Closing Tomorrow - We Hope
We are supposed to close the sale of our house tomorrow, which will lead us into another chapter of our lives.
We met the guy who is buying our house, his wife wasn't able to come, yesterday and he seems to be a really nice guy.
We have been serious about selling our house since the end of Feb, The lack of interest was disappointing. Now, as I look back on it, it is so great to see the Lord's hand in our lives.
I believe God wanted our house to be available for the young couple who were house sitters for us while we volunteered at Spring Hill Camp. The timing of that couple no longer needing the house and the sale of the house was certainly not a coincidence.
I was dissapointed with the final deal but accepted it because I wanted to move on. I was also stressed out with all the negotiating going through the realtors. Even after all the road blocks to the sale seemed to have been overcome I was still stressed, and I guess even bitter over the sale.
It seems childish now, but I considered telling our realtor that I was willing to be in the room with the buyers long enough to sign the papers, but that I didn't want to talk to them other than that. With those thoughts rolling around in my head God set me straight. I realized that my attitude was anything but Christian. How could I consider myself a Christian if I was going to refuse to do whatever I could to help the couple who were buying our house. We are told to love our enemies. I may not be mature enought to do that, but certainly I could be civil to someone who I didn't really even know.
The next revelation came via email. The buyers had really pressed to shorten the time we had to make the repairs we had agreed upon, so that their inspector could do a re-inspection. I had balked because I didn't want commit to a date I wasn't sure I could meet. As it turned out the Mechanical Contractor, who did most of the needed work, came out when he said he would and had everything completed in 4 hours. I sent our realtor an email telling his that the buyer could come out and do the re-inspection. Since it seemed like we had a lot of trouble with communications I also sent a copy of the email to the buyer (I got his email address off the inspection report). That night when I checked my email I had a very nice note from the buyer thanking me for getting the repairs done in a timely manner and he helped me understand some of the things that were causing him problems.
The next step was God giving me some insight into the sale price/negotiations. (You need to understand that we didn't take a huge beating on the sale of the home, we just didn't get as much as I had hoped.) God let me see that he had blessed us financially during the past year so that He could use us as a tool to help others. We were able to significantly increase the help we give a couple who minister through Youth With a Mission and now, the lower sale price of the home helped make it slightly more affordable for the couple buying it. Even after those two things we are still financially ahead of where my "plan" had us at this point.
When the buyer came out with the inspector, for the re-inspection, I had the opportunity to get to know him. I really like the guy, I would like to have him for my neighbor. After our meeting, and subsequent phone conversations, I think we have been able to take some of the stress off his shoulders. They have to close on their house before buying ours, and get moved out of their house and into ours. The timing is very tight for them. We told him he could start moving things in whenever it was convenient for him and he thanked us several times.
When Kathy and I left to go to Spring Hill 6 weeks ago we figured on being gone until at least October, because we didn't think the house was going to sell. It wasn't stressfull, we had the young couple house sitting so it was no big deal. 4-6 months ago, during previous Doctor's appointments, and with no thoughts about when our house might sell or going to Spring Hill, we had both made routine follow up appointments. After we left for Spring Hill one of the things on our "to do lists" was to reschedule the appointments. Both were in August and we didn't think we would be back for them. With God's plan we were back for both regularly scheduled appointments.
I haven't done a very coherent job of explaining the events but let me summarize by saying God had a plan all along, and it is working out wonderfully. There may still be more twists and turns, I just need to be willing to accept the twists and turns, knowing that His plan is better than whatever I could come up with.
Good night and may God bless you and yours.
We met the guy who is buying our house, his wife wasn't able to come, yesterday and he seems to be a really nice guy.
We have been serious about selling our house since the end of Feb, The lack of interest was disappointing. Now, as I look back on it, it is so great to see the Lord's hand in our lives.
I believe God wanted our house to be available for the young couple who were house sitters for us while we volunteered at Spring Hill Camp. The timing of that couple no longer needing the house and the sale of the house was certainly not a coincidence.
I was dissapointed with the final deal but accepted it because I wanted to move on. I was also stressed out with all the negotiating going through the realtors. Even after all the road blocks to the sale seemed to have been overcome I was still stressed, and I guess even bitter over the sale.
It seems childish now, but I considered telling our realtor that I was willing to be in the room with the buyers long enough to sign the papers, but that I didn't want to talk to them other than that. With those thoughts rolling around in my head God set me straight. I realized that my attitude was anything but Christian. How could I consider myself a Christian if I was going to refuse to do whatever I could to help the couple who were buying our house. We are told to love our enemies. I may not be mature enought to do that, but certainly I could be civil to someone who I didn't really even know.
The next revelation came via email. The buyers had really pressed to shorten the time we had to make the repairs we had agreed upon, so that their inspector could do a re-inspection. I had balked because I didn't want commit to a date I wasn't sure I could meet. As it turned out the Mechanical Contractor, who did most of the needed work, came out when he said he would and had everything completed in 4 hours. I sent our realtor an email telling his that the buyer could come out and do the re-inspection. Since it seemed like we had a lot of trouble with communications I also sent a copy of the email to the buyer (I got his email address off the inspection report). That night when I checked my email I had a very nice note from the buyer thanking me for getting the repairs done in a timely manner and he helped me understand some of the things that were causing him problems.
The next step was God giving me some insight into the sale price/negotiations. (You need to understand that we didn't take a huge beating on the sale of the home, we just didn't get as much as I had hoped.) God let me see that he had blessed us financially during the past year so that He could use us as a tool to help others. We were able to significantly increase the help we give a couple who minister through Youth With a Mission and now, the lower sale price of the home helped make it slightly more affordable for the couple buying it. Even after those two things we are still financially ahead of where my "plan" had us at this point.
When the buyer came out with the inspector, for the re-inspection, I had the opportunity to get to know him. I really like the guy, I would like to have him for my neighbor. After our meeting, and subsequent phone conversations, I think we have been able to take some of the stress off his shoulders. They have to close on their house before buying ours, and get moved out of their house and into ours. The timing is very tight for them. We told him he could start moving things in whenever it was convenient for him and he thanked us several times.
When Kathy and I left to go to Spring Hill 6 weeks ago we figured on being gone until at least October, because we didn't think the house was going to sell. It wasn't stressfull, we had the young couple house sitting so it was no big deal. 4-6 months ago, during previous Doctor's appointments, and with no thoughts about when our house might sell or going to Spring Hill, we had both made routine follow up appointments. After we left for Spring Hill one of the things on our "to do lists" was to reschedule the appointments. Both were in August and we didn't think we would be back for them. With God's plan we were back for both regularly scheduled appointments.
I haven't done a very coherent job of explaining the events but let me summarize by saying God had a plan all along, and it is working out wonderfully. There may still be more twists and turns, I just need to be willing to accept the twists and turns, knowing that His plan is better than whatever I could come up with.
Good night and may God bless you and yours.
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