So, I have been house hunting in Connecticut for the past year, since we are heading off in November for my husband's final tour in the Navy (he's been in 35 years!). It's been hard finding our "forever" home, but a few weeks ago we did buy a house which might not have been perfect, but had a lot of the features we wanted, and a nice, big, clear piece of land, which was basically the most important thing on our list. Two days later, the realtor calls to let us know that the sellers had discovered that not only could they not afford to sell us the house for the amount we signed the contract for but, indeed, could not even afford to sell it for the price it was originally listed for. This was confirmed through lawyers & banks, and we let them out of the contract.
The week after that, my husband flew up there to look at some of the other houses on my "short list", including one which I had not actually seen, because it was out of our price-range, which had taken another steep drop in the meantime. It was one of those cases that make you feel almost as though there is a big guy upstairs watching out for you, because it made the previous disappointment look like a great stroke of luck, since this house was almost exactly what we had been looking for. So after a bit more negotiating, we went under contract on this one.
Three days later, the owner calls us at home to talk, and it's obvious she wants out of the contract. She gives us the whole litany of her troubles...she's 65 years old with chronic Lyme disease and a back injury. Her husband just left her, and their plans of retirement to Florida had pretty much fallen through, since it was his family they were going to be close to. She has an 8 year old adopted girl from China, who needs to be registered in school , and now she doesn't know where she needs to be...She's also a Messianic Jew who is an ordained minister, and never makes a move without speaking to the Lord.
She prayed all weekend, and,according to the agent, had been more receptive to the idea of renting a place for herself and selling this one, but she called again this morning telling me she felt as though she was going to have a nervous breakdown because she simply didn't know what she needed to do, and she's trying to work things out with her husband but he doesn't have any idea what he wants to do, so she's completely up in the air and just feels as though she needs to stay put where she is.
Well, I played my own emotional card back at her, letting her know how long we have been looking, and how this house seemed as though it was meant to be for us, and how I'd sobbed all weekend upon finding out that she was looking to back out of the deal the other day...threw in the 35 years of military service and everything. I wish I'd remembered to also mention how we needed the extra space (it's a big house for just the 2 of us) because it's entirely possible that my elderly parents might have to live with us at some point, but I forgot that bit in the midst of all her babbling.
The crowning part, for me, was how she was going to go pray about it some more because the Lord has a plan for her. He brought them to Connecticut 23 years ago, and everything that has happened (including, apparently, her illness, their losing their church a few years ago, her husband's leaving her, etc) is part of his plan, and she needs to get an answer from him and find out what he wants her to do next"....
So here we sit, with a signed contract and checks sent out to cover the home and septic inspections which have had to be rescheduled to who knows when, and no idea what we should do next.
I really don't want to lose two houses in a row because of owners who have not figured out what they are doing, and particularly don't want to lose THIS house!
