Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have An Offer.

When the phone rang a little after 9pm - and the caller ID showed Private - my heart skipped a beat.  I knew our realtor's phone number appeared this way.  And why in the world would he call that late for any reason other than an offer?

Thank the Lord I was right.

We've received an offer - and it isn't all that bad.  Kevin and I sat together, as our realtor gave us the details over the speakerphone.  The potential buyer wants us to include the fireplace and bar in the sale of the home.  She wants us to pay her closing fees.  She also came in at $10,000 less than our asking price.  Being that I am new to this whole process, when I first heard that, my heart sunk.  But then Kevin gave me a thumbs up and I had hope again.  This set us up nicely for a counter offer.  Our realtor asked that we think it over and call him by 11pm tonight or early tomorrow morning.

So Kevin poured two glasses of wine in celebration and we sat down to work through some numbers.  We took our time.  We talked through scenarios.  We put ourselves in the buyer's shoes.  We came back with a counter that we felt was reasonable, and at about 10:45pm Kevin picked up the phone and called our realtor.  He liked what we came up with and said that we should be hearing back from him tomorrow night.

Now we pray.

We'll be at Cirque Du Soleil's Alegria tomorrow night with my parents and my grandma.  I am so excited they'll be up here when we possibly receive the phonecall that could change our life.  I know that is a big statement, but seriously - this is life changing.  I can't believe it is happening ... and we've only been listed online with pictures for twenty days!  We have an open house scheduled for Sunday, and at the advice of our realtor, we're keeping it scheduled.  If nothing else, that could light a fire under this buyer to accept our counter sooner.  So ... should this buyer accept our counter-offer, here is the timeline:

* Inspections in the next 10 days (buyer is bringing in her own inspectors, at her own cost)
* May 10th - Closing date
* May 15th - Be out of the house for good by 1pm

When signing the Purchase Agreement with Ryan Homes the other night, they estimate that we should be able to close on our new home by early to mid-August.  It normally wouldn't take this long (their average is about 80 days, start to finish), but since we're building in a brand new phase, they are still finishing up all paperwork with the city for utility lines, etc, so ground can't be broken as soon as we close on our current home.  Sooo ... it looks as though we will be roomies with Kevin's parents for a while!

We'll see what tomorrow night's phonecall brings.  Until then, we'll pray.  God is so amazing, I cannot wait to see what He has in store for us!