The waiting game

Yesterday I heard news, our file has moved from the seller's agent to the bank's negotiator.  Yay?  This is progress, that cannot be denied but like so many steps within the short sale process it is ambiguous in it's affect on the time line.

For those of you who don't know the ins and outs of short sale (I'm not saying I'm an expert by any means) I will gloss over the general details right now.  Example time, say a house was purchased for 230k in 2007 (at the height of the real estate bubble) and now four years later the home owner wants to sell and get out of their mortgage.  The kicker is the property is only worth 100k now, so what do they do?  They ask the bank if they can sell it for fair market value and ask the bank to take the hit.  Voi la! A short sale.  Banks have a choice in this, they do not have to approve any property for short sale they can choose to foreclose instead but for the homeowner a short sale is much less damaging to credit.

Sounds simple enough, right?  Yeah, huh, right!  Every short sale is different, including the number of mortgages on the property in question.  It can get very complicated, very quickly.  We are lucky the house that we have offered on only has two mortgages and they are through the same bank.  Some unfortunate properties have three mortgages through three different lenders and in those situations patience is of the essence because an offer has to satisfy all three, headache!

So what are we waiting for?!  Now that our file has been turned over to the bank's negotiator we have to wait for bank approval.  I don't know all of the what the negotiator does but I know it includes determining market value of the property and then determining if the offer is acceptable. In some cases the property will appraise for higher than the offer is for and then either the current homeowner or the buyer will be asked to make up the difference.  We are hoping that won't happen, please no!

Note: I am the Jo Schmo of real estate, all I have going for me is wanting to be an informed buyer.  So if any information above isn't quite right please don't fault me on it.  As far as my limited understanding goes this is the way things work.

Back to the waiting game... What am I going to do with myself?  Well, I already walked the four miles to our local library and loaded up on do-it-yourself home plumbing and electrical wiring books and dvds guess it's time to study up.  So far I have read through a Popular Science home plumbing book and watched the plumbing section of Hometime How To Plumbing & Electrical dvd.  And in additional to the hosts' 80s wardrobe being a crack-up, there has been a lot of good information. Maybe I am not crazy for thinking I could do a diy kitchen remodel and bathroom addition.  The longer we wait the more confidence I have that I will be able to accomplish just about everything my little construction minded heart desires.

To get to the beginning

It is just over eleven months since our wedding and now we are taking another big step in our lives.  We are (attempting) to purchase our first home.  After the year we just had this should seem easy.  But in this real estate market and with our budget easy is not what it used to be.  On one side of the coin we are lucky.  It is only because of the real estate collapse that we are even able to think about purchasing a home.  However, the homes that are now within our financial grasp are most if not all foreclosures or short sales.

A month ago we put an offer in on what we considered our charming dream home and within two weeks the deal fell apart. So we cast away our dogmatic dream home fantasy and elected for a more pragmatic choice.  A home that was not full of personality and old world charm as well as old world plumbing but a newer home that would suit our needs and our pocketbooks.

The house was built in 1971, about 1650 square feet, three bedrooms and one and a half bath, two car garage, fireplace, separate living and dining room, you get the picture.  It was originally listed for $130k and after sitting on the market for five months we offered $80k.  We viewed the property twice and both times the place was a mess.  The house is currently inhabited by three bachelors and it definitely reflects that.

The seller has accepted our offer but what now?  Now we wait for the bank to accept it.  Ugh!  If this happens quickly it could be 45 days if it happens not so quickly it could be a series of months.  I am not a patient person, never have been, and waiting is the most malicious torture anyone could inflict upon me.  So in my free time, these endless hours waiting I am planning.  Oh, I have such plans! New floors, new carpet, new paint, the list goes on and on.  My husband just rolls his eyes and refrains from comment.

This has got me thinking... Can I do what I conjure?  Or are these plans going to be finely laid but abandoned?  Is it true what Will Hunting said, could I learn all I need to know at the public library?  If we get this house I just might have to find out...