So what in the world is going on? Why does it look like we are selling our house? I am warning this is a long note about what is going on… but it is very thorough in answering any questions you may have about the situation… and if it doesn’t by the time you are done feel free to ask and we will share more with you.
We realize that this may be a shock for some of you… especially if you were involved in any of the process that it took to get us into our current house only a year and a half ago. It’s crazy we know but here is what is going on:
As you may know when we finished college we moved down to San Diego (where Brian was from) and lived with Brian’s parents for eighteen months so that we could save money to buy our own house. Well the plan worked and in January 2009 Brian and I became homeowners in Lakeside, CA (East County San Diego) only ten minutes from where we had been living with his parents. We absolutely scored with the house we got and have spent a year and a half since then turning it into a home that we love. So why would we be considering selling our home?
When we lived with Brian’s parents, I befriended one of his parents neighbors and found out that he was only living there to take care of his mother house because she was older, had Alzheimer’s and was living in an assisted living facility for the time being. In the many conversations I had with the man I found out that if and when his mother passed her house would have to be sold in order to settle her will. Brian and I joked when we heard this news that if the house went on the market we would try to buy it. Why not? We’d be next to his parents whom we get a long with great, we’d be right up the street (literally) from our church (where I now work) and the community we spend so much time at, plus we’d have access to Brian’s parents pool without having the scare of our children in our own backyard or the maintenance (lol). As far as we could tell it was a win-win all around. The only problem was that back then we couldn’t afford to live in that neighborhood and the house wasn’t for sale yet. So instead we found our great place in Lakeside and moved in.
Well at the end of June this year Brian’s parents were out waking their dog when they bumped into the neighbor outside. They got to chit-chatting and they asked him how his mother was doing. Turns out she had passed away in February. We hadn’t heard. He also shared that had he had his act together he would have had the house on the market already.
Hmm. Well what do we do with that information? Do we try and see if we can even afford to get the house? Do we leave the home we had created and start again from scratch? Well we’ve been praying about it for a while and we thought there would be no harm in simply gathering information about what we can afford and how much his house might sell for. So we have been talking to the agent who helped us purchase our current home and it turns out that because Brian has had two raises since the last time we purchased and the market is still really low we can afford to purchase that house! Well really we qualify on a loan that our real estate agent thinks we would need if the house sells at the price she is estimating it will sell for.
So do we go for it? Well a lot of doors still have to be opened before we could realistically be purchasing this new house… including the fact that we would have to sell our current home. So that is where we are. We have decided that we would like to try and purchase the new house which means we have to sell our current house in order to have enough of a down payment to qualify for a good loan.
The reason you have seen pictures online about the updates we are doing to our current home is because our agent seems to think we could get anywhere from between $- $$ for our house. I asked her what we have to do to guarantee we get $$ for our house versus just $? So she suggested a whole bunch of things and that is why we are working on updating our current house.
We need all the $$ we can get because the new house we want to buy will need a lot of work. Someone said to us “Yay! You guys will be able to afford your dream home.” I was quick to reply “No, no. Not our dream home… our dream location.” The new house is really outdated- by that I mean every wall (and I mean every wall) is wallpapered and almost the entire house is carpeted (even the bathrooms) just to give you two examples. The problem isn’t necessarily the outdatedness but more of the fact that the neighbor who lived there these last four years smoked a pipe inside all the live long day! So that wall paper and carpet will have to go in order for us to get the smoky feel out of the house (which will be a must with our young children in tow). That is just one of the immediate things that will have to get taken care of that is why it is important we have as much $$ as we can to move in with.
There is honestly no losing here for us. We love our current house and quite honestly are still recovering from all the work we had to put into it just last year. However, in the long run we don’t love the neighborhood for when our kids are older. Plus we love the idea of having a little ministry hub right up the street from our church if we do get the new house and we are right next to family.
Okay so that is the 411 with us potentially selling the house. So we are only selling in order to get that house. If we don’t get that house we will not be selling (that is the plan as of now). Things you can pray for:
• God’s perfect plan and timing with this whole situation. If it is not his will for our family to get this new house and have to move then we pray that it will be made very clear to us.
• Pray that Brian and I don’t get too antsy over this whole situation. The new house we want isn’t even on the market yet (we know it will have to be soon because the house has to sell within a year of his mothers passing in order for it to go into her estate to be distributed for her will). The reason have listed our current house now is because our real estate agent advised us to. We need to have our end in order so that we can be ready to submit an offer when the new house does list.
• Pray that God bring us the great buyers so we are able to get our asking price. The market has slowed a bit in our house’s price range so we are praying people will still be there to want to buy our house!
• Pray that we would be honoring God with our decisions and that we are willing to use whatever house we end up with for His glory.
Thanks so much for reading all this and we will keep you posted!
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