.So here we were, all five of us, freshly back from a trip to Switzerland and several thousand dollars poorer. We had scarcely unpacked our bags when we got a call from our landlady saying that she might want to sell the house to us after all. What had lead up to this situation was this: After she had told us "no, she didn't want to sell at this time" in February, we had decided to blow our cash on this overseas trip instead.
On the same day that we got this phone call with the offer to buy the house my boss told me that he had not been lucky in securing funds for our research and hence there would be no salary money for me starting August 1.
What to do? Common sense would say to play it safe and pass up the offer given our present cash balance and employment outlook. But we loved the house and certainly did not want to move if it were to be sold to someone else. Besides, house prices were steadily climbing, mortgage rates were at an all-time low and anyway, saying no is not our forte.
So we decided to take the plunge and go for it.
The financing was to be private through the seller, hence it would save us a bundle. Because no agent was involved, we got an offer that was considerably lower than the going price at that time. To top it all off, our landlady said she didn't want any points for the mortgage. We readily agreed on all terms of the purchase. A couple of hectic weeks followed and we closed on May 29, 1998.
The whole thing set us back well under $10,000 in cash for a house that
cost $182,000 and is now (Nov. 12, 1998) worth
almost $230,000. Never had that much return on investment...
Sometimes fools get lucky, too!
Someday I'll get around to putting an actual picture of the house here. In the meantime, a view from the house up along Erlanger St. will have to do.
I started working full-time for Research Computing on Aug. 1, making more than ever before and I love the job. Sometimes fools get lucky twice!