Read Parts One and Two
Once the agent and buyer leave, I frantically text our agent telling him all that just happened. He is furious. It's so unprofessional for an agent to just show up and ring doorbells like that.
He asks if I knew her name. I didn't. I also didn't think to ask for a business card until the car they were in was pulling away. I call Corey at work to tell him what happened. We both search for agents in an area of Winnipeg I knew she had an office in (that much I did know) come up empty handed and shrug it off. Can't do much about it now.
Meanwhile, our agent is phoning around town to see who had viewings booked. No one that he asked had, which were all the bigger players with multiple listings. Very strange. We wonder if they had booked any viewings here at all?
Later that same evening, I get a text from our agent. It's 9PM and I'm in pj's, reading in bed. The boys are all in bed.
Text reads: "Can I come over in about 15 min? We have an offer"
I reply: "Sure, I'm in pajamas and in bed, but this is worth getting dressed for!"
Our agent comes over with the strangest offer we had ever seen. They offered us a fairly low price, and they wanted a lot of things. Fridge and stove (very common, so we weren't surprised on those) Washer, dryer (less common, but ok, fair enough for asking) our stand up freezer, bar stools, (sometimes people as for furnishings, so not too out of the ordinary, but I found it bold, given the price)
Then...... it got interesting. They asked for the deck, gas fireplace and garden shed to be included. Well, we aren't about to rip out the fireplace that's built into the wall of the living room before we go. The deck is built off the back door and attached to the house, so, those are staying. As for the garden shed? We don't even own one! Neither do any of the neighbours.
We set about amending the documents, deciding on what we are willing to part with and what will become a part of the deal. Then came setting the price for the counter offer. This is always stressful. We didn't want to go back with our asking price, since we were willing to negotiate a bit. Not dropping the price even a little bit can signal the buyers that we didn't really need to sell and are probably going to be difficult to negotiate with. This is a good way to lose a potential buyer. We drop the price about 4K. Enough to tell them we'll play, but not so much we lose the money we sunk into renovating.
They gave us a deadline of midnight to get back to them. By this time it's 10:30 PM and Corey realizes that he better call his boss. To add to the drama selling a house brings, something had come up at work and we weren't actually sure anymore if this posting was going to happen. It involved a lot of the higher-ups and was a bit intense for about 5 days. Of course, this is when we get an offer on the house, so instead of waiting for things to blow over, we have to force a decision.
What we had been told a few days previously (the Friday) was that we should keep the house on the market and IF we got an offer, call work ASAP so they could figure it out. More stress. It wasn't a fun weekend.
So, back to Monday, we're sitting with an offer and realize that if they accept our counter-offer, we just effectively sold the house and now we didn't even know if we were for sure posted. With a deadline looming in 1.5 hrs, we didn't have a lot of time. Our agent calls the buyers agent and asks for an extension of 10 AM for the deadline. She is suspicious and thinks we have another offer. I get worried that they are worried and think the whole thing is going to fall apart by morning.
Morning comes and we hear something at 10 to 10 (nothing like leaving it to the last minute!) We had a counter offer. It's not what we want, so we counter back. At this point the tennis match really begins. Counters go back and forth via text for a while.
I think about how it used to be, about 10 years ago. Counter offers came printed on official documents, presented by your agent. They did a lot of driving around between your house, work, hotel or wherever while the negotiating was taking place. Now a lot gets done via text and email. It's pretty great. A lot faster. Once it becomes more of a solid deal, the agents do bring official printed papers to sign, but in the meantime a lot of it is texted.
Now it's Tuesday evening and our agent has requested to come over, as he heard back from the buyers agent again and he needs to go over things with us.
We ended up being about 4k apart in the end. We wanted 2K more, they wanted to spend 2K less. They wanted our appliances, we didn't want to give them up. So, our agent proposes that we go up the 2K and give them the appliances. We agree reluctantly. He then leaves to talk to the buyers agent so she can talk them into the same deal. He's getting us to play nice. Neither side is getting what we want, but the deal could be done. We wait. Deadline is 10AM Wed.
Wednesday, 10 AM. Nothing. No text, no email. I check to make sure my phone isn't on silent or something. Bake to pass the time. Feels like time is going backwards. Remember the last day of school when the bell seems like it will never ring signalling the end of the year? It feels like that.
10:40 I get a phone call. Offer accepted! I'm in disbelief. I thought because we hadn't heard anything, we had lost them. The buyers agent is just lousy at communicating.
Major hurdle over with. House inspection is scheduled for Thursday afternoon and of course, their financing has to come though. Both standard conditions.
Thursday I need to be out of the house from at least 2-5PM, possibly as late as six. Over nap time and the older kids come home from during those hours. Not ideal, but this has to get done.
I decide to nap Max early and then pick the older boys up from school by 2:20. Head into Winnipeg and meet up with Corey. We take the boys out for haircuts and dinner.
We let everyone know ahead of time that we had to come home by five at the latest. It's the final night of cadets and the boys have Annual Inspection. This involves uniforms that must be ironed, boots polished to gleaming. They got it all ready the night before, but it had to stay hung up to avoid wrinkles; so we weren't able to bring them along and have the boys change before their night started.
It's a long, busy day and evening, but everyone ends up picked up, dropped off, and where they need to be on time.
Part Four
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