What We Can Imagine Will Never Equal The Reality That Surrounds Us: Looks like we may have a home bought....

What We Can Imagine Will Never Equal The Reality That Surrounds Us: Looks like we may have a home bought....

Looks like we may have a home bought....

After countless houses looked at, week after week of running up into the mountains and offering on several homes; today we had an offer accepted!!

Not bad looking! Lots of trees!! (obviously a listing photo)

 We have had quite a time! Got our Kia stuck on the first run. Have worked with 3 different realtors and each have had a great sense of humor! Running up and down the snowy roads laughing and telling stories, looking through home and after home. I've never "shopped" for a home before and we sure have learned a lot about the process! 

Still a fair amount of snow around yesterday

In this bear market the prices on all homes is way low, but that brings with it it's own problems! Most homes are either repossessed or are a "short" sale where the owner is asking their bank to let them sell for less than what is owed, with the bank getting the "short" end of the stick!! Either way it isn't a quick way to buy. The banks can take all the time they want to make up their collective minds! So it was very lucky for us to find a home all paid for and listed at a price we feel is a steal. AND to have the owners grateful and extremely happy with our offer!! AND for it to be almost perfect for us!

Ladies and Gentlemen, our view!

All in all it has been a blast! We have seen lots of homes, lots of beautiful views and met and made some very good friends.

Homcoming!!

On February 2nd my son, Sean, returned from his 2 year mission to Chile. All my family gathered including my daughter Jesse, her husband Mike and their daughter kadee. To say we were excited is an understatement!!

 Sean and another missionary both came out of Chile to Boise Idaho together. My family is on the left, the other's on the right.

 And here he is!! (hint: he's the one in the suit) 

Greeting Mom and Dad

 Felisa, Jesse, Sean and Chris. Jesse had the poster made.

The whole group! Glad to have him safely home!

Update on the house hunting

Well, we lost out on the first house we bid on. Since then we have looked at quite a few homes from Garden Valley to New Meadows, Idaho, about a span of 50 miles. Just spent today (Saturday) viewing 2 homes in McCall, 1 in Donnelly, 2 in Cascade and 1 more in Garden Valley, all in the Idaho central mountains.

2 of them stood out; 1 in McCall and the 1 in Donnelly. First, McCall:

The first 4 were off the web; the last shows the back yard today. This one is located near the end of a culdesac in a nice sub west of McCall proper. 

And then the Donnelly property:

3 buildings on a narrow and long lot of 1 acre. The middle garage has a fully contained apartment above.

But look inside the home:

This is one "stick out" looking at the outside of another, two on each side of the house. Different!

This one is a fair amount more than the first and the local is not as good. Coming home our Realtor called and advised us the McCall property, at the listed amount, would not be a short sale and would not need bank approval so could move quickly if we offered at the list price, which we did! Keep in mind the economy has all properties at or below half price; we are happy with the price of this home!

So now again the waiting game. But not being a short sale (where the bank has to okay as they will loose money on the deal) or a repossessed home where due to the economy again the bank owns the property and also stands to lose money, this is simply up to the owner to accept our offer. so we will see!