Updates

So, as I gently pointed out in the post below, we are now in escrow. Our awesome Realtor suggested we do our home inspection while we were still awaiting approval from the bank, just in case we were to find something that would be a major deal-breaker, we'd at least know sooner rather than be tied up in a dud house for what would possibly be more months. So we scheduled it for Tuesday, July 24, and it went really well! The inspector said we found ourselves a fantastic opportunity. Sure there are little things here and there (garbage disposal's broken, a door needs replacing, some wires need to be capped off), but there was nothing major to worry about. AND we were particularly stoked to hear that the roof was in great shape. Whew! That was the one thing we were concerned about.

We were totally not expecting to get word the next morning that we had bank approval and were starting escrow! A lot of happy dancing ensued around these parts. Escrow's been chugging right along, and we're now on day 20, so, anytime now, really, we're ready! We can't wait to get in there and start ripping the place apart. :-)

My parents have started their search now for a smaller place closer to us. There's a really nice community about 10 minutes (or 15 if my dad's driving - ha!) away that they really like, so hopefully they can find something there soon.

Aaaaahhhhh!!!

Blargetsagsriioxaiowaoihnfkaopzlapehtnaleigh!

That means today we're officially accepted and in escrow! More to follow...

No News Is Good News?

Wow, I can't believe it's been a month since we started this little blog chronicling our house-hunting/buying/renovating journey. Frankly it feels like it's been a year! The latest update is really a non-update. The bank conducted their BPO - Broker Price Opinion on the 20th of June. We haven't heard the results of it yet, and I'm not quite sure we even will, so we're just sitting tight waiting for the next step.

Here's where we're at, as a visual. I took this list from an article on About.com about short sales.

• Bank acknowledges receipt of the file. This can take 10 days to a month.
• A negotiator is assigned. This can take 30 to 60 days.(not sure if this has happened yet?)
• A BPO is ordered. The bank probably will refuse to share the results of the BPO.
• A second negotiator may be assigned. This can take another 30 days.
• The file is sent for review or to the PSA. This can take 2 weeks to 30 days.
• The bank may then request that all parties sign an Arm's-Length Affidavit.
• The bank issues a short sale approval letter.
• The buyer cancels. (haha! Unless some massive windfall is bestowed upon us, we are sticking this badboy OUT!)

So yep, a few more steps to wait on. No biggie... After some rough calculating of the fixes we need to make before we move in, we realized we should have about $12,000 extra set aside for some 'spenses such as wood flooring, retiling the main bathroom, removing the popcorn ceilings and painting. The fun stuff. We'll likely have to wait about a month before moving in so that we can actually get all that done too. We are so eager that it's pretty much all we ever talk about now, always.

Last Sunday we made our 3rd visit to the house so that my mom and Adam's grandpa and uncle could take a gander. Everyone was super positive, which got us all the more riled up about the place. We can't wait to get in there and really make it our own. (of course, if they called us today and said welcome to escrow, this place is yours in 30 days we'd be screwed since we wouldn't be able to do some of those fixes we are desperate for/need to do/just really really want, ok?) So keep on chugging along, little short sale, we have plenty of time (well, until the end of the year, then we'll really get antsy!).

Offer Accepted?

So after a month and a half of the grueling, nerve damaging, stomach aching, sleep reducing, awful house hunting process, we finally got an offer accepted!!!! It was house number three (is this not totally the show house hunters on HGTV?). We submitted the offer on a Wednesday and didn't hear back until the next Wednesday! And let me tell you the waiting process was nerve wrenching.

**time out**

Nerve wrenching, Adam? :-) Haven't heard that expression before! Anyway, since Adam has yet to finish up his post, I am totally butting in and finishing it for him since I am too excited for this to stay bottled inside much longer. I have to shout it from the rooftops (even though, really, no one is down there listening besides... well... us!).  I'll get back to that...

So we wrote our offer on the 30th, and man, did they keep us waiting! We were under the impression that you usually hear back within a couple of days, but apparently the sellers are getting a divorce so getting them together in one spot proved difficult for the listing agent (and perhaps helped us in the long run?). I really feel terrible that they're getting divorced, even though of course it isn't any of my business. Right in the entry way there are two pictures - one is of their wedding day, and the other must be more recent, since they look to be elderly. The nosy nelly that I am feels bad for them and wonders how people get divorced that late in life, especially after such a long marriage. Then again, who knows if the couple in those photographs was even them?! Maybe it's family. Or maybe they like old people? Maybe I'll just butt out...

Back to the waiting game. We knew they would be meeting on June 6 in the evening to "discuss" our offer. When we hadn't heard back by Thursday morning, we thought we were going to combust. But lo and behold, around lunch time our fabulous Realtor called Adam and said she had some great news for us. So Adam hung up on her.

Haha! Well, he hung up to try to call me and 3-way so that I could hear whatever the great news was at once with him, but he couldn't get his office phone to call, so he hung up on me (at my insistence!) to call her back. I sat there waiting for 10 minutes, nervously biting my lip in anticipation of whatever good news was coming. Did they just accept?! Did we get a counter? Gah!!

Yes, they countered. But not on price (whew!) but on terms. Instead of the 45 day escrow they wanted a 30 day, and they wanted to change possession from COE (close of escrow) to COE+1 day. And, I believe they didn't want to pay for the termite inspection. All those things were so not a big deal, so we happily signed away our acceptance!

We received word on Monday that the package has been submitted to the bank, so now we just wait on for the next dreaded step of the short sale process. We'd ideally LOVE for it to lag on until October. That gives us more time to save money for all the exciting changes we want to make to the house (wood floors, what!?). With the norm being anywhere from 3 months to a year, we're really not sure what to expect. A year just sounds like a depressingly long amount of time to wait, so hopefully it's more like the 4 months-ish ideal I've decided on in my head. We always tend to move around Halloween time, so it would totally make sense that it would happen that way now too, right?! Positive thinking, positive thinking...

Well here we are.

It's been 36 days since we've made our first offer on a home, and, well, it might as well have been 360 days. Or 360 months (aka the length of your run of the mill 30 year mortgage). Because this process feels like an eternity already, and we haven't even gotten anywhere close to an accepted offer. Or a counter offer. We're not really lowballing or anything. Inventory is just insanely low right now and it basically turned into a sellers' market the minute we decided to start "looking around". So we're 3 offers in (and counting I guess), and hopeful (ish). Let's chat about what we've offered on so far, shall we?

House #1 (aka our first love)
Short Sale $329,900
Stats: 3 bedrooms 2 baths
Single Story (attached on one side)
1600+ sq ft on a 9000+ sq ft lot (HUGE)

The house was a dream (seriously one of the biggest back yards we'd ever seen). It had been on the market for a long time and by the time we made our offer, the listing agent said he had 5 other offers already and some were all cash. And that they were waiting on the sellers to finalize their bankruptcy before proceeding. All fishy stuff, right? It was our first heartbreak, but we trudged on...

House #2 (pool party paradise)
Short Sale $319,000
Stats: 3 bedrooms 2 baths
Single Story (detached)
1196 sq ft on a 4660 sq ft lot (itty bitty!)

By this point we had seen many more homes, none in areas we really wanted to go with. Our area is rife with new construction 2 story boxes, but we really want the feel of our own detached space. A yard for our little girl to run wild in. A front door that we can paint red without a strict HOA to say no to us. We didn't love that there was a pool, and frankly it took up most of the back yard. But we missed out on a home in this area that was listed at 295k because it was super icky and we had just offered on our first love house so we didn't want to think about it. And we regretted it a bit because it is a very nice little area, so we decided to try for this one. The listing agent said they decided to go with another offer that had been waiting for the house (heh?). Onwards...

House #3 (the new dream)
Short Sale $319,900
Stats: 4 bedrooms, 2 baths
Single Story (detached)
1600+ sq ft on a 7100+ sq ft lot

Our latest conquest. *Sigh* We essentially moved ourselves right into this one as well. I begin redecorating in my mind for all of these. Adam picks out his dream power tools. We research wood flooring. And, as we offered on May 30, we continue to sit and wait for a response. Kind of a long wait, right? There are no other offers on this one, so what's the holdup?! They're probably trying to get a better offer. We'd at least appreciate a good ol' fashioned counter offer! Are we that undesirable?

When we began looking, we said we would be happy taking our time, and actually looked forward to getting a short sale or something that would close several months down the line, so we could continue to save up more money. But it feels like the tides are changing in this nook of So Cal... prices have started creeping up and we are terrified of being priced out of a home altogether. And did we mention that inventory is still REALLY low?


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