Offer #1 - Thousand Oaks

 A couple properties came up that weren't what we set out for, but with a bit of reframing, they could be viable.  

The first was a small place on the backside of town.  The street was trashed, the house was very small and backed up to a church (guaranteeing parking lot lights 24/7).  It was a "hard no", but it felt good to finally look at a place.

The second was a pretty run down property on 6 acres of land and I thought I might be up for a fixer upper.  

The location was just 7 min from Aquarena Springs on a two lane winding road through ranches and horse farms.  It was stunning.  The neighborhood was much like the Olden's old place in Montgomery Trace, with multi-acre plots and houses set back in the woods.  

When we pulled in, I had already decided I wanted to make a bid.  The people were home and very kind to us as we poked around through the house.  It needed significant work.  We would have to take it down to the studs in most cases but the layout was good.  

The property also had a 20x20 outbuilding (office for me!) with a kitchen and drywall and there was an additional 10x20 barn as well.  

We walked the property and Hannah and I went all the way to the back fence.  The Blanco flood plain was behind the property, so there was another but woods between us and the Blanco river.  I stood out there in total silence and let the potential wash over me.  

We said thank you to the owners and quietly got into the truck and drove back down through the ranches and horse farms in silence. 

I kicked it off and instead of asking "How much will we offer?", I gauged the silence and realized a mutiny was at hand.  I made a strong case based for the potential of the property:  Proximity to San Marcos, LAND, an office and future development ideas (ex. Airbnb, capital gains on sale in 5yrs) were a few.

Kim felt it was a money pit, claimed I was not as handy as I think I am (bullshit) and didn't have the desire for a project.   But what really resonated was her desire for close community.  She didn't want to be out in the country all by herself while I travelled.  She wants neighbors to rely on and BBQ with, people who will look out for our kids as they get into mischief.  

I mentally added this to the list of "must-haves" and we decided not to offer. 

But I couldn't shake the potential, and on my drive home the next day I called Kim up and asked her to trust me.  We can't afford our dream house right now, so we need something we can flip in 5yrs that will get us there and this property was the vehicle for that.

The offer was for $335k cash ($10k over) and we asked that all of the junk on the property be removed and that they have the motorhome convey if they couldn't remove it from the property.   

The offer was not accepted. 

Lessons learned:  Don't sweat the small things unless asked.  It would have cost us $1,000 to remove the junk, and we should have never even mentioned the motorhome (I wanted to turn it into a guest house).  Kim thinks we didn't put down enough money (likely), but to improve on the next one we won't give the seller any ammo to downgrade our offer.   Make it easy, make it good.