If we were on a reality show...

Over the last couple days I have been able to talk to two good friends who have been away for the summer. They are both pretty darn good at instagram and one posts blogs all the time, with the other posting a few times over this summer. It has been so great to feel connected to them in their adventures this summer and know what they have been up to. Talking with each of them was also great, because even though I get to see pictures and read their words, talking just adds so much more. I also realize that knowing something about what the other person is up to before you talk to them only adds to the conversation. So in an attempt to make my happenings more known to friends and family I thought I would share where we are at in one of our journeys.

We are house hunting. This has been the story for one year. That's a long time. We could literally have our own reality show about our ups and downs in the process (hence the title). We are specifically looking for a great investment property (duplex, four-plex, 8-plex) which has proved to be a little bit more tricky than we had hoped. I am sure some of you have heard about all the different places we have hoped would work out and didn't for one reason or another. Well, here is our latest story.

A few weeks ago Marshall went and looked at a few properties. There were three that we were interested in. After discussing it we decided to place an offer on a duplex in Provo. While there were things we weren't excited about, we also knew it would be a pretty solid rental property. After some negotiating our offer was accepted. I was excited. We have had other offers accepted, but it is usually before Marshall has been able to walk through them (thus one of the reasons why investment properties are tricky) and once he walks through them he finds more damage or repairs than is worth it. This time we felt good about it because he had already walked through it, knew a few things that we would want to change/fix but they were very doable. We started to get excited about the extra space we would have, living close to some friends and family, and just the positives of this place. Although, I did try not to totally get sold on the idea in case things fell through.

Yesterday we had the inspection, and I had told myself that as long as things go well during the inspection I felt confident things would go through. I stopped at Home Depot on my way to the inspection to pick up some paint samples. When we first got to the house, the inspector and Marshall began talking about inspecting stuff. My little sister and I quickly began walking through the house, as I had never seen it before. Our calculations were right: it would be a great rental property and home for us for a few years. As we walked downstairs to the basement apartment I was finally ready to hear what the inspector had to say.

So apparently, however many years ago when they remodeled and gutted the house they put all new water pipes in. Which you would think would be a good thing. Except that the pipes they used were absolute crap. Now I am sure Marshall would be able to explain this a lot better, but what I got from it was that any day now the pipes would corrode and begin leaking. It would be a very small leak, but it would leak. We would either need to gut and replace all the pipes now, or wait for them to start leaking and then replace them. And because the leak would be so small, chances are we wouldn't know it was leaking... and we would probably get mold. Gross. And no thank you! Marshall said the pipes are like the pipes we had where we use to live in Canyon Meadows. I know that may not mean a lot to you if you haven't lived there, but I did live there. And I wasn't going to touch those pipes with a 15 foot pole.

So there you have it. One more offer that isn't going to work. Am i disappointed? Sure. More than that though I am just so so so grateful for an inspector who caught this! Can you image how much more disappointed we would be if we had to gut our house in a year? Yuck! And besides that I just feel like something great is going to work out. I have no idea what, but something. We will end up with the right investment property at the right time. I know that God is orchestrating the small details and large plans of our lives. And I can trust Him. It isn't always fun, and I don't always understand, but you don't have to understand to trust. And I just feel good about it, something will work out. And I really just can't wait until it does!!