So which one? (House Story, part 4)

Last post I mentioned that we had set up an appointment with our real estate agents to view two houses - a house that had recently been flipped and a house that was bank owned.   We usually see either one agent or the other (a married couple) but this day we were shown around by both!  It was nice having both of them there as we were able to pair off.  I walked around with S. and we talked about some structural stuff but mostly about how one could set up the house.  Ladylike stuff.  Biju walked around with G. and they talked mostly about structural stuff and durability and what not. Manly stuff.

The first house we saw was the flipped house.  It was on a nice quiet cul-de-sac and it was actually just a block down from the house that we had put an offer on earlier in the summer.  It was very spacious inside with all new kitchen appliances and 5 bedrooms.  And it sat on a half-acre lot!  Unfortunately, it seemed as though the flippers had rushed through everything.  We spent probably 45 minutes or more looking around, though, and you don't spend that kind of time at a house unless you're fairly interested.

The second house was also on a nice quiet cul-de-sac and was very close to a school (a school that is ranked pretty high according to schooldigger.com!).  There were only 4 bedrooms and the total square footage was less than what we were really wanting but the house was spread out on 4 levels and it seemed pretty spacious plus had a lot of character.  Most bank-owned homes are torn apart.  When people find out they're losing their home they tend to destroy it.  Or at least that's what we've heard and that is what my younger brother experienced when he bought a bank owned home a few years back.  This house looked very well cared for and loved.  There were just some scuff marks on the walls from where things were hung and a couple of ceiling fans/light fixtures missing.

So which one did we choose? 

We went for the second house - the bank owned home.  In fact, we knew before we even left that day that we wanted it.  You hear people say "you just know" and yes, indeed, we both "knew."  No dragging our feet here.  We told our agents as we were standing in the garage that we wanted to put an offer in.  He told us that he didn't want to curb our enthusiasm but he had to do some checking to be sure that the house was still available.  (Yikes, you mean it might already be taken?  At that price, for that house, I wouldn't have been surprised.)

Our agent called us back a couple of hours later and told us it was still available but that it was going to be open to investors (flippers) at midnight that night.   Well, the timing was right, wasn't it?  If we had chosen to see the house in the afternoon instead of that morning we very well could've lost the house to investors again.  So, we had our agent put the bid in and we found out the next day that it was ours! 

My parents drove through town on their vacation and we showed them the house.  Here is my dad with Aren and a couple of neighborhood pets.