News Break

It was a much calmer day here at the Hermits’ Rest. The dogs were all recovering from their hard day yesterday, and they already seem less itchy. Alfred barely moved all day, but did come out and visit with us in the driveway this evening. Boy did he pee a lot!

Lee was visiting banks and official places today, because he had to send a bunch of money to New Mexico. Why? It’s because we ended up getting a contract on the Hippie House in Alto that we liked so much during our last visit!

We did a lot of negotiating, with Lee starting off by offending the sellers with his extra lowball offer. But, we didn’t pay all that money for real estate investment training for nothing. After they turned down our second offer of the most Lee was willing to pay, we walked away and thought about some of the other houses. The house on the National Forest was tempting, but just seemed too big.

In the end we just paused a couple of weeks. Lee’s theory was that no one else is remotely interested in the house, what with it being rather odd (remember the main bath toilet faces a window looking out at the road).

Sure enough, late last week our agent, Alison, called to say the sellers would entertain an offer of what we’d offered last time. The waiting game worked! We made a new offer and they accepted.

Now we are doing all the things you do before closing, which was accidentally scheduled for Thanksgiving in the contract, but I’m guessing will be changed. The septic system has been inspected and we have a good enough survey. Lee is waiving a home inspection, since he pretty much already did it. I’m suspicious of 50-year-old wiring and plumbing, but we will see.

Of course, real estate being what it is, things could still go wrong, so I’m not letting myself get too excited just yet. I’ve had closings go bad before, after all. I do have a good feeling about the house. It’s not at all fancy, but it’s cozy and quirky. And there are lots of trees. Maybe we can even buy the lots next door on either side!

I’m looking forward to cooler summers. So I’m crossing my fingers this works out. if not, at least I’ll have stories to tell.

Oh. More photos of this house are at the end of my earlier blog about house hunting in Ruidoso.