people who sold this place to us) has had to make some concessions after the inspection, so we’re bracing ourselves for that.  Hopefully it will work out ok.

And of course there’s financing.  It’s not always easy to get a loan these days, and we’re hoping that the people who made an offer will be able to get their financing together so that this will indeed go through.  I’m sure that we’ll be learning a lot about the ins and outs of selling a house over the next few weeks.  We know that there will be some bumps, but we’re hoping that they won’t be too big.  The offer that we got today comes with a closing date of June 16.  I just looked around this place and thought of everything we have to do in the next month.  Yikes!  Makes me tired just thinking about it.  But I suppose it’s a lot less than we’ve already done over the last few months.

Filed Under: home improvement 23 Comments

Comments

  1. Geoff K says

    May 17, 2009 at 2:22 am

    Congrats frugal babe. Of course there’s always the possibility this offer may not turn into a final sale, but the fact you’ve been offered one so quick bodes well. I know how exciting (and stressful) it can be selling a house so good luck and may you have more happy dances in the immediate future.

    Reply
  2. Matt Jabs says

    May 17, 2009 at 7:00 am

    Wow, in this market…what a blessing for you!!

    My wife & I going to put ours up for sale, and move into a condo for MUCH less cost every month. We are doing this in an effort to better be able to aggressively pay down our debt.

    Did you do “For Sale By Owner” or did you use an agent?

    Reply
  3. Courtney says

    May 17, 2009 at 7:02 am

    Huge congratulations!! You give me much hope, as we are just about to put our house on the market, too. I’m going to hope for the same result!

    Reply
  4. Kelly says

    May 17, 2009 at 7:24 am

    Congrats! That was quick! I hope everything goes well! Looks like you might not get a break from all your hard work, but I suppose that is a ton better than not being able to sell the house!

    Reply
  5. Stephanie S. says

    May 17, 2009 at 11:24 am

    Awesome! Hope it all goes well!

    Reply
  6. FrugalChick says

    May 17, 2009 at 1:03 pm

    Congratulations! Hopefully everything will go smoothly and you guys will be in a new home soon.

    Reply
  7. FrugalBabe says

    May 17, 2009 at 1:13 pm

    Thanks everyone! Matt, we used a realtor, and she has been worth every penny. She’s the one who hired the stager and the photographer, both of whom were hugely instrumental (in my opinion) in getting so many showings and such a good offer so quickly.

    Reply
  8. Matt Jabs says

    May 17, 2009 at 6:35 pm

    @FrugalBabe

    I would love to use an agent, but am concerned at the cost. You mentioned getting an offer for the full amount. Did that cover the cost of the agent & stager? Or will that have to be taken off your proceeds leaving you with a loss?

    Reply
  9. Daizy says

    May 17, 2009 at 8:03 pm

    That is so great! I hope it all works out. I love hearing good news.

    Reply
  10. FrugalBabe says

    May 17, 2009 at 8:05 pm

    Matt,
    Our realtor charges 5%, which will come to about $10,750. This amount is split with the buyer’s agent, but is paid by the seller. So when we close, we will pay that commission to the realtor, (it will come out of the proceeds from the sale). The fee for the stager and photographer are paid by the realtor, and come out of her commission. Most realtors charge 6%, so we were happy with her commission, especially considering how much she’s done for us.
    Good luck! I hope your house sells quickly and for a good price!

    Reply
  11. Matt Jabs says

    May 17, 2009 at 9:52 pm

    Thanks for the info FB, I will continue to research the best solution for my wife & I and adapt thereto.

    In the meantime I will continue to spend less than I earn, pay off the remainder of my debt, increase my lifestyle sustainability, and keep reading FrugalBabe.com ;-)

    This is my first visit to your site & I appreciate it…according to your about page, we are working toward a lot of the same goals…which is cool. Good luck & Godspeed!

    Reply
  12. Cat says

    May 17, 2009 at 9:25 pm

    Congrats!

    Reply
  13. Sally says

    May 18, 2009 at 3:30 am

    Congratulations! Have been following your journey, hope it all comes to a successful end!

    Reply
  14. Money Beagle says

    May 18, 2009 at 6:08 am

    Wow, that’s awesome! I sold my condo two years ago and considered myself lucky to get an offer within six weeks and to get 90% of my asking price. And that was before the market bottomed!

    I missed a lot of your original posts about how you got the house ready (as I just started subscribing a couple of weeks ago) but it sounds like you did a lot of work and it paid off.

    Congrats and look forward to hearing about the next steps in the journey!

    Reply
  15. Miss T says

    May 18, 2009 at 8:47 am

    Houses sell if they’re aggressively priced and staged well – sounds like you guys did both! Congrats – very exciting news!

    Reply
  16. Trixie says

    May 18, 2009 at 11:11 am

    Congratulations! What a fast sell — all your hard prelisting work really paid off.

    Take Care,

    Trixie

    Reply
  17. GC says

    May 18, 2009 at 12:26 pm

    goood luck to your buyers–hope they can put the cash together.

    Reply
  18. FrugalBabe says

    May 18, 2009 at 12:29 pm

    Thanks guys! I feel the love :) Miss T – the house actually wasn’t aggressively priced at all. Our realtor was expecting an offer about 10k below what we listed it at. Now the concern is that it might not appraise for as much as we’ve been offered, in which case we’d likely have to lower our price. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

    Reply
  19. Revanche says

    May 18, 2009 at 6:35 pm

    Congratulations! That’s a great start to your selling process. Now, good luck to the buyers on their end.

    Reply
  20. Miss T says

    May 19, 2009 at 9:28 am

    Nice job!! Hey, the extra money will cover the commission! :) I always say that a house is worth what someone else will pay for it – sounds like a good deal all around! Thinking super positive thoughts for the appraisal! :)

    Reply
  21. lcg says

    May 20, 2009 at 6:46 am

    Great news about the house.

    Question for you: I love the Green and Crunchy blog (found the link from you), but all of a sudden I find I can’t get on anymore. Said it’s via invite only. Do you know of any address so I can contact the blogger? Thanks

    Reply
  22. Kelly says

    May 20, 2009 at 7:20 am

    I second the Green and Crunchy comment. Can you pass me along to Sheri? I know this isn’t really the forum for this, but it was a blog I found through yours.
    Thanks

    Reply
  23. El Cheapo says

    May 20, 2009 at 9:46 pm

    Congratulations. That is great news and I’m sure it is a relief for you as well. Hope the rest of the process goes well and quickly.

    Reply

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