New beginnings

So for the 1 or 2 people that might actually be stopping by, we have some new beginnings.

As you may or may not have known, I've been unemployed since falling victim to the economic downturn in January. That's 6 months for those counting.

It's been hard, and money was beginning to be an issue for us. I'd spoken to my real estate agent and discussed putting the condo up for sale, a couple of times, we'd even drawn the papers up but each time I came close to signing I'd have a good job prospect and decide to put off my decision a few days.

Finally with nothing happening, or rather nothing coming of all the opportunities that I'd delayed for, I decided to list the condo. My agent advised that units in our building would usually take a while to sell. She also recommended a price about 20K less then I wanted to list at.

We decided to list but at my price not the amount she wanted to list for. It just so happened that she had an agents meeting the next morning and decided to tie that into an agents open house. During that, 3 agents brought clients to view the place. That evening we have 4 more viewings, 3 the next night and 3 the following night.

This was now Thursday evening. I would leave the unit while the viewings were happening but I did stay around the building (in the garden or the lobby) so I saw how long they stayed. 3 of the viewers had stayed over half an hour. In fact, one woman and her son waited with her agent to speak with me and ask a few questions about the condo - she was in love with the place.

So I suspected we were getting at least one offer.

Now, while this was going on I had an interview on Monday. They liked me and invited me back for a second interview on Friday. That interview (during which I had to do a small presentation) was good, as well.

I suspected I was in but I had not received an offer at this point so I couldn't be sure.

Friday afternoon I got a call from my agent, she had 2 offers and was expecting 1 or 2 others. We had one more viewing Friday evening from a "serious" buyer whom she thought would make an offer. It didn't happen.

I asked my agent if an offer comes in how long do we have to respond and is there anyway to delay until Monday, when I suspected I would find out about the job.

She said no it would be finished Friday evening. She had some info she wasn't telling us.

She is, actually, a pretty good agent and had been playing the competing offers against each other all afternoon. As a result the mother and son that fell in love with the place put in an over asking offer with no conditions.

My choice then was to accept the over asking offer or to decline it, risk not receiving the job offer on the following Monday and then be stuck with a much lower offer (if we got any) since we'd not likely be in a competing offer situation again.

The SU and talked about it briefly and then decided to accept the offer. What else could we do?

So we sold!! At more then asking, in 4 days, in a recession. Go figure!!!

Monday I received a job offer and started Tuesday since I wasn't working and was free to start, I did.

The new job is exactly what I've been looking for, teaching in a class for a private college, it's close to my home (the current one) and as the college is expanding, it's a good opportunity to get in early.

We decided to rent for a year or 2 and to save some money for a townhouse or bungalow. We can find a rental for less then the cost of my mortgage, maintenance fees (HOH fees) and property taxes and will be saving several hundred a month, in fact. We started looking right away (on the Saturday after signing the deal).

Found a place in an older building that we loved the location of, even though it didn't have air, didn't have en suite laundry and was a bit smaller then we're used to but it did have that location that we loved... so we offered on it. And were rejected - they won't say why we don't know why.

As a result we started looking again and at the end of this week we found a nice condo, a bit small, in a low rise condo (4 floors), a ground floor unit which means we have a patio (nice!) and very very convenient to both my work and the SU's job.

We put in a rental app and we're approved.

In the space of 2 short weeks, we sold our home, I started a new job and we've found a place to live.

Raise a glass to new beginnings.