SOLD! Now let's move...

How perfect is it that we close on the Jacksonville house on April 1 and then close on the Apopka house on April 12?  IT IS MORE THAN PERFECT!!!

We are buying our new Jacksonville house was a great price, $35,000 below appraisal.  It is a short sale, which typically takes 3-6 months to complete.  I have a friend who has been waiting 9 months!  They should really call this a long sale!  "Short Sale" means the seller is in a financial dilemma and in order to avoid foreclosure, they ask the bank to intervene by reducing the principle they owe, allowing them to sell for less than they owe - they will be short of funds. Sometimes the bank makes the seller pay them back some of the difference, sometimes not.  It all depends on their financial situation.  Like us, most buyers rarely find out the whole story.

So this darling little house in an established neighborhood (nice mature trees, clean streets, no ratty houses...) went up for sale for the ridiculously low price of $86,000, and this attracted a lot of buyers, including us.  We bid, and there was a bidding war with two other buyers, but we won our little trophy home with $96,000, gave a deposit and signed the contract with the seller to buy the Jax house in early February.  Although our bid was accepted with the sellers, the bank has the power to request more money from us or the sellers.  We would have paid more, but were hoping not to. We were delighted to find out only a month later that the bank had accepted our bid and the paperwork was starting.  We were even more astounded to find out that the closing would be April 1, only two months* from the day we placed the winning bid. Unheard of!

Our Apopka house went onto the market on a Saturday.  We had a lot of lookers (10 appointments in 7 days) and a contract was accepted on day 12 for 97% of our asking price**.  That's a really good offer and we were happy to accept it.

So the buyers could imagine their own stuff in our home, I boxed up most of the "extras" in our house, which we stacked in a storage unit.  I culled a lot of stuff from overflowing closets, but now realize that I don't miss most of the stuff, so when I unpack, I plan to get rid of at least half of what I thought was oh so important.

We close on the Jax house next Monday.  Mark and I will tow a rental trailer filled with the contents of the storage unit on Saturday when we head up to stay with my parents to celebrate Easter and to close on the Jax house the next day.  We will go straight to our new house, unpack the boxes, drop the trailer off at a UHaul place in Jax and then head back to Apopka to face the overwhelming task of moving away from the place we have called home for over 25 years.

How lucky are we that we can move our belongings straight from our current house to our new house without having to deal with storage worries?  We originally thought we'd have to go the POD rental route, but now we can back the big moving van up to the garage, shove everything in, drive it to Jax, back up to the new garage and shove it all out.  Gosh, that sounds so easy!

*Update: Probably because we paid cash for our short sale house - less paperwork for the bank.
**Update: We actually got our entire 100% asking price due to a buyer's agent faux pas on wording in their contract.

We LOVE this house...Let's change it!

Mark and I decided to sell our Snap-On dealership and move to Jacksonville.  We are in the process of clearing our Apopka home to put it on the market (probably will be listed this week!) and have already found a home in Jacksonville to buy.  The home we bid on in Jacksonville is being sold on a short sale which really should be called a long sale because it takes 3-4 months to be accepted by the bank as the buyer.

On Saturday I was in Jax and was able to view the house more thoroughly, take photos and three videos.  I meant to say that the wall would increase the VALUE of this house, not the price of it.  Please forgive gulpy southern accent!  I never really noticed how awful it is until I watched this video.

We really LOVE this little house.  It is exactly what we were looking for in size (1328 sq ft) and floor plan and location. (It's a house away from the cul-de-sac.)  It was built in 1987 and there are some upgrades and changes that Mark and I both agree would make this house our home.  Yes, we could live in it as it is.  It is not in disrepair...With the exception of required total home scrub down cleaning, it is move in ready, but we want to make some changes to make it our own.  Isn't it sweet?  You can see it in Trulia too.

 

The photos are: 1) house front, 2) closer shot of front, 3) back of house, 4) foyer and living room, 5) from lr, looking at dining, kitchen on left, guest bed rooms and bath on right, and front door in the middle, 6) kitchen from doorway, 7) kitchen, looking to the right of the doorway which also shows pantry and door to garage.  The people on the back deck are my Realtor, who is talking to my sister Patty.  We all went to school together.  In addition to the rooms you see here, there is a master suite.

There are things we will change to make this house our home.  You can hear my awful southern accent in the videos, noting the things we will change.

• The yard needs a good raking, sand to buildup topsoil and fertilizer for the sparse grass. Foliage should be more suited to north Florida (azaleas, camellias, hydrangeas and in the back yard, fruit trees).  The current owner planted things too tropical, invasive, and just completely haphazard.  What were they thinking??
• The side fences in the back yard are falling apart and we have a tiny dog about the size of a large rat.  She will escape!
• The master bedroom walls are navy blue. No. I prefer a neutral color.
• Replace fall-apart cheap plastic mini blinds with cheap plastic plantation blinds throughout.  ;-)
• Replace fall-apart verticals on sliding glass door in living room.  Add drapes.
• Most walls need patching for multiple nail holes and all walls need fresh paint.
• House has popcorn ceilings throughout. Needs minor repair in dining room. Do we live with that or get it replaced with knock down ceilings?  Doesn't really bother me.
• Bathroom light fixtures - oh that has to happen really soon.  There are florescent bars on the ceilings!
• Master bathroom will have garden tub removed and a tiled shower installed.  The current tile in the tub area is a religious experience (a cross) that I don't want to face each morning.  We hope to match the same tile around that is already in the toilet area.
• The kitchen has antiquated wallpaper, mismatched appliances, and needs new cabinetry down the road.  I would prefer a larger tile with lighter grout.
• Carpeting is in okay condition.  We can live with it, but our plan is to remove all the living area carpeting and replace it with wood.  We plan to put fresh neutral color carpeting in the bedrooms.  Currently our bedroom and living areas are all cream and the guest wing has icky mauve.
• I'm short, and a cement step outside of the side garage door would be nice.
• Mark needs to pressure wash the entire house (it is covered in vinyl siding) and driveway and walkway.
• Mark needs to pressure wash the wooden back deck and replace some boards, then seal it.
• I'd like a smaller light fixture in the dining room with dark metal.  Current one is huge and white.
• An even smaller pendant fixture that compliments the dining room one would be nice in the breakfast nook.  We will need a cafe table set for two in there.  Yank down the ugly valance drapery in kitch.
• The ruffled clear glass lights on the LR ceiling fan need to be changed out for something less 80's.
• One day, renovate kitchen cabinetry and get matching appliances.
• One day, replace fireplace faux stone wall with brick.  We don't have fireplace tools.

I am sure there are a lot more items that will need our attention and we will wear a path to the local hardware store.  We WILL get a home inspection before closing to guard against any structural problems.  I really love this house and am super excited to think that we can do the weekly cleaning in probably less than two hours!