Step Two: Making an offer

We lowballed the offer.  As I said, the house was being sold “as is”, but it still clearly needed a decent amount of work.  We knew that the septic system would need to be replaced shortly after we moved in, a job for which the owner had already gotten a plan and permit for, and for which the bill was going to be $30,000.  We also knew that the house had already been on the market for over a year and a half and that the owners needed to sell as quickly as possible.  Knowing all this, we offered a price below our target price with the hope that after negotiation we would end up at or lower our target.  When we made our offer, the seller’s real estate agent told us to draw up the paperwork without even consulting her client if she wanted to negotiate.  We were a little surprised, but hoped this meant we were going to get the property for our initial offer.  After drawing up the paperwork and having our lawyer review it, we submitted it to the owner.

We heard back in a few days that the owner wanted more money and wanted to move the closing date back from our October offer to December.  She told us she had spoken with her lawyer and couldn’t accept anything less than the price that was our initial target price.  We were disappointed.  Even though we had initially expected to negotiate, we had gotten excited about the possibility of not having to do so.  Now with the price increasing, we took a step back to reevaluate if this was really what we wanted.  We talked about it, we worried about it, we stayed overnight in a B&B in the town to see what my husband’s commute would be like, and finally we decided yes we would go forward with another offer.

We still didn’t raise our price to what the seller had basically told us was her minimum, though.  We offered a price midway between our initial offer and her minimum, in the hopes we might still get the property for less.  But she remained firm, so in the end we met her minimum, which was our target price to begin with.  We also pushed the closing back to the week between Christmas and New Years to minimize our closing costs.  With the new offer submitted and accepted we had two weeks to start our inspections and surveys. 

Step One: Finding Property

Our method of finding property was probably not how most people go about it.  We were not actively looking for land when we discovered the property we ultimately purchased.  And we never viewed or considered any other property.

I’m not sure what prompted my husband to look, but one afternoon he sent me the link to a listing in our target area.  The price was more than our target, and it already had a house on it, so it would not normally have shown up in our search results.  After talking it over, we decided it wouldn’t hurt to look at it, so I contacted a real estate agent who is a friend of my family.  I went with her to see the place without my husband.



Plastic Sheeting Greenhouse

We knew from the listing that the house on the property was in a pretty poor state and was being sold “as is”.  Since our plan was to tear the existing house down, it was a bit weird to still walk through the house and ask questions about it.  I learned that the house is about 200 years old, that the portion in the front with the living room and dining room was original, but that the back portion with the kitchen was added on later.  I also got to tour some of the large backyard, which is mostly wooded with a small creek running through, and a nice lawn area around the house.  My first impression of the property was that it met our needs in terms of size and shape, but the house was definitely not worth fixing up and needed to be torn down.  I told my husband about the property and house, including some of the more amusing features, such as a plastic sheeting greenhouse, and a “master bedroom” with cardboard ceiling.  We agreed that he should see it before we made any decisions.



Master Suite with Cardboard Ceiling



After my husband saw the property, and we explored a greater portion of the back yard, his impression was not nearly as dour as mine regarding the house.  He felt that many of the things that made it look rundown were cosmetic and that structurally it was pretty sound.  We talked and talked about the property, spoke to the township about zoning and other regulations we might encounter if we purchased the property, and finally agreed to make an offer.  One of the major selling points of this particular property was the existing structure.  We agreed that we would be able to live in it temporarily while we built our dream home, saving us the cost of rent while we built.

And so it began. . .