A hiccup!

Ray left work a little early today so we could meet at the Title Company in Atascadero to have our Grant Deed signature notarized. Afterwards we drove up to Paso to have a look at the Chevy Uplander which we are considering renting (or purchasing) for our cross-country trip. My cell phone rang and it was our realtor....she dropped a big bomb.....the buyers cancelled escrow!! The guy lost his job today!! We are in shock!

INSPECTION WEEK!!

We had a lot of inspections at our house this week! PEST, MATTRESS and finally today a HOME INSPECTION. We were supposed to have our septic tank inspected this week but it got rescheduled for Monday.
The Home Inspector was here for almost 3 hours! His inspection took a couple of hours and then the remainder of his time here he was talking with the prospective buyers and their Realtor.
I watched most of the activity from the Wenzels' house down the hill. I got a little teary-eyed when the young couple who is buying our house walked happily up our driveway. I guess that is when it hit me! Someone else is moving into our house!!
It is going to be a long weekend waiting to hear back from our Realtor what the Home Inspection found and what the buyers would like for us to take care of.

ESCROW!

OUR OFFER WAS ACCEPTED!!!
We are officially in escrow! The buyers want a 45 day escrow or sooner if they can do it!
We are really excited about it but nothing is truly set until April 2nd or 3rd (17 days into escrow).

FINALLY.........AN OFFER!

We finally received an offer on our house! It is a bit of an unusual offer....the interested buyers also submitted an offer for another house in Paso Robles at the same time. They wanted to see who would respond with the best offer that they could afford.
We counter-offered and the buyers have until Friday at 7:30pm to respond. We are excited to finally get an offer and the buyers seem serious but we can't get too excited until we hear their response....
While we wait with baited breath we are taking advantage of the warm evenings out on our front deck enjoying the views and a glass of Rabbit Ridge Primitivo!

Soaking it all in.

The house is still on the market. We usually get one interested buyer come by each week. Each time it is the same story......."love the house, hate the driveway...". We lowered the price again to $397,000. We don't plan on lowering further at this point. We are enjoying Atascadero and thankful that we are here. Laura worked a temporary job for the City of Atascadero for about 2 months. The photo on the left is the original City Hall that was damaged two years ago in the San Simeon earthquake. The new city hall is now in a remodeled building that used to be the local bowling alley. We are soaking in everything we love about living here since we don't really know how much longer we will be here. We are thankful for Calvary Chapel Atascadero and how the Word is preached so faithfully and that prayer is such a high priority! We are also thankful for the friends we have gotten to know!
A few of the places we have been to help us soak it in:
1) Reagan Library in Simi Valley.
2) L'Aventure Winery for Laura's Birthday with Jack and Paula and James and Kellie 3) The Beach!

A Great Realtor and New Price!

We got another response with feedback from a Realtor who came by with an interested buyer.

Hi Jean, My client did like your property alot.  They are
shopping though and I don't expect them to make up their
mind before Christmas.  Thank you for making it available!  

We love our Realtor! We are really thankful that we have Jean representing our house! She is doing a great job advertising our house! The house will be listed in the January issue of Homes and Land Magazine. She understands the strength of the internet and has our house listed on quite a few websites.
www.zillow.com, www.jeanponek.com, www.livedeal.com, zzstar.com and craigslist!

We decided to wait until after Christmas to have an Open House. We have heard from a couple of Realtors that Open Houses aren't very effective. We really don't want to waste anyone's time on something that doesn't really work!

We lowered the price of the house this week to $409,000 which may seem insignificant but according to Jean: "We may consider dropping the price to $399,999 - $409,000, to get it below the $410,000. This will bring it to peoples attention again in the MLS and with the interest rates dropping might stimulate a bit more activity"

Looking up!

The housing market seems to be looking up! Jean (our Realtor) says that she has gotten quite a few calls this week from buyers who are looking for houses in the area. She also said that she has spoken with other Realtors in the area whose phones are "ringing off the hook" from buyers. That is some good news! This time of year is notoriously bad for selling a house but according to Jean buyers who are looking now are usually more serious...not your average "lookie-loos".
Apparently the lowered interest rates have made it more enticing for buyers.
This is an article on the web from yesteray:
"The decline in mortgage rates and the slowing in home price appreciation, along with the buildup in inventories, has led to a much better situation for home buyers through increased affordability as well as more inventory to choose from," he said. "Households are saying on surveys that home buying conditions have improved notably, and that has coincided with the stabilization in home sales." (USA TODAY DEC 6, 2006)