Our House in Mill Run

On June 25, 2007 we settled on a four bedroom two and a half bath house. The house originally came on the market in October of 2006 at 429,900. We first went to look at the house in mid April. It had just been reduced to 375,000. It needed a lot of work, but it backed up to open space, and in this part of New Jersey, that is a money maker. Everyone else was scared off because of all the painting and "fixxing-up" that needed to be done. Not us (mainly me)!

We put an offer in at 350k and 3k down. The seller's realtor was concerned because we had 100% financing and she thought 3k down was kind of low. So we upped the offer to 350k and 10k down. They countered at 373k. We bid 355k. They countered at 370k. We firmly bid 360k. They said they will wait for another offer. I was really ticked off. I thought it was rude that we would raise our offer by 5k increments and the seller would only lower by 2-3k. So we went to look at other options.

We went to see another house that was the exact same model. This one's kitchen was only about 5 years old. The carpets were in good shape. The walls were nicely painted. The landscaping was in order. They were asking 410k. It was great, I thought, that we had found another house. One that fit our needs, in the same town. Who cares that our mortgage payment was going to be 200-300 more per month. We walked out back. And there it was. "vrummm vrummm" They backed up to a busy street. You could hear the incessant sound of cars driving by.

The good thing was we knew what we wanted. So we made it happen. We bid up to 370k and my back side felt a little invaded. But my brother-in-law made the right point. In 5 or 10 or 30 years, that 10,000 dollar difference won't mean squat.