This could possibly have been #5 and may still be......

Amazingly, there are 2 houses in the area that we are interested in. Both aren't on the market yet. Both owners have approached Karen about selling. This one is owned by an old lady who has lived there for years and thinking of living closer to her kids.  It's cheaper than the Middlesex house, but it is unclear whether the lady would even move out soon enough or change her mind.  However, we went to see it anyway just to see if we were more interested in this than the Middlesex house.

The layout of this is so much better, rooms are bigger and easier to develop, it's closer to the schools, but just does not have the character that the other house has.  Also, it only has 2 bedrooms so we would need to add another for sure and very quickly.  In the end, we opted to pursue Middlesex first.

Clearly, the house hasn't been updated for a long, long time

Ben in the sitting room

NEVER seen a bathroom like this!!!  Look at that vanity

Other bathroom

This "may" be number five....

Karen is in the process of selling a house on Middlesex.  It's in the area we want to live in, maybe a little closer to the highway than is ideal, but surrounded by really nice houses.  We have walked by it before and Sam liked it, but I wasn't too keen.  Then, I took another look and decided to see the inside.  We asked Karen about it last Sunday and went to see it.  They are in the process of getting all the walls painted and having floors refinished/carpet torn up.  We went back in the week so Jason could look at it and I took some pictures.

This is the tiny bathroom in the master bedroom-will need redoing at some point in future

Closet in master bedroom, may get sacrificed for bathroom extension

Master bedroom

Hall bathroom-everyone universally loves the floor in here so that may have to stay....

Ben's bedroom

Maggie's bedroom-needs carpet torn up and wallpaper gone

Landing upstairs.  They are taking up the carpet and having the stairs refinished

I love the 2 corner cupboards on the landing

Maggie, Ben and Caroline in the sun room, may end up being a reading and mud room (if Maggie's shoes stay outside!!)

Part of old kitchen looking through to tiny breakfast room

Kitchen.  Door leads to half bathroom

Jason behind bars!!!!

Front of house

Back yard

House inspection done yesterday

We had our house inspection done last night.  I am hoping it went well since Ben found this sweet note when we got home

I'm so glad that we found a family that is as excited about the house as we were to find this house

We have a contract!!!!!

We counter offered and it was accepted.  Everything done in less than 24 hours.  Karen sounds very positive-says this is how a contract should be!!!!  The family has 4 children, so our house is ideal for them.  They are bringing the family to look at the house tomorrow afternoon.

Another offer

We got another offer on our house last night.  We have 5 showings scheduled this week, more than we have had in the past month.  The 2 that have been through did not seem like viable options, but we have 1 scheduled tomorrow and 2 scheduled for Saturday.  Hopefully we can negotiate on this offer until we can gauge the interest on Saturday.  The offer is pretty good but hopefully we can get a full price or close to full price offer because we have reduced so much already.

We have looked at 4 houses this week as options to move in to for a short while, but they all need work-no surprise really.

Karen may also have a lead on something we might be interested in permanently.  Hopefully this will all work out....

There's a lot of "hopefully" in this post!!!!

More feedback

1. Question: Is your client interested in this property?
    Answer:

2. Question: How well did the property show?
    Answer:

3. Question: Your (and your customer's) opinion of the price:
    Answer:

4. Question: How soon are your clients looking to buy?
    Answer:

5. Question: Please rate this property compared to others YOU are seeing.
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6. Question: What one item would YOU change to improve the saleability of the property?
    Answer:

7. Question: Additional Comments/Recommendations
    Answer:  The buyer thought the home was beautiful. She thought all of the finishes and details were very well done. The main floor had a nice open layout and all the modern conveniences a buyer would want. She wishes the yard had a little more level space. She is going to talk to her husband about possibly scheduling another visit with him. This is the first time she has been out to look at homes so she's not sure if she is ready to move forward yet.

Someone else who wouldn't come in.....

1. Question: Is your client interested in this property?
    Answer:

2. Question: How well did the property show?
    Answer:

3. Question: Your (and your customer's) opinion of the price:
    Answer:

4. Question: How soon are your clients looking to buy?
    Answer:

5. Question: Please rate this property compared to others YOU are seeing.
    Answer:

6. Question: What one item would YOU change to improve the saleability of the property?
    Answer:

7. Question: Additional Comments/Recommendations
    Answer:  Apologies to the seller. Client got to the house and decided she did not like this area and plans to focus in Kirkwood and Ladue. Many thanks for the appointment

Exploring other options

The buyers dropped out yesterday morning.  They decided to wait for a new construction or build their own house (if they can find a builder that will deal with them).  Since we dropped the price to 535K, I'm sure they were irked that they would be paying "full price".  Even when we were vaguely talking about selling to them, they had already started messing us around.  I think it's probably best that they said no, although it's annoying because we have no other buyers on the horizon.

Sam suggested that we look for a cheap house in Brentwood so that we can have the address and get the kids into school next year.  He suggested we get something that we can afford to buy while still having Rockford and then we could move into it temporarily and/or then maybe rent or sell when we find what we want.  Certainly not optimal, but we are exploring all options.  

We have had open houses the last 3 Sundays and haven't had anyone really interested.  We met with Karen and Dan yesterday afternoon to discuss our options.  Because there is nothing wrong with the house, the only option we have is to reduce the price on the house.  Even though it appraises for our asking price, no one wants to pay that price and live next to Tom or across the road from the miscreant.  We are going to lower the price to 525K with the long term goal of gradually reducing to find a buyer.  Let's just hope that we can sell it at the lower price.

Is it St Joseph or fate?

Sam had Karen's roofer come and look at our roof on Tuesday.  He said that the roof was fine and had very little damage which would not result in any leaks.  Karen had sent the Alam's realtor an email to tell her what the verdict had been.  They talked yesterday and had discussed that they could not believe that we had come so close to an agreement.  Well, Karen called last night and said they are considering making us a new offer.  Who knows what the offer will be or whether we can even work with it, but right now we don't have any other options on the horizon.  Karen says we have to be very careful because if we have a sale fall through again it will look very bad for us and the house.  We already have enough negatives, we don't need any more.  Sam just looked at me and said "you and your bloody Saint Joseph"!!!!!

Trying everything we can....

Bought a St Joseph House Selling Kit from Amazon.  Worked with our Boneta house, I am willing to try again.  He came on Saturday morning, so I buried him close to the For Sale sign in the hopes that he works his magic at our Open House today!!!!

I had a long talk with Karen this week because I feel like I'm in panic mode.  Every house around us seems to be selling and ours is stuck.  We talked about reducing the price and she said she didn't want us to get in a downward spiral with that.  Karen thinks the house is worth $550 and we agree with her, but it's just so much more than anything else around us and we have two small houses either side of us.  Sam says we have to pay a "Tom tax" for the house next to us!!!  Karen and Dan discussed this and decided we were right, so we decided to drop the price to $535K in the hope this it sparks some new interest in it.  Not really sure what else we can do.

Not even a "love the house" comment

Hello Jane, New feedback has been received on a showing of your listing at 2434 Rockford Avenue (MLS #: 15008103). The showing took place on Tuesday, May 5th at 2:00 PM, and the showing agent's response is below: 1. Question: Is your client interested in this property? Answer: 2. Question: How well did the property show? Answer: 3. Question: Your (and your customer's) opinion of the price: Answer: 4. Question: How soon are your clients looking to buy? Answer: 5. Question: Please rate this property compared to others YOU are seeing. Answer: 6. Question: What one item would YOU change to improve the saleability of the property? Answer: Clients did not like the condition of the neighborhood. 7. Question: Additional Comments/Recommendations Answer:

Feedback from last night

1. Question: Is your client interested in this property? Answer: Maybe 2. Question: How well did the property show? Answer: Excellent 3. Question: Your (and your customer's) opinion of the price: Answer: Too high 4. Question: How soon are your clients looking to buy? Answer: Within the Month 5. Question: Please rate this property compared to others YOU are seeing. Answer: 3 6. Question: What one item would YOU change to improve the saleability of the property? Answer: The buyers were hesitant about the neighbor's properties on either side of them as they were older homes. I explained it was a matter of time before they too were bought and torn down. Didn't want to wait for that. I would make the basement bigger by expanding the finished area into the "work out" area. 7. Question: Additional Comments/Recommendations Answer: Great floor plan, well built home and many extras features. I'd love to know who the builder was?