There’s this one little house right near Chad. It has a basement. It has a garage. I don’t think it has a fireplace . . wait . . I think it does! I kinda know the people . . not as in “know” them personally but someone in the family worked with Vince when we lived here and when Vince told a friend that Chad had bought this house, the friend said “Oh . . you know XXXXX has that little house right next to the house Chad bought!”
Every time I pass the house, I tell Vince . . I want THAT house! After reading post after post where readers said “ask!” and tonight Vince said “Call her and at least tell her if she ever starts to sell it, you want it!”
I called! I told her who I was (Vince’s wife) because she probably didn’t even know my name. I told her that I felt really crazy asking her this but . . and I went on to say that Vince finally agreed that I could buy a little house here and if she ever wants to sell her house, I’m interested so long as Chad still lives here.
She sounded surprised but not in a bad way, but she also didn’t sound like . . I’ll give you a price next week. We’ll see what happens. The seed has been planted. That’s all I can do. It isn’t like there are other houses that I want to buy right now.
Yes, I feel like a crazy woman, but a hopeful crazy woman!
Liz says
The advantage about having a house right next to Chad is that they can watch it when you are not there. And you can rent it out for short periods of time, if you were not planning to visit. Run that option past your tax accountant!
Judy Laquidara says
We have zero interest in renting it out.
Tricia says
Great idea! My mom did that…and it worked! The owners sold her dream house to her about a year after she let them know she wanted it. It’s a while to wait, but you are in waiting mode right now anyway. At least now you know you have done all you can do.
Judy Laquidara says
Yes, and I’ll keep looking just in case something else pops up. I’m seeing the termite house tomorrow . . and I hate calling it that but every house seems to end up with a name.
Sherrill Pecere says
I’ve heard stories of people walking up to a house, knocking on the door and ask the owners if they’d considering selling, gave em a price and got the house! I guess the price was right! HA
Judy Laquidara says
I don’t think this is the area where that would go over well but since I kinda knew the lady, I didn’t mind calling her.
Carolyn says
You never know until you ask!
Nelle Coursey says
Hey at least you know the neighbors and they are nice! You would be close enough you could run over and babysit or whatever needed to be done. It will work one way or the other.
Sue Edberg says
Years ago my husband was looking for an office building for his company. We looked for months and months and finally one day his realtor said there was a building that looked like it might work but it wasn’t for sale. Well, the realtor called up the owner and before we knew it, we had a sales contract on that building and it turned out to be the best deal ever! You never know what a phone call can do!
Linda in NE says
When my daughter heard a rumor that her dream house might be coming up for sale she contacted the owners, and yes, it would be going on the market but it would be nice to sell it before then and at a lower price because there wouldn’t be a realtors commission to consider. However, she couldn’t get into it for a year because while the selling husband was already working in another state the wife was staying for the school year so their senior could graduate with his class. Since daughter’s previous house had taken over six months to sell, they put their house on the market and boom! it sold in three weeks. Luckily they could rent a house just a block over for a year so it worked out fine and they still live in that house, though she’s been making noises about it being too big now that two kids have left home and the last one graduates high school in two years. She’s keeping her eyes open for a new, smaller dream home now. Anyway, you never know what might happen when you make that first contact!
w jordan says
I did that exact same thing to the house I now live in. Took me 8 years of waiting but it happened.She wasn’t selling one week then in two weeks she told son in law I’ve got to move ASAP ( 4 weeks) And by the way got it at a great price too. So if it is meant to be it will happen. Just don’t give up ask every once in while never know when they will decided to move.Never hurts asking I’m glad you did. Now let’s see what happens.
Judy says
That is how we bought our current house. I knew the couple had some job changes happening, so I called and told them if they found an opportunity that made it necessary to sell their house, we would be interested. They called us two weeks later.
dezertsuz says
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. You never know what might happen.
Kathleen Schwitzner says
I’ve been on the receiving end of one of these calls – actually she just came over! We didn’t sell to them, as they were offering too little, but it was nice to know that there was a sure-thing buyer.
She did about crash her car when she saw we sold in 4 days. And at full price.