Phil D.
ὁ βαπτιστὴς
I admit I was somewhat hesitant to post this. But with yet another spectacular blessing from God in my life, I wanted to bless His Name by sharing it with fellow believers.
Faithfulness is an indissoluble quality of the most absolute thing there is, the One True God, and this manifests in so many ways. Spiritual blessings far outweigh temporal, and from our finite perspective some in each category are more obvious than others. With regard to temporal blessings, for some reason God has chosen to regularly provide for my family’s housing needs in quite amazing, sometimes downright stunning ways. Not that we’ve ever had opulent living conditions - nor would I want such - but the way in which God has directly provided in this area is so obvious that even a dunderhead such as myself can’t miss it for what it is… and I suspect that indeed has something to do with why He has done so... I must need the reminder...
Our family has moved quite a few times over the years, always related to my employment, and the ease and speed with which our housing has both sold and been acquired has, again, been spectacular.
One example was when we moved to Kansas about ten years ago. The housing market was still in the doldrums following the real-estate bubble burst, but we needed to sell our house fast in order for me to best realize a good employment opportunity. Not sure how to proceed, I went to the local hardware store, purchased a $10 for-sale sign, and stuck it in the front lawn. The very next day a lady was driving down our street on her way to look at a different property when she saw the sign. She did a U-turn and asked to see the house. Fifteen minutes later she said she wanted to buy it, would give full asking price, pay in cash, and determine the transfer date based on what would work best for us. Brilliant guy that I am, I took this as confirmation that we were in fact to move to Kansas…
When we moved back to South Dakota this past March, the opposite situation existed. The housing market was red-hot, and at times there were fewer than 50 properties even listed for rent or sale in the entire Rapid City area. People were desperate and often looking at months in terms of availability. Prices were sky-high. We let our RC pastor know we were on our way back, and he said the house next to theirs had inexplicably been vacant for the past two years. He gave us contact info for the owners, who had kept it off the rental market due to some bad experiences with previous tenants. Based on our pastor’s reference they agreed to give us a short term lease, available immediately and for a price that was only about ⅔ market value. So, yet again…
Recently, we began looking to buy again, but were rather discouraged at what was available in our price range. Full purchase price would generally buy something that needed another 50K just to make it livable. We did put several offers in on properties that would be doable in terms of starting, but were always outbid by other determined buyers.
Then we looked at a very nice property located in a semi-rural area in the local foothills. Large modular home, twenty years old but lightly lived-in, single-level living (my wife has a bad back), two covered porches, a large double garage with a fully finished bonus room on the back that would make an excellent man-cave (...or she-shed, I suppose…), fenced yard, paved drive, etc. Amazingly the asking price was within our range, but the consensus among relators was that it would go for far more than listed. Still, we went all in with the best offer we could muster, which was considerably more than the asking price. Once again, we were outbid, coming in second among multiple offers.
At this point it was very tempting to become discouraged. But I couldn’t quite, as I recalled God’s unfailing and often miraculous faithfulness to us in this area. While we had often received nearly instant blessings, this time things would apparently play out longer. But God’s faithfulness remains absolute. And I just had a strange feeling this property was somehow still in play, although I had no idea how. We started looking at other properties again, but had been totally spoiled by seeing “the property”. Nothing else clicked at all.
Then, one day we asked our relator to arrange for us to look at a new listing. He said he had just come down with Covid, and wouldn’t be able to meet us there personally. Rather, he would arrange for a colleague to do so. Well, upon conversing it turned out this fill-in realtor was the agent for the high bidder on “the property”! “I probably shouldn't tell you this,” he said, “but I think there is a good chance my buyer will back out of their offer. You should really re-submit your original offer as an official back-up right away!”
Obviously we did so, and two weeks later were indeed informed that ours was now the preferred offer! Still, many obstacles remained: final approval for financing - modular homes present a variety of issues that typically disadvantage one’s terms (unfairly in my opinion...); inspection - with our VA loan requiring some additional approvals; the appraisal coming in significantly higher than listed price, etc. To cut to the chase, over the following weeks everything fell neatly into place piece-by-piece, even to the extent that we suffered no financial disadvantages whatsoever due to the home being modular, and with our out-of-pocket expenses being much lower than anticipated. We closed last Tuesday!
So, to review: either I am one of the most savvy home buyers/sellers in history, or maybe I'm just extremely “lucky” in such matters. Or, I am the undeserving beneficiary of God’s repeated and miraculous providence of housing for my family… Well, I know the correct answer to this multiple choice question, beyond any shadow of a doubt!
"To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen!"
Faithfulness is an indissoluble quality of the most absolute thing there is, the One True God, and this manifests in so many ways. Spiritual blessings far outweigh temporal, and from our finite perspective some in each category are more obvious than others. With regard to temporal blessings, for some reason God has chosen to regularly provide for my family’s housing needs in quite amazing, sometimes downright stunning ways. Not that we’ve ever had opulent living conditions - nor would I want such - but the way in which God has directly provided in this area is so obvious that even a dunderhead such as myself can’t miss it for what it is… and I suspect that indeed has something to do with why He has done so... I must need the reminder...
Our family has moved quite a few times over the years, always related to my employment, and the ease and speed with which our housing has both sold and been acquired has, again, been spectacular.
One example was when we moved to Kansas about ten years ago. The housing market was still in the doldrums following the real-estate bubble burst, but we needed to sell our house fast in order for me to best realize a good employment opportunity. Not sure how to proceed, I went to the local hardware store, purchased a $10 for-sale sign, and stuck it in the front lawn. The very next day a lady was driving down our street on her way to look at a different property when she saw the sign. She did a U-turn and asked to see the house. Fifteen minutes later she said she wanted to buy it, would give full asking price, pay in cash, and determine the transfer date based on what would work best for us. Brilliant guy that I am, I took this as confirmation that we were in fact to move to Kansas…
When we moved back to South Dakota this past March, the opposite situation existed. The housing market was red-hot, and at times there were fewer than 50 properties even listed for rent or sale in the entire Rapid City area. People were desperate and often looking at months in terms of availability. Prices were sky-high. We let our RC pastor know we were on our way back, and he said the house next to theirs had inexplicably been vacant for the past two years. He gave us contact info for the owners, who had kept it off the rental market due to some bad experiences with previous tenants. Based on our pastor’s reference they agreed to give us a short term lease, available immediately and for a price that was only about ⅔ market value. So, yet again…
Recently, we began looking to buy again, but were rather discouraged at what was available in our price range. Full purchase price would generally buy something that needed another 50K just to make it livable. We did put several offers in on properties that would be doable in terms of starting, but were always outbid by other determined buyers.
Then we looked at a very nice property located in a semi-rural area in the local foothills. Large modular home, twenty years old but lightly lived-in, single-level living (my wife has a bad back), two covered porches, a large double garage with a fully finished bonus room on the back that would make an excellent man-cave (...or she-shed, I suppose…), fenced yard, paved drive, etc. Amazingly the asking price was within our range, but the consensus among relators was that it would go for far more than listed. Still, we went all in with the best offer we could muster, which was considerably more than the asking price. Once again, we were outbid, coming in second among multiple offers.
At this point it was very tempting to become discouraged. But I couldn’t quite, as I recalled God’s unfailing and often miraculous faithfulness to us in this area. While we had often received nearly instant blessings, this time things would apparently play out longer. But God’s faithfulness remains absolute. And I just had a strange feeling this property was somehow still in play, although I had no idea how. We started looking at other properties again, but had been totally spoiled by seeing “the property”. Nothing else clicked at all.
Then, one day we asked our relator to arrange for us to look at a new listing. He said he had just come down with Covid, and wouldn’t be able to meet us there personally. Rather, he would arrange for a colleague to do so. Well, upon conversing it turned out this fill-in realtor was the agent for the high bidder on “the property”! “I probably shouldn't tell you this,” he said, “but I think there is a good chance my buyer will back out of their offer. You should really re-submit your original offer as an official back-up right away!”
Obviously we did so, and two weeks later were indeed informed that ours was now the preferred offer! Still, many obstacles remained: final approval for financing - modular homes present a variety of issues that typically disadvantage one’s terms (unfairly in my opinion...); inspection - with our VA loan requiring some additional approvals; the appraisal coming in significantly higher than listed price, etc. To cut to the chase, over the following weeks everything fell neatly into place piece-by-piece, even to the extent that we suffered no financial disadvantages whatsoever due to the home being modular, and with our out-of-pocket expenses being much lower than anticipated. We closed last Tuesday!
So, to review: either I am one of the most savvy home buyers/sellers in history, or maybe I'm just extremely “lucky” in such matters. Or, I am the undeserving beneficiary of God’s repeated and miraculous providence of housing for my family… Well, I know the correct answer to this multiple choice question, beyond any shadow of a doubt!
"To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen!"
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