on the market

Right. In my last blog post plus one, I listed a bunch of things I was taking on this fall. I added something to the list because I'm just on the greener side of crazy:

I decided to sell my condo and move somewhere else.

I know people do this everyday, but I've been in my condo for 11 years, so this is a big change for me.

And a fast one. I started looking at places before the economy tanked, and then decided to sit tight for a bit, Just In Case. I started looking again recently, found a few I wanted to see, contacted a realtor for one of them, and then things really got moving. I contacted a lender and got a pre-approval letter, which took all of 10 minutes, and had a copy of my pre-approval letter in my e-mail inbox soon after. This is about when the dazed feeling started to settle in.

I saw several more places, and was appalled at what people do to their homes, and they think they can sell them in that condition. Maybe they can. Not to me, though. And architects and builders these days have wacky ideas for layouts, which in no way amuse this potential buyer. In several instances, my realtor and I were both wondering "WTF?" as we were walking through. It's good to know that I'm not alone in my ideas about house set-ups that make sense.

I was expecting to possibly have to move out of the county to find a nice place that was reasonably priced, and I had resigned myself to that. Then I saw a townhouse just down the road from where I am now, and it was perfect - just the bit of upgrade I was looking for, more room, more storage space, a bit of yard for me to learn how to garden, cute overall, quieter neighborhood, and both interior and exterior were well-maintained. So we started the paperwork. And then it all went wrong.

The owners didn't want to do a contingent contract - meaning my offer was contingent on me selling my condo. Not unreasonable on their part, so I didn't mind that bit. I could put enough down with an FHA loan on a non-contingent contract.

But here's a piece of trivia to keep in your back pocket: You can't have two FHA loans at the same time. Maybe lots of people know this, and I'm just ignorant. The lender caught this as he was getting ready to approve my final loan application - I had an FHA loan for my condo. No one ever told me this could be a bad thing. Nor did I read it anywhere. FHA loans are handy because you don't have to have as much of a downpayment. Conventional loans require at least 10% down, preferably more. I didn't have enough for a downpayment with a conventional loan. Since I hadn't sold my condo yet, that meant I couldn't take out another FHA loan for the townhouse. So we couldn't submit the paperwork for it after all.

Not a week later, someone else put a offer on the townhouse, and it was accepted, so it's off the market. The listing said "Contingent (kick out)." I was curious what that meant, so I looked it up:

A term that refers to a real estate contract contingency that's often used when a home buyer places a house under contract with the understanding that he must sell his current house before finalizing the new purchase. 


Sellers holding a contract with a kick out clause continue to market the home. If they receive another offer the buyer has a specific amount of time as stipulated in the clause to remove the contingency and move forward to buy the house, whether his existing house is sold or not. If the buyer cannot move forward, the seller can back out of the original contract and sell to the new buyers.

In other words, the owners accepted a contingent contract with a buyer...a week after saying they wouldn't do the very same thing with me.

This is when I got irritated.

I decided to put all my focus on selling my condo. My realtor sent a "staging consultant" to advise me on how to present my condo to the best advantage for photos and walk-throughs. I had a couple of cosmetic things to fix, and then it was a lot of "get rid of as much clutter as possible," which is a standard thing they tell home sellers. I never thought I had clutter, given that the condo is so small, so there's no room for it. Since I discovered freecycle.org, I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff. I re-organized some things, and got rid of even more stuff. However, personal family photos that you might have on your mantle are considered clutter. Displays of collections on shelves are considered clutter. The stager told me that potential buyers aren't there to see how I made the place homey, they're there to look at room size and whatnot for THEIR stuff. So I started packing stuff up even before I had a buyer, let alone someplace to move to, but I latched on to the idea of "act as if." It's one thing to say I'm going to move, but actually packing stuff up makes it much more of a reality.

Then the realtor suggested new carpet - apparently carpet allowances aren't the thing these days. I did have old carpet, so I went ahead with replacing it - that happened last Friday. I piled a ton of stuff into my dining room and kitchen (the only two places with bare floors) and holed up in the kitchen for the day with knitting, my laptop, and a bunch of Futurama DVDs. It was an odd but nice way to spend most of a day.

I managed to get Lyra-the-cat into the bathroom, but couldn't catch Tristan, who is surprisingly good at hiding where he can't be gotten at. The carpet installers said not to worry, if they needed me to come get him as they moved stuff around, they'd holler for me. So he spent the day dashing from one hiding place to another amid pushed-aside furniture.

Once the carpet was in and the installers had left, I let Lyra out of the bathroom...which is when she started chasing and hissing and swatting at Tristan. She acted as though she didn't know who he was, like he was a new cat in her territory (they've been here with me for three years). I assume this was because with the old carpet gone, all the familiar smells were gone too and that somehow blocked her sense of who he was. So I had a fun time this past weekend trying to keep them apart while making my condo look presentable again. At least I got to watch the Rally for Sanity online while I tidied. I would have liked to have gone to DC for the day, but I was on a deadline.

It took a few days, but Lyra and Tristan are friends again. Here is evidence from last night:

For several days before this, if they got within three feet of each other, there was hissing and swatting (mainly from Lyra). For them to peaceably lounge on the couch in bored contentment mere inches from each other like this is major progress.

Anyway, pictures of the condo were taken, papers were signed, and it's all live and official now.

I also looked more closely at the company stock I own, and it turns out I have enough from the sale of it for that magic downpayment percentage. I wish I'd known that sooner.

I looked at some more places today and put in an offer on one of them - a gorgeous place inside and out. It's bigger than the other townhouse I was interested in, but it's the same price - so more house for the same amount of money. That's a yay, I think. More paperwork, but looks to be worth it. Will find out tomorrow sometime if the offer is accepted.

I'm having trouble focusing on work and cello practice and writing projects with this Big Change happening. (I may not get very far with National Novel Writing Month, let alone the Bach prelude.) Now I realize why I put this process off for so long. It really takes it out of a girl, both physically and emotionally. I need to move though. I need the change. I've been feeling stale and cramped for a long time.

One thing I've not been feeling, however, is panicky. Not a shake, not a tremor, not a butterfly in the stomach. I guess if I'm the one initiating something like this, my psyche and my body are okay with it. Whereas when stressful and/or unexpected events are thrust upon me, and I have no control over them, nor can take an action to deal with them, I fall apart. Weird, huh?