Last night our mortgage broker came over to go over the plethora of forms for Matt to sign (not me, sadly, as I'm not on the loan. Bwahahaha!) It was mind-boggling, how much nit-picky information there was to go over. Our broker said it has gotten like this over the last couple of years due to so much fraud in the industry. Oh well. It sounds like everything will go through and now we just wait!
I'm thinking of taking a drive past our new house one of these days to see if they've started the work on the outside of it. The need to finish the siding and put up gutters, as well as add some vents to the roof.
I have been reading the West Seattle Blog quite a bit lately. It has really helped me to feel more connected to our new neighborhood! Through this blog I have learned that the playground down the street from our new house is going to be completely renovated. It should be done by the time we get back from our MI vacation! How exciting! They were looking for volunteers to help with it, but sadly we won't be here. That would have been a fantastic and fun way to give back to our new neighborhood! Also, they are putting in a skate park near our new house! Um, not for us to use, but they are so fun to check out and watch the skateboarders.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Day 28: Appraisal
Just got word that the appraisal went great! Everything appraised at it should, though ne noted that the gutters needed to added to the house on the north side. Yep. Good thing the sellers are fixing that!
As this process of buying the house moves along so is the process of transferring our lives over to our new neighborhood. I wrote about it on my personal blog (HERE), but we have found a new school for the girls already. An amazing, amazing new school. Sort of makes moving to the other side of this big city completely worth it!
As this process of buying the house moves along so is the process of transferring our lives over to our new neighborhood. I wrote about it on my personal blog (HERE), but we have found a new school for the girls already. An amazing, amazing new school. Sort of makes moving to the other side of this big city completely worth it!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Day 24: Interesting
Today I was looking more online for crime stats and sex offender stats for our new neighborhood. Interestingly, where we currently live has crime stats were higher and more RSO within a one mile radius! I was shocked. I consider our where we are a safe neighborhood, safer, I thought, than where we were moving. Little did I know!
Monday, May 18, 2009
Day 23: Notice of Disapproval
Okay, I've calmed down a bit. Talked to all of the people who have good insight in to the situation about the work that needs to be done on the house and got to chat with our realtor today, too.
It sounds like the bottom line on the house is that for being close to 100 years old, it's in pretty decent shape. It could have been a whole lot worse and the good news is that none of the major stuff is wrong.
BUT there still is a laundry list of stuff that needs to be done! (by the way, where did the term laundry list come from?). We are submitting our notice of disapproval and have given them a good chunk of the work to do. There were a few things we kept out ourselves that were either fairly small, not that important, or stuff that is important enough for us to be done correctly that we don't want the seller to half-ass it together just to call it good.
However, after all of this, even if the seller fixes every single thing on our list, we'll have an entire basement that can't be slept in until we do some work on it. We will have to put egress windows in both of the rooms for starters, but the bigger issue is wanting to re-model the basement. If we do it before we move our stuff down there we have the benefit of having an empty space to deal with. Of course, we need money for that, which we don't have. Now we are questioning the sensibility of getting a loan to start these home improvements right away. On one hand, I am like "what the hell, ANOTHER loan?!?!" but then on the other hand I am like "it IS to make the bedrooms livable. It's not like we're going to spend the money to put in a marble tile throughout the house or something". So, Matt and I will have to hash that out.
But before any of that, there's the matter of waiting to hear what the seller says about doing this work. Some of it will simply have to be done in order for the seller to sell us the house (ie for us to get our FHA loan). For instance, they have to put gutters on it. If they don't, we won't get the loan and we are forced to walk away from the deal. It will be interesting to see how motivated the seller is because this is an investment property for him. Would he really basically back out at this point by not doing the work just to go through this all with another buyer? I'm not sure. I would like to think not!
We did want to get a sewer inspection scheduled but alas, we can't get it done before we have to give our notice of disapproval on the property to the sellers. We still can do the sewer inspection, but can't include it in the things we want them to fix or that we can walk away from the contract over. Of course our wiley realtor might find another way out of the deal, but for me, the bottom line is, do we do the inspection and live with the results, whatever they are, or do we save the money and not do the inspection and live with it not knowing what the problems are?
It sounds like the bottom line on the house is that for being close to 100 years old, it's in pretty decent shape. It could have been a whole lot worse and the good news is that none of the major stuff is wrong.
BUT there still is a laundry list of stuff that needs to be done! (by the way, where did the term laundry list come from?). We are submitting our notice of disapproval and have given them a good chunk of the work to do. There were a few things we kept out ourselves that were either fairly small, not that important, or stuff that is important enough for us to be done correctly that we don't want the seller to half-ass it together just to call it good.
However, after all of this, even if the seller fixes every single thing on our list, we'll have an entire basement that can't be slept in until we do some work on it. We will have to put egress windows in both of the rooms for starters, but the bigger issue is wanting to re-model the basement. If we do it before we move our stuff down there we have the benefit of having an empty space to deal with. Of course, we need money for that, which we don't have. Now we are questioning the sensibility of getting a loan to start these home improvements right away. On one hand, I am like "what the hell, ANOTHER loan?!?!" but then on the other hand I am like "it IS to make the bedrooms livable. It's not like we're going to spend the money to put in a marble tile throughout the house or something". So, Matt and I will have to hash that out.
But before any of that, there's the matter of waiting to hear what the seller says about doing this work. Some of it will simply have to be done in order for the seller to sell us the house (ie for us to get our FHA loan). For instance, they have to put gutters on it. If they don't, we won't get the loan and we are forced to walk away from the deal. It will be interesting to see how motivated the seller is because this is an investment property for him. Would he really basically back out at this point by not doing the work just to go through this all with another buyer? I'm not sure. I would like to think not!
We did want to get a sewer inspection scheduled but alas, we can't get it done before we have to give our notice of disapproval on the property to the sellers. We still can do the sewer inspection, but can't include it in the things we want them to fix or that we can walk away from the contract over. Of course our wiley realtor might find another way out of the deal, but for me, the bottom line is, do we do the inspection and live with the results, whatever they are, or do we save the money and not do the inspection and live with it not knowing what the problems are?
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Day 21: Terror.
We did the inspection today. It was truly eye-opening.
Let me tell you, all I heard was "blah blah is not up to code, blah blah needs to be fixed, this blah blah blah siding is a total hack-job" and on and on, ad nauseum. My brain was so full of information about what was wrong with the house that I could hardly hear when we were told that the electrical was in excellent shape, that the plumbing looked great and that the roof was pretty much solid. So all of things are huge. HUGE! Those are all of the things that you absolutely don't want to have wrong. I wasn't prepared for, however, all of the little nit-picky things that were.
My biggest concern is the basement "bedrooms". Clearly having bedrooms in the basement is not super-ideal, but you know, we don't mind that much since all we do is sleep in them. We had some big ideas on re-configuring some walls down there to have it all work exactly like we wanted. Little did we know that when we looked more closely at the bedrooms they weren't code-compliant. Neither had a source of egress (a way--besides the bedroom door-- to get out of the room should there be a fire). Um, yeah. So technically we only have a one bedroom house.
There were plenty of other things too. Well, a big thing is the half-assed job that they did on the siding. They pretty much stopped putting the wood shingles on about 7/8 of the way down and then chose a random mix of ways to deal with the exposed house on the bottom. Affixing plastic to it, hammering up some plywood, leaving it bare, all delightful options! We were told that the sellers were already planning on fixing it, though.
I got a little terrified with being faced with the realization that there is so much work involved in home buying--especially in our price range, I would think. Alot of work and, lets face the facts, not much money. I would be more than happy to do all the work in the world on this house (or any house!) but money is just going to be so tight for us.
Of course, we haven't sent our notice of disapproval to the sellers. We'll see how much they are willing to fix, though clearly it won't be every little thing that we found that needed to be. Of even more concern is, will we even be able to get an FHA loan for this house? Lots of what-ifs. Here I was under the very-mistaken impression that all of the questions would be answered with the inspection, but it only opened a whole host of new ones.
Anyways, the last word from our agent and inspector today was that it is a good house. When asked what he would measure it on a scaled of 1 to 10 the inspector said "7".
I also should add that while I came out of the inspection shell-shocked, Matt came out of it very excited. He thought the news on the house was very positive, considering all of the big stuff was golden.
Oops, one more add as a mention for Abby is that we talked to our agent and the inspector about getting a scope of the sewer lines and will likely be getting that done. Our agent said that isn't something he ever really sees buyers want to do but that if this process of getting one goes well he will likely start recommending them to other buyers! So yay Abby for the recommendation!
Let me tell you, all I heard was "blah blah is not up to code, blah blah needs to be fixed, this blah blah blah siding is a total hack-job" and on and on, ad nauseum. My brain was so full of information about what was wrong with the house that I could hardly hear when we were told that the electrical was in excellent shape, that the plumbing looked great and that the roof was pretty much solid. So all of things are huge. HUGE! Those are all of the things that you absolutely don't want to have wrong. I wasn't prepared for, however, all of the little nit-picky things that were.
My biggest concern is the basement "bedrooms". Clearly having bedrooms in the basement is not super-ideal, but you know, we don't mind that much since all we do is sleep in them. We had some big ideas on re-configuring some walls down there to have it all work exactly like we wanted. Little did we know that when we looked more closely at the bedrooms they weren't code-compliant. Neither had a source of egress (a way--besides the bedroom door-- to get out of the room should there be a fire). Um, yeah. So technically we only have a one bedroom house.
There were plenty of other things too. Well, a big thing is the half-assed job that they did on the siding. They pretty much stopped putting the wood shingles on about 7/8 of the way down and then chose a random mix of ways to deal with the exposed house on the bottom. Affixing plastic to it, hammering up some plywood, leaving it bare, all delightful options! We were told that the sellers were already planning on fixing it, though.
I got a little terrified with being faced with the realization that there is so much work involved in home buying--especially in our price range, I would think. Alot of work and, lets face the facts, not much money. I would be more than happy to do all the work in the world on this house (or any house!) but money is just going to be so tight for us.
Of course, we haven't sent our notice of disapproval to the sellers. We'll see how much they are willing to fix, though clearly it won't be every little thing that we found that needed to be. Of even more concern is, will we even be able to get an FHA loan for this house? Lots of what-ifs. Here I was under the very-mistaken impression that all of the questions would be answered with the inspection, but it only opened a whole host of new ones.
Anyways, the last word from our agent and inspector today was that it is a good house. When asked what he would measure it on a scaled of 1 to 10 the inspector said "7".
I also should add that while I came out of the inspection shell-shocked, Matt came out of it very excited. He thought the news on the house was very positive, considering all of the big stuff was golden.
Oops, one more add as a mention for Abby is that we talked to our agent and the inspector about getting a scope of the sewer lines and will likely be getting that done. Our agent said that isn't something he ever really sees buyers want to do but that if this process of getting one goes well he will likely start recommending them to other buyers! So yay Abby for the recommendation!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Day 19: Um, whoa.
Well holy crap, I had NO idea how much was involved in this space between saying we're buying the house and actually buying it.
In the past two days I've had alot on my plate. Let's see. We scheduled the inspection for Saturday afternoon. It was all set and great. The inspector was all set to go, we got child care so Matt and I could go and give it our undivided attention, and our friend is coming with us to look at the basement for us and give his ideas on re-doing the space. We had planned the inspection closely around some time we were spending with family that afternoon, as well. Wouldn't you know it, I get a call from the realtor today saying that time will no longer work because the tenants are coming home (we thought they were going to be out of town) and that time doesn't work for them anymore. Um, excuse me? I want, really really want, to be empathetic to the fact that it sucks that they signed a lease on a house that was for sale and therefor are forced to deal with all of this crap, but OH MY GOD I was livid. I had Matt get on the phone and talk to our realtor to get the original time to work OR ELSE. Or else what, I don't know. Or else I'll cry, I guess.
The other "fun" thing I've been doing is trying to figure out the deal with home owner's insurance. Having never purchased it, I am not really sure what I'm doing, and am being asked tons of questions about the house I have no answers to as all I know about it is the 15 minutes we spent touring it last weekend (yes, we decided to plunk down $300,000 on a house we were only in for 15 mins). And then I call the realtor to explain how I don't know how to answer these questions about the house and he tells me to not answer anything, that they should be sending someone out to look at the house to get those answers themselves. So I'm like, well, no one is doing that, they're just asking me questions. And I am not even clear on what the lender even needs to have as proof of insurance. More phone calls to our realtor/lender commenced. Still no insurance but lots and lots of time lost on the phone.
What else? I dropped off a giant check for earnest money at the escrow company this morning. Eloise liked the "store" because they had a jar full of candy.
I have had to scan and email countless papers to our realtor. Fun times. Matt has had to initial/sign/date countless times, as well. I even had to forge his initials once. Oops.
In addition to house stuff I've been researching schools in our new neighborhood and have set up an appointment to go visit a school that looks really wonderful, so we're excited about that. Annoying to know that the hours and hours of time we spent researching schools on the north end was all for nothing, but you know, there was nothing else we could have done. We knew we would likely be moving, but didn't know where. We had hoped we could stay in our current 'hood, but alas, it wasn't in the stars.
It's all plugging along, though. Stressful, but good. Hopefully at the inspection on Saturday I'll get some good pictures of the house to post. The ones online don't really do the house justice, I think.
In the past two days I've had alot on my plate. Let's see. We scheduled the inspection for Saturday afternoon. It was all set and great. The inspector was all set to go, we got child care so Matt and I could go and give it our undivided attention, and our friend is coming with us to look at the basement for us and give his ideas on re-doing the space. We had planned the inspection closely around some time we were spending with family that afternoon, as well. Wouldn't you know it, I get a call from the realtor today saying that time will no longer work because the tenants are coming home (we thought they were going to be out of town) and that time doesn't work for them anymore. Um, excuse me? I want, really really want, to be empathetic to the fact that it sucks that they signed a lease on a house that was for sale and therefor are forced to deal with all of this crap, but OH MY GOD I was livid. I had Matt get on the phone and talk to our realtor to get the original time to work OR ELSE. Or else what, I don't know. Or else I'll cry, I guess.
The other "fun" thing I've been doing is trying to figure out the deal with home owner's insurance. Having never purchased it, I am not really sure what I'm doing, and am being asked tons of questions about the house I have no answers to as all I know about it is the 15 minutes we spent touring it last weekend (yes, we decided to plunk down $300,000 on a house we were only in for 15 mins). And then I call the realtor to explain how I don't know how to answer these questions about the house and he tells me to not answer anything, that they should be sending someone out to look at the house to get those answers themselves. So I'm like, well, no one is doing that, they're just asking me questions. And I am not even clear on what the lender even needs to have as proof of insurance. More phone calls to our realtor/lender commenced. Still no insurance but lots and lots of time lost on the phone.
What else? I dropped off a giant check for earnest money at the escrow company this morning. Eloise liked the "store" because they had a jar full of candy.
I have had to scan and email countless papers to our realtor. Fun times. Matt has had to initial/sign/date countless times, as well. I even had to forge his initials once. Oops.
In addition to house stuff I've been researching schools in our new neighborhood and have set up an appointment to go visit a school that looks really wonderful, so we're excited about that. Annoying to know that the hours and hours of time we spent researching schools on the north end was all for nothing, but you know, there was nothing else we could have done. We knew we would likely be moving, but didn't know where. We had hoped we could stay in our current 'hood, but alas, it wasn't in the stars.
It's all plugging along, though. Stressful, but good. Hopefully at the inspection on Saturday I'll get some good pictures of the house to post. The ones online don't really do the house justice, I think.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Day 17: Offer Accepted!
Holy crap! It's really all happening!
Here's OUR new house:
They accepted our offer almost exactly as written, only changing a few very minor things like pushing the closing date out three days to June 19th. We close the day after Iris's 5th birthday, which is also her and Eloise's last day of school. This is only ELEVEN days before we leave on our three week vacation. Wowzers. It CAN be done! Right?
It's all too exciting. We'll be doing the inspection by the end of the week and that's definitely the next big hurdle to get over. Cross your fingers that the foundation isn't crumbling and the roof isn't about to blow off!
I am going to ask a friend who does carpentry work if he can come during the inspection to look at some walls we want to move around in the basement and give us an idea on cost, etc. We also want to put in a bathroom in the basement-- and a laundry room!-- but with our budget, we'll just start with the walls. There already are existing walls, but we're not big fans of the way it's all arranged and thought that if we're going to move walls, doing it before we move in would be the best way to go :)
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