It's been a busy couple of weeks...

So I haven't posted for a while.  Things have been both a little slower but we've also had our first serious offer so it's kind of all happening.

On the 21st July we only had 7 groups through so the theory isn't holding up as the weeks go on...

One of the couples was here by appointment and sounded very interested... too good to be true in fact. They were talking about agreeing on a price, getting conveyancing arranged and moving quickly to a building and pest inspection...

Well - you know what they about things being too good to be true.... yes well that didn't happen - which was a little disappointing.

Last week we had an additional 445 hits (campaign count 1667) before the inspection and had beautiful weather but we had a disappointing inspection with only 3 groups through.  One was a single woman and her daughter who were interested but not at the price we're wanting.  I encouraged her to get in touch when she had her finance sorted and at that point we might be willing to sell at the price she was looking at... $50K below our expectations but that was something I suppose.

Then came the excitement.  Saturday late afternoon we got our first offer.  It was literally $100K short of our expectations - but the first serious offer - in writing and everything.

In some respects it was sad to have to reject the offer, but on the other hand it was a bit of an insult to be offered an amount so much lower than what we thought was a reasonable price for the house.  I called the couple to advise we weren't prepared to sell at that price.  Having said that - there's nothing on the market at the moment that I really want to buy either - so we're not really in a hurry.

I spoke to one of the agents who I know through a friend and she advised that we play with the pictures and my sister suggested we change the price to see if that brings us any more interest.  Mark and I sat down and agreed to put up an asking price - that way we're less likely to get people offering so much lower than our expectations.  We agreed on a price of $929 000 which is probably less than I thought we'd put when we first put it on the market in June - but really a reasonable price by all accounts - I guess we'll wait for the market to tell us if we're in the right range or not...

I got a call then early this week from the couple who made the original offer and we had an honest conversation about ability to pay, the market and our expectations.  There was a 4 bedroom house that sold at auction recently not far from us for $895 000.  I didn't look at it so I don't know what condition it was in, but said we had an expectation of over $900 000 - given the cheapest house on the street in the last 12 months sold for $930 000.  We are a long way apart - he said he wasn't prepared to pay that much - but I said that what he was offering didn't even come close.

He was going to think about it - we're preparing for another open house... a few email enquiries this week.  Hoping putting a price rather than "offers over $890 000 brings people out of the woodwork.  But it's a waiting game.... We've had 75 people through.... so there's clearly interest.  We just need someone to fall in love with it like we did.  In the meantime - I'm making the most out of enjoying the house - because I really do like it here!

We're at 1943 page hits so at this stage (276 more than last week) so we should hope for 6+ more couples/groups on Saturday.

We'll see!