This Old House

Picture used on the Open House flyer

10 years ago this week, SQ and I went to the Old Republic Title Company in West Portal and signed what seemed to be an endless stack of escrow papers to officially buy our first house together. 2 days later, we got our keys and officially saw our house for the SECOND time. Here's our story of how fate has us owning this house:

Early 2002, before we got married, SQ and I looked into buying a starter home. We both made pennies back then, but we aggressively saved for about 1.5 years and had about $40k.  My sisters combined would lend us $45k.  Our budget was $300-350k.  Although we would love to live in the City, we never really seriously looked here because our budget would only allow us to live in the Bayview/Hunters Point area.  So we looked at houses in Oakland, El Cerrito, San Leandro, and in Berkeley instead.  We submitted offers to 3-4 houses but were outbidded each time.  However, on a Tuesday in March (election day), my agent called and asked us to go to see this house in the Sunset, which is offering a Broker's Open House that day until 7pm. This was 1 bedroom house selling for $379k.  I had my doubts that we would ever get it.  In the Sunset?  Nevertheless, I used the excuse of having to go vote to leave work early.  SQ and I made it to the house a little past 7pm.  When we walked into the house, the seller's agent was already packing her stuff to leave but decided to make a last minute phone call to the owner to brief her on the open house.  We looked around and it was a blur.  I just remembered a lot of furniture and the downstairs basement was undone, but it was sectioned off with couches & tons of books.  It was used as a reading book/library. We peeked outside the window to the yard so we couldn't see a thing because it was so dark. We didn't know what the condition of the yard was.  Because we were the last ones there, we got a chance to talk to the seller's agent. We shared with her that we're about to get married, trying now to find our 1st home, and that my parents lived only blocks away.  We learned that a few people came by as well, many of them contractors who knew although this house was listed as 1 bed 1 bath, there was a high ceiling unfinished basement (with lots of expansion potential).   We also found out that the last day to submit offers was the next day!!

We called up our agent & she came to my mom's house at 9pm to draft up an offer. We put in an offer above the asking price. **It was during the crazy time of the house-bidding war.  Our agent wanted us to bid at or above $400k so we would have a better chance, but we didn't budge.  This was already way past our budget so we stuck the maximum amount we would pay.

The next day, I was at work when my agent called.  Our offer was in consideration & asked if we can give a little more.  We ended up agreeing to pay $1k more...which in hindsight, it felt almost like a joke, since $1k is NOTHING when compared to the hundreds of thousands the house is selling for. After a couple of hours, my agent called me back and we got the house!!  We did not give in the highest offer, but because the owner was "touched" by our story (a young couple starting a new life together and my hope to live near my parents), she decided to sell us the house. It turns out that the owner was a Professor in the East Coast - used to live in this house with her mother, until she got an offer to teach in the a university in the East Coast, so she relocated.  Her mother didn't want to move so stayed in the house, until she was too old to take care of herself - so she eventually moved to a nursing home. It was evident that the money was not on the top of the owner's mind. She did not want any open houses even though it could have maximized her number of potential buyers.  The agent held only 2 broker tours on Tues between 3-7p and that was it. No For Sale outside nor was the key in a lockbox for any unscheduled visits.  She chose us because she was close to her mother and loved the fact that we also wanted to be close to my parents.  She trusted us to take care of the house and make it a home...which we did. We closed escrow on April 16, 2002 and recorded the deed on the 18th.

It has been 10 years living in this house. We finished the basement, redid the front and back yard, remodeled the kitchen, added in new appliances, fixed the roof, and insulated the entire house.  We've done a lot within these past 10 years!! We take pride in our house and try to maintain it in good shape.  Couldn't believe that we'll be moving out of this house this year...It's been great living here!!