Living and Loving: Changes for the Roemhildt Family Part 2

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Changes for the Roemhildt Family Part 2

Sunday June 10th we truly enjoyed a restful Sunday. James was released from his calling in Young Mens. We took a family walk and had a potluck dinner with friends.

Monday morning we got a call from our buyer's realtor letting us know the inspection was scheduled for Tuesday. We decided we should go back to Eugene to finalize our loan stuff and to put an offer on a house. The kids weren't too excited to make the trip down to Eugene again so we called up my Sister Tessha to see if she would be interested in watching the kids for us.

She said YES! I'm so thankful for her willingness to serve our family.

I took Everett to a friend's birthday party and we took a family walk to the dog part monday evening for Family Home Evening. Knowing tomorrow Tessha would come and watch the kids for us while we made a quick trip to Eugene.

Tuesday morning I went to my Orthodontist appointment and when i got back Tessha was here.

She took the kids out to lunch and to the library while the inspection took place.

James and I drove down to Eugene and met up with our banker for finalize loan information. then we met up with our Realtor Lori and she had a few more houses she wanted to show us. James and I looked at 9 more houses that night and the next day and then we asked to see the Silver Lane House again. The one I wanted to put an offer in on.

After seeing the other houses. Neither James or I where 100% sure about the Silver Lane House. It was small but it was budget friendly. We had to decide between getting a newer bigger more expensive house with higher taxes but could fit our family for years to come vs. getting a smaller house with a big backyard that's we'd probably outgrow in 5 years.

Knowing we needed to get back to the kids we called Tessha to check in. She told us to stay one more night that she didn't need us back right away. Thank you TESSHA!

James found a cute Bed and Breakfast for us to spend the night. When we checked in they upgraded our stay to a fancy room with a jacuzzi tub. I sweet tender mercy for an emotional pregnant mama like myself. After getting some dinner and cleaning up for an exhausting day. James and I sat down and prayerfully consider our options. It was a rough decision but by morning we where ready to put an offer in our Silver Lane House. We called up Lori our Realtor and told her are decision.

Silver Lane was not her first pick for us, and you could tell she was slightly disappointed in our decision. I think that was the hardest part. But after we assured her this is what we wanted she was okay with it and told us to meet her at her office in an hour so sign papers.

When we got to Lori's office she told us she had just gotten off the phone with the Silver Lane Realtor and they had two other offers submitted this morning. One was a cash offer and the other was a really good offer. She told us that they wouldn't be accepting our offer.

That's when I lost it. big fat tears rolled down my cheeks and I just needed a minute to breath. Lori set us up in in office to view more houses while she made a few more phone calls.

after and hour of searching more houses. I just wanted to go home. Lori insisted we look at a few more houses before we headed back to Tacoma. So we went to a few more houses. Nothing stood out. So before we went home Lori took us out to lunch. after lunch James and I drove around for a bit and just talked. We had an offer on our house, we had a closing date and a move out date but we didn't have a place to live. We talked about the more expensive house, it also had offers submitted that morning and was not an option. Then we talked about our third option, An expensive old house that needed a lot of work but could fit our family for years to come and was in nice neighborhood.

Before we left Eugene James drove by the Yellow house one last time. He got out of the car and walked around for a bit. Soon two neighbors came out and James started chatting with them. I finally got out of the car and enjoyed the visit. The neighbor next door had a 9 year old and a 6 year old as well and talked highly of the schools. It wasn't our first choice but it could possibly work. The money was still a big concern for me and I didn't like that the house didn't have a dining room but if this is where we needed to be we'd make it workout somehow.

We left Eugene feeling defeated and yet hopeful.

When we got home around 9pm Tessha took off to get back to your family. Thank you Tessha for all your help.

Soon after arriving home Lori called to check in. We told her we'd like to put an offer in on the Yellow House. We couldn't offer asking price (at the time is was 350,000.) but we'd probably be able to offer 330,000.

Immediately she got to work. at midnight James and I signed the final papers and went to bed.

The next day I ran a few errands for our house and when I came home to pay some bills I checked my email. There in the inbox was a notice letting me know the Silver Lane house had dropped in price and was still on the market. I was shocked! I called James over to tell him and he assured me he already knew and had already texted Lori.

Lori called back a few minutes later and suggested we stick with the Yellow house. She told us to try not to think about the Silver Lane House that things happen for a reason.

She was right, last night James and I where both okay with the idea of the Yellow house. I left to run a few more errands but the whole time I was gone I kept thinking about the price difference and that the Silver Lane house met our needs.

I came back home to pick up kids and take them to Preston's birthday party. james had planned to stay home and work on projects but I really wanted to talk with him in person. So James jumped into the car and we all went to Preston's Party. Thankfully we had a two hour drive and a half an hour into our drive we both agreed we wanted to try for the Silver Lane house.

We called up Lori again and told her to retract our offer on the Yellow house. She said okay and got to work getting an offer submitted for the Silver Lane house. YAY! maybe? I hope this was the right thing to do.

We enjoyed Preston's Birthday party. The kids had so much fun playing with Cousins.

On our way home for the birthday party We got an email letting us know that our buyers had reviewed the inspection report and had a few requests before closing.

They wanted us to hire an electrician to look at some aluminum wires that where noted on our breaker box, They wanted us to install earthquake ties to our water heater and they wanted us to flush are sew line and have it rescoped. Sigh.

We agreed putting the earthquake ties on the water heater was an easy fix so we'd do that. The other two concerns they brought up we weren't so sure about. We felt fairly confident in the electrical updates that we made when we first bought the house but hiring an electrician to check it out could become costly if the electrician decided we needed to fix anything. Not to mention the patching of drywall that we'd need to do after said updates were completed. The sewer line could easily be done but what if they found a leak in the line or damage was done during the flushing of the pipes? And then we had to take into account that James would be moving to Eugene in a week and we only had a week to get the jobs done. Plus the money we'd need to pay for these said jobs. What if we did the work but more issues arose and the buyers backed out? Can you feel our stress levels rising?

After talking to a few friends we decided to counter offer. We'd give the buyers credit at the time of closing for them to do further investigations concerning the electrical and sewer line if they decided.

We text the buyers Realtor letting her know we wouldn't have time to address the concerns and that we'd be willing to offer money at closing instead.

We submitted our counter offer and waited.

Their Realtor responded less then happy with our counter offer. She said the buyers were considering backing out. And she told us that these issues would be issues with any buyer wanting to buy the house.

At this point James and I where both super stressed out. We had just put an offer in on the Silver lane House and now the buyers for our Tacoma house where going to back out.

James called a few plumper and got quotes for the sewer line flush. the cheapest one we found was 700.00 and easily more.

I strongly felt like we shouldn't go down that route. That we placed our house on the market at the price we did because it was an older house that would need attention. The buyers where young and both in college they didn't have extra funds for projects and our house was going to need work. I felt that if we needed to put the house back on the market we'd find the right buyers. So if we had to lose the Silver lane house in the meantime that would be okay. Putting our house back on the market would also give me more time in the Tacoma area while James got settled in Eugene. It wasn't our first choice but it wasn't the worst choice either.

After another round of heart wrenching prayers. To told the Buyer's realtor that we where firm in our decision.

A day went by, no word from the buyers realtor.

Things where moving forward with the Silver Lane house and we wanted to know if we should be backing out.

So we text the buyers Realtor kindly asking if they were still interested in the house because if not we'd like to relist our house and put in back on the market as soon as possible. We even told her we'd drop the sells price if they wanted to continue with the sell.

A few hours later we got their response. They still wanted the house and they just asked us to drop the sales price by 1,000.00 DONE!

Hugh sigh a relief.

I felt so good after hearing everything. James was still unsure about the process and brought up a concern about the Buyer's lender not lending them the money if the issues weren't fixed. We still have to wait an see. But for right now, The title company has contacted us and we have set a date for signing the closing papers for our Tacoma house.

We got the inspection report back from the Silver Lane house and although there are few issues we would like to have addressed we're not super concerned with any of the issues.

Overall, it looks like it just might work out. But seeing how everything has unfolded i'm not holding my breath. There are still more variables that could change the path.

As of right now James will start work on Monday June 25th. He'll come back to Tacoma on Friday and we'll sign closing papers for the Tacoma house. Saturday we'll load up the moving truck and take our stuff to Eugene to be stored in a storage unit until we can close on the Silver Lane House.

The kids and I will stay in the Tacoma house with our camping gear until July 6th then I'll drive down to the Oregon coast for the Thomas Family Reunion. James will meet us for my birthday and then go back to Eugene to work.

Hopefully we'll have a house to move into at some point in July. Right now are closing date for the Silver Lane house is July 26th but our Realtor and Lender are working hard to close sooner. Possibly July 16th. Fingers Crossed.

We're thankful for all the prayers, said in our behalf.

I'm grateful for my Testimony of Jesus Christ. I pray we are doing what's right for our family. And have learned to accept the unknown.

In Between the moments of stress and unknown we've been able to focus on our family and enjoy some wonderful moments together.