Real Estate Schadenfreude

A couple very important anniversaries passed without mention a couple weeks ago. One year ago on November 12th, Hubby and I closed escrow on our home in Minneapolis. A few days later, our home in St. Paul sold after only two days on the market. We were extremely lucky on both the buy and sale parts of our deals, but didn't realize just how lucky until this week.

The Craphole, as the house in St. Paul was known, was wrong for us in many, many ways. We had been in a hurry during our househunting when we moved to Minneapolis, and we bought the first house we found that suited our needs. The house had its charms, like exploding plumbing, nosy neighbors and an impossible floor plan, but in the end, it just wasn't right for us. I spent nearly every day of the year we lived in it wading through the real estate MLS, looking for a new place. We'd just about given up -- the market was starting to tank, inventory was nearly nil, and winter was around the corner -- when we found the amazing home we have now. The offer process didn't go smoothly, but in the end, it was ours, and we've been delighted with it and the neighborhood ever since the day we moved in.

In the process of finding our home, there were three other houses that we considered making offers on. One was a stunning, recently-remodeled historical home in St. Paul, another was a charming new place in an up-and-coming neighborhood in Minneapolis, and the third sat a half block from a gorgeous Minneapolis lake and had been featured in multiple design magazines. Stunning homes, every single one of them, and for the right price, we would have made any one of them ours. Unfortunately, none of the builders that owned them were willing to negotiate a dime off their prices.

Just a few weeks ago, we called our real estate agent and asked him what happened to the historical home. Of all the places we didn't get, I think this was the one that stung the most and stayed in our heads as "the place that got away". It turns out the builder never got an offer on it, and he declared bankruptcy. The banks are waiting to put them back on the market next spring.

The charming home in the up-and-coming neighborhood? They were unwilling to negotiate building us a fence for our dogs, and claimed they anticipated a full-price offer on the house that week. There's still a for-sale sign sitting outside.

That gorgeous new designer home on the lake? It had already been on the block for a year when we saw it. The builder was not willing to budge a penny on the asking price. About six months later, he tried to give it away as part of a contest, and he was briefly arrested for fraud due to the terms of the giveaway, which didn't conform to state law. The house is back up for sale, the builder has declared bankruptcy, and the asking price is nearly 25% less than the original.

In hindsight, we dodged two sketchy contractors (one a potential felon) and a neighborhood that has turned out to be not-so-up-and-coming in the midst of the real estate crash. Plus, we found a home that truly makes us happy. Despite the name of this post, I'm not really feeling any sense of schadenfreude toward the sellers of those other homes.* I'm just grateful we landed where we did.

Happy anniversary, house. Don't have any more plumbing disasters, and we'll be good friends for many years to come.



*Well, okay, maybe that greedy bastard with the designer home got what he deserved.
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