What I'm Doing

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Buying a House, Part Fin (or, I Own a House!)

Well, well, it's all over and now we are homeowners! We met our real estate agent and our lender from our bank at the closing attorney's office. The selling agent wasn't there, nor was anyone representing the selling bank, which was kind of weird. But all the documents were there and the attorney was there, and I signed a bunch of stuff, and we were handed the keys!

Well, actually, we weren't. There were no keys, either. Not that it was a huge deal; there was still the key in the lock-box on the house, and we were changing all the locks, anyway. The back door deadbolt was broken, so we decided to just go buy all new locks, and I installed them tonight. Kristen brought over the vacuum cleaner and a broom to start cleaning up the place (it's been vacant for a few months, IIRC).

Tomorrow, a plumber will show up to replace the water pressure reducing valve, and our real estate agent hired a guy to come and clean the carpets for us. So, after tomorrow, we'll have clean carpets and running water! My mom has suggested we "camp out" in the house before moving in, but I guess I'm not in that big of a hurry.

So, now, we just have to get packed up and move in! That'll be this weekend, which will mean we'll move into a new house before Easter (according to the Orthodox calendar)! Yay!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Buying a House, Part IX

Again, a lot has happened since I last posted. That 'lot' that has happened has been part of why I've not posted in a while. I've been running around going crazy. As such, this is a long one.

The week before closing, everything was going well for a while, the appraisal got done, and we were all set for a scheduled closing date of Monday, April 7. This would be 2 days before our deadline, when they'd start charging that $100/day. I had learned that my bank had stopped doing 100% loans the day after I had locked in on ours, but that was okay, because our file was in the system before the cutoff. Wow; thank God! I was just waiting to hear the final numbers from the bank (i.e., how much of the closing cost we'd have to pay, if it went over what the selling bank was paying).

Thursday evening, I was preparing to fly home from a business trip in Florida when I got a call from the Mortgage Consultant at my bank. He had just heard from the underwriters that he had been wrong about the date of the cutoff; we'd actually missed it, and now the best we could do was a 97% loan. This meant we needed 3% to put down by the next Monday (giving us 1 business day to do this). We didn't have 3% that we could afford to put down.

So, I gave Kristen a call and told her the bad news, and spent the flight back trying to decide what to do. We had just enough money in savings to cover that 3%, but then we would have nothing left over. By the time I got home (around 11pm), I was nearly decided that we couldn't afford the house. Then I got some good news: Kristen's parents had already agreed to let us borrow what we needed for 6 months (my parents were also willing to help, though I hadn't talked to them yet about specifics). That 6 months would have given us time to save up some extra, earn more interest on what we had, etc. I went to bed less decided about walking on the house.

The next day, I got in touch with the M.C. at my bank, and he was working to try and get us the 100% loan again. Apparently, the main problem was that the mortgage insurance companies had stopped insuring 100% loans because our area had been declared a declining market, but, our M.C. thought he might be able to get us an exception. So, I decided to wait and see what would happen.

However, by the end of the day, he was back to the 97% loan, and had decided (acknowledging that it was his mistake that caused the trouble) to take as much as he could out of his earnings on the loan and apply it to our down payment for us. In addition, there were apparently some marketing funds or whatnot that the bank had available that he was trying to get authorization to use to pay more of the down payment, to help ease the burden on us. He wasn't able to get in touch with his manager, though, so he asked if we would mind delaying the closing to Wednesday, to give him some time the next Monday to get those funds. That was fine with me, so the closing got rescheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

Now, the reason we had to schedule for Wednesday was that the attorneys mandated by the selling bank (who were, by the way, already more expensive than most attorneys, probably because the specialized in foreclosure properties) insisted that they needed 48 hours from the time they got the package from our bank until they could close. So, if they got the package Monday around noon, they could close Wednesday afternoon.

Over the weekend, I finally sat down and took a long look at our finances. This was, for me, one of the best things to come out of the weekend, because I have a better idea of where, exactly, I am financially than I have in the 5-6 months since I moved into the apartment. Not only that, but I have an idea, now, of where we're going financially, and how we can get there. Also, I discovered that, if we had to bring any money to closing at all (even if just paying a remainder of closing costs), we'd have to borrow it.

The next Monday, I hear back that our M.C. was about to get us an exception and we had the 100% loan again. The loan package was being processed, and we were waiting for a final word, but everything was looking good. Unfortunately, by Tuesday afternoon, the bank had not gotten the package to the attorneys; they would get it first thing Wednesday morning. With the 48 hours they had been telling us they needed, we wouldn't close until Friday, two days past the deadline. So, our M.C. got approval and told us that the bank would cover the $100/day, since it was the bank's mistake that caused all this in the first place.

The attorneys, however, responded by telling us they couldn't close until the next Monday. Suddenly, 48 hours had become 72 hours. Although our bank was already going to pay the per diem, this put us in a bind. Kristen's parents had already sold their house, and had moved out. They had left a few things behind for us, but we had to get the stuff out by that weekend. I really didn't want to have to rent a truck twice (once to move that stuff into storage, again to move into the house). So, we argued with the attorneys for a short while, but they wouldn't budge: we were closing on Monday.

After conceding that argument, our M.C. called the selling attorney to argue that the selling bank shouldn't charge us the per diem past Friday, since it was their attorneys that didn't want to close then. She called the selling bank, and then called back to let us know the selling bank had decided to forgive the per diem.

Also, we got the HUD from the attorneys Wednesday afternoon, I think, and after looking over it, and having both our M.C. and real estate agent go through it with us, it turns out that, rather than having to bring money to the table, we should be getting most of our earnest money back! This is great news, as it's money I wasn't expecting to have this month!

In addition, Kristen and I were both sick last week, and neither of us got any packing done, so we wouldn't have been ready to move last weekend, anyway.

In the end, I rented a smaller truck, and put the stuff from Kristen's parents' old house into a friend's garage for the week. Kristen got started packing stuff up yesterday, and has already gotten a lot done. I've still got my home office to pack, which will probably involve throwing lots of random stuff into boxes and not being about to find it for the next couple years.

We're closing this afternoon, and moving in this weekend. I had hoped to be moved into a new house before Easter, and we're going to be doing just that. I had figured on us cutting our finances really close this month, but it looks like we've gotten some help there, too. God-willing, this afternoon, we will become homeowners, and, according to the appraisal, we'll be starting out with a little bit of equity in the house. If all goes well, this Saturday's move will be our last for a long time. Glory to God.