We had been wanting to move to Vallejo for a few years. I had actually thought about it numerous times before even officially coupling with my husband, so when it came time for us to make my first home purchase with him (ironically having owned five other properties I never lived in), it took a while to find the right place in part because of Covid.
Indeed, we had a false start with a huge place in the next town over, American Canyon. Unfortunately the family that was selling could not find what they wanted, so we had to end the contract due to that contingency. Covid has caused a huge lack of inventory, even though the interest rates make this a buyer’s market. We packed immediately after getting into contract, so we basically were over-prepared (which is better than under), but that meant living out of boxes all Summer. It was a Covid summer, at that, so we barely left the house.
We were very specific about what we wanted to buy. Not only did we desire more square footage and a more usable, larger back yard than what I’ve rented for over ten years in Hayward, we wanted it to be ONE STORY with as few steps as possible. That narrowed the choices dramatically. We even would have considered a two story house if the primary bedroom, bath and an office area were on the first floor, but no such properties came up in any of the three North Bay Area counties we searched in. Pretty much most of the Bay Area itself had very few properties that matched that criteria with the dimensions we wanted.
Even though we had to bid over asking, we took the advice of our wise realtor who asked us to write a “gooey” letter as to why we loved the house. The deadline for the bid and documentation was 7pm on a Tuesday. We got all the paperwork submitted a few hours ahead of time. We tried to distract ourselves for the evening since we had been on quite an emotional roller coaster with the previous contract falling through and another very competitive bid we gave up on. Accordingly, we did not expect a response until at least the next day. I did research and discovered that a contingency falling through apparently only happens 1.4% of the time, but it happened to us the very first experience we had with going into contract on a house so unicorn rare that we will probably never see those dimensions at that price in such a prime location ever again. Lucky us.
Forty-five minutes after the deadline we got the text that we had won the bid and that the seller LOVED the letter I wrote and had Shando review! While I don’t know what the other bids were, that made the get even better knowing that my sincere schmaltz won her over.
In the letter I wrote about her exquisite taste and the flow of the house, the wise choices she made in the recent renovations and how any prospective grandchildren would love visiting us at this home (and never want to leave). I also speculated that a house with no stairs to speak of would most certainly extend the lives of our geriatric dogs, and we wanted that same ability to get to every part of our house without going up and down flights ourselves.
Because of the missed opportunity with the first house I don’t want to sound like the house we got was a consolation prize. It did seem, in hindsight, that the condition of the first house which was larger and a little further away, would have been approaching the “money pit” territory with inspections pointing out problems with the roof, electricity and plumbing. We are very pleased with the condition of the newer house we bought with a new roof and new renovations, which make it model home worthy.
Here are some pictures of Glen Cove and the Waterfront Park just a few blocks down the hill from our future house. You can also easily find some incredible video drone footage of the area on Youtube.
