So you can spend weeks, months or even years thinking about one day because it will be a day that your life will change. October 30th was such a day. We were off to find a house and I would be moving from my home base of 56 years.
Our realtor, David, showed up about 10 minutes late. The reason he was delayed was the house I was most interested in had a questionable status. About six months ago I began searching the Internet in earnest for houses. Among the sites I signed up with was one hosted by David. Any day a house that fit the requirements I listed on his site showed up, I would receive email notification. One of the best things that happened during our search for a house was having him as our realtor!
It took him some time to figure out if the house I liked was sold, pending or available. Finally he learned that the house was still on the market. All but one of the homes we wanted to see were south of Disney so we headed to the Winter Haven area. The first house had been a rental and was quite a mess. It had also sustained a small amount of shingle loss to the roof. The property was being sold "as is" so the repairs would be up to us.
Except for one bathroom, which needed plumbing work and the roof issues, there was nothing that I didnt think Id be able to fix. Much of it was just cleaning up the mess that had been left behind. I gave the house an overall score of 4 and not just because of the condition it was in. Next door was some sort of trucking company complete with noise so that bumped the score down a few notches.
Even though the address said Winter Haven, it didnt seem like wed gone that far. As with most areas in Florida, there is the town proper and then theres the area of the town that can be huge. We must have been in the area of Winter Haven that was the closest to Disney.
Next we headed to Auburndale, not as far south as Winter Haven but more westerly. This was my favorite of the homes wed be looking at. I picked this house out, not only because of its appearance but because it appeared to be the closest to WDW of all the ones I found. The property is located just off a semi main route, 559, and the street itself is moderately traveled, at least for Florida. Up where I live now it would be like a dead end! The house sits on a ¼ acre lot and has more land out front which is good as it puts us back a ways from the road. Across the street is a huge grapefruit grove. The house is 5 homes down from the larger Rte. 559 and there are houses on either side of it and out back.
In we went. As with the other home we saw, this house was vacant. Vacant is good when youre moving schedule is down to the nano-second. The tiled hallway lead into a large living room/dining room area with a vaulted ceiling. To the right, past the kitchen, was the master bedroom with full bath. Off the dining room is the kitchen with breakfast bar and to the left of the dining room are 2 more bedrooms with another full bath. Beyond the dining room is the porch that runs almost the entire length of the house. The porch, or lanai as they call them in Florida, has windows with screens and its enormous!
The back yard is smaller than what I have in Massachusetts but big enough for a garden. Im not moving to Florida to mow grass 7 days a week! Despite trying to look at things with a critical eye, I found myself living in this house and got that rosy glow to my vision. Fortunately the realtor did not and noticed that the roof had some new shingles and the old ones were in the 2 car garage. That garage is BIG! You could hold a basketball game in there.
We went out to the car and talked. Supposedly another buyer is very interested. They have offered more than the asking price but they need a mortgage. We are paying cash, which gives us some bidding leverage. After much discussion, we decided to offer $1500 less than the other people who are interested. We all felt that further looking would be unnecessary so we were going to leave when the next door neighbors showed up. What luck! I went over to talk to them. They had lived in their home for 10 years and said that they were one of the first people in this neighborhood. My first question was how far are the stores for food and general shopping. Turns out the Publix is less than 10 minutes and the new super
Wal-Mart is just a couple of miles away. Of course the next question was how far is Disney? She said that they reach Disney property in about 20 minutes or so. I nearly fell over. That put this house in my ideal 30 minute drive timeline.
It was nice to see that they were hopeful that wed get the house. She is from Philadelphia originally and I said wont it be nice that wed be able to understand each other when we talk.
When we left we decided to see if it really was 20 minutes back to Disney. It is four miles from the house to I-4. Once on it, traffic was moving briskly even though theyre in the process of widening the road in that area. As a matter of fact we were moving a bit too briskly. The realtor was flying along at 85!!! Good grief. I asked him to slow down. We did make it to the Disney exit in 20 minutes but because I prefer to fly in planes, I figure my travel time would be closer to a half-hour. Still OK by me. My son lived in Kissimmee and it took him about 20 minutes to get to the park. Not so much because of the distance but because of the traffic volume.
Once back at the ASMusic (total time elapsed from house to hotel was 35 minutes) we went to the food court to talk. We made an offer and the realtor was off to make out forms and would come back with an offer letter in a few hours that wed have to sign.
He was back about 2 hours later. We took care of the signing and he left to contact the sellers. We want to know if they had a disclosure on the property regarding any problems. A short time later he faxed that info to us. Who ever thought Id receive a fax at WDW?! It looked good so we signed it and faxed it back. The front desk people at the ASMusic were nice enough to waive the return fax fee for me.
This house is owned by a finance company so wed be waiting to hear from their people on whether or not our offer was accepted. They have until 5 p.m. on Sunday, October 31st. (BOO!) to give an answer.
By now its 7 p.m. All this stress had left me exhausted. I got some food and came back to the room. Then it was lights out at 11 p.m. standard time or midnight day light savings time. Who knows?! Im confused enough!!
High Point - Making an offer on a house.
Low Points Wanting to go to the parks but being too tired.
The time change.
Weird Points The grapefruit grove.
Sending faxes at WDW.
Best Point Finding a house I like less than 30 minutes from Walt Disney World!
Roberta
Our realtor, David, showed up about 10 minutes late. The reason he was delayed was the house I was most interested in had a questionable status. About six months ago I began searching the Internet in earnest for houses. Among the sites I signed up with was one hosted by David. Any day a house that fit the requirements I listed on his site showed up, I would receive email notification. One of the best things that happened during our search for a house was having him as our realtor!
It took him some time to figure out if the house I liked was sold, pending or available. Finally he learned that the house was still on the market. All but one of the homes we wanted to see were south of Disney so we headed to the Winter Haven area. The first house had been a rental and was quite a mess. It had also sustained a small amount of shingle loss to the roof. The property was being sold "as is" so the repairs would be up to us.
Except for one bathroom, which needed plumbing work and the roof issues, there was nothing that I didnt think Id be able to fix. Much of it was just cleaning up the mess that had been left behind. I gave the house an overall score of 4 and not just because of the condition it was in. Next door was some sort of trucking company complete with noise so that bumped the score down a few notches.
Even though the address said Winter Haven, it didnt seem like wed gone that far. As with most areas in Florida, there is the town proper and then theres the area of the town that can be huge. We must have been in the area of Winter Haven that was the closest to Disney.
Next we headed to Auburndale, not as far south as Winter Haven but more westerly. This was my favorite of the homes wed be looking at. I picked this house out, not only because of its appearance but because it appeared to be the closest to WDW of all the ones I found. The property is located just off a semi main route, 559, and the street itself is moderately traveled, at least for Florida. Up where I live now it would be like a dead end! The house sits on a ¼ acre lot and has more land out front which is good as it puts us back a ways from the road. Across the street is a huge grapefruit grove. The house is 5 homes down from the larger Rte. 559 and there are houses on either side of it and out back.
In we went. As with the other home we saw, this house was vacant. Vacant is good when youre moving schedule is down to the nano-second. The tiled hallway lead into a large living room/dining room area with a vaulted ceiling. To the right, past the kitchen, was the master bedroom with full bath. Off the dining room is the kitchen with breakfast bar and to the left of the dining room are 2 more bedrooms with another full bath. Beyond the dining room is the porch that runs almost the entire length of the house. The porch, or lanai as they call them in Florida, has windows with screens and its enormous!
The back yard is smaller than what I have in Massachusetts but big enough for a garden. Im not moving to Florida to mow grass 7 days a week! Despite trying to look at things with a critical eye, I found myself living in this house and got that rosy glow to my vision. Fortunately the realtor did not and noticed that the roof had some new shingles and the old ones were in the 2 car garage. That garage is BIG! You could hold a basketball game in there.
We went out to the car and talked. Supposedly another buyer is very interested. They have offered more than the asking price but they need a mortgage. We are paying cash, which gives us some bidding leverage. After much discussion, we decided to offer $1500 less than the other people who are interested. We all felt that further looking would be unnecessary so we were going to leave when the next door neighbors showed up. What luck! I went over to talk to them. They had lived in their home for 10 years and said that they were one of the first people in this neighborhood. My first question was how far are the stores for food and general shopping. Turns out the Publix is less than 10 minutes and the new super
Wal-Mart is just a couple of miles away. Of course the next question was how far is Disney? She said that they reach Disney property in about 20 minutes or so. I nearly fell over. That put this house in my ideal 30 minute drive timeline.
It was nice to see that they were hopeful that wed get the house. She is from Philadelphia originally and I said wont it be nice that wed be able to understand each other when we talk.
When we left we decided to see if it really was 20 minutes back to Disney. It is four miles from the house to I-4. Once on it, traffic was moving briskly even though theyre in the process of widening the road in that area. As a matter of fact we were moving a bit too briskly. The realtor was flying along at 85!!! Good grief. I asked him to slow down. We did make it to the Disney exit in 20 minutes but because I prefer to fly in planes, I figure my travel time would be closer to a half-hour. Still OK by me. My son lived in Kissimmee and it took him about 20 minutes to get to the park. Not so much because of the distance but because of the traffic volume.
Once back at the ASMusic (total time elapsed from house to hotel was 35 minutes) we went to the food court to talk. We made an offer and the realtor was off to make out forms and would come back with an offer letter in a few hours that wed have to sign.
He was back about 2 hours later. We took care of the signing and he left to contact the sellers. We want to know if they had a disclosure on the property regarding any problems. A short time later he faxed that info to us. Who ever thought Id receive a fax at WDW?! It looked good so we signed it and faxed it back. The front desk people at the ASMusic were nice enough to waive the return fax fee for me.
This house is owned by a finance company so wed be waiting to hear from their people on whether or not our offer was accepted. They have until 5 p.m. on Sunday, October 31st. (BOO!) to give an answer.
By now its 7 p.m. All this stress had left me exhausted. I got some food and came back to the room. Then it was lights out at 11 p.m. standard time or midnight day light savings time. Who knows?! Im confused enough!!
High Point - Making an offer on a house.
Low Points Wanting to go to the parks but being too tired.
The time change.
Weird Points The grapefruit grove.
Sending faxes at WDW.
Best Point Finding a house I like less than 30 minutes from Walt Disney World!
Roberta
