Buyers bailed, and sometimes things happen for a reason

So, we were on the beach flying kites with the kids on Thursday evening when we got an update from the realtor that the buyers bailed after the inspection. Now, many requests later, there were no asks to pay for any repairs, and/or discount the house based on some sort of mysterious inspection finding. They simply wanted to exercise their opportunity to bail because they had another offer accepted for a house in another neighborhood at a lower price point. . . My realtor was very concerned about these buyers (and, their realtor), & it appears that was all for good reason.

However, in the camp of "things happen for a reason", our realtor also advised us that another couple was interested in the house & disappointed when we moved to pending status. She reached back out to their agent, and they submitted an offer within a few hours. The offer was exactly what we had agreed with the previous buyers! We negotiated with them in one round, and closed for $25K higher than we had the day before. ;-) And, a shorter closing & inspection window. All good things for us. Our realtor also knows the agent's buyer, and their financing person, and is very confident in this deal.

What.a.whirlwind. I was pretty stressed out on Thursday evening, but tried to keep perspective, and look how things turned out. In ironic news, we received the bid for our air conditioning in our San Francisco house, and it's $37k. For those of you wondering how that's possible (as am I), it's actually not really an air conditioning bid. It's all of the work required to get us ready for an air conditioner, and then the actual unit. We knew when we bought the house that things like the electrical panel would need to be fully redone, but we weren't aware that the duct work wasn't up to code (it was at the time of building, but where we live has very strict energy compliance rules). This requires all new duct work, floor vents, and of course, a new heat pump.

Before M & I went to sleep on Thursday, we agreed that if the buyers accepted our $25K higher offer, we'd put all of that money (because, hey, the day before we were happy without it), to upgrading San Francisco house. We'll cash flow the rest. It will increase the value of the house, and we'll likely recoup about half of the actual investment in reduced power bills over the time of ownership.

What about you? Any examples of things happening for a reason? M & I also realized that we were able to buy both our Seattle house & our San Francisco houses when previous buyers bailed, so we've been on the good luck side of that as well.