We have moved... Can you hardly believe it?!?

Oh, what a rocky week! Phew... I am SOOOOO glad that this whole ordeal is over.

Here's how it went... On Tuesday night, we found out that our closing costs were going to be significantly lower than what was put forth on our good faith estimate just a couple of days before we were to close. Not that we were complaining, but it did make us go, "hmmmm???" Of course, the title company was waiting on the final approval from the lender Tuesday afternoon, and they didn't receive it. We were given the amount, but told to round up to 3K just to be on the safe side and we'd get a check back for the difference after closing. We scheduled to close first thing Wednesday morning, so we would be able to have funding take place on the same day and we could get the keys and move.

You might remember that Trey had just received his work schedule for the end of October through November, and found out that he only had off on the day we were to close, the next day and Nov. 3rd (his birthday). After that he wouldn't be off until December. Not exactly conducive to moving.

We got up on Wed. morning and were ready to race to the bank to get the cashier's check when I received a call from our realtor telling us that the title company says that the lender is refusing approval due to a problem with the closing costs, and it needed to be corrected. Trey called the lender and told them that the missing money was the amount of the full year of property taxes. He was hoping that by telling them what the deal was, they could resubmit, and we could still close the same day. Once the lender and the title company spoke, they decided to stick with the title company's assessment and they would fax final approval and we could close.

We ran to the car, drove to the bank, and got the bank check for 3k. We drove to the title company and actually closed at 10 am as planned. The only hiccup was that they were listing that the pest inspection still needed to be paid, but we had already done so when we had the home inspected, and provided the invoice. The amount was credited back to us at closing, and we received a check for almost $500 the next day.

Now, what about the move, you might ask? We had almost everything packed. I found a local moving and storage company in Athens that would pick up the stuff and deliver it to the new house and unload for $60 an hour. We had to great guys load us up and take everything to the new house. It was about $450 when all was said and done with a hefty tip included, and it was worth every penny. After getting the uhaul truck and having to do all the work ourselves and in the time that Trey had available while working around the kids, it would have been just way too crazy.

The week that followed was spent unpacking box after box. Trey replaced all the deadbolts throughout the house. He installed blinds in the all the windows. The day we closed, he spent about an hour and a half at Lowe's having them cut our blinds to fit.

Mom came down this past weekend, and we painted Kathryn's room pink just like she has always wanted to have done. We still have to find the perfect bedding for it, but she's just so ecstatic.

Jacob is going to have a cowboy room. We won't have to paint because it has a nice neutral tan color on the walls already, so it will all be in the accessories. ha ha.

I can't wait to do my room. I love love LOVE our master bathroom. They jacuzzi tub kept tripping the fuse, and the builder had the electrician come out and check it over. All it needed was a new fuse. We are having dishwasher issues, but that will be fixed shortly. I'm getting really sick of having to do all my dishes by hand. But it's worth it being able to live here. The house just feels like us.

Might we actually close tomorrow????

Our closing date last week came and went. We had the builder number in time. Found it on the list first thing Tuesday morning, but we found out the builder is just not that bright. Not sure if he's never sold a house before in his life, or what, but it was pretty ridiculous. The lender needed a copy of the floor plan of the house and the specs. By specs, it means a list of the items that are included in the house (IE... appliances, fixtures, etc) and the materials used for building the house. The dude sent a mission statement for his company. What the heck?!?

So, finally the underwriters decided to accept what he submitted. But, there was no way that we were going to close in time, so we had to file yet another amendment so that we could push our closing date back to October 22nd. We were told that we might be able to close before then, but we all knew that it was going to get pushed until the last possible minute.

Which brings us to now, and yes, once again, we are on the brink of closing, and there is no telling where we are at. We are hoping that we will close sometime tomorrow morning so funding will take place the same day and we'll be able to move in on Thursday. Our lender cleared us to close on Monday afternoon, the closing dept. should be sending all of our paperwork to the title company today (hopefully as I type this so that they can assemble the packet and get approval to close in time for us to be ready in the morning), and then we'll have the dollar amount so Trey can swing by the bank on the way home to have a bank check drafted for tomorrow.

In the meantime, I am packing. We are going to have to do this move really really fast. Try Thursday. Trey will have one day off next week, Tuesday, and that will be just enough to change over from working nights to days. He then won't have a day off until his birthday on Nov. 3rd, and that's the only day off he has off for the entire month of November. They are doing a huge maintenance overhaul at the power plant, and he'll be working 84 hours of week. That's 12 hours a day with no days off. Not even Thanksgiving.

Mom and I got a good jump on our packing last week when she was down here. Kathryn and I will be working on some this afternoon, and I imagine mom and I will finish up pretty quick when she gets here. We're excited, but for some reason whenever we move it's always unclear up until the last possible second. A pain, but not much else we can do about it. We are the ones that are held in limbo.

Back to stuffing junk in boxes... Will update when I know more. :)

No number yet

We've had some good news, some bad news, but all around, it's just more of a matter of when kind of thing...

As of my last posting, we found out that the builder needed a special number. The forms have been faxed, and as of Friday, the va office couldn't find them. So, Trey emailed them in hopes of getting this whole thing expedited. Of course, today is Columbus Day, aka Federal Holiday, which means that the earliest we might be able to get the number is on Tuesday. Yes, the day before closing is supposed to happen.

We did receive some good news on Thursday though. Aside from this pesky number business, we did find out that all of our underwriting has taken place and we are in the clear on our end. The builder did have to provide some additional information though. He had to provide the one year and 10 year warranty info, and the plans and specs for the house itself. According to our realtor, he has done that and all that is left would be that number.

We went out to Aledo to visit Trey parents on Saturday. Trey and Kathryn went with Carl, Brian, and his friend Jason to the air show. Jacob and I stayed at the house and hung out with Ave, Michelle, and Leiland. We went home after dinner and go home around 9:30. The kiddos fell asleep in the car, and then we crashed. It was a quick trip. Carl's birthday is today, so we did the cake thing out there on Saturday.

Trey is back to work this morning, and mom is on her way out for the week. She's going to take care of the kids when we go to closing. She'll be helping us pack too. Kathryn goes with Carl and Ave on Friday for the weekend. Carl has a company picnic and she'll have a blast.

The uhaul has been reserved, for Friday so we can get a jump on loading, we'll move it on Saturday. That is if we ever close. ha ha... It's going to happen this week sometime, we just don't know when. It's always fun flying by the seat of your pants. :) Wheeeeeeee!

A Snag...

Well, just when you think everything is all set, here comes the snag. Apparently, our seller needs to have a va id number. Who knew? Certainly not us. You'd think that the lender would have anticipated this for us, or knew what to do about it, but right now we are in a bit of limbo.

After doing some research online, it looks like the seller has 3 forms that he has to sign and submit to the va regional office. They will then issue him a number (who knows how long that takes) and then the underwriting can be finished.

I called our realtor this morning and let him know what we needed, and he is going to speak with the seller's agent and see what needs to be done. I've found all the forms that need be to submitted to the va so that they can generate him a number. I'm hoping if I get our realtor on it already, maybe we can get the ball rolling a bit faster.

Hopefully this will all work out, and we'll get squared away in time to close. Holding my breath...

Inspection Done, Survey Check, On to Underwriting...

Phew, this has been an exciting week. Wednesday morning, the home inspection was done. There were a few things that needed to be fixed, but the house is in excellent shape. What you should expect from new construction. Our inspector was very impressed. He spent almost 4 hours looking over everything on a 1500 sq ft house. Trey showed up 15 minutes before the appointment, and found that the inspector was already up finishing up his inspection of the roof.

So, what was wrong with the house??? Like I said, not much. There were 2 nails on the roof that need to be pulled and the holes need to be caulked. The knob on the back door needs to be replaced. You can deadbolt it, but the door does not latch otherwise. There was a part of the stonework on the front of the house near the garage where something hit it, and it was starting to crumble a bit. Nothing major in the way of structure problems, but it was a cosmetic issue that should be taken care of. And lastly, we asked that the builder improve the drainage around the foundation of the house. Not that there has been a problem or will ever be a problem, but it's much better to be proactive on this. We knew that would come up anyway, and that's why we had it in the initial contract of the house purchase. Our realtor filed an amendment to the contract asking these things to be fixed, and the seller agreed. Trey and I told our realtor that if the seller tried to fight us on it, that he should be reminded that he will be receiving $1000 over his asking price, so he a few bucks on caulk that he probably has lying around one of his other building sites shouldn't be a problem. ha ha

Next thing that came up was that the lender didn't get the survey yet. We were told that one was ordered, but it looks as if the ball was dropped. So, Trey call several different companies locally and found one for a little over $400 instead of the $600 every other place quoted. That was supposed to happen in 3 days, but it's already been done as of this afternoon. They will just tack that cost on to the closing, and it's already included in our good faith estimate, so no worries.
According to our loan officer, now that that is done, she can submit all the paperwork for underwriting and we'll be set to close on time. T minus 11 days and counting...

Feel free to check out all the new pics. There are a lot of pics that Trey took, and a ton from the inspector.

http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e255/ruhruh1979/Flagship/

The Appraisal is In!

Things seem to keep falling into place. We found out yesterday that our va appraisal did occur on Saturday. The house appraised for 2k more than our sales price. As you can imagine, we are very pleased. That is just one less issue that we have to deal with, so we are excited.

Trey will be at the house tomorrow morning so he can be present at the home inspection. This is the last major thing that has to take place and then we just have to wait for the loan officer to finish all the underwriting and we'll be on our way to closing on time. (Supposedly ha ha).

The lady that handles our loan has been going a bit wiggy over the money issue, because we have to prove how every dime gets into the bank account. I can't deposit a penny I find on the street without some form of documentation verifying it. Trey gets his gi bill money and they don't exactly send statements or anything, you just go on the computer and print it out, and they are having issues understanding that. I believe it's just because everything is on-line now instead of through mailed documents that they are having problems proving authenticity on things now. That's not our fault, that is just certain things lagging in the change of technologies.

We have been very pleased that ultimately this has been a very easy process. Just a few months ago we bought an all in one printer that has a scanner, and it has made our lives so easy in submitting documents. We just print out the bank statements, paycheck stubs, etc, scan them in and attach to emails and they have everything. Gone are the days of messing with a fax machine and hoping everything makes it. My mom was telling me about when my parents bought their first house how you had to mail everything back and forth. It was always one paper at a time and everything had to be notarized and waited on. It was crazy.

So, while we work to get this whole thing squared away, we are relieved that we still have plenty of time to get whatever might be needed, and that it has been relatively painless up until this point.

Just a couple of things...

The VA appraisal took place yesterday. We should know whether we are green lighted sometime on Monday. It will be close. We're hoping that since it's been taxed for more than what we are paying for it, that it will appraise for at least that.

Should the appraisal fall short, we do have a few options. 1.) Walk away 2.) Renegotiate the contract so the cost of the house meets the appraisal amount. 3.) Pay the difference of what the house appraises at and the amount we offered. If it's within a few hundred dollars or so, I imagine that we will just pay the difference. We already know that the seller is not going to drop the house price, although we do have about $1000 we can negotiate on, but no guarantees.

In the meantime, last night I scheduled the home inspection for Wednesday morning at 9. We don't anticipate any major problems. The only thing that Trey and I remember being a possibility is the front door needing to be replaced. It has some damage like someone tried to break into it since it's been empty. Usually they don't put appliances in a house until right before the house is closed on for that very reason, but they are already in there.

As of Friday, we satisfied the financial criteria that was placed on us for the loan approval. After this week, we stay in a holding pattern and wait until closing. Trey has a friend from work who will be letting us use his 30 ft trailer so we don't even have to get a moving truck this time. He's going to drop it off after we close and we can load it at our pace, and he'll pick it up and drive it to the new house so we can unload it. Can't get much easier than that.

I spent last night going through my closet. I have a huge black garbage bag that is going to be finding it's way to the Goodwill down the road. As for Jacob's and Kathryn's clothes, I'm going to put them up on craigslist and see if I get any takers. Might as well try to get some money for it, plus a lot of Jakey's stuff is from last winter. Perfect time to sell it. If not, off to Goodwill they go. I'm trying to go through a room a day if possible. It's a bit difficult when you have a Jakey attached to your leg undoing everything as you do it. He is quite the "helper" when clothes or dishes are involved.

It's been dicey, but we're still on track...

There have been several highs and lows over this whole home buying thing. Phew... I don't know if I ever want to buy one again. I have always read that buying a home is one of the most stressful things that you can do in your life, and at this point, I believe that Trey and I would both agree. It's a lot of time spent wringing your hands together and waiting for whatever is next to hit the fan. Let us not forget that we have decided to buy a house at what might be the absolute worst time in the world to do so.

It all started with us not being able to get a hold of our lender for over a week. The person handling our loan is receiving medical treatment for cancer, so he tends to be out of the office quite frequently. (While we are very sympathetic, it makes us wonder how in the world we wound up with this one. When we tried buying a house in New Mexico last year, we could never get our lender on the phone then either) Our realtor started going nuts, since he wasn't able to get information either.

Then Trey got a call last Thursday. Dum dum dum dum... We had to have almost $6000 by closing. Of course, Trey didn't get the call because he was working, so he was greeted by that on his voice mail. Talk about making you freak out. He spent all day Friday trying to get a hold of our lender to see a break down on the cost etc, but of course, no answer. Then we started thinking well that was the amt that we were looking at before we bought the house, and they must not be factoring in the $3000 we added to the sale price of the house to have the seller cover that amt in closing costs. We took a deep breath, believed all would be fine, especially since the gi bill was kicking in and we were owed some back payments.

Trey was off on Monday, and finally... he reached our lender. Of course, it was after we got yet another panicked call from our realtor wanting us to consider changing lenders before it was too late. Hey, the market is bad, and he wants his commission. He gets nothing if we don't close on the house. Fortunately, that's not our problem.

The VA appraisal money was taken, and we found out that our closing cost doubled. Holy cow! Our closing costs are up to 12k at this point. Some of it will roll into the loan, the seller will pay $3k of it, so we are responsible for about $5800 by closing aka October 15th. Deal off man... That's insane. I know that th market is going nuts, but how do closing cost completely double in barely 2 weeks?

After taking a long hard look at our finances, and knowing all the gi bill payments that are due to come in and all the overtime that Trey has been working, it looks do-able. Not only that, but after doing some careful studying of the good faith estimate, we noticed that they were still overestimating our insurance and taxes. Oh, I forgot to mention, that if you are smart, you won't buy a house with a va loan in October. Just about any other month, if you buy a house, you are only responsible for having to pay 3 months of taxes and insurance for closing. Nope, not us, we are special. We have to pay the full year's insurance premium and also 13 months of taxes up front. Yup, so that's what added the extra 4k to our closing costs. Shame that they couldn't tell us that ahead of time. After Trey and I made the adjustments since we know what it all is really going to cost, we should close at about $4800 instead. Keeping our fingers crossed.

But, all is good. The VA appraisal is supposed to have happened some time this week. It may have already happened, or could be happening as I type this. After this is done, then we can have the home inspected and have it pest inspected as well. We'll want to schedule that next week when Trey is off. He won't want to miss that one. I want to go back through and get some more pics of the place and take some window measurements, etc. That way I can start figuring out the prices of the blinds, etc. Start making plans for curtains, you all know what I'm like... ha ha...

So, we are still good. Trey is working as much overtime as he can get his hands on. He's amazing. He has to work nights all this weekend, and so he stayed up all night last night so that he could sleep all day today to be ready for the change in work schedule... He received a phone call this morning around 8 and asked him to come in and work all day long. Fortunately, it's his short night anyway, so he was only going to have to work from 4 till 8 tonight, but the poor guy still has to stay up all night and so he can work his 12 hour work shift Friday night/Saturday morning. He's doing whatever he can to pad the bank account so we'll satisfy all the criteria before closing. OH, and the good news... I finally unearthed the 401k statement that they were wanting. While that may not sound like a huge victory, if you could see Trey's desk, you'd understand what an undertaking it indeed was.

20 days until closing... So close, yet so far away...

Another Day Closer

Most would get a kick outta this, so I have to share. Trey called our insurance company to check out rates for insuring the new house. We were estimating about $1800 after finding out that TX is the most expensive state to insure a house. Who knew? Well, that was the avg price for TX residents to pay. Better to overestimate than underestimate.

Anyway... Trey called and was told that they weren't giving any quotes or writing any policies for our area. When Trey asked why was that he was told that there was this pesky little thing called a hurricane coming for our area. ha ha... Good point, that didn't even cross our minds even though we knew that the hurricane was going to hit at about a category 1 for us on Saturday afternoon. So, he was told to call back on Monday or Tuesday. Duh for us.

Later that evening, I was talking to my dad and he recommended a different insurance company. Not because what we were told was wrong, but he found a place when he first bought his new house a few years ago that gave him a great deal, and since our cars are only on liability insurace that we wouldn't get any price package breaks anyway by using our same carrier. Of course, it was after office hours and we were coming on the weekend, so we had to wait until Monday.

Friday night I went to Wal-Mart because Trey wanted some ice cream. You would not believe how packed the store was. There was not a loaf of bread, a bag of chips, a jar of peanut butter, or a can/bottle of soda to be bought. People were grabbing clothes off the racks without looking at them and just shoving them into their carts. Many of the evacuating people from Houston and Galveston came up here and to Tyler to wait out Ike. I grabbed the last can of formula for Jacob because I only had enough to last until Sunday morning, and who knows if they'd have it re-stocked by then.

Saturday morning blew in with a strong and steady breeze. Rain started falling and didn't stop until the middle of the night. Lots of small tree limbs and even some larger ones littered the street. The neighbor across the street came home from work to find his "redneck carports" mangled over his cars. (He has a couple of those canvas gazebos in his front yard that he uses to cover his cars) One was even up on the roof. Rain came down in buckets with no slowing and the wind just kept picking up and the gusts were getting pretty strong as well.

Sunday afternoon, we drove by the house that we are hoping to buy to check and see how the drainage did from all the rain. This house is positioned lower than the road, and we wanted to see that the water didn't just pool around the foundation of the house. That's a big no-no when it comes to a va loan and we had written into the contract that we wanted swells cut near the driveway to make sure that doesn't happen as it is. The house was fine. Trey and Kathryn walked around the back of the house to check things out while I sat in the car with Jakey and all of a sudden I see the garage door opening. Out comes Trey and Kathryn.

Apparently, the backdoor was left wide open. Either because of a contractor that was working on the house, or possibly the wind might have made it open after all the wind from the storm. But regardless, it had opened and they were able to get in. I told Trey to hurry up and close it and get back in the car before a neighbor decided to call the cops since that house had been vacant for over a year. Just what you want to see, strange car in the driveway and the garage door wide open.

We then went Lowe's which is about a mile and a half from the house to price blinds. We picked out the ones that we are going to want and are happy to find out that we will be able to do all the windows in the house for less than $600. And not the cheap aluminium blinds that you get at Wal-Mart. The nice bamboo ones that really look nice. Trey wants the wood ones, and I like the white ones, but I'm caving. They will look nice.

We also went and priced some of the upgrades that were already in the house, and we are getting a great deal. Just to change out a regular front door and get the nice one that comes with this house it would be almost a grand. A chunk of change you don't want to have to shell out later.

Which brings us to Monday. Trey went back to work on days this week. He'll have 6 days off after this work week. He called the insurance company my dad recommended. My dad told us that we would probably get a policy at about $1000 a year. Much cheaper than we were estimating as I mentioned earlier in this post. Trey called to tell me it's even better than that. It's less than $600 a year. Of course, size of house factors in and the fact that it is brand new. Oh, and it's technically in the sticks.

Trey also shelled out the $425 for the va appraisal. Yet another necessary expense to put us on the path to home ownership. Once that is set up, and if it appraises for at least what we are to pay for it, then we can set up the home inspection and termite inspection. And yes, we have to pay for that as well. At least another $500that will fly outta the bank account.

We are inching closer and closer each day. It still feels like forever from now. Not to mention the fact that we know that this can be snatched from us at any time. Especially with how volatile the market is behaving right now. The only thing that seems to be going well is the va loans, and this is our one way to get in a house. We just hope that everything holds on until we sign the papers. We are excited, but refuse to get attached after our disappointed attempt at this the last time. Cautiously optimistic.

Offer Made, Declined, Countered, Accepted

We've done it. We have succeeded in finding a house that both Trey and I agree on. Never thought it could happen. Trey with his huge requirements, meaning that there are 4 walls a roof that doesn't leak most of the time, and mine with the house being something that meets our family's needs. What can I say, I'm crazy like that. ha ha

I kid you not when I say that we have looked at every available house in our price range in Athens and the surrounding areas and nothing was promising. Finally, after lowering our sq. ft requirement, we found a newer development in Gun Barrel City that has houses that were built in the last 2 years or so, and have been done very nicely.

So, on Monday afternoon, we traveled out to Gun Barrel and went in 3 houses in this development. The first one was nice, but needed some work, the second was awesome, and just a bit more that we wanted to spend. The third was the cheapest and brand new just like the second, but they made some unfortunate choices in tile color for the floor, and that would take some undoing.

Sooooo... after seeing the disappointing 3rd house, we decided that we would choose door #2. We went straight from the house back to our realtor's office to put in the offer. After looking at price comparisons and considering that state of the housing market, we put in an offer that was nicely in the middle of what the others were going for and the asking price. We left the office cautiously optimistic for several reasons. While we knew that our first offer would not be accepted we were happy that we found something that was in a nice and livable condition. It had everything we needed and even many things that we wanted. Definitely icing on the cake.

Early Tuesday morning, our offer was declined and we were told that the seller/builder would lower the cost $500. Whoop-dee-doo... ha ha... And despite the seller saying that they would take a VA loan which requires that seller to pay the closing costs, he would not do this, and we would have to tack them on to the asking price of the house. Bummer...

After talking with our lender, we knew that we could afford it, but did we really want to do this. Well, as of noon we did not, and decided to put an offer in for the first house we saw instead. Yes, the one that needed a good scrubbing. Trey and I spent a good part of the afternoon crunching the numbers to find a way that we could make all of this work out to our advantage.

At four, we showed up, kids in tow, to the realtor's office once again. Can you say deja vu? Well, it was definitely that. We were met with the realtor telling us that he had just spoken to the realtor of the house we were going to put an offer into and that they had just received a contract on it, and we were back to the drawing board. We were making plans to go out on the hunt again and see the last couple of houses in the neighborhood left for Sunday afternoon. After talking about the other prospects, Trey and I both decided that we really wanted to house that we put the original offer on.

The house is worth the price that was being asked. It had everything that we would want to change in the other houses already done. We figured out that we were fighting with an extra $100 a month by giving the seller the price he wanted. We decided that we'd rather spend the extra $100 on the house we wanted than trying to fix a house over a long period of time to make it look like the house we really wanted in the first place.

We signed all of our amended paperwork for the contract and then drove the 5 minutes home to wait to hear back the next day. We weren't even home 10 minutes when the realtor called Trey to tell him that the seller accepted our offer. While we are happy, we are kicking ourselves just because only we could pay a seller more than his asking price in a buyers market. ha ha...

Now we wait. We have a VA appraisal to go through, various inspections, and we still have to get the financing to finish going through. We have been this far before. Last year we almost bought a house in New Mexico only to have the deal fall through the day of closing, because our lender couldn't get everything worked out despite assuring us for months that we were in good shape and we were ready to go. So, as I said before we are choosing to be cautiously optimistic. If all goes through as planned, we are to close around Wednesday, October 15th.


Here's the listing on the house, and be sure to check out the pics. I'll post more pics as we do inspections, etc.


QUALITY NEW CONSTRUCTION. THIS 3-2-2 BRICK & STONE HAS BEAUTIFUL TILE IN LIVING, KITCHEN, BATHS & UTILITY, BULLNOSE CORNERS, VAULTED CEILING, OPEN DESIGN, PRETTY KITCHEN W/CUSTOM CABINETS & STARION COUNTERTOPS, PANTRY, GORGEOUS MASTER BATH W/JACUZZI TUB & SEPARATE SHOWER, WALK-IN, 10 YEAR WARRANTY.

BubbleShare: Share photos - Create and Share Crafts