Thursday, May 24, 2007

House--not just a TV drama, Kristin

Okay. So its been a week since I sent out a frantic email about our house sale falling through. Needless to say, we are continuing on our fine streak of bad luck. The timeline so far.

April Good Friday 2006 put house on the market
July 2006 lower the price
September 2006 lower the price
October: recieve first offer--a contingency.
January: contingency expires, negotiate an extension
February: extension expires, put it back on the market
April: lower price.
April: get offer--woo, hoo, close date May 15.
May 12: engaged couple split up while measuring for hardwood floors, offer falls apart.
May 14: desperate plea for a miracle.
May 15: offer officially falls apart.
May 16: house back on the market
May 18: new offer recieved.
M1y 20: offer rejected for being to0 low.
May 24: new offer proposed, and accepted to close mid July.
May 25: FINGERS CROSSED!

Its been a real roller coaster, and I have to commend our friend and realtor Curt Britson. If he charged us for the over the phone counseling and all the extra hassle having us overseas has caused, we'd just sign it over to him. We might even be home in July during the closing, so we can dig up our statue of St. Joseph and swear off religious iconography forever.

Unfortunately, our housing luck seems to have followed us here. The timeline goes like this.

Jan 4: Stay in a hostel in a room 8 ft X 8 ft.
Jan 8: Move to Silver suite of holiday accomodation in S. Fremantle.
Jan 18: Move to Gold suite of holiday accomodation.
Jan 25: Move to rental property in Hamilton Hill.
Feb - Mar: Buy furniture, get to know the neighborhood.
April 18: Get a call from rental property agents, the owners want to move back in! Will we shorten our lease and find a new place to stay.
April 25: Agree to look at new rental properties, if they pay moving costs.
p.s. My boss hands in resignation, Dr. in Emergency Center hurts her back, we both start working like crazy.
Apr 25-May 15: Begin negotiating what moving costs will be covered. Start looking at properties.
May 15: Discover moving costs, meant paying for the truck. (get notice about house falling through), decide its too much all at once, decide not to move.
May 20: Receive notice that our rent has increased by 15%.

May 25: Nathan and I are following his original plan, living in a classic VW pop top camper van on the beach. Visitors are still welcome, you can use our tent.

3 comments:

Elwood said...

Dude...I'm not sure what to say, but since I'm closer to Minnesota then you are, if there's anyone you want leaned on (swipes nose with thumb), you let me know.

I kind of like the RV on the beach idea. Hobo chic. As long as it isn't a van down by the river, you're good.

Dirty pool with the raised rent there...was your lease MxM, or do Aussie laws differ on how and when rents can be modified?

Aqua Chiffon said...

Holy crap. I'm never selling my house. I had a dream about your house the other day. Well, it wasn't ABOUT your house, it just took place IN your house.

I say boo hoo, so sad, too bad to the apartment owners.

Things HAVE to settle down eventually, right??

Nathan said...

I don't blame our landlords for raising the rent (well not really, well maybe just a little) because rental properties in Perth are going up and they might not be able to find a property to rent at the price they rented to us. It just seems like the last straw.

Actually, just when I think its the last straw, there's another straw. So maybe I need to give up camel analogies. KM