We drove into delightful downtown Elgin, past lovely & huge old craftsman-style homes to an adorable little house from the 60s with a stone fireplace, 0.4-acre backyard, and workshop out back. You can walk to downtown Elgin from there! It's just a couple of blocks from the library! And from a park! The price was great and I was getting the this-might-be-it butterflies in my stomach. So we got on the phone right away (it was a Sunday) and started making appointments with agents.
We ended up interviewing 2 agents (all the literature recommends interviewing multiple agents, preferably 3), but we're probably not going to do that again. Rejecting the one guy whom we had to talked with for 2 hours just felt very icky. I know it's part of the process and the Cycle of Life and all that, but we hated it all the same. (I should fess up, here: Matt delivered the death stroke by phone while I cowered in another room and tried not to think about it. It was very gentlemanly of him to volunteer for executioner duty--he's got such sturdy moral fiber.)
Anyway, we toured the inside of the ducky little house in downtown Elgin with the victorious realtor, looked at some utterly charmless comps that cost more and were in less desireable neighborhoods, took a deep breath, and said, "Let's do it!" Mary (our realtor) was going to draw up the papers the next day, but she called us the following morning to tell us that house was ALREADY OFF THE MARKET! As it turns out, the seller's execrably lackadaisical realtor just never bothered to update the MLS listing--it had been under contract before we ever clapped eyes on it.
So, so, so very depressed.
"What," I asked all the well-meaning people who tried to cheer me up, "are the chances we're going to find another adorable older house in good repair in walking distance of a cute little downtown, within 30 minutes of Austin with a workshop in the back yard and .4 acres of land??"
And in that glum frame of mind, I headed off to a company conference for a week.
(to be continued...)
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2 comments:
So the house in the pic is the one that you are closing on, correct? Because it is nice looking, and I am very happy for you. Have fun redecorating it, it is a pia, that you will always look back on fondly.
Mary V
Thanks, Mary! Yes, the picture is the real house--the flowers are hypothetical, but the house is real. We're really looking forward to getting in there and making it our own!
--Melanie
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