Last week, we put an offer on a homestead! We went back and forth a bit last week negotiating. Cameron and I talked about what we thought it was worth based on research from other comparable sales, how long it had been on the market, and our own thoughts. We ended up making an offer 20% less than the listing price.
Thanks to advice from family and friends, we also included a letter as to why we wanted the property and what we would do with it, as well as stating the offer was at the top of our budget. We didn’t want to offend the sellers and thankfully it worked. They did counter our offer and wrote us back a really nice note.
The unfortunate part was that the counter offer was only about 5% off the listing price. They had an appraisal done a few years earlier and really felt it was worth the appraised value. Our realtor was on our side (of course haha!) and said a home is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, which is probably why the house is still for sale after two years of being on the market.
Cam and I debated back and forth if we should counter again or just reject the offer. In the end we decided that the reason we liked the place was because we liked it at a certain price that we had in our minds. We didn’t even feel comfortable meeting them in the middle.
So we ended up rejecting the counter offer and wrote them a note. We didn’t want to burn any bridges so we just said we still like the house, but didn’t feel comfortable going that much higher on the price and if they changed their mind and want to get closer to our number to let us know.
And now we are on the hunt again. Truthfully, I am disappointed. And I’m tired of being patient. We have been actively looking for over a year but have been preparing to move for much longer than that.
Even though my patience is growing thin, I know that there is a reason this property didn’t work out. Perhaps a place that fits our needs perfectly is on the horizon? 🙂
And to be quite honest, we keep on wavering on what we want versus what we need. The main issue being that we can’t decide whether or not we are going to homestead for self-sufficiency or both farm and homestead.
The details of exactly what we should do haven’t quite fallen into place yet. We are just hoping and praying we end up where we are suppose to be.
Since it looks like we will be here for the summer so I am planning out all the garden as usual. We also have a friend who has 13 acres and is willing to let us raise meat chickens on their property if we want. I’m grateful we have some good alternative options while we wait to buy our own land.
In the garden:
- I finally got around to mixing up my homemade soil mix. I’m testing out some worm castings in place of the blood meal I usually use.
- This week I started my onion seeds! Varieties are Rossa Di Milano, Valencia, Gladstone, Shallots, and NY Early
