Greetings from Iowa - Part I
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:49 am
Here is the story of our adventure this time in moving from S.C. to Iowa. While Lady G and I enjoyed living in S.C., there was just something about living there that gave you the feeling that if you weren't from the area, you were treated as an outsider / foreigner. Don't get me wrong, all the people we met were friendly and pleasant but we never got that feeling like we belonged there. When you're around people that have their families from generations back still living there or to draw memories from, it is difficult to connect with that. Also, we felt that we were simply too far from our families. Lady G's daughter lived in Iowa, and we had visited there last year, so it was as good a place as any to move to.
To start with, we put our home in S.C. up for sale back in February, and our agent was pretty confident that it would be sold in about 45 days. I tried to use the same agent we had when we bought our place but he had retired and gave us the name of another fella working in the same office. As for the house selling in 45 days, I was of the "I'll believe it when I see it" frame of mind knowing that a) the housing market was pretty crummy and b) people aren't flocking to S.C. (it's not exactly a "destination city", if you know what I mean). I figured we'd be lucky if the house sold in 6 months, never mind 45 days! So, we started packing and we took our sweet time of it as I told Lady G that the house was not going to sell right away. Well, we had no less than 10 people come through in the first week. I was very surprised at that! But, I was even more surprised that we didn't so much as get an offer out of those 10. After that initial rush, we were getting about 2 or 3 people in per week for the next couple of weeks. But, still no offers. The feedback we were getting told us that most everyone liked the house. So, we wondered what the problem could be. So, we lowered the price a bit. But, the same scenario played out over the next few weeks. So, we lowered it again! I really did not want to do that and was prepared to hunker down for the long haul if necessary. But, Lady G was getting very impatient and wanted to get going already now that she had most of the house packed. So, I relented. In the first week of June, we got an offer. But, I did not like the offer, so I counter-offered and they countered my counter. This particular couple had visited the house three times so we knew they were very interested. Lady G knew we had a live one and didn't want to let them get away considering the lack of any other offers. So, again, I relented and we agreed to sell the house at a price I was not real happy with but in the interests of keeping Lady G off my back and wanting to get going, we signed the papers. They wanted to be in by the end of the month and, since we had most of the house packed, felt that would not be a problem. They had the customary inspection done and there were a couple of issues that they wanted taken care of before they closed, which we agreed to except for one. In S.C. many builders put down what they call a vapor barrier in the crawl space which helps to minimize moisture accumulation. Well, since it had been real dry for the past two years, we decided not to do that and explained why. However, the maggot that they had for an agent insisted that we install the barrier or the buyers would walk away. Now, this would only cost about $100 to do but it was the principle of the thing. In the end, our agent decided that rather than let the deal fall through, he would cover the cost - which he did.
So, we closed on the 30th and had the moving company put our stuff on the van and we headed out to Iowa. I arranged for us to stay for a month at an Extended Stay hotel, where we stayed in an efficiency apartment (one room) until we could find a suitable house to buy. So, with the dog in the cage in the car off we went to Iowa.
I will post Part II a bit later.
To start with, we put our home in S.C. up for sale back in February, and our agent was pretty confident that it would be sold in about 45 days. I tried to use the same agent we had when we bought our place but he had retired and gave us the name of another fella working in the same office. As for the house selling in 45 days, I was of the "I'll believe it when I see it" frame of mind knowing that a) the housing market was pretty crummy and b) people aren't flocking to S.C. (it's not exactly a "destination city", if you know what I mean). I figured we'd be lucky if the house sold in 6 months, never mind 45 days! So, we started packing and we took our sweet time of it as I told Lady G that the house was not going to sell right away. Well, we had no less than 10 people come through in the first week. I was very surprised at that! But, I was even more surprised that we didn't so much as get an offer out of those 10. After that initial rush, we were getting about 2 or 3 people in per week for the next couple of weeks. But, still no offers. The feedback we were getting told us that most everyone liked the house. So, we wondered what the problem could be. So, we lowered the price a bit. But, the same scenario played out over the next few weeks. So, we lowered it again! I really did not want to do that and was prepared to hunker down for the long haul if necessary. But, Lady G was getting very impatient and wanted to get going already now that she had most of the house packed. So, I relented. In the first week of June, we got an offer. But, I did not like the offer, so I counter-offered and they countered my counter. This particular couple had visited the house three times so we knew they were very interested. Lady G knew we had a live one and didn't want to let them get away considering the lack of any other offers. So, again, I relented and we agreed to sell the house at a price I was not real happy with but in the interests of keeping Lady G off my back and wanting to get going, we signed the papers. They wanted to be in by the end of the month and, since we had most of the house packed, felt that would not be a problem. They had the customary inspection done and there were a couple of issues that they wanted taken care of before they closed, which we agreed to except for one. In S.C. many builders put down what they call a vapor barrier in the crawl space which helps to minimize moisture accumulation. Well, since it had been real dry for the past two years, we decided not to do that and explained why. However, the maggot that they had for an agent insisted that we install the barrier or the buyers would walk away. Now, this would only cost about $100 to do but it was the principle of the thing. In the end, our agent decided that rather than let the deal fall through, he would cover the cost - which he did.
So, we closed on the 30th and had the moving company put our stuff on the van and we headed out to Iowa. I arranged for us to stay for a month at an Extended Stay hotel, where we stayed in an efficiency apartment (one room) until we could find a suitable house to buy. So, with the dog in the cage in the car off we went to Iowa.
I will post Part II a bit later.
