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edowns88_gw

Zillow -unexpected make me move offer

edowns88
11 years ago

Hi, I am not really where to start with this entire scenario. My husband and I purchased a newly built home in 2006. It was 2 bedrooms/2 bath and purchased for 162,900. Then the market tanked...our neighborhood got hit hard with foreclosures and the builder doing the development foreclosed as well which opened the door for a well known "cheap" builder to come in and start building 2000 sq feet homes in the 120's.
At some point out of frustration, I made a "make me move" on zillow for 175 k- years ago. Time went on and we made improvements to our home, including finishing the basement making it a 3 bedroom 3 bath, underground sprinkling, shed, upgraded vanities in bath and other landscaping improvements. Mostly for our own sanity. In 2011 we refinanced to a 15 year mortgage (appraisal 156,000) and had our first son. We figured we would be ok in this house through fall 2013 when the balance on our mortgage would be down into the 130s.. Well, a surprise pregnancy has thrown a loop into this because our house is way too small and we are out of bedrooms on our main floor. This prompted me to contact our realtor just to see how things were going in our area and what we could possibly list our home at. Our area is now considered low inventory and homes are selling quite fast, the listing price I was told was 159,900. Still not quite sure what to do, my husband and I decided to hold off. However, I decided to update the zillow with a make me move price of 159,900... Bad, but good idea.
Baby #2 is due to be here in 3 weeks and I received an email from a very sweet elderly woman who is interested in our home. Bad news is that her understanding of zillow was not up to par and thought our house had actually been listed for several years and only worth 147k based on the zestimate. I ended up calling her and having her come look at our home which she absolutely loves. She is interested in working without involving a realtor and willing to be flexible for us to get out. She has cash to pay for the house and really doesn't want to go over the 160k mark.
My husband and I are in complete shock and honestly have no idea how to proceed with things. We don't want to push this lady away as we do see the value of saving on realtor fees and not having to deal with multiple showings. What is a realistic offer to come up with? And are there any good sites to help guide us through this process? And the other big issue is there is nothing for sale I our area that we would even consider right now. It's awful. Losing this much money on our home is not going to allow us to necessarily go up to the house range we like and rentals are more expensive than our mortgage.
So, lots of factors going on. Wondering if anyone with some experience might have some expertise in this area. I just don't know how we can say no to this situation,but am fearful we won't find an ideal home that we can afford ourselves. As an FYI, this is in the west michigan area.

Thanks for any help and taking the time to read this.

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