Next... Time

To our dismay we have found out that the lovely little inn we were so interested in, complete with lavender field, is already in escrow. To make matters worse, we have fallen in love with the idea of the lavender field and having an inn that is in a more pastoral setting. Sadly, the inn we were looking at in Calistoga didn't have enough appeal to sway us otherwise. In the meantime, N has sent us a collection of books on how to run and B+B... so we'll be ready when the time comes!

NEXT!

As expected, our counter offer to the sellers was rejected. The other buyers "win" the property and we "lose". Sad as it may be, this isn't exactly heartbreaking given all the issues surrounding this particular inn. The good news is that there are now TWO new inns on the market that we are interested in seeing. One we have already referred to in a previous post, and the other is an inn in Calistoga. The Calistoga inn (which is different from the other inn that we looked at there) is interesting because it is a 5 bedroom b+b with 7 one bedroom apartments that they rent as monthly rentals. Those 7 apartments are already licensed for renting as part of the b+b if the owner should so desire for a total of 12 rooms. Perfect! I think we'll be making another trip out west soon to see these two properties. And there's even a good deal to SF on Virgin American to boot!

Another Option

Over the weekend we received a counter offer from the sellers. As expected, their counter is more than we are looking to spend... especially if we have any hope of making this b+b a success. In pondering our next step and what our counter to their counter should be, we are realizing that perhaps there is an alternative. Perhaps this isn't the inn for us? Perhaps we are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole? Or is it the other way around? Either way, we have decided upon a conservative counter. And if this doesn't work out, we're ready to fly back out to Napa (what a tough life it is) to look at another property that could also work. This second one, though farther afield, has a LAVENDER FIELD and overlooks a VINEYARD! I know. I know. Pretty amazing, huh?

On the Playing Field

Yesterday we heard back from our broker that the sellers would like to have until this Friday to respond to our offer. Apparently, although our offer is lower than the other offer they have received, the sellers feel that ours has some positives while the other has some negatives. This means that we are still in the game, not just the sidelines.

And Then There Were Two

This weekend we received a call from our broker letting us know that there is a competing buyer who is also interested in the property we placed our offer for. This second buyer was to offer more money than us, and was giving the seller a 24 hour time frame in which to accept their offer. Therefore, if we wanted to compete, we needed to submit a signed executed contract, with addendum, accompanied by a check made out to the title company, to help show the sellers how serious we are. We also had to up our offer. You might think that all this would be easy, if not for the fact that we moved this weekend. All 100 boxes. With three cats. Not easy. Not fun. But, at the very least, the ball is now in the sellers' court. We wait and see.