Well... I was doing good for a while on catching up on the blog. Now it's been about a month since I last posted. Of course... I have a ton of excuses. First, it's tax season. Although I'm not officially "working" anymore, I've been doing taxes pretty much every nap time. I told Colt the other day that this is why I quit working! I'm ready to have my ME time back. He responded that I didn't have to get everyones taxes done right away. However, I know what I have coming left to do. I would rather knock them out while I have them so I don't get bogged down closer to the deadline.
Other than that, we've been busy 1. Buying a house in Tyler 2. Selling our land in China Springs and 3. Selling our house here in Temple. We've had a lot of property transactions going on lately! Luckily, it's all been smooth and couldn't have went better so far.
We went to Tyler a few weekends ago to look at houses since Colt had a stretch of a few days off, and he wouldn't have another stretch for a while. My parents met us in Lindale and kept Kinley overnight for the first time so we could get more done. We spent two days, both Thursday and Friday, in Tyler looking. Dede and David went with us both days. We ended up buying a new house in a more established neighborhood. It's in Tyler city limits but in Whitehouse ISD. It's actually on Colt Lane! I'm sure Colt will get a lot of jokes for that one... Colt Smithson living on Colt Lane. He's already had a few people ask if that's why he bought the house! I should probably put "The Smithson Family" on our new address stamp instead of "Colt, Keri and Kinley." After months of looking at houses online, we decided to focus on the new construction market while we were in Tyler. It seemed like the best bang for our buck. Plus, since we weren't planning on moving until the end of May/first of June, we were afraid to wait until closer to time and not be able to find something we wanted. We found a couple of houses we liked the first day. One of the houses, we loved the builder but he was ready to close on the house we liked in the next week or so. He had a another lot but we wouldn't have had time to build one on it from scratch. Also, when we ultimately build our house, we want it on a little more land. The second house we probably would've bought if we hadn't have had to go back the second day. The builder and his wife of the second house ended up being a little snooty and were kinda jerks. It was a blessing in disguise because looking back, we didn't like the neighborhood near as much as the one that we bought in...plus I would've hated the dark wood floors! On Day 2, we called the realtor that had showed us around to make sure we weren't missing anything. After looking at those houses again that second morning (and Colt getting fired up a the builder and his wife), we opened our option back up. That's when we ended up finding our house on Colt Lane. We had saw it online but Colt hadn't liked it and didn't want to look at it initially because he thought the fire place looked funny. Once we went in, we loved it and it was pretty much done. Of course, there were a couple things I didn't like but I am the one that is responsible for finding the negative! I'm so bad that after we made the deal, Colt was ready to call and cancel after listening to me talk in bed that night! The kicker on this house was that it was done as well so we will own two houses for a little bit. We got the builder to push closing as late as possible so we will close around April 15th. We will just have to find someone to take care of the yard, etc. while we are still living in Temple. It's a pretty house though and now I can't quit looking at the pictures!
We sold our land in China Springs that we had originally planned on building on when Colt was set to work in Waco. We've only owned it a few months so the fact that we got out of it and broke even/made a tiny bit was a blessing. We had planned on selling it to friends, but they ended up backing out. The day that we found out, Colt listed it in the neighborhood Facebook group and immediately had about 15 people contact him wanting to buy it. He made a verbal deal with a lady that lived next door to the land. Of course... as soon as he did that, our friends decided they couldn't pass it up after all. We sold it to them and closed on it this past Friday. Our friends know that if they ever decide to sell, they definitely have buyers. The poor lady that we ended up not selling to was devastated and not too happy with Colt.
On our house in Temple, I messaged the realtor that we used when we moved here a couple weeks ago asking about timing on putting it on the market so that we could catch the next group of residents moving in. He wanted to meet that Friday to discuss it. We met, and he said that he wouldn't list it officially until mid-March but that he would show residents the house if he was showing them around in the meantime. He showed a resident our house that following Tuesday, just 4 days after we met. They came back again to look at it that night. Then we got a call the next morning that they wanted to make an offer. They are from out of state so they actually sent the inspector out Wednesday night before they left town and before they made their official offer. They made their offer, we countered and they accepted. We are still in the 5 day grace period, but so far it looks like it's going to go through. Due to the market, we made a little bit of money on it too. It would sure be nice to not have to pay the realtor fee the 6%... but still coming out in the green after living here for three years, we're happy. Plus, to not have to show it but to one person is worth it's weight in gold. With Kinley and the dogs, being out of the house just when they looked at it those two times and for the inspection was enough! It will also be nice not having to keep it "show ready" all the time. I was already over it, and we hadn't even listed it! We bought this house before it was ever listed and now the new buyers did too so I guess it's a marketable house. The realtor certainly made a lot on it in the past 3 years and didn't even really have to do anything! Since the buyers are residents, they don't want to close until June 12th so that works well. It's actually Kinley's 2nd birthday and she has a doctor's appointment in town that day so I'll be here anyways. I will probably move to Tyler at the end of May while he finishes up because he can take a week off then. Then I guess he'll stay in our house here some of June and then find someone to stay with the rest of the month while he finishes up. Not ideal, but it definitely couldn't be worse and we're just glad we aren't having to put our stuff in storage or anything like that.
Overall, all three of our little property transactions couldn't have went as smooth as it did. Now... although I'm a little sad about leaving Temple and will miss our routine, I'm looking forward to move into our new house in Tyler and make it ours! I actually ordered Kinley some big girl bedding today for the new house... I may be jumping the gun a little!
Here's to hoping it isn't another month before I blog again. I am still in November so just 4 months to catch up on!
