I'm The Asshole*

Hi, how are you?  Good, glad to hear it.

Okay, fine, perhaps I have been a tad dramatic about the house selling thing these past few weeks.  Declaring the house was never going to sell to anyone who would listen and so on and so forth.  I mean so what if it is a buyers market and I hate my house and so what if everyone was telling me this was a stupid thing to do and it would never sell and I would never get asking price?  Did I really need to whine that much about how hard it was to declutter and being out of the house all the time and yada yada yada.

Um, right, so, we sold the house.  In a week.  For full asking price.  We even counter offered.  There was a bidding war, for my house.  We got 4 offers.  And then we got into a little bit of a spitting match and almost walked and took another offer.  But it is done.  Is are dotted and Ts are crossed.  Done.

It was all the seasonal flag.

But here is the thing.  We have to be out of here ASAP.  60 days to be exact.  And we haven't exactly bought a house.  I am spending the week previewing houses and this weekend we are going to buy something.  I took the day off of work today to house hunt.  Totally responsible adult thing to do.  We are buying a house like some people buy toasters.  No forethought, no planning.  Because otherwise we are going to be homeless. 

But wehhhhhh, I'm buying a house!

I am trying not to think of all of things that could go wrong.  Appraisal, financing, home inspection issues, all of it.  I'm just trying to be happy.  And hope we get to settlement.

Let me ask you this, when you sold your house, did you care who was buying it?  Because someone got on me today for selling it to what appeared to be investors and not the nice young family who came in with the next closest offer but the other parts of the offer were not nearly as good.  And I was all "show me the money** I could care less who buys this house."  This person felt that giving my neighbors renters was awful and wouldn't it be nice to give the young family a break?  Wouldn't it be nice if someone would have done that to Doug and I?

Yes, it would have been but no one did which is why we ended up in this sucky house in the first place.  It's a buyers market.  The nice young family will find something.  And I refuse to feel guilty because I took the best offer ON MY HOUSE.  This is the last house Doug and I are going to buy.  To quote my Dad, "my next move is in a pine box."  I am never doing this again.  Damn straight I'm taking the best offer.  My whole life is charity.  This is not the time to be charitable.

Capitalism, baby.

*Title from Swingers, Doug's favorite movie ever.  I think I've seen it 20 times.

**You totally know what this is from.

Comments

[Angela]

I can totally see why your neighbors wouldn't necessarily be thrilled with renters. But seriously. It's your house, and your money. It's not like your neighbors would step in to bring the nice little family's offer up to the level of the one you took. So why should you? Zero guilt here. And happy house hunting!

[pgoodness]

Good for you! No, I didn't care who bought our house - turned out to be investors, actually, and while I felt misled (they pretended to be buying for themselves), in the end, we got out and got our money.

Good luck with the house hunt today!! Can't wait to hear about what you find!

Oh, and seriously? Your neighbors would all do the SAME THING.

[mommymae]

as much as we'd like to sell to another lovely family, we sold our 4 bedroom house to a middle aged single guy with no kids. (i keep picturing crazy-good parties going on in the 3 extra bedrooms.) so glad you sold...and quickly. now good luck with the hunt.

[Holly at Tropic of Mom]

A pine box, heh!

Congratulations! I hope you can find a home you love soon. As you said, buyers market.

[JChevais]

There are two kinds of people you can't choose in this life: your family and your neighbors.

It doesn't take a genius to realise that the people who tried to lay the guilt trip on YOU were really looking after their OWN interests.

Shocking selfishness on their part. Why should you care, especially if you didn't even like the area?

Good luck with the househunting!

[cagey]

When we sold our house in Ashburn, VA we did not care who the fool was that bought it (after a bidding war, also). When I sold my house here in Kansas City, again, did not care.

Give me the check, here are your keys. Sucker.

Okay, sorta joking. But I really do not care who buys my house.

But, hey! You sold your house - that is SO exciting and now you are getting to the fun part. BUYING. NO, seriously. How fun, you are looking at real estate, which is one of my favorite things to do. Am Jealous.

[Beth Fish]

Congratulations! Told you so, told you so. Have fun with the house hunting.

I did care who we sold our house too, but not enough to let it influence our decision. Turned out the best offer was a nice couple with two kids, but if the assholes who made the other offer had upped their price I would have very happily sold to them.

[Maura]

Your house - your right to sell. Anyone who sticks their nose in is just obnoxious or jealous. By the time we sold our house (after 3 offers fell throug) I could have cared less who it was. I just wanted it gone.

Congratulations on selling it and good luck in you hunt.

[Crystal]

Take your money and run is what I say. With things the way they are, you're lucky you even sold your house.

[aimee]

I am pretty sure that most people in the world take the very best offer. Everyone, however, except my old boss. It is one of my favorite stories. She was a huge Democrat and ran a political consulting business for years. When she retired and sold her AMAZING Capitol Hill townhouse for a zillion dollars she refused to sell it to a certain prominant Republican politician who came in with the first/top offer. She sold it to the next best. It was awesome!

[ClumberKim]

No guilt. Just move on and find that great house. We found ours a couple of years ago, spent five months renovating before moving in (three weeks before kid #2 arrived), and still have the other house (rented). In spite of all that, I love my house and we're glad we did it. But we're not doing it again either, unless hell freezes over (and Mr C's employer demands a relocation, which they will pay mightily for).

[lumpyheadsmom]

In theory I cared about the buyer of our condo, but in reality: no. Couldn't give a rat's ass.

And if you don't find "the last house you're ever going to buy" this week, let me tell you from experience that a short-term rental is not the end of the world. It's kind of nice, actually, aside from the whole HAVING TO MOVE TWICE bullshit.

Of course, our "short-term" rental ended up lasting eleven months. Still, glad we did it, instead of buying the wrong house.

[ljpock]

Unless the neighbors are willing to fork up the difference then why should you be out money for their convenience?

Would they pick their buyer on your criteria..doubtful!

While I can understand them not being thrilled with it, unless they put their money where their mouth is they have no say in the matter.

[Brandi]

We didn't care who bought our house either. Hell, we didn't even meet them! That's so fantastic you're house sold so quickly. Good luck house hunting! I loved it. There's something so voyeuristic about walking around some stranger's house while they're not home.

[cindy w]

We actually *did* sell our house to a nice family with 2 young kids, and I felt guilty as hell just because I knew all the crap that was wrong with that place and I hated that they were going to be stuck with it. I wish investors had bought it. Would've saved me a lot of guilt.

But no, you're not an asshole. You made the best economical decision for your family. The other couple will find a house. From the way you describe it, they're probably lucky not to end up in your neighborhood anyway, right?

Btw, I also have less than 60 days to find a house, buy it, and move. Our lease expires on July 31st. Yikes!

[jodifur]

Just to be clear, it was not a neighbor who made this comment, it was someone totally unrelated.

[ljpock]

My bad, I read to fast sometimes :)

Even more so then I think it's nutty that someone would get on you for this.

And bad renters can be evicted by a landlord, bad home owners not so much. So even if selling to the "nice couple" it's still can be a crap shoot.

[Lauren]

Don't feel guilty. Sure, when I sold my house I felt good that the buyer was a firefighter and his new wife and they wanted to keep the curtains in the nursery for their first child. But I didn't know that when the contract was signed--I had no idea who it was. They offered more money than our other offer, and in the end, that's all that really mattered.

[Laura]

You live in the DC area. Things are $$ there. Of course you need to get top dollar when you sell so you can afford to buy something bigger and better. Duh. It may be a buyer's market, but it's not like they are giving the houses away.

In my old neighborhood, the neighbors had always told me that houses on that street sold through word of mouth (which is how we found ours). When we put it on the market, I told them to start talking! We ended up selling to a retired couple with no kids. It was good sized house for retirees but my neighbors were not happy (the street had over 40 kids). Oh well. At first, I hoped a another small family would buy it, but after four months, I didn't care who bought it!

[FishyGirl]

Point 1: you are not an asshole.

Point 2: Congrats on selling the house!

Point 3: When it comes time to sell, I couldn't give a rats ass who buys this place. As long as I get a big check in the end, it's all good to me. That's how things work around here - I've had good neighbors and bad neighbors; some of the good were renters, some of the bad owned the place and we couldn't get rid of them.

Happy house hunting!

[DBN]

My house was on the market for 6 long months while we had a contingency contract on another house. I probably would have sold it to ANYONE that walked in with the money to buy. No questions asked. Get out while the getting is good, and get the most you can while you do.

[JessicaAPISS]

aAWESOMMMMEEEE!!!

We just put ours on the market today, care to see my mad house staging skills?

http://matrix.mris.com/Matrix/Public/Email.aspx?ID=31183015835#top

These photos are the ones I took, soon to be replaced by the realtors' nice fancy camera shots...without the Siamese cat lounging around...

I AM SO STOKED YOU DID IT ONE WEEKEND!

Love you girl - your soul sister in house stress,
Jess

[Elaine at Lipstickdaily]

Yeah dude . . . the neighbors want to give the nice young family a break, the neighbors can make up the difference in price. You are absolutely right in this market . . . show.me.the.money! Well done!

[Kimberly]

I did not care who bought my house. The wicked witch of the west could have purchased my home and I would have baked her cookies.

Be happy!!! :)

[lawschoolmom]

Yes, we cared who bought our house but only because we had similar offers from several buyers. Given our fortuitous position and the feel of our neighborhood, we felt we "owed" it to our neighbors to sell to people who would fit in (briefly: we all built our houses at the same time and had that semi-idyllic suburban nabe thing going on).

Ultimately, we chose the young couple expecting their first child over DINKS and an investor.

[Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah]

Yeah, I couldn't give a shit who bought my house as long as the check cleared.

(Congratulations.)

[Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah]

And I know you don't want to move to VA, but my next door neighbor is selling her house.

We are in a kick ass school district and I babysit.

Just sayin'.

[Jamie Bowden]

First, congrats on selling the place.

Second, you're not an asshole for not treating a business transaction like a charitable donation.

And I see Sarah above thinks you should stay in Monty County, but it's great here and Fairfax Co. and we'll happily take you for neighbors.

[Brooke]

omg Congratulations. We tried selling two years ago but no dice. I wanted to try to sell again this year but SO much stuff needs done to our house, we couldn't even afford to get it ready to put on the market.

And no, you're not an asshole. You're very, very fortunate to have gotten an offer in this market, not to MENTION getting an offer that was exactly what you wanted. So. Yeah, congratulations.

So jealous about your house-hunting too - I'm weird, that's like my favorite thing ever.

[Liz@thisfullhouse]

Holy crap! You sold your house, in a week, for full asking price? Congratulations!

[Stimey]

Congratulations! You sold your house like a rock star. I badly want to go house hunting. I love looking at houses. My dream is to buy a new, fun house.

[Jessica]

it's a weird thing, b/c you're not supposed to give preference for anything like warm fuzzies, right? but I felt the people who sold us kind of did with us back in 2001 (with 7 bids on the house) and now this time, we were selling to our future neighbors since we are staying in our 'hood...
I wanted the family with the baby but their offer just wasn't as good as the engaged couple whose offer we accepted. but I keep worrying that they'll break up before July 10. I have to say I was relieved when we met them, and the neighbors are indeed very interested.