We knew we shouldn't have been so quick to go public about everything going so smoothly concerning the sale of our home. As soon as we posted our last blog telling how well everything was progressing things began to get dicey.
Our independent home inspection on Wednesday, February 4, had gone smoothly, we thought, with 21 minor items listed in a one-page summary in front of 24 pages of inspection reports, only two of which required our attention, and these two were easy to remedy. The others were routine maintenance items or recommended upgrades and improvements.
Item one pointed out that when we had our kitchen redone they installed an all new main electrical circuit breaker panel, but the electrician had failed to label all of the circuit breakers for what they individually controlled. So we spent a day shutting off one breaker at a time, tracking down every appliance, outlet, light and circuit that it controlled and correctly labeling it.
Item two pointed out that our chimney was last cleaned 5 years ago and should be professionally cleaned again. Our chimney sweep completed this job just two hours ago, after postponing for rain during this past week.
But in between these two events our Buyer separately ordered professional inspections on each of the other items in the home inspection (and many that were not) and asked each inspector/contractor to evaluate and recommend specific actions and provide cost estimates to perform. We had a solar panel inspection, a roofing inspection, a ceiling treatment inspection, a second termite and structure inspection (we previously tented and fumigated the home just 6 months ago), a pool equipment inspection, a home appraiser, a general contractor, and an architect who talked about home additions.
We still weren't too concerned though, as each of the inspectors complimented our home's excellent condition and said that they expected there would be no problem. Our Buyer, however, decided otherwise and refused to sign the release of contingencies as scheduled on Friday, the thirteenth of February. We had already voluntarily extended this time period to 30 days from the normal 17 after the signing of the contract to cooperate with the Buyer and allow all the inspections to proceed. But we should have had early warning that something might be amiss when, a few days before the deadline, the Buyer requested extending the contingency period up to the date of settlement, March 12th. We declined this request. If we had granted it the Buyer could withdraw from the purchase at no loss of deposit or contractual risk up to the very day of closing.
So, not to worry, anyway, eh? Having not extended the contingency period meant that it would lapse after the 30 days as it was stated in the contract, right? Wrong. It turns out that in California, contingencies don't lapse unless the Buyer says they do, in writing, and in order for that to happen they have to be willing to sign a contingency removal form. And obviously our Buyer wasn't willing to do that. Is that convoluted or what! The only way the Seller can force the issue is to execute a "Notice to Buyer to Perform," a sort of legal paper that gives the Buyer 24 hours to remove the contingencies or nullify the contract.
So we executed this legal action on the morning of February 14 expecting that everything would be resolved by the following day. Wrong again. The Buyer is out of town, we were told, away for the weekend, and couldn't be reached to receive and confirm receipt of our legal demand.
By this time we suspected that there was more to this than meets the eye. We conferred with our agent who warned us that when she had seen this kind of behavior before it usually resulted in the Buyer coming back with a collection of cost estimates from the Buyer's inspector/contractor/architects totaling tens of thousands of dollars of improvements and modifications expecting to force us at the last minute to lower our price if we wanted a deal on the day of settlement.
To put it mildly, this put us in a bind. We had already obligated ourselved to buy a home in Georgetown, Texas and the settlement date for that purchase was to be two days after the settlement on our California home. We also had already made arrangements to ship our piano to Tricia and Dan in Maryland, and separately to begin to move our entire household goods to our new home in Texas just a few days before settlement on the California home. And we had planned to be on the road to Texas on Monday, March 16.
After considerable discussion between us, much loss of sleep, some maximum strength antacid tablets, long walks along the ocean, a few glasses of wine, and answering many "what ifs," we decided to make it unequivocally clear to the Buyer's agent that if the Buyer, by close of business on Tuesday the 17th, didn't remove all contingencies and agree fully to the terms of the contract we would cancel the contract ourselves and relist the home on the market. We told our agent to proceed with the relisting and plan an open house this Sunday to seek other buyers. We were prepared to go back to square one and begin anew.
At the very end of the business day on Tuesday the 17th at 5:30 p.m. we received a call from our agent saying that the Buyer had finally signed the removal of any and all contingencies from the contract and we had a firm commitment to buy.
Now if this experience has taught us one thing it is this. Don't blog your successes before they are completed.
Be of good faith. We will report on our progress shortly.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Dick and Susie's Big Adventure
Tuesday, January 27
Having acquired a buyer and signed a contract to sell our Santa Barbara home, Susie and Dick set out on Tuesday, January 27, by car for Texas to find a new home to move to.
The drive took 3 days. We made it to Chandler, Arizona (just East of Phoenix) the first night and El Paso, Texas the second before arriving at Katie and John's home in Temple, Texas on Thursday the 29th.
We then made contact with our agent Sherri Revier of ERA Colonial Real Estate in Georgetown, TX. She came recommended to us by the USAA MoversAdvantage program and we learned she has lived in the area most of her life and was thoroughly knowledgeable about the real estate in the area.
We had previously narrowed down to Georgetown as our chosen new hometown after considerable research on areas around Austin within a short drive to John and Katie's. It is conveniently located 25 miles or so north of Austin and 45 miles south of Temple where John works at the VA hospital clinic. We were later pleased to learn that Georgetown is at or near the top of many lists as a great place to live and a highly recommended place to retire to.
Sherri made arrangements for us to view the one remaining house on our list after starting with well over 100 possible homes in the area. This filtering and elimination process, which occured over the weeks prior to our trip, had been a challenge; there were so many fine houses available that unless we had very restrictive requirements we could spend days or weeks just looking at the possibilities.
Our first priority was to find a home in a desirable stable neighborhood. Here we based our selection on the school test records for the Georgetown Independent School District. The Ford Elementary/Benold Middle School district showed the superior scores of what appeared to be an area of excellent education with high standards and it became our choice. Even though we are well beyond the school parenting phase in our life we knew we could find common interests in areas where parents are involved in their childrens' education.
Next we wanted a one-story home because we have gotten to the point where climbing stairs was becoming more challenging, especially with hands full, so we eliminated consideration of multi-level homes.
Third, we set our price and home size boundaries to see what remained that matched our requirements.
Six homes made it into our finals. Katie, in an earlier trip, viewed all six from the outside and gave us first hand impressions (as well as photos). By email and internet our agent Sherri gave us further insight into possible adjacent commercial zoning, on-going and planned road construction, builders development plans, and seller's price flexibility. When Katie returned with Sherri to look into each of the six she gave us her recommended priorities and subsequently we were able to eliminate 5 of the 6 for various reasons by the time we traveled to Georgetown.
What we found when we visited our remaining final selection delighted us. Built in 2002, this immaculate home has had an owner who clearly showed pride of ownership.
It is a 2750 square foot Craftsman style custom built home that sits among a small grove of oak trees.
It has 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, a formal dining room, and a high-ceiling living room with fireplace.
The view toward the road from the front porch shows so many trees you wonder if you are still in Texas.
This area of Texas, known as the Texas Hill Country, is famous for its lakes, hills and woodlands. It has towns predominately settled by early Dutch and German immigrants as well as ranchers and farmers.
Deer are so plentiful they are a problem and there are garden nurseries that specialize in landscape shrubs that the deer won't eat.
Susie fell in love with the kitchen, with its cook-top island, built-in appliances and red oak Shaker style custom cabinets with under cabinet lighting.
The view toward the back of the house shows its large covered patio. The house sits among so many oak trees that just about every room is shaded. The house sits on one acre of land so there remains plenty of open space for creating play areas or planting kitchen gardens.
So without much hesitation we made an offer to buy the house. The offer has been accepted and the closing date is set for March 19, just two days after we close on the sale of our Santa Barbara home.
It seems impossible that the process of making our move from Santa Barbara to Georgetown has gone so smoothly. We feel almost as if it were meant to happen just this way and at just this time, given all the things that had to fall into their proper place to make it so.
Having acquired a buyer and signed a contract to sell our Santa Barbara home, Susie and Dick set out on Tuesday, January 27, by car for Texas to find a new home to move to.
The drive took 3 days. We made it to Chandler, Arizona (just East of Phoenix) the first night and El Paso, Texas the second before arriving at Katie and John's home in Temple, Texas on Thursday the 29th.
We then made contact with our agent Sherri Revier of ERA Colonial Real Estate in Georgetown, TX. She came recommended to us by the USAA MoversAdvantage program and we learned she has lived in the area most of her life and was thoroughly knowledgeable about the real estate in the area.
We had previously narrowed down to Georgetown as our chosen new hometown after considerable research on areas around Austin within a short drive to John and Katie's. It is conveniently located 25 miles or so north of Austin and 45 miles south of Temple where John works at the VA hospital clinic. We were later pleased to learn that Georgetown is at or near the top of many lists as a great place to live and a highly recommended place to retire to.
Sherri made arrangements for us to view the one remaining house on our list after starting with well over 100 possible homes in the area. This filtering and elimination process, which occured over the weeks prior to our trip, had been a challenge; there were so many fine houses available that unless we had very restrictive requirements we could spend days or weeks just looking at the possibilities.
Our first priority was to find a home in a desirable stable neighborhood. Here we based our selection on the school test records for the Georgetown Independent School District. The Ford Elementary/Benold Middle School district showed the superior scores of what appeared to be an area of excellent education with high standards and it became our choice. Even though we are well beyond the school parenting phase in our life we knew we could find common interests in areas where parents are involved in their childrens' education.
Next we wanted a one-story home because we have gotten to the point where climbing stairs was becoming more challenging, especially with hands full, so we eliminated consideration of multi-level homes.
Third, we set our price and home size boundaries to see what remained that matched our requirements.
Six homes made it into our finals. Katie, in an earlier trip, viewed all six from the outside and gave us first hand impressions (as well as photos). By email and internet our agent Sherri gave us further insight into possible adjacent commercial zoning, on-going and planned road construction, builders development plans, and seller's price flexibility. When Katie returned with Sherri to look into each of the six she gave us her recommended priorities and subsequently we were able to eliminate 5 of the 6 for various reasons by the time we traveled to Georgetown.
What we found when we visited our remaining final selection delighted us. Built in 2002, this immaculate home has had an owner who clearly showed pride of ownership.
It is a 2750 square foot Craftsman style custom built home that sits among a small grove of oak trees.
It has 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, a formal dining room, and a high-ceiling living room with fireplace.
The view toward the road from the front porch shows so many trees you wonder if you are still in Texas.
This area of Texas, known as the Texas Hill Country, is famous for its lakes, hills and woodlands. It has towns predominately settled by early Dutch and German immigrants as well as ranchers and farmers.
Deer are so plentiful they are a problem and there are garden nurseries that specialize in landscape shrubs that the deer won't eat.
Susie fell in love with the kitchen, with its cook-top island, built-in appliances and red oak Shaker style custom cabinets with under cabinet lighting.
The view toward the back of the house shows its large covered patio. The house sits among so many oak trees that just about every room is shaded. The house sits on one acre of land so there remains plenty of open space for creating play areas or planting kitchen gardens.
So without much hesitation we made an offer to buy the house. The offer has been accepted and the closing date is set for March 19, just two days after we close on the sale of our Santa Barbara home.
It seems impossible that the process of making our move from Santa Barbara to Georgetown has gone so smoothly. We feel almost as if it were meant to happen just this way and at just this time, given all the things that had to fall into their proper place to make it so.
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