Long ago, a friend of mine said that he once thought that the weak link in the gospel of Jesus Christ was faith.
Around two years ago, something was pushing me. Something was off kilter, and the feeling left me feeling like I wanted to go home. Turn the clock to around six months later, and I was pretty miserable. I wanted, needed, nay, craved a change. For me, that ended up recognizing through prayer that we need to go home to Texas.
To get us there, Erik had job leads, interviews, verbal offers, and then nothing. n-o-t-h-i-n-g. We met with our realtor to get a sense of what it would take to sell the house. It was going to take a lot of money. The real estate market was not like it was when we bought our place. We didn't buy at the height of the market. We saw an increase of $100,000 in appreciation for our townhome as we lived our lives there, and then we saw a loss of $100,000 in depreciation. And, realtor fees. . . . 6% of a lot of money is a lot of money. And, since we lived where we lived, there were other fees, costs, expenditures, and more ways that required more money than I could count.
So, we saved and sacrificed and saved and sacrificed and saved some more. When I quit my job, we needed to draw on those savings to make ends meet. I was angry sometimes when we had to use our savings to take care of daily living when those savings were earmarked for getting out of our house. I almost felt like I was trapped. What if we used all the savings before we had a chance to move? I knew that our family needed to get back to Texas. I just couldn't figure out why accomplishing that was so hard.
It was made very clear to me that part of what we needed to do before leaving DC was to go through the fertility process before moving. In fact, we started the process several months earlier than I would have even considered if I hadn't had that strong prompting that we needed to move. Later, it became clear that being in DC for the pregnancy was the best situation for all of us.
When the stars aligned this January, and it was clear that we were coming back to Texas with a job, the cost of selling our home was going to potentially put us in a situation that we might have to short sale or foreclose. GASP! Shudder! Vomit! Faint and pull my hair out! All that planning and all that work. All that prayer and all those sacrifices.
At that point, I told Erik that my faith was weak and that if we came out of this okay I would need to stop questioning my Heavenly Father so much. God and I had many a heated conversation . . . okay, maybe I was the one that was mad and He just listened.
At every point that we had to spend more money to sell our house (because it all had to be picture perfect in this market), I just saw our savings dwindle away. I saw our car fund fade into dust and then fly off particle by particle. I saw any leftover money for our next home move over into the "sell Reston house" pile. I saw our emergency money go to the "sell Reston house" pile. I had to start counting on our devalued retirement accounts as money to get rid of the house. We were going to have to get rid of all our assets, and I was sick and upset.
I had no idea that I was that emotionally tied to money. When we ran the numbers and the reality of the situation hit us, I felt like there was a death in the family. If we didn't sell the house before our property lost further value, then our credit would be crushed. Yes, there are worse things, no doubt about it. The issue is that we had worked so hard to avoid that situation. We had made sacrifices to prepare for the move back to Texas.
There were moments when I felt foolish and questioned our decision to buy when we did and to sell when we were selling. Self-doubt can be so exhausting.
We had prayed about buying the townhouse in 2004 before we bought it, and it was clear that it was the place to live and start our family. Through prayer, we knew that it was time to get back to Texas, now. Why were we to sacrifice so much to get into a place and then feel the exquisite financial pain to leave it? I don't know. There were plenty of moments when I doubted the process, where I doubted the Lord's plan for me and my family. Life just doesn't follow logic and I was struggling with that.
So, we spit polished the townhouse, put it on the market, hoped for the best, and moved to Texas.
Through the process of selling our townhome, we were calmed by the fact that we had tons of foot traffic going through the home. We had priced it well.
Since we were one of the first townhomes on the market for this season, all the other houses for sale used our mark as one to beat, including two other townhomes on our street. Talk about competition. At one point, as the season started to heat up, over 25 townhomes in our demographic went on the market in 10 days. A couple weeks into the process, we dropped the price by $10,000 to undercut that competition.
It showed EXTREMELY well. But, buyer after buyer gave feedback that they just wanted two bathrooms on the top level, not one. (BTW, the townhouse already had two and a half baths.) So, we brought contractors through the home to see how much it would cost. Several years ago, we were told that would cost close to $20,000. Let me tell you that I was apoplectic about the fact that we were going to have to add a bathroom to sell our place.
The contractors varied in price, but we were able to settle on a contractor who could do the work for around $6,000. I called Fairfax County to see what permits we would need.
We would need five permits. And, no, I can't apply by phone or fax. I, being the homeowner, have to go in person to apply for the permits ,and it would most likely take several trips to the permit office to get everything in order.
This was it. The end of my rope. We waited a week to make the decision. Our realtor contacted previously interested buyers letting know of the drawn bathroom plans and cost. "We'd put the money in escrow, etc." No contracts came through in that week we waited. We were going to have to make a decision. And, it would have to be that we were going to put the dang bathroom in . . . sigh.
The same day that we were going to call the realtor and go ahead with the construction and work out a return trip with babies in tow to get the dang permits, our realtor called us. There was an offer on the house. He then called a second time, another offer. And, a third time, another offer. By midnight, we were on a conference call with our realtor and the buyer's realtor working out the contract details.
Our house was going to sell WITHOUT that stupid bathroom addition. Thank Heavens and Glory, Alleluia!
My faith in the process, my trust in His plan was starting to firm up again. My daily scripture study topic of PEACE was going to get me through this.
The next steps were agonizing probably because I have a tendency to agonize.
- House inspection: went super well.
- Funding hurdles for the buyer were being overcome (yes, we had to consider the lender's stability when we were deciding which offer to take and, no, we did not go with the highest bid).
- No termites: check.
- Radon: not a problem.
- The property assessment went through appropriately.
And I actually started to relax somewhere in this process. I actually started to accept that I had no control and even if it all went to pot before we made it to closing that it would be okay. (and probably getting more sleep helped the situation)
In fact, one Sunday as we were driving back to our apartment from church, I had this peaceful feeling come over me that it would be OKAY. That we wouldn't have to foreclose or short sale. I can't tell you how much relief this brought.
This process, the sale and the transition, has been a struggle. There have been very tenuous moments where I just didn't know how point A was going to match up with point B. And then just when you come to terms with the big challenge, daily life happens like an expensive car repair or a serious illness with an infant. Things can always be worse because they did get worse, but we managed to come out of the daily life challenges, too.
The buyer completed the final walk through yesterday with the dogwoods and all of our climbing clematis in full bloom. When I heard that, I was a tad jealous. It is a great home. Better than that, there were no major issues in the walk through . . . next step--closing.
Erik is on a flight home from DC right now. We sold the house. Done.
In all, Erik was offered a job around Christmas time. We worked for six weeks to ready the house. We moved on February 8th. The house was put on the market on February 10th. We signed a contract at midnight on March 20th. Closing was on April 30th.
During my daily scripture study on peace, I kept being rounded each time to 1 Nephi 13:37 in the Book of Mormon. Now, I was looking for peace in my daily life type of stuff, not the enduring to the bitter end type of stuff. But this element kept coming across my studies:
1 Nephi 13:37 And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day, for they shall have the gift and power of the Holy Ghost; and if they endure to the end they shall be lifted up at the last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb; and whoso shall publish peace, yea, tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains shall they be.
And it seemed I heard a heavenly giggle each time I read it since this experience has been a trial for me to learn, yet again, perspective.
I am grateful for the teachings about food storage (we have almost pounded through our entire food storage--guess we'll need to build it again), tithing, fast offerings, self-reliance, the power of prayer, and the support of family. I've tried to highlight the major aspects of this experience. I needed to highlight it for myself. I needed to write it out for my boys to read through later.
And, no, I never imagined that it would sell as quickly as it did. I also could never imagine how much work it would take from us while living in DC and living here in Texas. And, yes, we had to bring a huge-o check to settlement. And guess what? A couple of realtors bought the items I used to stage the home so that they could stage other homes on the market--like they bought the entire house and put all the furniture in an empty house. HA! My own version of "rooms to go."
Now, we forget about the pain of paying out and start anew ready to build our lives here in Texas, express our gratitude to our Heavenly Father, enjoy the company of our family, and provide for our boys.
I'm in the mood for a great backyard. Don't worry, you'll be invited to our first barbque.
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