We ripped the strip. Does that mean it's time to move again?

While living in Magna, our project one spring was to rip the parking strip in front of the house and get rid of the grass. We didn't have a sprinkler system and I was tired of making sure it got watered. Plus the weeds were starting to encroach. Well, as soon as that was done, we put our house up for sale and moved.

Our spring project this summer was ripping 90 feet of parking strip, so we offered on a home several days ago. However, this doesn't mean a permanent move since we won't be selling our current home. We're looking at this as an investment opportunity.

Tyler's been surveying the short sale market for awhile and came across a house in Stansbury that was in desperate need of a yard. It's a 4000 square foot home on .68 acres (cul-de-sac) of weeds and a few bushes with a four-car garage for . . . you know . . . those people who only have one car :) We've deduced it was a young, first-time homebuyer who built the home, thus cutting corners (although they felt the need for a BIG garage). There are no vaulted ceilings, laminate counter tops, and the deck is okay but we would be taking a huge step back in terms of the deck and the yard. We're interested. It has potential. A lot of exhausting potential.

When Tyler first broached the idea I said no way. I didn't even want to entertain thoughts of starting over again. I've slowly warmed to the idea, but have not had any strong feelings either way. When we where living in a one-bedroom apartment, I knew it was time to move when we were expecting our second child. After walking through the Magna home, we sat in the car and I told Ty, "We found our home, didn't we." It just felt right. And it was. It was a good place for us. There was no urgency to move the second time around. I had just delivered our fourth child and didn't really want to think about moving, but we knew we were going to start feeling a little cramped. We went house hunting and I fell in love with our current floor plan walking through a different home. So when we got the flyer on this one and it was the same, those same feelings came back, "We found our home, didn't we." And Stansbury has been a good place for us.

Short sales are a funny business where the sellers are basically upside down in their loan but the bank doesn't really want to deal with a foreclosure. The bank, therefore, lets the seller try to sell it at a discounted price so they dont' have to. There is already an accepted offer on this house at the bank. But a myriad of different things can happen for it to fall through (buyers don't want to wait and back out, bank doesn't like the terms of the loan or the purchase price). The seller is also allowed to accept multiple offers. So technically we are in back-up status. The odds are not in our favor. We give ourselves about a 10% chance of getting this home, which won't break my heart. Short sales take a long time, anywhere from 3 months to a year. Time is certainly one commodity we have lots of. Patiently waiting it out just might make us the proud owners of a second home.

(Don't let the picture fool you; there is no good grass in the front. It's basically weeds.)