Back in April, 2017 my wife's parents moved in with us. They just needed some support and we were happy to help. In doing so we gave up our bedroom for them and my wife and I are sleeping in the living room on the couches.
So my wife started looking at houses and found one that hit all right buttons but was built in 1972 and looked like it hasn't been updated since about that time. We had only seen the pictures online and felt like we could get the price down to a manageable place because it needed so much work.
When we went to look at it, it wasn't nearly as bad as we thought. Yes, the decor was from the 70s and had not been updated hardly at all but it was in excellent shape. That's good new and bad news. It's good because it's in excellent shape. It's bad because our excuse to get them to lower the price so much was gone. We still think they are priced too high since it still looks like the 70s inside... a nice 70s but still 70s. I mean, the entry way has raised, velvety patterns on the wallpaper. Yeah, seriously.
It sits on 1.45 acres, which is so much bigger than anything I've ever had, and has quite a few mature trees on the property which is wonderful. But the best part to me is the outbuilding in the back corner of the lot that is a two-car garage plus sized building that is totally ready to be my shop.
I am sort of beside myself at the thought of that shop. It's about everything I ever wanted in my shop space, at this point anyway.
So we put an offer on the house which was totally at the far end of what we could afford but it was still below what they were asking by about 7 or 8 percent. They said, "No."
It's in a trust made up of the mom and the grown kids of the family, we think. I was told a couple of them wanted to take the offer and a couple didn't. We are holding out hope that they will come around and want to take the offer sometime soon because there has been very little interest shown in the property and we think it's because it's priced way up there for a house stuck in the 70s and needing so much updating.
The house itself would be so perfect for my family with a special space for my in-laws and enough rooms for my five kids left at home AND US to all have a space.