Well our freaky luck just changed. As soon as our realtor, Joan, informed us that the current deal was going south I hit the web, surfing for new potential homes. I found one of interest and made an appointment to view it. Adam had to work but I figured I could go check it out and see if it was worth his time. When I pulled up Joan was there to greet me. She confirmed that our previous deal was no longer on the table and then gave me the scoop on the home we were about to view. The elderly woman (Dorothy) who owned the home, and has been living alone, recently had a vertebrae collapse and as a result is moving into an assisted living center. Hmm, interesting...
So as we made our way into the house I cheered Millie up and cooed to her that it was important she be on her best behavior and adorable as possible. Dorothy was waiting at the door for us and before we even got inside she was gushing over how cute the baby was and what lovely red hair!
The home listed at 99.9k is around 1300 sq ft, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, attached garage with a beautifully green and groomed backyard, on a .17 acre lot. There are three parks within walking distance and the elementary school is only a block away. The home itself had been very well maintained but, naturally, everything was outdated. Brown shag carpet, faux wood paneling flanked by gold flecked mirrors from floor to ceiling and every surface was draped first with a doily and then adorned with a family picture. Very livable but very vintage.
As we stood on the patio and admired the lawn I told Dorothy how much Adam and I wanted to see Millie take her first steps in a home that we owned. I could see her melting. I asked her about the neighbors and complimented her prolifically on her housekeeping. And then Millie and I said good-bye and let her know she would probably be hearing from us soon.
I discussed the property with Joan and it didn't take me long to think 1) this home is just what we are looking for and 2) it is not going to stay on the market long. I made a decision. It was go time. We went back to the house and told Dorothy that we were very interested and we would be putting an offer in. And she responded that she hoped we would get the house too.
Later that day Adam and I signed a formal offer for 91.5k and waited for a response. The next day Joan called to say that our offer was one of two. The other offer, however, was from an investor and it was cash. "So what does that mean?" I asked waiting for another rejection.
"It means you got it, kid." Joan replied.
I screamed so loud that I startled Millie awake from her nap.
I couldn't believe it. I was sure that something would happen in the coming days to make the deal fall apart and so I waited. But today is the day we get the inspection done and Adam gets to see the house for the first time. I couldn't keep that to myself. This is the fifth home deal with have had in the last five months, our lease is up August 31st and after all the online research and HGTV and books borrowed from the library all it took to get us a house was a cute little baby and sentimental old lady.
Here's to our closing date of August 26th!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Heave-Ho!
GAR-fun-KEL! Mr. Jerky McJerkyface, the seller, lowered himself just enough to tell us that if he were to sell the house he would sell for a higher price but he is probably just going to take it off the market. OMG! After he informally accepted our offer! I guess the saying is too true, never trust a handshake. Do we have freaky awful bad luck!
AAAaaaaarrrrrrRRrrrrrrrtttTTTTT! GaaaAAAarRRRfuuuNNNnnKKKeeeELLLL!
AAAaaaaarrrrrrRRrrrrrrrtttTTTTT! GaaaAAAarRRRfuuuNNNnnKKKeeeELLLL!
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Breaking Through the Red Tape... Too Late?
Just might was right and just might is currently right where we are. In the time it took our lender to ask for additional information not only once but twice (why, oh, why couldn't they have asked for all the information they needed in the first place?!) our offer went from being accepted to being back in limbo.
Before signing off and approving our offer our lender wanted more information about our W-2s, a letter of explanation on why there was a gap in unemployment, and the house address. What really got me was the letter of explanation or in loan officer speak an LOX. Do they really need an explanation of why it took a pregnant, recent college graduate almost a year to get a job?! One word followed by six words "Baby" and "THE ECONOMY IS IN THE TOILET!" For those of you wondering, that was not the explanation I gave them at least not verbatim.
So here we are thinking, okay, cool all we need to do is get this paperwork in and then our lender will gives us a thumbs up and we will FINALLY have a house. WAnH-wanh. Of course reality had to come and bitchslap some sense into our silly home starved heads. Our lender sent over our commitment letter and instead of getting back a "Great! Let's sign some paperwork!" from the sellers agent instead we got "Have your agent call me later". What could this mean? We were perplexed and frightened. Then the news came through. Multiple offers and... yup, you probably guessed it, ours is the lowest. But we are still in contention because of our level of commitment. Blueeeehpuuu! (<--my version of a fart sound) yeah, and white guys still make competitive boxers.
In a few days we will probably get the heave-ho on this house and then more fun times searching for homes. yay. I'm so excited.
Before signing off and approving our offer our lender wanted more information about our W-2s, a letter of explanation on why there was a gap in unemployment, and the house address. What really got me was the letter of explanation or in loan officer speak an LOX. Do they really need an explanation of why it took a pregnant, recent college graduate almost a year to get a job?! One word followed by six words "Baby" and "THE ECONOMY IS IN THE TOILET!" For those of you wondering, that was not the explanation I gave them at least not verbatim.
So here we are thinking, okay, cool all we need to do is get this paperwork in and then our lender will gives us a thumbs up and we will FINALLY have a house. WAnH-wanh. Of course reality had to come and bitchslap some sense into our silly home starved heads. Our lender sent over our commitment letter and instead of getting back a "Great! Let's sign some paperwork!" from the sellers agent instead we got "Have your agent call me later". What could this mean? We were perplexed and frightened. Then the news came through. Multiple offers and... yup, you probably guessed it, ours is the lowest. But we are still in contention because of our level of commitment. Blueeeehpuuu! (<--my version of a fart sound) yeah, and white guys still make competitive boxers.
In a few days we will probably get the heave-ho on this house and then more fun times searching for homes. yay. I'm so excited.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Light at the End
At the beginning of this home-buying process my husband and I made up a list of things that were important, our "must-haves". Things like lot size, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, square footage, parking, yaddah yaddah yaddah. We were looking for a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house around 1000-1200 square feet on a lot over half an acre somewhere on the outskirts of town. And, oh, almost forgot the most important part -price tag- we were thinking of spending around 75-80k.
After the last joyous ride on the short sale-O-coaster (and with the end of our lease rushing to meet us) our realtor made the executive decision to screw short sales and foreclosures and look some regular sales. A difficult task in this real estate market. After sorting through the 130 properties in the area within our price range we narrowed it down to 3 that met some of our "wants" and were regular sales.
The first was a Sears and Roebuck kit house that was built in 1946, 4 bedroom, 1 bath on almost half and acre and listed at 109k. I had high hopes for this one because the public records and online pictures indicated that it had been flipped. And it had been flipped, kind of. It was like one of those pancakes that catches the edge of the pan so that one side gets folded under and on the other side batter oozes out unattractively. The owners were contractors but not very good ones apparently or maybe they just ran out of funding. It seemed like most of the renovation jobs were done part way but almost nothing was complete. New kitchen cabinets but no toe-board, new windows but no window molding, new stairs but no banister/guardrail, new wood floors but they didn't have a finish on them. The yard was littered with screwdrivers, nails, hinges and other hodgepodge building supplies. Our impression was okay, we could definitely work with it but the unlevel floors and the cracks in the fireplace left us feeling pretty uneasy.
The second house was built in 1924, 2 bedroom, 2 bath on 0.08 acres and listed at 95k. Driving up we could see a neat little row of houses set across the street from a 55+ apartment complex. Most of the homes had alley parking behind but the one we were looking at had its lot halved sometime in the past and therefore only afforded street parking. The yard was tiny and pretty much just baked earth and a crazy overgrown bush taking up one side of the house. There was a nice little porch populated by cheap plastic patio chairs but inside the place glistened with old world charm. Huge windows, molding everywhere, in the formal dining room there was a dish rail all the way around on top of rich, dark wood paneling with a built-in dinette hutch in the corner. The bedrooms were separated by a walk-through closet and a jack-and-jill bathroom. The laundry room in the back was coupled with another washroom and downstairs in the cool recesses of the foundation a rec room and workshop were tucked away just for the vertically challenged. Luckily, we fall into that category. Anyone 5'10" or over might have had a problem or an aching head (or both).
The third house was a 3 bedroom, 2 bath on 0.25 acres and listed at 110k. It was the closest house to Adam's work (about 2 miles away) and the owners were also "flippers". Freshly laid sod was being watered on the front lawn and we admired it as our realtor struggled with the lockbox. Inside we found the place spacious and smelling of fresh beige paint. One of the bedrooms had some beadboard, the master had hardwood floors and the his and hers closets were located in the bathroom (weird?). The kitchen was large begging for an island. The backyard was still a blank slate, just dirt and a left over jungle gym.
"So what will it be?" our realtor asked us. "House number one, two or three?"
My husband answered for both of us, "Number two was really nice."
"Okay, then go home and think about it then give me a call."
He looked over at me expectantly and I said, "That won't be necessary. We are ready, let's do this."
After five months of house hunting, three failed offers and a few days of negotiation we think we have zeroed in on the house that will become our home. Yeah, we had to give up some of our "must-haves", like pretty much all of them but so is life. We learned along the way there were things we could live without; and now we might be living without them in a home of our very own. I may be speaking too soon, I certainly do have a way of shooting myself in the foot but you know what? Who frigging cares! Today, I found out our offer has been accepted! I am happy and I am shouting at the top of my freaking lungs! The end is nigh! The end is nigh! Pack the boxes and cage the cats we might be moving to a real home where we don't have to listen to our dumbass neighbors bullshit in drunk slurred voices until 4 am. Yay! I say. Whoo-frikking-hoo! Now, that could be the sleep deprivation talking, who knows. All I know is that in a week we just might have a house and this hellish home-buying process just might be over.
After the last joyous ride on the short sale-O-coaster (and with the end of our lease rushing to meet us) our realtor made the executive decision to screw short sales and foreclosures and look some regular sales. A difficult task in this real estate market. After sorting through the 130 properties in the area within our price range we narrowed it down to 3 that met some of our "wants" and were regular sales.
The first was a Sears and Roebuck kit house that was built in 1946, 4 bedroom, 1 bath on almost half and acre and listed at 109k. I had high hopes for this one because the public records and online pictures indicated that it had been flipped. And it had been flipped, kind of. It was like one of those pancakes that catches the edge of the pan so that one side gets folded under and on the other side batter oozes out unattractively. The owners were contractors but not very good ones apparently or maybe they just ran out of funding. It seemed like most of the renovation jobs were done part way but almost nothing was complete. New kitchen cabinets but no toe-board, new windows but no window molding, new stairs but no banister/guardrail, new wood floors but they didn't have a finish on them. The yard was littered with screwdrivers, nails, hinges and other hodgepodge building supplies. Our impression was okay, we could definitely work with it but the unlevel floors and the cracks in the fireplace left us feeling pretty uneasy.
The second house was built in 1924, 2 bedroom, 2 bath on 0.08 acres and listed at 95k. Driving up we could see a neat little row of houses set across the street from a 55+ apartment complex. Most of the homes had alley parking behind but the one we were looking at had its lot halved sometime in the past and therefore only afforded street parking. The yard was tiny and pretty much just baked earth and a crazy overgrown bush taking up one side of the house. There was a nice little porch populated by cheap plastic patio chairs but inside the place glistened with old world charm. Huge windows, molding everywhere, in the formal dining room there was a dish rail all the way around on top of rich, dark wood paneling with a built-in dinette hutch in the corner. The bedrooms were separated by a walk-through closet and a jack-and-jill bathroom. The laundry room in the back was coupled with another washroom and downstairs in the cool recesses of the foundation a rec room and workshop were tucked away just for the vertically challenged. Luckily, we fall into that category. Anyone 5'10" or over might have had a problem or an aching head (or both).
The third house was a 3 bedroom, 2 bath on 0.25 acres and listed at 110k. It was the closest house to Adam's work (about 2 miles away) and the owners were also "flippers". Freshly laid sod was being watered on the front lawn and we admired it as our realtor struggled with the lockbox. Inside we found the place spacious and smelling of fresh beige paint. One of the bedrooms had some beadboard, the master had hardwood floors and the his and hers closets were located in the bathroom (weird?). The kitchen was large begging for an island. The backyard was still a blank slate, just dirt and a left over jungle gym.
"So what will it be?" our realtor asked us. "House number one, two or three?"
My husband answered for both of us, "Number two was really nice."
"Okay, then go home and think about it then give me a call."
He looked over at me expectantly and I said, "That won't be necessary. We are ready, let's do this."
After five months of house hunting, three failed offers and a few days of negotiation we think we have zeroed in on the house that will become our home. Yeah, we had to give up some of our "must-haves", like pretty much all of them but so is life. We learned along the way there were things we could live without; and now we might be living without them in a home of our very own. I may be speaking too soon, I certainly do have a way of shooting myself in the foot but you know what? Who frigging cares! Today, I found out our offer has been accepted! I am happy and I am shouting at the top of my freaking lungs! The end is nigh! The end is nigh! Pack the boxes and cage the cats we might be moving to a real home where we don't have to listen to our dumbass neighbors bullshit in drunk slurred voices until 4 am. Yay! I say. Whoo-frikking-hoo! Now, that could be the sleep deprivation talking, who knows. All I know is that in a week we just might have a house and this hellish home-buying process just might be over.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Bah Humbug!
Bah gerafigins flipinooopsiks kuradik marfinkle tunsto pulapu! Those are the words with which I choose to describe my current mood.
We heard back from the bank finally. Ha ha, yay! Am I just naive? Was it possible that things would just, I don't know, work out? Silly me, how could I have thought that?! My overpowered optimism and naivete actually led me to believe it would not only work out but it would (gasp, sigh, head-shake) work out in our favor! By now you may have guessed that the response we received from the bank was not a favorable one. The negotiator had the balls to come to us and say, here is our FINAL counter offer we need at least 108k. Haha haha haha... is it funny yet? Can you believe it? I am finding it difficult. They seriously thought they could come back asking for almost 30k more than our offer and we would be like... hmm let's think about this... yeah, we could do that in maybe NEVERLAND.
So long story short, more jokers wasting our time and another house bites the dust. House hunting on a budget certainly has a way of deflating sails, raining out parades and kiboshing almost any party. Ugh. Well, just in case anyone is looking for me Monday, I will be out viewing homes AGAIN.
We heard back from the bank finally. Ha ha, yay! Am I just naive? Was it possible that things would just, I don't know, work out? Silly me, how could I have thought that?! My overpowered optimism and naivete actually led me to believe it would not only work out but it would (gasp, sigh, head-shake) work out in our favor! By now you may have guessed that the response we received from the bank was not a favorable one. The negotiator had the balls to come to us and say, here is our FINAL counter offer we need at least 108k. Haha haha haha... is it funny yet? Can you believe it? I am finding it difficult. They seriously thought they could come back asking for almost 30k more than our offer and we would be like... hmm let's think about this... yeah, we could do that in maybe NEVERLAND.
So long story short, more jokers wasting our time and another house bites the dust. House hunting on a budget certainly has a way of deflating sails, raining out parades and kiboshing almost any party. Ugh. Well, just in case anyone is looking for me Monday, I will be out viewing homes AGAIN.
Friday, May 13, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, May 9, 2011
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...
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...
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