The Secret Is Out

WE'RE MOVING!!!!

The past 30 days were a whirlwind. Our friends, who live in Colorado Springs, were looking for a larger single story home over their current smaller two story. Being me, I was like, "We should tour model homes, you guys would LOVE new construction!" They agreed and on we went. Zack and I were also toying with the idea of moving but nothing was for sure as we didnt like anything on the market and honestly we still weren't sure if we wanted to stay in Pueblo, Move to Arizona or move back to Colorado Springs, we were just tagging along to hangout with dear friends and see some pretty houses. Then... then it happened. We toured this amazing model home in the perfect neighborhood with the perfect price point and we fell in love and said, "maybe we should consider this." After checking their reviews we were devastated to find out that the homes were poorly built and had several BBB complaints (in the thousands!) Ultimately, we just couldnt do it but in that instant we realized what we hadn't before... we wanted to be back in Colorado Springs. Once we realized that we just kept checking out the listings and seeking out model homes. One day. my friend and I were driving around a newer neighborhood we hadn't been in before and stumbled upon these gorgeous craftsman style homes. We drove around until we found the model (always look for the flags!) and we toured the model. It was GORGEOUS! My friend fell in LOVE. She called her husband and within 24 hours they were under contract on their new house! Me, I was more hesitant. Yes, it was gorgeous but the price was significantly higher than what I thought I could afford and all the homes were either two story or single story with a full basement (still considered a two story in my opinion!) and were much larger than I had wanted. I felt a little bummed until the realtor for the property told me they has ONE floor plan that they offered without a basement. ONE! Zack and I figured it wouldnt hurt to check it out and set up a tour. There were things I didn't love right away but as I walked into each room I started imaging our furniture and seeing us living there and i started thinking, this could work.

The realtor explained that they were almost out of lots and had only three of these plans left. One ready in early July, one in late July and one in mid August. We liked the floor plan but we knew that in order for this house to be our dream home we would need to pick everything: the floors, the paint, the counters, the carpet, all of it. However, the realtor explained that most of these homes were already designed months ago and it was too late in the game to make any changes. But he said that maybe, just maybe the August one wasnt through the design process yet and he'd let us know. Zack and I went home thinking, if its meant to be it will be and we tried to go about our routine as normal.

 The next day, sitting in the Taco Bell drive thru, we got the text: The August house HASNT been through design yet, if you want it I'll need your cabinet selection by tonight! We weren't even pre-approved yet! We weren't even sure we wanted this big of a move yet either but we said, "We want the grey ones!" and we waited anxiously for the lender to call us back. Again, we said, "if its meant to be it will be."  

The pre-approval came through a couple hours later. 

Things moved so quickly after that night. We hired a great realty team who quickly put together a plan to sell our current home while simultaneously working to get everything set with the new house. We were prepared for our current house to sit for a while, we knew the market in this area isnt as hot as it is in Colorado Springs (our friends sold their house for full asking price without ever actually listing!) so we decided to put the house up for sale ASAP to make sure we could get an offer before the new house was done.

A week later the photographer came and took pictures of the house and the next morning at 9am the listing went live but then, the SAME DAY our neighbor 5 houses down listed his house for $10k UNDER our price. It was smaller but was immaculate and had the back yard landscaped (we do not). Our realtor was honest and told us it could effect us negatively but to hang in there and no worry if it took a few days or even a week to get a showing. Zack just kept telling me not to worry and whatever happened it would be OK. 30 min later I get a text that we had a showing for that evening. Four hours later, another showing  for that day. An hour later another showing for the next day. Boom boom boom we had showings right away. It felt surreal, like maybe this is really going to happen after all.

The first showing came at 4:30p and the second at 5:30p. By 9pm we had an offer from the first showing! Our realtor advised us to hold off and see how the other showings would go the next day as the offer was a little less than what we hoped for and she was certain others would make offers too.

The next day came and we had a showing at 11am . Each person that had walked the house immediately left and went to the neighbors house. We were upset, we wanted our neighbor to sell but we also needed our house to sell and it seemed like all our buyers were more interested in his house than ours, to be honest my faith in our realtor swayed a bit. I was hoping we didnt just pass up the only offer we might get. We held tough though and by 5pm that evening we had THREE offers. Every person that had toured the house made an offer! The first was a re-submitted offer from the first people coming in at the same price as before but offering to let us stay in the home until the new house was finished, the second was a low-ball offer $20k under asking and the third was over asking but she wanted us to move within 30 days.  We weren't sure what to do. I mean, it would be awesome to get MORE than our asking price but where would we live for the next 2 months with THREE dogs? It would be really nice to stay in this house but we wouldn't walk away with as much money and moving to a new city again means leaving my job so we really were hoping for more. We decided to reply back to both the strong offers and agreed that whoever answered first was meant to be and we would be happy with whatever we were handed. At 9pm we got a text from our realtor saying we were under contract with the first people! Of course we wished we could have walked away with more, Id be lying if I said it wasnt a little disappointing, but i also felt relieved. Being able to move right into the new house would make things so much easier on us and our dogs so we feel pretty happy with our decision now.

So here we are, under contract on both houses, one selling and one buying. We've gone through the design process with the new house and we visit it at least once a week to see the progress. Our best friends will be living about 5 houses down from us and we are so excited to be able to see them more often and to be back in a larger city that we know and love.

I will have a post up soon with all the details on the new house: the floorplan, the design and the current status of the build (spoiler alert: we have walls!)

Until next time!
--Jackie