Spring had come and gone, and summer was slowly disappearing and 2020 was turning out to be one crazy year! New phrases were being used like “flattening the curve” and “together but apart” which is how we celebrated Mother’s Day, visiting with the kids in a Zoom meeting!
But towards the end of July, there seemed to be less and less COVID-19 cases being reported and things were slowly starting to open again. We contacted our realtor Tita Cool to see what she thought of the timing for possibly selling soon, and she confirmed the market had picked up and even called it “the new spring”!
After many months of just waiting and wondering and dreaming if we would ever be able to visit Cabo again, let alone actually move there, this little window of opportunity seemed to open up and we decided we just had go for it. And once we did, everything seemed to happen so quickly.
Within a week, we went through the condo to pack everything we didn’t need right now and tackled the patio and the shed to clear them out too. We moved some of our bulkier furniture to storage and had the place professionally cleaned.
We hired a stager to come in and stage the place to sell, with furniture that would be perhaps more appealing to more people, and on August 13th our condo was listed for sale. The next day, there were already requests for a showing!
Before After
The first open house was scheduled for Sunday August 16th and we already had showings scheduled for the Saturday , so Lorne and I decided to take the opportunity to have a little mini weekend get away. We booked a room at The Executive Inn in Squamish (near Whistler). After so much running around the past few weeks, we were ready for a little R&R.
Lorne Shari View from our balcony
There were showings scheduled almost every day for the next week and the second open house was held Saturday August 22nd. And even more showings were scheduled for the following Monday and Tuesday.
Monday night we got a call from Tita that we had an offer! Twelve days after listing the condo for sale, and we already had an offer! And it was a good offer. It was naturally less than our asking price but exactly what I was hoping for, which would cover our current mortgage and all the extra money we had to borrow to complete the sale on the Cabo condo, with some to spare. Lorne was ready to make a counteroffer, when we heard back from Tita that there might be a second offer coming in. What!??
The next day the second offer arrived which was slightly more than the first one. We quickly found out that realtors get extremely excited with multiple offers, and Tita was no exception! She went back to both parties and asked them to submit their absolute best and final offer. The first couple came back offering an additional $23,000 which made their final offer only $1,000 less than our original asking price! What!?? We were all in shock! The second offer did not come back as high, so we quickly accepted the first offer, and just like that, on August 25th our condo was sold! The buyers requested a closing date of September 25th which worked perfect with our timeline, as it would give us enough time to sort out the paperwork with the Mexican Consulate and for me to give notice at work that I would be leaving in less than a month!
The next couple of weeks just flew by. We had a few friends over for dinner (one at a time, because COVID was still a real thing) to tell them the news that we were moving, which everyone was quite surprised about. We also sent back the staging furniture and brought all our furniture and stuff back from storage to prepare for the movers and we continued to pack up the condo.
My last day of work came so quickly that I could hardly believe it. Around noon, I was summoned from my office to a surprise Zoom meeting with my co-workers from Quebec and Ontario. They congratulated me on my retirement and let me know they were totally jealous that we were moving to Cabo! Then lunch was delivered, which was so delicious and then Nana (my BC co-worker) presented me with a beautiful scrapbook that she had made for me. It contained photos and messages from everyone I had worked with, including our FedEx and Purolator guys! It was so beautiful, and I really felt appreciated with everything everyone had to say.
Zoom goodbye party
Lorne showed up at the end of the day to bring me and my personal things home. We said our goodbyes (which left Nana in tears!) and we headed home.
And just like that, after 20 years of working for this company, it was over.
Up Next: The Move