A Bold Manuever

So I didn't blog last weekend. Mostly that's because I was so busy doing what I'm blogging about.

On Saturday morning Tara and I went to look at some more foreclosures. One of them wasn't a foreclosure, but rather an estate. The old lady had died in early 2010, and her kids finally got around to marketing the house last fall. Recently they dropped the price, and that's when it arrived on our search.

About 10 seconds after Lisa unlocked the front door, Tara exclaimed, "Oh, what a cute little grandma house!" After looking around for a few minutes, she was ready to make an offer. I wasn't so sure, because, while I like to look like I'm bold and decisive, I'm really not. So we went back again Sunday afternoon and check things out in detail... things like plumbing and cracks in plaster and the age of the furnace. Everything checked out, and we decided to offer, even without financing.

Monday afternoon I had an appointment with a banker at Merchants Bank, which I was sure would be a disaster and would bring the deal to an end. But it wasn't! He had a deal I could live with, and he was willing to lend the money. So we got our pre-approval letter and sent it along with deal.

The very next day we heard back from the realtors: her children had accepted our (kind of low ball) offer without questioning a single aspect of it. Really, I was amazed. I was prepared either to walk away or to negotiate severely, but none of that happened. Lisa was pretty astonished as well.

If all goes well with our financing, we expect to close and take possession March 30, over Spring Break. The first few days will be cleaning, scrubbing, painting, and getting used to the way the space works together. We'll probably move in after a few weeks when it's all ready to go.

We want to honor God for his kindness to us in these steps along our journey. Without his care and faithfulness, we would not experience the joy or peace in life that we do.