Independence Day has a new meaning for me now!

We put our house in Virginia on the market in April of 2014. After many showings and price changes the comments were always the same. Love the house, hate the lot! For us empty nesters the drastic down hill slope in the back yard was never an issue. We don`t have young kids, our grandchildren lived too far away for it to be an issue, and we loved the view. The problem was that people with young kids kept looking at the house and hating the slope of the lot.

There were several people that were interested but never gave us an offer, just disappointment. Here are just a few:

First, We had the Doctor and his wife that loved the house, but couldn't keep their kids in the same school. They wouldn't even follow through with the school system to see if they would allow it.

Next, The Question Guy, who was a cash buyer that came back 3 times and stayed for over an hour each time asking many, many questions. He came over the Thanksgiving weekend and interrupted our time with family asking the dumbest questions, and then never made an offer. We must have heard 10 times that our house was at the top of his list. He is still in temp housing and probably asking someone else questions.

Then there was the FSBO (for sale by owner) couple that loved the house and even came back to measure the rooms. Their house went up for sale a month later by owner, and then a few months later it was listed with a agent. It is still for sale.

There was the  retired Air Force woman that came back a few times. She could not get past the backyard and even had someone give them an estimate on how much it would cost to fill in the back yard. I think they were talking a $100k. Too much! There heads are in the clouds. Pun definitely intended!

The new backyard!

In May of 2015 we invested several thousand dollars and had a retaining wall built in the back and had the yard filled in. Was not even close to a $100k. It turned out great and gave a great space for a back yard.  We were ready for families to come and see the great change in the yard.

Then in June while we were on vacation there was the Contingency couple. They loved the house and wanted to make an offer contingent on selling their house. They left for their vacation for 10 days and were going to make an offer on the 28th of June, the day after they returned. Their agent called the next day telling us that they had way too much work to do on their house before it can be put on the market, and that they were going to wait to make the offer. Their agent did not think it was fair to take our house off the market for that long. Thanks Miss Deal Killer.

While on Vacation the last thing we wanted to do was think about selling our house.

We dropped the price another 25k on July 1st.  On July 3rd we were flying back to VA to spend the Independence Day Holiday at the house, and do some major purging of stuff. When we landed our agent had sent us a text telling us that we had a showing at 4 pm. We landed at 1 pm and needed to get to the house, and out again for the showing. The people showed up and stayed for 2 hours.  I am not sure what you can do in someone else`s house for 2 hours. They did have some questions after the showing, and then on the 5th the wife came back for a second showing and stayed another hour. What could she possible be looking at? They loved the house and there was talk of an offer. After waiting until the 7th we gave them a one time offer of; another big price cut, no contingencies and they had 24 hours to respond. We got a offer and the start of our independence from that house. July 8th is our new Independence Day!

Happy 8th of July!