Three years have passed since TS1 and I sold the townhouse over on Gladys Ave, apparently not a terrible choice as Zillow’s estimate of the current value is $25,000 less than what we got. The last few weeks we’ve been going out with a real estate agent to see what’s available.
Our requirements are straightforward:
- Location: Mountain View, preferably within 1.5 miles of the Castro St./California Ave. intersection so TS1 can walk to work. I’ve lived in MV for eleven(!) years and she for nearly six and we’re happy and comfortable with it.
- Size: 3 or 4 bedrooms, 2 or 3 baths and a minimum of 1700 square feet one or two levels. Bedrooms must not be cramped and the master must comfortably fit a king size bed.
- Lot size: This is not a big deal for us, we’ve seen a few nice homes with not too much yard space, though more is of course better.
You’d be surprised how much new construction is laid out on three levels, resulting in terrible, and frequently cramped, floor plans. Also quite a few one or two level, 3 bed/2 bath homes under 1400 square feet, also far too cramped. Pretty never makes up for this.
We looked at several homes in the Whisman Station development. I was impressed with the general quality and we considered bidding on two. Now just over 10 years old the homes seem to be holding up well and the HOA fee is just $105 a month, compared to about $350 we paid three years ago on the townhouse (and I was president there so I know the budget was lean).
Two houses did meet our criteria: 653 McCarty and 711 Sierra Vista. Both are smaller than we’d like but have very large (for Mountain View) lots, meaning we could expand them. McCarty was our first choice and, having been vacant and on the market for over 200 days with no offers, we thought a very low offer would entice the absentee owners. Sierra Vista needs much less work and has a larger lot, but has only been on the market five weeks with the owners still living in (so motivated but not as much).
TS1 and I met with our agent, Devin Ruiz, Monday night to go over the latest information he had from the listing agents and help us crystallize our thinking. We decided to sleep on it, make some calls Tuesday to get expert advice and meet Wednesday morning to fill out the purchase offer paperwork.
Tuesday lunchtime Devin calls with the news that, after 200 days with zero bids, someone else came in with an offer on the McCarty property that the trustee felt was good enough. He didn’t reveal the price nor try and get us into a bidding war.
No worries, really, as we were happy to go after the Sierra Vista property. The location wasn’t quite as good but the house was in better condition, including a recently redone kitchen, and sits on a bigger lot. TS1 especially liked the spacious fenced in side yard as great to have for the two dogs we plan to get after settling in to the new home.
So we wrote up an offer. Money was a bit on the low end but we felt the right amount given the state of the market, terms were otherwise standard and even a bit generous on the contingencies. The owners countered with a higher dollar amount than I expected, inadequate termite and property condition contingency (considering they hadn’t done either inspection, which is unusual here) and a request to rent back for 30 days after closing.
Devin advised us to respond with our final, best offer. On Thursday afternoon we did, agreeing to the rent back, raising our dollar offer $13,000 (still quite bit less than their counter) and restating the standard termite and property condition contingencies. The offer expired last night (or yesterday noon, I’m not quite sure).
I was surprised–shocked, I tell you!–that we got no response at all to our counter-counter. Rejection is one thing but not to get any answer strikes me as strange.
We’ll just have to keep hunting.
BillSaysThis 
