A Home Inspection

I held out a whole week before writing that we finally found a house and are under contract.

When we put the offer in on this house (offer #6), there was the usual amount of back and forth. We each made three counters, finally getting to a middle ground price that is thankfully way below our budget. 

We are almost through our due diligence, and just got back from the home inspection this morning. 

This is the absolute farthest we've gotten in the home-buying process, and yet there are still horror stories from our friends and family about the difficulties between now and closing. 

It always surprises me how many sellers put so much money into giant stone bathrooms and overworked additions, yet they neglect things like structural and water damage.

Source: My Move

We had the nicest guys for our home inspection (Joe and Jim from Medallion Inspections) and they gave us the run down of the house, as well as some good home-owner education. As it turns out, the house isn't in as bad of condition as we anticipated. 

For the age of the house (1979), there were a lot of good upgrades and fixes compared to some of the homes in the neighborhood. Many of the items on the must-fix list were installation shortcuts from previous contractors, electrical wiring and pipes. Others were items that were original with the house and were due to be replaced: windows with broken seals, vents and gutters.

Did you know that installing just one new window gives you allowance to advertise that your house has "thermal windows"? Tricky tricky tricky...

I'm hoping that the sellers can tighten many those nuts and bolts before closing, leaving us with bigger renovations: a new roof, new siding and new carpet. Kitchen, bathroom and backyard face lifts are also on the docket, along with new windows farther down the road.

But, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Our projected closing date is July 18th, and we'll be in our apartment until mid August. 

Another One Bites the Dust

I now have 21 posts worth of disappointment. Twenty-one posts about the five offers we've submitted and the five houses that we will not be closing. 

All five houses have had different methods of sale: foreclosure auction, foreclosure law owned, short sale, direct sale, and blind offer. 

The latest home we made an offer on was perfect. I know you're not supposed to say that about homes to avoid getting too attached. This house had four bedrooms in addition to a dedicated office, solving our space issue without having an impossibly huge house with a matching sale price. 

Knowing that the house could fetch a premium price, the owners created a deadline. The house was listed on Thursday, and on Sunday night at 8pm, they would take the highest and best offer. No negotiating. There were six offers on the table, and four of them out bid us, even though we offered $5,000 OVER list price. Congratulations, those peeps are now the owners of the most expensive four-bedroom house in that neighborhood.

We bid at the top end of our budget, so nothing more could be done, even if we were given the option. I think it was smart of us to know our limit, and not to overpay in that neighborhood. Despite how perfectly this house fit our criteria and our style, we will have to move on. 

And what of our fourth bid, the house the awesome Great Room+Wetbar+Sunroom? 
Those home owners are still wanting more than we can afford, for only a 3-bedroom house. I feel more comfortable stretching ourselves for a house that we know will fit, instead of overpaying for a house that doesn't meet our immediate requirements.

This is five months of house hunting. We've seen 41 houses. Even by my strict standards, that is way beyond the border of ridiculous. 

Wish us luck that our 6th bid might be the one...

What comes first? The house or the baby.

Yesterday was our first time house hunting in over two months. We were hoping that the market had changed a little bit and that homes might be a bit more appealing. 

Out of the five houses we viewed yesterday, we found one that had some great space and character. What it didn't have was a fourth bedroom. 

Despite not knowing where everything is going, we put a bid on it anyway. We were getting tired of having to account for the what ifs. What if we have a kid in the next 5 years? What if my mom decides to move in? What if we have everyone and their brother over? 

That's a lot of what ifs. I can see accounting for room to grow into a home, but it's hard to project what your life will be like 5-8 years down the road. If we're on this train of thought, why don't we just try and find a super expensive 7-bedroom house to accommodate everyone? Sound a little irrational?

What the house lacks in bedroom space, it makes up for in living space. 

• A great family/entertainment room with lots of built-in bookshelves and a full bar. 
• A sun room that we're hoping to make our office. 
• A formal dining room that will be our temporary office, since we don't have a dining room table.
• A kitchen that just needs new appliances and cabinet doors.
• A larger deck that can fit nice patio furniture, that over looks a nice yard and a dedicated gardening space.

We won't be outgrowing this home anytime soon. 

Bid #4. Fingers crossed.

Square One, part 3

We received the phone call on Wednesday from our realtor, who broke down the situation. The mortgage bank simply has never gone that far below appraisal value. Despite the fact that the house was appraised at $325K and only listed for $275K, the seller's accepted our offer of $255.5K just to get out and avoid foreclosure. 

Even though both parties want the sale to happen, their mortgage bank has simply kept us in the dark, after multiple attempts from both realtors. 

Ours thinks that we should start looking at houses again. Waiting for the our offer to get approved seems to have no end date and we could be waiting for months. 

It kills me to be back to this point, especially since friends have looked, offered and closed on a home in the span of our "waiting period". 

Back trolling on Zillow for now...

Will We or Won't We?

It has been two months since we put in our offer on this latest home. 

Our realtor has advised that if we cannot get an answer by the end of this week, we should withdraw our offer and start looking at houses again. 

Is this common practice for short sale homes, or rather just bad business practice? Two months, really...


So should we stick to our guns, or start from square one?

Real People

Last week, we got an update. Our offer had made it through the "automated process" at the seller's bank, and will *fingers crossed* be put in front of a real person this week.

A real person! A living, breathing human being that will look over our proposal and give us a yes, or negotiate on the bank's behalf. 

From there, we could close really fast, or not. Our realtor said that the paperwork states a May 30 closing, and we'll have a month overlap before vacating our apartment. 






"The Chase short sale negotiator received the completed addendum today.  Yes everything moves at a snails pace in the short sale world. We'll follow up again this afternoon.  Everything Chase needs is there so that was supposedly the last hurdle.  A little more patience and I believe we're at the end.  Hang in there!"

Purgatory

Hi Troy and Patti, 

A midweek checkin.  I've followed up a couple of times this week and no new information.  I'll keep you posted, just want you to know you're not forgotten just stuck in short sale purgatory.  

Thanks!
Matt