Housing: To be or Not to be

The day Jared and I were flying home from Texas (Sun, April 6th) after committing to build a new home, I started to feel sick. Just the dumb head cold thing, but the congestion and fatigue were heightened with a day full of travel and five+ hours of flights.

On Monday and Tuesday (April 7th and 8th), I was fighting to keep myself upright. I felt like the gravity of the viral infection was yanking me relentlessly to the floor. It was tough. Especially because the world wouldn't stop for me and neither did my family's needs, so I had to keep going too. I had phone calls to make, things to figure out and plans to coordinate for our move.

One of those tasks was to call the schools now that we knew which ones we were zoned for and find out what they would need from us in order to get them all enrolled. I've never had to enroll four kids at a time...just once, when they all started Kindergarten. We'd be spread out over three campuses this year: elementary K-4, intermediate 5-6 and high school 9-12. There is a middle school for 7-8, but our family isn't represented there yet.

I called the elementary school and they listed the things I would need...a copy of their birth certificates, their social security cards (which I had moved to a safe place and then couldn't remember where they were), their updated immunization records, their last report card, and proof of residency. When the lady mentioned the latter, I told her that we were going to be renting somewhere for the first month of school, but that we were building a house in that particular school zone and I just planned to drive them to and from school, probably from Bryan (the sister city to College Station) until the house was finished.

That's when things came crashing down.

In order for the kids to attend the schools that our new home is zoned for, we must be currently residing in the College Station School District boundaries. Didn't she realize that's impossible? It's a college town and all the rentals in College Station have already been pre-leased for the 2014-2015 school year months ago. No one does short term leases. We were going to be lucky to find a place in the outskirts of Bryan/College Station that would allow a 6 month lease as it was. Beggars can't be choosers. We'd have to take what we could find. But I was told I would not be allowed to drive kids in from outside of the College Station school district, even though our house is IN the school district and IN those school boundaries. In fact, I was told that if it would take more than a couple months for the home to be built, we might not get a waiver even if we WERE in the school district. Bottom line, if we're not residing in the College Station School District, we'd have to start in the schools our rental was zoned for and then TRANSFER when our house was done. I quietly hung up the phone while the hot tears welled up in my eyes and spilled all down my face. My mommy heart was crushed.

They can't do this to my kids! We're not just coming from a different part of Texas or across town. We are coming from twenty-five hundred miles across the country! My kids are already faced with the challenge and trial of starting over in a new state and a new school district and new schools with new teachers and new peers and new ways of doing things. They've left behind all their successes and friends and comforts and reputations and future possibilities. They need the stability of starting in the school they'll be attending in the future. My heart ached, especially for Jake. This will be his first year in high school. I know he's supposed to be stretched. But I begged Heavenly Father to please, please, not let it be this way. Don't make him have to start at one school with 7 teachers only to have to change a month later and start ALL OVER AGAIN. Please, no.

This was the first dumb thing about Texas I had come across.

The tears continued to fall. I would have been emotional about this news regardless. The fact that I wasn't feeling well, only made me feel worse as I continued with my mental tirade. I'm an advocate of public education. I have big plans to get involved in my kids' new schools and help out the teachers and give them as much support as I can. But this was unacceptable. I had visions of me marching into the district offices with my red hair flapping wildly behind me like a flag warning to all: You say "don't mess with Texas"? Well, I say, "don't mess with me!" I would demand to know how their stiff boundary rules actually help their future students--especially ones who have come from so far away, to a new land, as it were. And then I'd let them have it.

Your district mantra is "SUCCESS: Each life, Each day, Each hour." I'm sorry, but how is denying my children the opportunity to start at the schools they're supposed to be at helping them be successful? It's setting them up for failure! What child is going to want to engage themselves at the beginning of the school year knowing they'll be leaving 5-6 weeks later anyway?? Our residence outside CSISD is only temporary. Surely you can make exceptions for extenuating circumstances. Where's your humanity??

But I didn't want to be known as "that woman" or for people to cringe or get defensive whenever they heard or saw the Hough name, whether in the district offices or at the individual schools. Furthermore, I wouldn't be strong. I'd be ugly crying and wouldn't get one word out. So I called Jared. Crying. I sputtered out the problem in between sobs and then explained he'd have to be the calm, diplomatic one--that I am clearly the antithesis of. Poor guy. That's not what he needed. He assured me it would be okay and told me not to worry about it any more for the time being. [I later came across a fitting quote for this situation that I really like. "It will all be okay in the end. And if it's not okay, it's not the end."]

Jared called me back a short time later and said he had actually spoken with a woman at the district. He explained the situation to her and she said it was true that we had to reside in the district but they would certainly give us a waiver to start at the schools that were zoned with our new home if we were indeed within the CSISD.

Great. So now we just needed to find a rental in a place where virtually none existed. When we were looking at rental options with our realtor, Saundra, while in Texas, we knew that searching in the greater Bryan/College Station area would be like finding a needle in a haystack. But now? Forget the needle...having to narrow the search area down even more seemed to be the nail in the coffin.

Our new Bishop had given us the name of a sister in the College Station stake who is a manager over a hundred rental properties. She told me that a) no one does short term leases and b) most of the apartments/homes had been rented out (pre-leased) for the beginning of the school year by the returning Texas A & M students...way back in December!! She said the only way we'd be able to find something is if there's a place that falls through at the last minute. In the beginning, I was worried about paying a year long lease when we only needed a few months, but at that point, I was willing to pay nine extra months of rent...if it meant we'd have a place to live in College Station. There was nothing. She knew of nothing either. We had drained all the resources we could. Who knew that living in a college town would be so trying for a family needing to relocate there. We were completely unprepared for this.

I was stumped. I didn't know what else we could do. Especially being new to the area, not being there to look around or get the word out. I knew, because of the peace I had felt and still felt--if I stopped and tuned in--that relocating to Texas was the right decision for our family. And I was fairly confident the Lord wouldn't require us to be homeless.

I finally came to the realization that I had to move on. I had to let this housing conundrum go. Ultimately, it was in the Lord's hands anyway because it was going to take a miracle.

We had our open house the day before we returned home from Texas. We had about five groups come through. There were a couple of them who loved the house but, Cari, our realtor, wasn't able to follow up with them because their realtors weren't also there. So we just had to wait for those people to contact us, assuming they were serious and not just spouting off nice things they didn't really mean or weren't people from the neighborhood only interested in seeing the inside of the only house for sale in the Cross Creek Subdivision.

While I was muddling through the beginning of that week, trying to keep my head above water, part of me hoped I wouldn't have the added stress of getting the house ready for a showing when I already felt like getting my kindergartener on the afternoon bus was way too much.

By Wednesday morning, I couldn't get out of bed. Knowing Jared didn't work until noon that day, was a relief of gigantic proportions to me. I didn't start coming out of my stupor until about 9:30am when Dr. Hicken's new office manager called to ask me some questions about the accounts that had been previously sent to collections. If she noticed my hoarse, raspy voice, as I tried to force a clear, audible sound in the phone receiver, she didn't say anything. I answered her questions as best I could with my head in a thick fog. After that conversation, I was at least up right. But still not right. Begrudgingly, I canceled my volunteering time in Karcyn's class and tutoring that afternoon--two of my built-in weekly opportunities for service. I hate that. But I hated the way I felt too and something had to give.

On Thursday Cari called. Each time we had an appointment for a showing, I would text her. This would be her back-up confirmation. Her computer would actually alert her when the lock box with our house key was accessed by another realtor to show the house. My text would let Cari know that I had been contacted and the computer would notify her that someone saw the house.

The last individual showing (#11) was a couple hours before the open house that we hadn't even been in town for. And now the activity on the house had dried up. Not one phone call by an interested party. We hadn't had one request for a showing in five days. We were in new territory. Our house was no longer one of the "hot new ones" listed on the first page or two of the online web sites. Cari had told us that after a home has been on the market for the first two weeks, it can really peter out fast. Those first two weeks are crucial.

So when Cari called on Thursday, April 10th, she wanted to make sure her computer wasn't broken because it hadn't alerted her to any showings since Saturday. I confirmed her computer wasn't broken. We just hadn't had any showings. This, of course, wasn't a good sign. Personally, deep down, I was confident this was a gift from my Heavenly Father who loves me and knows what I need. I'd felt horrible after coming home from Texas, got worse and just trying to survive was all I could handle at the moment. Cari was kind of worried. I kind of wasn't. But we agreed that if we didn't have another showing by the next week Thursday (the 17th) that we might need to talk about lowering the price. Not what you want to hear, but it's all a part of the experience.

I was still under the weather on Friday but was getting some of my strength back. I wasn't surprised when we got a call for a showing (#12) on Saturday at 9 in the morning. On a day when I had lots of other people to help tidy up the house.

That Sunday, Jared and I had decided to do another fast, to consider how long we wanted to keep the house listed at the original price of $265,000. We both felt we should wait until the beginning of May. Jared had been doing a temple recommend interview that day at church and felt impressed that we should wait until May 10th. So we both agreed at least a week into May.

That night Jared was looking for possible rental options in College Station. The first one he came across seemed nice enough. Until he clicked on a picture with a bunch of college students having a frat party in a pool. While some of our kids might not have minded that, Jared knew that clearly wouldn't work.

A couple nights later, Jared showed me another property he had found that touted itself as being "the best in student and family living." It did look nice and the fact that it mentioned 'family' was encouraging. He emailed the property manager that evening around 11pm.

My family will be moving down to college station this summer due to a job change for me.  The dilemma we have is that the house we are building to live in down there will not be ready until the beginning of October.  Do you do short term leases and if yes what are the possibilities of there being something available from about July through October?  We are finding it very difficult to find something in the College Station area due to the large student population.  If you do not have anything I would be interested in any suggestion that may help my family for that time frame. Thank you.

 

Jared Hough

The manager's response came in on Wednesday afternoon. Jared forwarded the message to me with two sentences. "I love fasting and prayer. Tell me what you think."

Hi Jared,

 

We normally do not allow short term leases, except for our furnished corporate units.  However, I have a tenant that is looking to sub-lease their large 3 bedroom 2 bath.  The duplex is 1446 sq. ft. and the rent is $1,325 a month with your water, cable, internet, lawn care and pest control all being paid.  The units come with all the kitchen appliances, full size washers and dryers, 2" faux wood blinds, 9 foot ceilings with ceiling fans throughout and have individual privacy fenced back yards.  We are a pet friendly property and there are two options on the pet deposit/monthly fee depending on the number of animals.  You can find these options and other information regarding the property on the attached Frequently Asked Questions.  The current tenants could be out July 1^st and their lease end date is October 31^st. 

 

Let me know if this is an option that you may be interested in or if you have any other questions.

Tell you what I think???  I think we need to crawl through the phone and sign the lease TODAY!
This was mind-blowing. This was the second property he found and the first place Jared inquired about after doing an online search. And while they don't do short term leases, there's a tenant who needs to sub-lease his duplex...the LARGEST sized duplex with the same number of bedrooms and bathrooms we were living in for the same exact same time frame that we needed and for just under the same price as our current mortgage!! This was the miracle of all miracles. I knew the house would sell. I knew we would make money on it. It was just a matter of when and how much. But this?! This was better than any of my fondest dreams.

And then I started to have guilt. How could I have doubted the Lord? Why did I break down and get mentally upset at the school district? Of course the Lord would orchestrate everything perfectly to meet our needs. The task of securing temporary housing in a college town was near impossible based on our limited knowledge and that of others who were helping us, but not to the Lord. He can see all things. And knows the right timing of all things too. We exhausted all our options and resources and when we realized there was no more we could do, we moved forward in faith. And the pieces fell into place.

If you thought that was remarkable, it gets even better. This duplex (which is part of a small community of duplexes connected to a larger subdivision of homes) is just 2 miles as the crow flies from our new home. And therefore, it is zoned for the exact, same schools all of our children will be attending when the house is ready. No need to go storming into the district offices. No need for a waiver. No need to change schools or wards. This duplex is as close to our new home as we can get. I cannot express how miraculous this manna from heaven was to us. It is the single-most INCREDIBLE part of this whole moving process. We'd been richly blessed in so many ways already, but even the Texas locals are amazed we were able to secure a sub-lease (an option, of course, that we had never considered) for a few months time in the College Station school district. But the fact that it was already zoned in our schools, is a fact that makes my heart swell with gratitude even today. Our rental application was approved and our portion of the lease would start July 1st.

Over the next week, we had four more showings, taking us to 16 total showings (21 if you count those from the open house) in four week's time.

We had one lady that really, really liked the house who saw it the first couple of weeks it was on the market. But we never heard back from her. We had another younger couple, referred by a friend in our ward, who loved the house too. In fact, they spent a LOT of time there. We came back after an hour and they were still there so we had to just keep driving.

We asked Cari if she would let the realtor of the first lady know that there was a couple really interested in the house. She reported was already on it! She got back with us and said that the lady liked our house and another one and decided to go with the other one. Of course she did.

And still no offers.

What added more to Jared's frustration, is that we had three friends in our ward who all listed their homes a week or two or four after ours and every single one of them were in contract within 3-6 days of being on the market. So then we had people at church asking Jared if we had the right realtor, because they were all using the same one, etc. I know they were trying to be helpful. But it wasn't. It was like rubbing salt in our wounds and made us feel bad like something was wrong with us, or our home or our choices. It was a little bit of a sting to me too, but I tried so hard not to let that get to me. Jared, on the other hand, was struggling. He had been through the wringer already with so much pressure on him and so many changes and unknowns, he was not feeling well and not sleeping. So the fact that the homes of our friends were going like hot cakes, one after the other, was taking its toll on him.

While two of the three homes were similar in size as ours, you simply cannot compare ours with theirs. It was like apples to oranges. They were all in a new, compact subdivision. They have no yard. The HOA dues they pay are 4x as much as ours is monthly and they have no pool or recreation center, like we do. Our home is an older, ranch style. We have a big back yard. We live in an established neighborhood and even the schools are different so I think those factors all draw in a different population of buyers. It just isn't the same. Except we were all trying to sell our homes and they did and we were still trying.

I am grateful though that Cari valued us enough not to price our home for a quick sale. She wanted us to reap everything that we could. If we had priced our home for $25K to $30K less than what we bought it for, we would have sold ours in one day, too. But the equity we had built up is the only extra money we really had to put down on a new home aside from a little bit in savings. So every dollar mattered.

The third week in April (5 weeks on the market) we had 4 more showings, taking us to 20 individual showings and 20 separate times we (me mostly) had to get the house super clean and put our lives on pause so we could vacate the house for about an hour.

Jared was growing increasingly discouraged, especially as the feedback from friends added extra pressure and resentment. Twenty showings (not to mention the open house) and not one offer. Not even a lowball offer. It was weird. All the realtors who came through were saying that the home was showing really well. People even liked the paint colors. So why then was no one submitting any offers? Cari explained that it's really hard to understand the buyer psyche. The first few people who saw it the first week on the market and loved it were turned off by the busy road behind our back fence. They thought it was too loud. I get that. I remember when we were at the house, as the prospective buyers waiting for the inspection to be done, and I asked Cari, "So do you think 209th will be a problem if we ever try and sell the house?" She said, "Well, you're buying it...so someone else will." Yes, you can hear the car traffic when you're standing in a quiet house and not moving. But that's not how one lives in a home. Turn on the kitchen faucet and you can't hear the cars, even as you watch their shadows pass through the back fence from the kitchen window. It's not a big deal, at all. Jared's a super light sleeper and if there are cars that are on the road at night, they certainly haven't kept him up. So whatever.

Other specific issues buyers had:
*the backyard is too big (seriously?? that's like one of the best parts of the house!)
*the shower in the master is too small
*it's too far on the west side (then why were you looking at it?)
*it's too pricey (then why were you looking at it? Buy within your means, people!! That would solve a lot of America's problems!!)

And for the rest of the buyers, I'm sure it was just "not for them." I get that, too. While there were some things I liked about the four homes we looked at in Texas, they just weren't "it" or where I saw myself everyday. I didn't want to settle, and I don't expect anyone else to either.

But the fact remained...our house had been on the market for 5 weeks and even WITH a ton of foot traffic...no offers. The young couple who LOVED the house and spent so much time at it, didn't put an offer in either. Cari had talked with their realtor to see what was up with them and it was explained that they were very jumpy first time buyers, taking their precious time. Cari had worked with these types of people before and found that pushing them into a contract does more harm than good.

So Jared and I decided to lower the price $7000 to $258,000 and see what that did. We were advised to go a full $10K but we weren't quite ready to make that jump yet. We had a goal to wait until May, but we gave it over a month and I was growing weary of putting my life on hold, wondering when/if the phone would ring and how much notice I'd get this time before having to start my whirlwind cleaning again and get out of the house.

Interestingly enough, we had a thought cross our minds that hadn't occurred to us before. We had been praying that the right people who needed to be in our house would be led to it. After all that time had passed with no offers, we realized that maybe the right buyers weren't in the $265,000 price range. And maybe by our lowering the price, it would allow them to be in a position to find our home and it would be a blessing to them, even if it's at "our expense." We were so blessed to get our house when were the buyers, so maybe it was our turn to do it for someone else.

We got three more showings the last week of April,  Monday through Wednesday. On Tuesday, that young couple came back for a second showing which happened to be on my birthday, April 29th. But even after praying for a birthday miracle, we didn't hear back from them. Drats!! And nothing on Thursday or Friday. Jared had had enough. He didn't see where waiting another week would make a difference so we decided to go ahead and lower the price the full $10K (another $3,000) to $254,900. We were slowly creeping into the time when we needed to be in contract because if the closing took a full 45 days, we needed to close by the end of June so we didn't have to pay mortgage and rent in July when we started living in Texas.

There was no activity on our house the first weekend in May.

Monday, May 5th, we had a showing scheduled for 6:30 that night. The buyers actually called Cari because they drove by and saw the house for sale. This was encouraging because that meant, the buyers had actually seen the outside of the house and the street it was on and knew where the house was in relation to other things...like the busy road, the subdivision, the schools, etc. And she reported they were VERY excited about it. In fact, they had called her on Sunday, twice. They wanted to see it then, but Cari respected our wishes not to show the house on Sunday when we weren't at church and told them Monday evening would work. She would meet them at the house because they didn't have a realtor yet.

We had texted about the showing the night before. So when Cari called Monday morning, around 8am, I knew something was up.

We got an offer! WHAT?!

But who? No one had seen it or given her feedback. Get this...it was the lady who liked the house way back in the beginning, and she had only seen it that one time. Cari saw the realtor's name and remembered them. It was between our house and another and the lady put an offer on the other one. But somewhere along the way, it fell through and we were her number 2. She saw it was still for sale, so she put an offer in. Very interesting. We don't know the details of what happened...if the fall out was buyer or seller initiated. But either way, we saw an opportunity. Cari said that she suspects the buyer didn't listen to her realtor and lost the house for one reason or another. And once buyers lose one house, they are usually very careful not to lose the next one. We used this as leverage...mostly as confidence in our not bending over backwards to their outlandish requests.

Her offer was atrocious. It was a super low price, almost what we paid for it 6 1/2 years ago! Plus she wanted $10,000 in closing costs on top of that. Give me a break. What irked me a little further was that she had seen the house at our original listing price, which she obviously could have afforded and still low-balled us. BUT...it was an offer. Our only offer at that point. Cari told us not to fear. We'd counter all the way back up to the asking price and give a little in closing costs. I hate closing costs. When we were talking to Cari that evening in our room, she was on speaker. Cari suggested maybe we could do $4,000 or $5,000 in closing costs. I sat on our bed slowly shaking my head "no way" with my jaw set and it was as if she could see me because she's like, "Or what about $3,000?" Okay, fine. I guess we have to give something. That was a third of what was requested.

So we countered at $255,000 for the asking price and would give $3,000 in closing costs. They had through Tuesday, May 6th to counter that offer or accept.

We had our showing at 6:30pm Monday evening, so we decided to get some food and try a picnic in the park again. It was still cool, but not as bad as it was the last time we tried that. Around 6:50, I got a call. It was Cari. The buyers never showed up. She called them to find out where they were. They had decided the house was too expensive for them and changed their mind, but they each thought the other had called Cari to cancel. Ugh!! I felt really bad for Cari who wasted a trip out to the house. While I wasn't happy about the waste of money, we had to eat anyway. And I suppose, considering how many showings we had had up to that point, only 1 no-show was pretty good odds.

On Tuesday, I got three calls within an hour from realtors who wanted to show the house that day. One that morning and two that evening. The third call was from Rachel, the realtor for the buyer who had submitted the offer. They wanted to come see the house again (yeah, considering it had been over a month since she had seen it the first time that would probably be a good idea!) She wanted to see it at 6pm. I smiled impishly to myself and said that "Oh, well, we have our second showing that day at 6pm. Is there another time you could come?" So now she knew we had other people still looking at it and more than one on that day. She opted for 6:30.

We told Jared we'd meet him in the Target parking lot and asked if he would pick up a couple pizzas after he got off work. We waited for Jared til about 6:20. He took longer than I expected but at least he'd have dinner with him. He pulled up next to the burb and I asked, "You got the pizzas?" He looked at me and said, "No." I thought he was kidding. He wasn't. So back he went. Fortunately, the pizza place wasn't too far from Target. But the natives were getting restless.

We wasted as much time as we could and around 7:15, I figured it had been enough time for a second showing. We drove toward the house at 7:25pm and as we turned down the street, we saw they were STILL at the house...standing outside on the lawn, talking. So we drove past the house (I refused to look in their direction because I just knew they'd see right through me and say "That's her! That's the owner!" as if I was guilty of something...like a clean house...and told the other kids not to look either) and we parked on the next street down from ours. We waited for about 10 minutes. There was a neighbor girl that the kids know who was riding her bike in the cul-de-sac. We asked her if she would ride her bike up the path to see if there were people still in front of our house. She rode back and reported they were leaving. They were there til 7:35, well over an hour. I hoped that was a good sign.
Cari said it usually is.

Wednesday, May 7th, Jared and I celebrated 17 years of marriage. At 8am, Jared and Jake were rear-ended by an SUV while taking Jake to his orthodontist appointment--fortunately no one was injured; Cari called around 8:30 or 9 to tell us our offer was ACCEPTED!! and then I had to go pick up Jake from school around 10am because he wasn't feeling well. It was a busy morning!

We had our 28th showing scheduled for Wednesday evening that I had the privilege of calling and cancelling because we were in contract. When we told the kids the sale on the house was pending they asked, "does that mean we're done showing the house?" Yes, yes it does!! Hopefully. I was still cautiously optimistic. Ironically, I knew that getting an offer was the "easy" part. We still had the inspection, inspection negotiations, repairs and the appraisal yet to endure and hoped that the buyer's loan would be funded.

But that will be saved for another day and another post :)