Wee Stories

We sold the house!

Yes, we did! And at an AMAZING price too. K and I are so, so thankful to God for blessing us so richly in this whole house-moving endeavour. If you’ve been following this whole saga, you’ll know that we recently bought a house in the East, and since then have been a little anxious about all the things that go along with moving like looking for schools for the girls and whether we could get a good price for our house because even though the property market is really hot right now, the location of our house is not.

We needn’t have worried, because God had it all planned out for us! First, He got Zoe’s school sorted out. The well-known church kindergarten near the new house has a space for her, so we don’t have to shop around for another kindergarten. Next, it was Alison’s turn. We applied to three schools within two kilometres of the house, all of which are immensely popular. All three schools told us not to hold our breath because they had a long waiting list, but we thought we would apply anyway. A few days after we submitted the papers, our first school of choice rang to say that they had a place for Alison, but she would have to transfer by the time school reopened after the June holidays which actually works out to be better than our original plan of transferring her only in September, because she will have more time to get used to the school before the second semester exams come around.

With schooling out of the way, it was down to selling our house. We were rather disappointed when the valuation report came back because the figure was very much lower than anticipated – lower, in fact, than another house in the same block which had the same specifications as ours but was in all likelihood not as nicely renovated. The report came on the day that our agent (wonderful guy, let me know if you want his contact number!) had arranged a one-hour open house viewing session. He told us that he could arrange for a revaluation if we wanted, but that there was no guarantee that the valuation would vary much. So K and I decided not to bother with revaluing, because we said that God would not shortchange us on the sale of the house.

The one-hour open house turned out to be a marathon session with more than 20 groups of people coming to see the house – and staying even after they had looked into every last nook and cranny. Some of them made themselves comfortable on our sofa and even our front steps! Five people made offers on the spot, and all were insistent that I decide. But our agent told them that I could not give them an answer immediately because K was out with the kids and would only be back late at night. Eventually, the viewers left (some of them to mill around downstairs) and K and the girls and Emily returned with dinner for everyone.

After the agent was done with his McSpicy burger, it was time to get down to business. One couple who had made an offer had their agent call to say that they would offer us the price we wanted – if we threw our solid teak dining table in. They claimed that I had said I would sell the house to them if they just increased their offer by $10,000. Actually, what I had said was that they could have the table if they paid what we had paid for it, but they had misunderstood. Anyway, they considered it some more and then decided to make an offer at our asking price. We accepted, and they exercised the option to purchase immediately.

The house was sold within a day when other units in our estate that are going for much cheaper and are on higher floors or nearer to the main road are still available after a few months on the market. Everyone was a little taken aback at the speed at which it was sold, but we can only put it down to divine intervention.

Now, we’re down to waiting for our first appointment at HDB to process the sale transaction, and the completion of the purchase of the new house. After that, it’s renovation time. We aim to move by September at the latest, and we’re all looking forward to Christmas in our new home.

We are very happy and extremely thankful that everything has worked out so well. I guess some people might say that we are just lucky, but K and I believe that the Almighty is always in control. Sometimes it’s hard to believe especially when things seem super-complicated, but in all things God works for the good of those who love Him!

19. April 2010 by Jean
Categories: Christianity, Our home | 10 comments