Like Having Bees Live in Your Head

I just came back from my Realtors office. I wanted to hold off posting anything until I had the final news to tell, but I've been getting calls about not posting, so I'll let you in on what's happening now.

We have four solid offers for the house on the table, one for asking price ($375,000) and three over. Today we did a multiple counteroffer (I did not know such a thing existed), countering at $385,000, which is the highest original offer we got.

There may be a fifth and sixth offer coming in this weekend, and we're still holding the third Open House this Sunday, "As a contingency," Realtor Jan says. In fact, there is a Realtor coming over to show the house this afternoon. Not being knowledgeable about the real estate market, I'm following Jan's advice, which has been spot on so far.

So I'm crossing my fingers in hopes that someone will go to $390,000 in response to the counteroffer. That would be nice. I know that, before the economic fall in 2009, this place was appraised for $425,000, so we almost recaptured the full amount in the intervening six years. I'm just happy that I will walk away from this sale with well over $200,000 in equity. I am a happy camper.

But now comes all the other stuff: once I know the close date on escrow, I have to schedule the movers, get the cat checked out before the trip (and microchipped), and have the car checked out, as well.

Packing won't be a daunting task, as over half of the household is already boxed and down in the garage. The kitchen will be the biggest packing job, with the office and bedroom coming in second and third.

So the sales process has gone as far as my counteroffers. It should only take a couple days to get the responses back and sign (or counteroffer once again) whatever responses we get.

So rejoicing is probably a couple days away, but at least I'm not sitting here worrying about how low the offers will go. I had told myself that I wouldn't take a penny less than $368,000.

I think God is shining on this move. He's certainly glowing warm inside me today, which matches the 80-degree weather (though the air quality is still "moderate").

I can't wait to be somewhere where the helicopters don't loom overhead nightly; where the constant roaring drone of a 10-lane freeway is not two blocks away; where "rush hour" means you might have to wait two changes of the light to make a left turn; where nature overshadows manmade construction and the seasons change.

More as it develops.