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Pop the Champagne!


2010
04.15

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Posted in Buying a Home, Closing, Real Estate Agent, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Day 12 -

 

We are now the proud owners of a home!

 

Closing today was pretty uneventful. We did our good cop/bad cop routine, made sure transfer taxes were split 50/50, and that we weren’t paying for homeowners insurance through escrow, and tried to combat the incredibly high property taxes (we will have to go to the mattresses with the county on this one). All in all, not too shabby. And it’s over! YES!

 

The interesting part of the day was the final walk-through. Now, I mentioned how we found in the contract that the seller had to fix all prior termite damage. Well, I was thinking it was a few baseboards and maybe a square foot of drywall. What awaited us in the basement was surely not that. These people had to replace two whole walls! Like 8 sheets of drywall, insulation and framing. The contractor took photos of the termite damage as they were doing demo, and then more demo, and more… These little critters were not just a colony of termites out for a picnic. Oh, no, this was a whole country of termites feasting on Christmas Dinner (the whole 12 days of Christmas and New Years too). I could not believe these pictures. But… (happy sigh) It’s all fixed! Thank God! Just imagine if we had not read the contract through and not insisted on having that repaired. It was only a matter of time before those basement walls crumbled and took the rest of the house with them. And we would never have known the extent of the damage had the sellers not refused to remediate the mold and radon! Oh ho ho, I’m glad they were stubborn. Just desserts indeed!

 

As we close this chapter of our adventures in real estate I’d like to give a couple of shout outs. Thank you Ann for the wine, the advice, answering all our questions and helping us keep our sense of humor! You rock! And special thanks to Roxie, our fantastic real estate agent, for the sweet gift, for thinking of the kids and for being there for us throughout this incredible journey. We found ourselves the best agent around! Couldn’t imagine this adventure without you! Hope we will be remembered in your future endeavors as the fun and… not too demanding… clients who made you laugh along the way. ;)

 

Oh, but my friends… for you, it’s not over. We are now remodeling a house! Stay tuned!

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Locking In


2010
04.04

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Day 1 - This being Easter (and Happy Easter Everyone) it is a time for new beginnings & rebirth, so my count down changes. Day 1 of my families new adventure into a new home.

 

Locking in, gambling the monthly payment away… Oh, the fun never ends.

 

Once we were under contract with our “house-with-the-view” we received a estimated settlement sheet from our mortgage broker. To my amazement and glee right there written at the bottom was printed our projected monthly payment. It was… Beautiful. Less than I was expecting. I was very happy. This whole move seems to be working. We are going to have less of an outlay and actually save money! The quoted interest rate was 4.875%. Pretty damn good. I was happy. So I tucked that thought into the “happy place” in the back of my mind where I tend to venture when I’m feeling down. Since then my brain has been occupied by moving, inspections, contractors estimates and work…

 

Drawing closer to settlement means the beginning of lots of papers to sign with the mortgage company. Things that have to do with our identity, social security numbers, blah, blah, blah. These were all signed in the middle of the moving process (not kidding, I believe I signed them on the floor because the table was in a POD somewhere). I actually can’t really remember what they were regarding, but I remember reading them and them making sense.

 

I’m not sure how we got here, but all of a sudden we couldn’t get the 4.875% interest rate anymore. But that’s what was on the estimated settlement sheet. Doesn’t that mean that’s our rate? No, you have to officially “Lock-in” But I thought we had. I’m confused. It was right there in print. OK, so I didn’t actually say the words “Lock me in” out loud, apparently you need to do that. Oh, the rules… Ok, so where do we stand today? Well, we could still get that rate if we take a point. A point, what’s a point? Apparently it’s 1% of the loan amount. 1.5 points… 1.5% of the loan amount and so on. And it’s not like you can wrap that into the loan amount, you have to pay cash up front. AARRGHH! There goes my renovation budget.

 

Well, what should we do? Now that the rate has gone up? Lock in at 5% or take the point. I don’t know, let’s think about it and get back to the broker tomorrow. Oh, my friends… you can’t do that. The next day the rates and point spread went up. What? Point spread? When did I wake up in Vegas? Ok, so we could do 5.125% or 5% with .675 points, or 4.875% with 1.5 points. The whole thing makes me dizzy and my dream monthly payment keeps rising. Should we gamble and “let it ride?” (Vegas again) hoping the rates fall? Well, we did. Wrong choice… The next day, even worse. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? What happened to 4.875% with no points that we had a few weeks ago? That’s what I had always believed was ours. Why can’t it be?

 

Oh, let’s just lock-in and get it over with. The longer we compare and discuss it just keeps getting worse. Oh, anger was brewing in my soul. As you can see, I’m still not over it… So, in the end we put it to rest. We got 5% and 1.75 points. Wow, I feel like money is just disappearing. This raises my dream monthly payment by about $30 per month. And forking out the “points” is killing my future hardwood floors. Oh the humanity! Not quite sure I understand why we were so screwed. Guess, that’s just the way the world works. But, in the end… the next day it all went up again. So we locked in at the right time… two weeks too late. :(

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Congratulations. You Are Now Officially Homeless


2010
03.30

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Posted in Closing, Headaches of Selling Your Home, Moving, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Day 92 - A bit behind due to lack of internet.

 

Day 88 -

 

I have never been so tired in my life. Two days of moving has turned into four with an additional two days of clean-up. When did I accumulate so much stuff? It just kept multiplying. It seemed every time we took a box out of the house there were two more in its place. The movers were even baffled. They couldn’t believe they underestimated our move by so much. Apparently, that’s never happened to them before. They have only ever underestimated by an hour in the past. Guess we were too much for them.

 

So, here I sit at my in-laws typing my blog that I can’t post because we haven’t had the time to figure out the internet connection. But we are comfortable here amongst our boxes and are grateful for that. I have to head back to the house today to finish sanding the map wall, clean the kitchen, the basement and grab the remaining things in the house and in the yard. Yesterday, at the end of the day, I was so tired I actually taped shut an empty box and asked my husband to carry it to the truck for me. Once he picked it up, it was so light he almost flung it across the room. I was so embarrassed. I crawled inside it and tried to shut out the world. The streams of light that flowed in were actually quite beautiful… but anyway…

 

It looks like the closing is on for tomorrow at 10 am. Right after the 9 am walk-through. Guess they are going to buy it after all. We have the final signed addendum in our hands. They did ask if we could call the home warranty folks about the sump pump. Had to laugh at that one… ahh, no. It’s going to be your house in a day, you call! I have a feeling three months down the road they will be asking my husband to make the appointment to open the pool for them. Do these people know how to do anything themselves? I could have sworn they were in their 30’s, not their teens.

 

 

Day 91 -

 

Congratulations family! We are now officially homeless. We closed on the house yesterday and I have to say, I feel relieved.

 

The whole closing process made for an interesting learning experience… Life has them waiting around every corner. You see, we received the estimated settlement sheet a few days before, and I immediately took a look at the bottom line… Wouldn’t you? I wanted to see what kind of money I was getting out of this house, our down payment on the next one was depending on it. To my utter shock and awe, (seriously I think I actually dropped to my knees), it said we were only getting $18,000. What? Are you serious? You’ve got to be kidding me! I quickly picked up my cell phone and called my husband who was at Home Depot getting another pad lock for the fourth POD we needed to order at the last minute. I was practically in tears, ok… I’ll fess up. I was completely exhausted, my defenses were down and I WAS in tears. I expressed my concerns to my husband through my hyperventilated mumbles and he called Roxie, our agent, to investigate while I tried to calm down in a much needed hot shower.

 

After calming down, I took it upon myself to find out what the hell was going on. Closing costs, they call them. More like, lets-see-how-much-we-can-rip-you-off-costs. Well, if you’re not careful you will end up paying much more than you bargained for, and NO ONE is going to help you or tell you different unless, YOU call them on it. For starters, “$350 for Water Escrow”… Water escrow? How can there be a water escrow… we have a well not public water! The brokers fees I figured were set at 9% instead of 5%. Wow, now this is the buyers agent putting this all together with the title company. Nine percent? Glad I didn’t hire him. We were paying upwards of $500.00 to the title company for “document preparation”. Again, why should I pay someone I didn’t hire. It also states in the contract of sale, (yes, I read it!) that the buyers are responsible for all fees associated with the title work. The contract also states we would split the transfer taxes 50/50. Well, looking at this statement it seems a bit unbalanced. More like 70/30. It took a few back and forths to try to straighten this out, yet still, it was slightly wrong at the closing table. I have to say, I’m damn proud of myself for sticking to my moral high road here and making sure I wasn’t ripped off. It was a double team for the books. My husband drew the agents and buyers attention away and I stuck it to Mr. Title Company.

 

We ended up walking away with $24,000.00 extra dollars than they wanted to give us. Can you imagine if I didn’t take a stand? Makes me wonder if the buyers didn’t get ripped off too. They just sat there and nodded as Mr. Title explained, all to quickly, every charge. How much money do you think agents and title companies make unethically every year? Well, when I buy the next house, I’m going through that settlement sheet with a fine tooth comb. No more Mr. Nice Guy! And you know what… It feels good!

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Things To Do Today


2010
03.03

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1. Get up
2. Survive
3. Go back to bed.

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Bring on the Inspections


2010
02.05

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Posted in Home Inspection, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Day 39 – 52 to go.

 

When you sell your home the buyers expect various inspections to take place. The other day we had the Pest Inspection. This didn’t take too long at all. The guy was here maybe 40 minutes to an hour and the results are in… They are recommending that some repair be done to some wood due to previous termite damage. This is the same report we got when we purchased this house only we decided not to fix the ‘previous termite damage’. And if I’m not mistaken, the house is still standing. Our agent is sure that the home inspector will also bring it up when he is here on Tuesday. It might be something that the buyers will recommend a contractor fix. Hmmm, wonder how much that will cost. But the bottom line… NO PESTS, unless you count my dog, who proceeded to jump all over the inspector.

 

The well inspection was today. This took much longer. The inspector ran a hose outside for what he said could take 3-6 hrs. (ice rink anyone?) and we shouldn’t use the water during that time. Not use the water!? Was he kidding!?! Our kids are home from school (snow day) and no water for 6 hrs? Is he crazy? Well… we survived (and cheated a few times), in the end it only took about 3 hrs, not 6. We did find out our gallons per minute which is over 10! Not too shabby! He took some water back to the lab to be tested. Still waiting to see if we have been slowly poisoning ourselves to death.

 

Home inspection takes place this Tuesday. Think I’ll try for a mark of 10 on the cleanliness scale. Wait, what?.. That’s not part of the Home Inspection? Well, don’t tell my kids that… I’m making them clean their rooms.

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Searching for a New Home – Part Two


2010
02.03

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Day 37 – Looking high, looking low

 

Roxie took us house hunting again today. We saw a total of 5 houses… All a big NO!

 

The first one, based on the on-line photos, was up there on my list. The location was nice. Convenient to almost everything. The house… was a dump. In my mind it qualify as a tear down. Oh it would need A LOT of work. The owner… was home. He let us in then proceeded to his bedroom where he reclined on his unmade bed with his dog and lifesized, stuffed black panther while watching an old episode of Star Trek. It was very uncomfortable checking out the master bedroom with him lounging there. I didn’t really get a good look at him or the bedroom I think my eyes were on automatic shielding. This place needed more work than I or anyone should be willing to deal with. We left, politely not saying a word til we were in the car.

 

The second house was out in the boonies. I like the boonies, and the boonies in Maryland are… beautiful. I would love to live out there if the house was just right. This home was completely redone, and redone nicely. Outdoor deck and all. I just didn’t think I could fit my family of four in there… small. Again, on-line photos, very deceiving.

 

The third house was centrally located and had a pool. I was hopeful. As we pulled into the driveway I immediately noticed that we could never fit two cars in there, let alone Roxie’s SUV. Which I felt was hanging out into the street. The entire lot (house, pool, yard and all) would currently fit into my kitchen. Nope, movin’ on.

 

The fourth house we had been eyeing for a while. It’s in a great area. Nice piece of land. But, now I know why it’s still on the market. Old, downtrodden, down on its luck. Exhausted and dishearten we soldiered on.

 

The fifth home I have been looking forward to viewing. It’s victorian, in a historic neighborhood, has a pool and close to everything. It was totally cute! I felt like I was in this charming little town (Alfred, NY) close to where I grew up. I was swimming in nostalgia. Adorable! If I only lived alone. It… was smaller than all the rest.

 

When we got home I began slipping into a depression. None of those houses we saw today would work for us. There isn’t much more out there in our price range. Sure, there are a couple in Baltimore City that are on my list. But we really don’t want to move back into the city. This sucks! In two days I went from excited and having fun, to adjusting to our approaching grim fate. On the bright side is still the foreclosure house. It’s looking better all the time.

 

Well, we are hitting the pavement again tomorow. Buying a home in Baltimore is becoming a challenge. Maybe Roxie will find us something that can turn my frown upside down.

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I’m Exhausted.


2010
01.21

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Day 25 – And all is quiet… finally.

 

Yesterday was a busy day. Two showings, work on the house, work in general. Kids afterschool activities. I’m quite tired today. Anyway, the first couple who showed up immediately went to see the bedrooms then… immediately left. What’s with that? Guess our rooms were “too small” for them.

 

The second showing of the day was a woman who came the day before with the “Bowtie” Agent, only this time he was wearing a regular tie (great orange color), I’m starting to dig his style. This time the client brought her husband. They were here for about 40 min. Looked at every nook and cranny. They are interested! But no offer yet… they would like the weekend to think it over. Good sign… I think. Hopefully nothing sways them differently over the weekend. So, cross your fingers!

 

But don’t forget… we also have a “second” showing this Sunday at 6:00 pm. Cross your toes! I’m going to have to clean again, you should see my kitchen already. What a mess!

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Preparing Your House For Sale


2010
01.16

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Day 20 – It looks like the “out of towners” aren’t coming. But we have a new showing Sunday morning.

 

I consider myself a clean person. Make my bed everyday, do the dishes when they are in the sink, the laundry 2-3 times per week and I can’t stand it when my kids eat something sticky and the left over sludge is on the counter for more than 5 minutes. But I am not compulsive. I should say I WAS not compulsive. But now, having your house on the market with potential buyers coming within an hour’s notice makes you COMPULSIVE!

 

When we were getting our home ready to go on the market, I took a look around, walked from room to room, took a tour of the yard. I could not believe it! We were residing like white-trash squirrels! There was shit everywhere!

 

The laundry, although clean, was stacked in our rooms waiting to be folded. I could not walk through my daughter’s room without crushing something she loved. My son’s hockey equipment was sprawled all over what you would normally consider a living room. And I couldn’t remember the last time I saw the top of my dining room table.

 

But the yard… oh my, the yard… pool equipment, floaties, a broken kiddy pool,  over-grown vegetable garden with a destroyed fence, dog toys, balls, bats, hockey sticks, dolls, random pieces of lumber, firewood, weeds, leaves, shoes, overstuffed gutters, bikes, shovels, piles of potting soil and unused mulch, empty bird feeders on the ground, down branches, and oh-my-God, we never got rid of that old fridge that broke 2 years ago? Who are we?

 

The state of the house itself… not so bad. A few dabs of paint here, a missing switch plate there. We just need to pick up our crap and “declutter” (a real estate term defined as: You Have Too Much Shit and Shit Doesn’t Sell Houses)

 

When we sold the “Cute Little House” we rented a POD which sat in our driveway til we moved. We spent over $500 on that damn POD and there are still boxes from it I have yet to open and unpack. Not again! I love that our current house is so big. It has so much storage. (I will miss that) There are cupboards in this house I have never opened. So, no need for an ugly POD to add to our over-populated junky lawn, no sir, I have storage!

 

The only problem now, that my house is organized and clean, is keeping it that way. I am constantly cleaning and picking up after my family. The dishes don’t sit in the sink, the floor is always swept, the recycling actually goes somewhere, and the laundry is folded and put away after it’s washed. Every pillow has it’s place. I have become COMPULSIVE!… and exhausted. Trying to keep a house spic-and-span with kids is the ultimate challenge… It is so hard to get the concept of tidiness across to a 7 yr. old. She just doesn’t get it. The older one,  not so bad, but I still feel like I’m following him around the house and picking up the socks he has dropped or the books he left out (OK, video games, but a Mom can dream). Please guys, help your Mom keep the house clean! When they come home from school after I’ve picked up all day I’d say, “OK kids, we have people coming to see the house on Saturday, so please… no messes.” — They are starting to mock me.

 

As I’m typing this my daughter just ran through the house with muddy shoes. AARRGGHH!

 

It is the last minute cleaning before a potential buyer comes that I despise. And cleaning the bathrooms is the worst! The toilets, the “oops I missed” floors, the kids names written in soap scum on the shower doors, spilled bottles of shampoo, toilet paper strewn throughout the room, chunks of soap in the tub, scrubbing toothpaste off the bathroom counters, and they were only in there for 10 minutes! Can’t those kids get the toothpaste on the brush? Who the hell taught them cleanliness?.. Oh wait… that would be me…