February 1, 2016
We have been praying for the right buyer for our home since we listed it in June 2015. We have prayed with every offer that if it's not what the Lord wants, that he would shut that door and they would not make a offer that's worth accepting. We had two offers about 2 months in and one fell through because of their house not selling, and the other because they wanted to offer full price but walk away if there was ANYTHING wrong with the house. We knew better than to even try to accept that offer and they walked...
So two weeks ago we got a verbal offer that was several thousand dollars off what we would be willing to accept, and we told them that we would counter that offer, but not accept it. We showed them the house three times and they came back this past Friday with an even lower offer than before. We were a bit annoyed but decided that we would pray about it before just flat out ignoring it. We prayed all weekend that the Lord would give us absolutely no doubt that we were making the right decision. We got another text from their realtor Sunday afternoon and they wanted to know if we were accepting their offer or not. We kindly told them that we were not going to entertain the offer and we hoped they found their home soon.
Meanwhile...We got a call Saturday night that a couple wanted to see our house Sunday afternoon. We went to play on our property while we were killing time during the showing at 2:15. The realtor called while we were there and Jonathan answered a few questions about the house and she said that we should hear back from her by Sunday night. They placed an offer at 5 (just 10 minutes after we denied the first couple's offer). We reviewed the offer and realized that it's pretty much exactly what we have been looking for, but we wanted to pray over the decision before moving forward.
As Jonathan ran to get printer paper because we were out, he pulls back in the driveway and gets a call directly from the gentleman that had seen our house three times prior and made a lowball offer. Apparently their realtor was not being honest with either of us and he called Jonathan directly to see what it would take for us to move forward on the sell of our property. Jonathan told him we had another offer on the table and it was much better than they had offered. He said if we told him where we wanted to be, then he would place an official offer.
We are praying for the Lord's direction and hopefully we will make the right decision and accept the offer that the Lord has intended for our home. We love this place. We are really seeking his face in this offer, but more than anything, I wanted to document the Lord's hand in this process and how we have seen Him work so unbelievably clearly over the last few days. We feel like he is preparing us for moving and that this could be exactly what his desire is for our family.
Fast forward to Monday - The gentleman who placed the verbal offer tried hard to submit a written offer, but it took him several hours Monday to get it to us - about 30 minutes before we had to submit our counter/acceptance to the couple with the realtor from Sunday night. His offer was better, so we countered the first offer and prayed that we were making the right decision. Long story short, we countered back and forth Monday night and on Tuesday morning everyone agreed to the terms and a contract was signed by 4pm Tuesday night. We are officially under contract and we now will have our down payment for our new land/construction and a little left over to help with our emergency fund (yes, we are Dave Ramsey enthusiasts).
We are having the sewer pumped on Friday and an inspection next Wednesday. Praying that it all goes as planned and we will close on March 16th. We are excited about the next process and ready to move forward. Can't wait to see what God has in store for us the next year through construction, staring our home school journey, and having a sweet baby in July. It should be an eventful year to say the least!!
Feb 20th
Our inspection has now come back and we are making the requested upgrades/repairs this weekend. We will have the FHA appraisal later this week and if all comes back from that, we are SET. We are supposed to be out by March 16th and we are trying to move in with Jonathan's parents while we are building. They will be out of town for a few days before we move, so we are hoping to be moved in and settled before they get back.
April 20th
We moved out with no complications and made a smooth transition living with the Goldings. We are approved for our loan and have chosen a builder to build our home instead of doing it ourselves (A LOT went into that decision, but basically it made more sense and the Lord has really confirmed this is the direction we need to go.) We got a chance to meet the couple who moved in a few days after we moved and it was so great to see they were happy with the house and get to know them a little.
We drove by the house yesterday and we both were blown away by what a peace we still had about the decision we made to move and knew that this was exactly where the Lord wants us at this time in our lives. We will have baby boy #3 at the Golding's and hopefully move into our new home within a few months of that. We are HOPING/PRAYING we are in around Thanksgiving. We should be breaking ground very soon. We are waiting for our as will be appraisal and title work to come back and we are officially ready to close and start building!
Here's a few photos of our driveway starting and being put in. Chip and Billy Reaves put in the drive and we couldn't be more pleased. We broke ground on the driveway March 5th!
Because of the rain we were able to get it 1/2 way finished and then gravel added and then finished the gravel once it dried back out - it was completed March 22nd.
