The Story of How We Bought Blake Hill House – Part III

Part I
Part II

Oh good! You are still reading. I thought I might have lost you. TLDR is a real thing.

As I mentioned in Part II, I wanted to stay in California for a long time, maybe even forever. The kids and I carved out a great life for ourselves, but it was harder for Andy. He hated the hot weather, and he had spent 2-3 hour per day commuting to work for 15 years. It had taken a toll. We had talked about moving for years, but the conversations never ended with a decision.

There were a few bumps in the road that finally pushed us forward. First, our son got sick, and he required long-term, specialized care. Once he was stabilized, we began to consider that we needed a stronger medical support system than we would find in the Central Valley of California. Next, my Dad died unexpectedly. We were all shaken up by this sad turn of events, and it jolted us out of our complacency. Lastly, you may have read that there is a severe drought in California. Wells have dried up, and there is only a small hope of finding more water once a new one is drilled. Nearby towns ran completely dry. We were very concerned about the quality of life in our area. I am barely touching on these difficult subjects, but the combination of all three helped make the decision for Andy to accept a job offer completely across the United States, a more obvious choice.

I won’t lie. I cried for a few minutes every day, the farther we got away from California on our big cross-country move.

But, that is a story about life. This post is meant to be about houses, and our California house had been on the market for nearly nine months. We had not had any offers.

***

Our van pulled up to our new rental house on December 8, 2013. We opted to rent because we had no idea where we really wanted to live. Our criteria was that we wanted a short commute for Andy (20 minutes or less), and we wanted a town with cultural possibilities and interesting people. We wanted a short-term rental so we could move on if we did not like where we were living. Andy found this cute house:

The house had been for sale, and the owner took it off the market for the winter months. He allowed a 6-month lease, which was perfect.

At about 2000 square feet, the house was clean and updated. I loved the kitchen. It had four bedrooms and two bathrooms. Our plan had been to find a four bedroom house so S. and his sister would not have to share a room anymore. This rental was just right. An additional benefit was that it would be for sale again in the spring, so we would have time to consider whether or not we wanted to stay. There were some challenges with the house, but it was not anything we could not fix or live with in the interim.

Six weeks after we moved into our rental, we received a letter from our landlord. You can guess where this is going. Someone had approached him while the house was off the market, and he had agreed to sell the house to them. The closing date was at the end of our lease.

Buying a house in New York takes a minimum of 3-4 months. With the rental officially off our list, we needed to move quickly in order to find a new place to live before our lease ran out.

We had a big decision to make: rent or buy? Our California house was still on the market (nearly 1 year and counting…). After much discussion, we decided to pursue buying, and our first choice was to stay in the same town.

I wanted a newer house, turn-key with at least four bedrooms. Andy was not quite as particular. We must have looked at a dozen or so houses in person and plenty more online. Much of our spare time was spent on Realtor.com, Zillow and Trulia.

Andy had been following Blake Hill House for quite some time. He had first noticed it on Realtor.com the prior year when we were still living in California. I dismissed it because it was out of our price range, and it was old as dirt. He watched the price come down on it for months. Twice, he mentioned it to me, and I immediately blew him off. The idea of owning this house was so farfetched to me. I was certain it would be in a complete state of disrepair (not true), it would cost a fortune in utilities (not true), and we would be chained to this house doing DIY all the time (mostly true).

Finally, after not finding anything turn-key in our price range, I agreed to go “take a look” just to appease Andy. The day we arrived, there was another family looking at the house. Due to a scheduling snafu, we all ended up there at the same time. It was a bit uncomfortable. Keeping our mouths zipped shut, we explored the big, empty house, attempting not to run into the other family or impose on their exploration. In our heads we were screaming, This is the one! On the outside, we were all, It’s fine. It could work for us, I s’pose.

After a very short conversation in the car, Andy and I decided to pull the trigger and make an offer. We called our realtor, and we received some unexpected news.

We had not been the only people watching this house. Blake Hill House had already received a contingency offer that was in effect for two more months. We could still make an offer, but there were two other families who were making offers too. We had to draw up the paperwork and make our offer by the end of the next day. Talk about pressure!

With the help of our realtor, we came up with an offer that we believed to be solid. The house was being sold by lawyers whose only interest was getting top dollar and executing Dorothy’s estate as it was laid out in their contracts. The house would be sold as-is unless there was an issue of safety.

Our realtor, along with two other realtors, presented the three offers to the lawyers on a Friday afternoon. We were told that two of the offers were being considered. Ours was one of them. We had to wait the entire weekend to find out the answer. As you can imagine, the wait had us on pins and needles. Would they accept our offer? Should we have done something more? Was there any human component to this real estate transaction? Maybe Dorothy wanted it to go to a big family.

On Monday, we received the good news that our offer was the one accepted! We were optomistic, but remember that contingency offer? That buyer had 72 hours to either a)show proof that their house was under contract and they could move forward with the purchase of BHH or b)withdraw their offer.

Within 48 hours we had our answer. The buyer was withdrawing their offer. I felt a pang of concern, wondering if they were sad. I never know quite how to feel in these situations. On one hand it was wonderful that it worked in our favor. On the other, benefitting from someone’s misfortune does not feel good. Perhaps they actually felt relief. We will never know.

Well, the rest of the story is this blog. Thank you for reading here, and for reading this long-winded adventure in particular. The chronicles of Blake Hill House would not be the same without you.

Our path to home ownership has never been a smooth one, and selling our houses has also proved to be problematic. In March of 2015, we finally sold our California house after it had been on the market for nearly two years. Our patience paid off, and we were able to sell it for a profit. Carrying two mortgages for nine months was not easy, but in the end, it was worth it.