Escrow!

So... We're in escrow! I didn't want to say anything until now, but we received an offer last Thursday evening. We were pretty sure it was coming, given that the same person had already viewed our home twice. But we really had no idea what it would be like. As it turned out, though, she REALLY loves our house and came in with a very serious, very reasonable offer. We were shocked, to say the least! We went back to her with an equally-reasonable counter-offer, which she accepted on Saturday. And, as of this morning, escrow has been opened!

The good news is that this particular buyer (a younger woman, probably around our age) wants a long escrow. She asked for a closing date of May 30th, which is just perfect! In our counter-offer, we reserved the right to rent back from her until June 14th, if we so choose, so that we will be here for the remainder of the school year. At that point, we will move all our stuff out, send it to storage, and temporarily move in with my parents-- provided we haven't already closed on the house in Massachusetts. Then, once it's time to head east, the kids and I will give Gus a two-week head start to drive across the country with both cars (and Corky!), do some quick things to the house (like have the carpets cleaned), and then be there when the moving truck arrives to direct the unloading. That way, when the kids and I finally get there, they will have beds and whatnot to sleep in.

However, I am getting ahead of myself!! While we are very excited, we have a lot of hurdles to jump over in the next few months. We have the pest inspection, which should be alright. There will be a home inspection, which we are thinking shouldn't turn up anything major, but you never know! Then there is the appraisal, which worries me. The accepted offer is pretty high for this area right now, and it could be close. I have a feeling it will end up being somewhat based on who the appraiser is and what sort of mood he/she is in on that particular day. Scary! Meanwhile, our buyer is trying to sell her condo, which is a pretty huge contingency. However... her loan on the condo is assumable as of May 30th, and her aunt is willing to take over the payments, so it's not necessarily an issue. Really, though, it means she can find a way out of the contract at almost any time. I really hope it doesn't come to that!

At any rate... fingers crossed for everything going smoothly! Most of the inspections won't take place until next month, anyway, so we can relax for a bit... and start cleaning out some of our junk! Time for a garage sale!