Great to Good

At our TUFW Chancellor's Council retreat last summer, we were discussing a local restaurant in the context of the book Good to Great, which is one of my favorites. Someone made the comment about the restaurant, "It's not great, but it's not bad." For a time, this became our mantra as we reviewed various plans and suggestions.

Well, today our realtor called with some news regarding our house in Klamath Falls. It's not great, but it's not bad. Yes, we have finally sold the house, after about six months on the market . . . after dropping the price from $269,900 to $259,900 . . . and then putting up a new fence, installing new carpet throughout the house, painting the garage and much of the interior, putting in a new kitchen faucet . . . earlier this week we received our very first offer, a whopping $225,000. Ouch.

Still, in a market this slow, we didn't want to lightly dismiss the offer. So we countered at a price well below the lowest we had felt we could go. And they counter offered. And we counter offered again. And today we have a deal. It's not great. I'm not sure I can even say it's not bad, but at least it's done and we don't have to worry about making another six or twelve payments only to get the same price next year.

We're thankful to have this behind us. The house should close in October. And I'm very glad now that I did my best to drive a hard bargain here in Fort Wayne.

Thanks to everyone who has been praying for the house to sell. I'm not sure why God let it drag out so long but it's good to see the light at the end of the tunnel.