Willow & Twig

Was it Covid? Do we have a problem? Whatever the cause, it was the perfect storm, because we just bought a BIG time fixer upper sight-unseen. And then turned around and sold our dream home. In 6 hours.

Two weeks into quarantine Simeon and were enjoying a Saturday morning cup of coffee and silently perusing Zillow (mind you. this is a relaxing exercise for us, we were not looking to buy/sell). I pulled up a listing I’d quickly passed by in the weeks prior – a lovely 1960s tri-level with a horrific layout that had not been updated since the day it was built. It was just three miles from our current home and close to downtown… but here’s the glorious kicker: it was lake property. A small fishing lake, but three acres with water access, none-the-less.

Please note this was not love-at-first-sight. My heart rate did not increase. My eyes did not turn green. Perhaps is was a hint of bordem that prodded me to text Simeon the listing and lazily look his way to ask, “Should we offer $130k less than asking? Just see what they say?”

There was a long pause as he scrolled through the pictures, “How about $120k below asking? It sounds better.” And that, my young, unmarried friends, is how you know you have found your soulmate. So I did. I shot an email off to the realtor and hardly expected to hear back.

Fast forward all the phone calls, letter writing, emails, and two weeks later we found ourselves with a counteroffer that just was two good to pass up. The only barrier to signing an agreement? Wave inspection (no problem); sell your current house (whhhut?). The seller would not lock in the offer until we had a signed purchase agreement on our home. Immediately I forged through my unorganized digital library to find some decent house pictures and wrote up a Zillow listing. In the past, it’s taken about three days for a listing to upload. On that particular Saturday, it took three hours. Suddenly we found ourselves with a house for sale by owner and our whole lives in limbo. Within the hour I had two virtual walk-throughs set up (remember, at this point the Governor had made it illegal to show houses due to the Stay at Home Order to decrease the spread of Covid-19). I had the first video walk-through at 5pm and by 7 pm a signed full-price offer in hand.

In short, I think I just accidentally sold my historic dream home for a rundown pile of work with a LOT of money. We’ll just call it the project on the horizon. I’m excited for the challenge. And while I’m sad to leave the most beautiful sun-filled house I’ve ever had the pleasure of dreaming up, I also feel this is a good next step for the family. Chickens and a dog in the horizon? (because the updates to this house will take ALLLLLL our money we’ll need to live off eggs and fish). Wish us luck!