WE SOLD OUR HOUSE-ON-DIRT!!!
On Wednesday December 5, the Simpson Six closed our chapter of life in Indianapolis and became 100% mobile with the closing of the sale of our house. As with every other detail in this journey toward living more intentionally, flexibly, and increasing our mobility and ability to live life more fully, it comes with a great story.
Back in March of this year, we met with a realtor who was recommended to us by friends who had sold a couple of homes with her, including one just on the other side of the neighborhood. They also sold their Indianapolis home to relocate their family across the country, so we felt like she might be a good fit for us as a realtor. We listed our home with her April 2 and for the next 6 months had a constant string of showings, averaging 1/week over the course of the spring/summer/early fall. However, feedback from our realtor after each of these showings trickled to a halt upon our launch into full-time travel, and communication became more and more of a challenge with this real estate agent. By mid-October and the end of this first contract we decided to re-evaluate our options and try something different.
I contacted a college friend who I've become re-acquainted with over the last year or so that we lived in Indy that happens to be a realtor specializing in the North side of Indy, and also knows our neighborhood well. She has a great track record with selling homes, and most of all we were so impressed with how easy she was to get in touch with and communicate with while we were discussing our options for our home. We discussed rental options and how, unfortunately, we were heading into the slowest point in the year for real estate sales in Indianapolis.
Against conventional wisdom, we decided to re-list with our friend, Christy, as our realtor and give the house a few more months on the market before we considered crossing over to the world of being long-distance landlords. We really didn't want to lease the home, and knew that if anyone could help us sell our home before spring, Christy could do it!
We listed the house October 17 and within three weeks we had 6 showings, 2 second showings and on November 5 we received our first offer! Over the next few days we negotiated with the buyer and both parties agreed upon a contract on November 7.
Now, here's where the story gets exciting.
If you'll recall, when we bought our truck in Moab, UT, we were called back to Colorado for Jason to work an extra week or two to complete the job in Snowmass. Because we needed to register our new truck in Indiana within 30 days, we decided to head east toward Indiana before the next snowfall. Well, the next snowstorm was forecasted to make its way into the Rockies around November 9/10, so we started traveling east toward Indiana on November 7. Therefore, when we got the call that the house was under contract, we were already in Denver, CO for the night, planning to be in Indiana within a few days.
Ordinarily, it wouldn't be that big of a deal if we were back in Indy before the house closed, since we had already completed our final cleaning back in June when we hit the road and it was in turn-key condition for new owners. However, one awesome surprise that we never expected was thrown our way. The buyer had waived their option to have the home professionally inspected, but instead requested only that our vegetable garden be removed. Well, since we were already planning to swing through town and the weather promised to be amazing for the few days that we were there, we gladly agreed to a few hours of manual labor to pull up the weeds, rake up the thatch and offered the garden fencing to a neighbor who will put it to good use.
An added bonus on our end to skipping over the home inspection step before closing was that we had very, very little to do on our end prior to the week of closing and once we had a contract, we had a contract without any contingencies! Seriously, how much easier could this home-selling process possibly be?!
Because we were continuing on toward the east coast, Jason and I were able to complete our end of the closing process remotely. Although a little complicated with having to rent a van for a few days and find a notary public to witness our signatures on the documents, it was really simple, easy and painless on our part.
Finally, 8 weeks after re-listing with a new realtor, 30 days after receiving the offer and just 4 weeks after going under contract, our house-on-dirt was sold and closed!
It was a great little house for our family and provided a home for us when all that we wanted was a spot of dirt to call our own. It was, in its time, our own little piece of heaven, and I hope that it is a dream come true for its new owner as well.
Now, for the icing on the cake, and yet another example of God's hand in the story of our lives...
When we purchased our new truck in Utah, the only hesitation that we faced was taking on a vehicle payment, which had never been part of our family's budget, when we were still paying a mortgage and other expenses related to owning a house-on-dirt. We knew that we could swing the extra expense, but that it would definitely put a limit on our family's freedom while we had both a mortgage and a truck payment to make.
Well, last week, before we knew when our house would close, we scheduled the first payment on the truck to draft from our account on Wednesday December 5. Our house closed on Wednesday December 5, so not only did we not have to make a final December mortgage payment on our home, the funds from the sale of the house were disbursed prior to the truck payment being drafted from our account.
We did not make the first payment on our truck until after the house was off of our family's books.
When I checked our bank accounts and saw this, I had to sit down. Every small detail was ordained and "just so". God continues to make His presence known in our story, and we continue to acknowledge and express both our awe and thankfulness for these little confirmations that we're right where we are supposed to be.
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