Selling our Arizona house and buying a house in Utah was STRESSFUL!!
Since we had an idea that we MIGHT be changing jobs and moving to Utah, we were getting our house ready to sell all summer. As soon as I got home from girl's camp, I started staging inside, decluttering like crazy, and getting the yard ready. When we left for Utah for the month of July, I had the house ready enough that if we needed to put it on the market while we were in Utah, that we could. That didn't end up happening, but that is all that we were doing and thinking about. The biggest project of the summer was when we decided that the back lawn needed to be re-sodded. I don't know what happened to the summer grass, but it looked like garbage and we weren't comfortable putting up the house for sale with the sod looking like it was. I think we may have put down too much winter seed and it stifled the growth of the summer grass (although our winter grass looked the best it ever has!). So while the kids and I were in Utah, and Brandon was back in Mesa for a couple weeks of working, he tore out all the sod during the evenings in the blazing HOTness! Bless his heart. When the kids and I got back from Utah, we had to figure out how to get rid of the old sod affordably and lay the new sod within a matter of days. In fact, Brandon laid the sod on his 32nd birthday!!
After all of our summer efforts, we officially put the house on the market on July 31, just a few days after we accepted the offer with Vivint Solar. We had our friend, Danny, put it on the MLS and get us a lockbox for a flat fee. We were scratching and clawing to get out of the house what we had put into it over the last two years, so we felt like we couldn't afford an agent. We were also up against new builds since the neighborhood is still growing and it wasn't the best time of year to sell a house. But we loved our house and had been very thoughtful about our upgrades, so we felt like it would show well and we thought the price was fair considering all that we had done. It got put on the market, and then nothing happened. If I am being honest, I think I initially expected our house to get an offer within 2 weeks. I had hoped to have something in the works before we left to Utah. I think my judgement was clouded since we had sold the Preston house in 1 day!
We left the house staged, so that agents could show the house while we were up in Utah living with Brandon's parents. We had such little interest that we dropped the price on September 4th (I think we maybe had 2-3 showings up to that point with no offers). Almost simultaneously, a friend from our old neighborhood called me saying that they might be interested in seeing our house. Her husband had shown her some pictures of it and she knew she had seen it before (probably from when I shared our listing on Facebook). We encouraged them to see the house without a realtor, which would give us an opportunity to give them a good deal. We gave them our garage code and they showed themselves around. They called us the next day and made us an offer. It was contingent upon the sale of their house and because they didn't have an agent, they offered us 3% below our asking price, which was essentially the same amount in our pocket. We were thrilled about the offer and crossed our fingers that they would sell their house quickly!
We had to wait very patiently since they took a few weeks (felt like forever) to put their house up for sale, but once they put it up for sale, things started to move fairly quickly. They had an offer on the house within a few days, and we set a closing date for mid-November.
I don't remember exactly when, but sometime at the end of September or early October, Brandon and I went through a house in East Lehi that seemed like it might be a good fit for us. The house didn't have everything that we wanted, but when I knocked doors and met the neighbors (one of which was actually the owner of the house, so we got the inside scoop), I felt really great about the neighborhood and area. I got so excited that we actually made an offer - with no contingencies - since we knew that they wouldn't accept our offer if we made them wait for us to close on our house. We went to bed feeling excited and a little nervous since we were taking a risk and that we might own two houses for a short period of time. After feeling so good and excited, that all came crashing down with one of the worst nights of sleep in my life. I felt it was too risky and not the right time, and I felt awful telling Brandon since I had been the driving force and had caused him all sorts of work on the contracts. He was very understanding and we rescinded our offer before they had a chance to accept. One of the annoying parts of this process was that we made a low offer since we didn't have an agent, which saves the seller money. Their agent informed us that the sellers were under contract to pay a 6% commission so that they would retain the entire commission since we didn't have an agent. They were not very kind or professional about it and tried to slap our wrists for not having an agent.
We stepped away from that and took a little breather on the house front. Then we priced out a new build just west of Mount Timpanogos temple and went to the ward a couple times. It seemed like a great fit, but was at the top of our budget and with interest rates apparently on the rise, we just weren't comfortable with the idea. The fact that we were wanting a 3-car garage was pushing our budget up too high, so we started looking at homes without a 3-car garage. We came across a home in east American Fork that was on a quiet street, and in a neighborhood we weren't really familiar with. It was approx 2800 square feet, 20 years old, 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a finished basement, had just been flipped, and was well under budget. When Brandon drove around the neighborhood before arriving to the house, he had a really good feeling about it. I was happy with what I saw, but was a little nervous about what an inspection would show was wrong with the house. We had to move quickly because we were leaving to Arizona to pack up our things in a matter of days, and there was a lot of interest according to the seller. I went and saw the house again the very next day with our newly found real estate agent, a friend of a friend, who agreed to be the agent for a flat fee since he was coming in at the last minute. I liked the house, so I knocked doors, and couldn't get a super good feel for what the neighborhood was like - it was a little more established than what we were used to and not as many children as I had hoped for. Brandon was supportive with whatever I felt we should do, and he was ready to make an offer if that is what I wanted. He's a good man! I did as much research as I could and then sat on the idea of making an offer for the night. I prayed and prayed, but was feeling so rushed. Finally, I decided that I would take a leap of faith and that we should make an offer. I had faith that Heavenly would let us know if we were making a wrong decision. So we signed the offer papers and off I flew to Mesa to pack up on November 5th (without the kids). I was a ball of emotions and just trying to hold it all together.
I arrived at our Regina house the night before Brandon was set to arrive, and I just knew that not everything would fit in our moving truck. We had been saying for weeks that whatever didn't fit in our truck was not coming with us! That's nice to say until 1/3 of your house doesn't fit!! Which is what happened after we filled the first truck to capacity, so we rented a second truck that I could drive and also filled that truck to the top. In fact, we had to leave quite a few items that we hadn't anticipated because we just had too much crap. Brandon was teasing me about being a hoarder and that all my garage sale shopping had gotten us into this mess! I say, let's blame the kids! Just a few items we had to leave: bookshelf, two desks, desk chair, shoe cabinet, rocking chair, train table, sofa table, wheelbarrow, barstools, etc. We had some dear friends there at the last hour helping us and they were so helpful and some of our stuff ending up going to them, which softened the blow a little bit. We have the most amazing friends, neighbors and ward members who helped us all weekend (shoutout to Kasey, Sarah & Brett, Jill, Andrea, Kate, Jessica, Randy & Nancy, Pat & Chuck, Brooke, Kent & Kristine and the Elders Quroum of the Lehi Crossing ward!).
Brandon and I did very well for such a stressful situation, and I was proud of all we did and what we handled that weekend. All in all, we were there for only 72 hours and it was just too fast to get done what we needed to. On top of all that, as we were wrapping things up in the last night in our house, we got word that our offer on the house in AF had been accepted! It all felt so surreal and my heart was all tied in knots. I should have stayed up all night cleaning, but I had to go to bed since I would be driving the next day. The most I have ever driven is 6 hours in one day, and I am a terrible long-distance driver. I was nervous about the 12+ hour drive, but we did really great and we survived!
Then we had to unload it all in a storage unit in Utah since we didn't have a house yet. Our family was amazing and helped so much, and Brandon was a total workhorse. We were emotionally and physically exhausted.
We were supposed to close on our Regina house on November 14th, but our title company was difficult to work with and we didn't close until November 23rd. Our buyers, Amanda & Ian Krekelberg, had to move in to our house early since their house was closing and they would have had no place to live. It was such a relief when that house finally closed!!
Meanwhile, our inspection at the AF house went pretty well. We did find out that the roof was shot and that we'd have to replace that as soon as possible. The seller was tied for cash and couldn't help us much with the roof, but we felt like we could manage since we had the extra commission money that we could use to pay for it. If it were only that simple. It was very tricky to figure out where the commission money could be used, since our options were very limited. It could not go toward the down payment and the seller had already agreed to pay for our closing costs, so we didn't want to mess with that. After MANY discussions about the roof with our lender and agent, Brandon came up with a creative solution that saved the day! Our seller got our commission money and she paid the roofer that we wanted to use - we were very relieved when that check got cashed! Phew!
Then, much to our surprise, we actually closed ON TIME and moved in the weekend of December 4th. We had very little notice, but our awesome family was SO helpful and Brandon again, worked his tail off. I couldn't believe we got in a house before Christmas!!
On many occasions, I have heard that when something is right, everything just falls into place or is laid out on a silver platter. I know that moving to Utah was the right thing for our family, but it has been challenging, a test of faith and patience, and there was much we needed to learn throughout the process. In retrospect, I can now say that everything worked out just fine (now that I am out of the mess and headache of it all). I am so grateful that our house in Arizona sold, and that our parents were so generous to let us live with them for 4 months, and that we found a home that will be a great fit for us for many years (hopefully!).
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| My view for 14 hours! |
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| Two trucks = ridiculous |
AF House - pictures from the listing
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| Fridge was too tall, so Brandon had to take off some cupboards... |
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| ...but he was able to move it over the desk! |
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| The kid's rooms have the best view of the mountains! |
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| Kid's bathroom |
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| Brandon build a custom cupboard to match above the fridge - can't really see it here, but he did great! |
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| Family Room - we got a new sectional |
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| Finished basement - toy room |
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| Formal living / dining - a total mess |
