Solid Offer Received On The House......

They've offered what it's listed at, have a credit score well north of 700, have 20% down, and our agent says they're seriously looking to buy, and have been "priced out" (I think he meant "out bid") of the last three houses they've made offers on.

He says they really like the house, and really want to buy it.

He told us he knows they can go higher, so we're in the negotiating stages right now.

We should know tonight if they'll come up enough to satisfy my wife.

The fat lady just might be warming up in the wings.......

Saturday Already?

Gee...time sure flies when you don't know what you're doing....or something like that.

Still Friday, but I'm posting this at 2200, so it probably won't get read by many until Saturday.

Had a busy week. We had five more couples and their realtors come by to check out the house during the week, and we're having another open house Saturday and Sunday.

No offers other than the one couple that backed out.

 I'm starting to think the listing price is too low, and people are saying "What's wrong with the house?" to themselves. One down the street and around the corner finally sold after 60-some days on the market. It was overpriced at $600k, and finally sold for $550k. It was a bit smaller than our house, but had more "modern" upgrades, like the infamous "Granite Countertops!!!", and some other things. We'll just have to see what happens, but at this point, after going through all the hype the first three realtors we interviewed told us, I wouldn't be completely shocked if we didn't get out of here until next Spring. It usually starts snowing in late September in the Fort Collins area, and my wife really, really, really wants to get moved before the snow flies. Once we're settled in to the place we'll be staying at, we can wait it out until Spring to buy, unless a Really Good Deal comes up. Moving is a big enough PITA, let alone doing it during snow season.

Spent three full days on the Iowa this week, which I'm sure is what made the week seem so short. I went down Tuesday for the Great Ethernet Cable Pulling Project, but I was the only one in the work party that showed up! Turns out we'll be going with WiFi instead of being hard-wired in. I haven't heard what type of WiFi router we're going to be using. Hopefully it will be one with some Ethernet ports on it so the two big PC's we have won't need another card installed in them. The laptops we're using for running the logging programs all have built-in WiFi, so no issues there.

Thursday we had a special event to commemorate the signing of the Korean cease-fire, but band conditions were absolutely horrible. The Solar Flux Index was 68 (that's baaaad!), and the bands were noisy. We made a total of 35 contacts on the three stations we had on-the-air from 0900 to 1600 PDST. We can generally get that many per hour, per station, when the band conditions are "good".

And today I was down there to give a personal tour to my late brother-in-law's youngest son, and his two boys, ages 8 and 10. None of them really understood what they were seeing, in terms of history, but they enjoyed it nonetheless.

First Buyer Backed Out.....

Well....we had an offer at the listing price for the house. Our agent said they looked like good, solid people, and their loan pre-approval was for "up to" $550k. The sad thing was that both sets of parents had co-signed on the loan forms, showing that it's tough for a young couple to buy a decent home in SoCal.

Since the listing price is about $15k less than what my wife is willing to accept, and our agent knows this, and agrees with her that the house is really "worth" the amount she wants (which is what the appraisal came in at), he sent them a letter asking them to come back with "Their best, highest price" they were willing to go as our counter offer.

He just called a while ago telling us that while they loved the house, the price they offered was all they could afford, so their original offer was all they were willing to spend.

He said he thanked them, and wished them luck with the purchase of their first home.

This house is only the second one I've had anything to do with buying/selling, so I'm pretty much in uncharted territory here. The last house I bought was in 1987, and we all know how much things have changed since then, especially in the Krazy Kalifornia real estate market!

He's bringing some more agents and clients by Tuesday (tomorrow) to look at the house, so we'll see how that goes.

I have a Doctor's appointment at 0900, and then down to the Iowa for a "Cable Pulling Party". We're putting in five new Ethernet drops for the Comm Center (FACCON 1), and our CTO who runs the network and all the servers on board will be putting us on our own subnet. We'll actually be on our own VPN, which will give us full Internet connectivity, while keeping us isolated from the ship's various internal networks.

All the networking equipment and servers on board are new, first-class stuff he was able to get donated through his contacts, and the network has ample redundancy and back-up servers (also redundant) for our use, so we should have a very dependable, rock-solid network set up once he configures everything. I was the network admin for our little corner of the ship's network, but I'm turning that over to the guy I asked to be Station Manager, and I've been getting him trained up on that. Besides being really good at radio stuff, my "replacement" is also another computer geek, and we've both been using Linux since the early days.

Open Houses and OFFERS!

Having "Day 2" of this round of open house.

We had about 15 people come by yesterday, and the agent said they all looked like solid prospects.

He also brought by our first offer. It was for the listing price, and my wife is insisting we get $15k more than the listing price. $15k above the listed price is what the appraisal is, and would pay for our moving costs.

Hopefully we'll get some more interested, people today.

I don't how youngsters do it these days. Buying a little house like ours at over $500k just seems nuts to me. The only house I've ever owned (so far...this one is really my wife's) was purchased back in 1987 and we paid $156k for it. I was making about $40k a year then, and along with what my then wife was making, we could easily afford it. That house is worth about $450k now. While the price of the house has TRIPLED, I doubt that the wages of the kind of person who would be interested in it have kept pace.

As the last line of "The Bridge On The River Kwai" says........."MADNESS!"

Open House Again Saturday and Sunday.

Hopefully we'll get some more interested people.

Our Realtor is a really cool guy. He's a staunch conservative, NRA Life Member, and so are the rest of his family members. I was supposed to take the dog out the other day when he had the "mini" open house, but just as I was leaving, a potential buyer walked up, so I took the dog out back. After that person left I started talking to him about firearms and things and another couple showed up, so I dragged the dog out again.

We never did make it to the dog park as we had so much fun yakking away between people coming by to look at the house!

Best Commercial EVER!

Saw it on Bill Whittle, and just had to share it.

Busy, Busy Week.....

I was happy to go to "work" on the Iowa today!

We had two realtors bring their clients by on Tuesday, and our realtor brought two people by today.

Thursday he's having a mid-week open house from noon to 1500, so the dog and I will head out to the dog park for a few.

He said mid-week showings allow people who work weekends (typically medical, firefighters, and LEOs) to have some time to look at a house and walk around for more than a few minutes. The people that came yesterday were wearing scrubs, and one was an ER nurse, and the other a physical therapist.

He had expected to get at least one offer this week, but the week is drawing to a close, and he hasn't heard anything yet.

I would expect him to want to have an open house again this weekend, but he hasn't said anything about that so far.

I'll talk to him tomorrow about the upcoming weekend and see what he wants to do....

Second Open House Today. Be Back Around 1500 PDST! **UPDATED**

We had 40 people yesterday. 10 were neighbors who were "just curious", 10 were "lookie-loos" who just like looking at open houses, and 20 were people definitely looking to buy.

Our agent is off today, and is taking his wife out for the day to celebrate their first wedding anniversary.

His Mom will be doing the open house today. She's been selling real estate here in SoCal for 35+ years, so she's seen several bubbles, where the prices went nuts like they are now. It should be interesting to hear what she has to say....

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We "only" had 15 people come through today, BUT...the first couple that came through while I was still there had their realtor with them, always a good sign. If their realtor is taking them around to open houses, it's almost a sure bet they're seriously looking to buy. I had just finished showing "Mom" the house and explaining some of the finer points she didn't know, like we have a whole house water filtration/softener system, and every room is wired with an RG-6QS cable and a cat 6E Ethernet cable, when they came in. The husband wanted to see the garage, and I asked the realtor if it was OK, she said sure. He liked the solid work benches, and the fact I was leaving the four 48" LED overhead light  fixtures I'd put in last summer when I was doing all the work on the Supra.

Our realtor's Mom (a VERY cool lady, BTW..) said that she had two couples come by who had been here yesterday, and they came back with their realtor, and were asking fairly detailed questions about the house and neighborhood, another good sign that we have some pretty solid buyers checking the place out.

After I got back today (little Pebbles has had TWO days in the dog park! YIPIEE!) I spent some time talking with her and she said if we didn't at least get a couple of offers this week she'd be surprised, which pretty much echoed what her son told us yesterday before he left.

SO....I'd hazard a guess to say the house will sell, and fairly soon. We're priced very fairly compared to some of the other houses in the immediate area that have slightly bigger lots, but the people are asking $65~$75k more than we are, and those house have been on the market for 4 weeks or longer.

Open House Today.....Be Back Later

The agent dropped by and is out running around putting up his signs.

The open house is from 1100~1500, so we have to be out of here. We're taking the dog to the dog park, but before we do that  we have some "Hazardous Waste" to drop off in San Pedro.

Got some used motor oil that has water in it, so the auto parts stores won't take it, along with some old paint, RoundUp, bug spray, oven cleaner, and junk like that.

The wife would have taken it in to the Long Beach place, but they're only open one weekend per month!

Se y'all after about 1530 PDST!

Another Step Closer....***UPDATED***

Well, our little place is now listed.

The listing price is what the agent told us, slightly under the appraisal, and he expects "solid" buyers will bid it up a bit to meet the appraisal.

LL stopped by today to pick up the big Pelican case I bought years ago when I had vision of operating Maritime Mobile from the Sea Launch ship I was on. It turned out that getting a Reciprocal Operating Permit from the ship's flag country was extremely difficult, and those plans never happened. I was happy to see the case going to somebody who'll use it!

And the dog treated him like she's known him for years.

Today I got the wireless doorbell working again (dirty battery contacts), changed out the old, worn-looking toilet seat, replaced the switch for the ceiling fan in the Radio Room, dragged all the "eWaste" down to the collection place, and did the vacuuming. There's only one street-view photo of the house, as the photographer had to back out Wednesday, and won't be here until Friday afternoon.

Saturday is the first open house, from 1100 to 1500, so we'll take the dog to the big dog park, and let her run until she drops!

The photographer and agent just left. They were here for a couple of hours taking lots of pix.  The pix will be processed (he shoots in RAW format) and posted with the listing later this afternoon.

The agent also want a second open house on Sunday, also from 1100 to 1500.

Looks like the dog will get a lot of park time this weekend!

"Deep Cleaners" Here Today / Other Progress **Updated**

Finally got the radio room suitably "emptied" in preparation for the cleaners to take a whack at it.

They've been working in the kitchen for several hours, and are almost done in there. Next is the "master" bedroom, then the bathroom, then the front bedroom, bathroom and finally Radio Central.

Oh, and the living/dining area.

They're very thorough and "bubbly/perky" young ladies.

The gardener came again today with his big truck, and hauled away a ton of trash. The city also came by and picked up all the stuff we had by the curb. Long Beach gives you three "Large Item" pick ups per year, and we still have two we can use.

I think the cleaners will have to come back tomorrow, as it's already 1210, and considering how thorough they are, I just don't think they'll be done by 1700. The quote was for "Monday and possibly Tuesday", and I'm guessing they'll need at least part of Tuesday to finish. I also have to drop, disassemble, and pack the tripod/mast my discone is on, and the mast on the side of the house holding the weather station and another small VHF/UHF vertical antenna.

The photographer is coming by on Wednesday, and the house gets listed Thursday.

The realtor told us the market in this part of town is "crazy hot", and he had the sales figures to back it up. He thinks we should get some good, solid offers the first week, and it should definitely be under contract well before the end of July.

That means we'll be outta here by the end of August, possibly the middle of August.

I have quite a few items in the garage that the movers will not ship, so I'll either rent a trailer to pull behind the Jeep, or a big "Box Van" like I rented when I moved here to Kaliforniastan some 35 years ago.......

-More to come-

Holy smokes, the house positively sparkles! 

They even managed to make Radio Central here look good.

My hats are off to the young ladies who showed up on time, didn't take any breaks, and worked seven hours straight to clean the house.

We not only paid them the agreed upon price (which my wife haggled down before they came), but we also tipped each of them $20 each.