Archive for the ‘Headaches of Selling Your Home’ Category

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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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Stumbling Block


2010
03.24

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Posted in Contractor, Economy, Headaches of Selling Your Home, Moving | No Comments »

Day 86 - 5 days to go!

 

My house is almost empty. These movers are super efficient. We’ve used them before and just love these guys. They have one POD so neatly packed, to the top! They still need to attack the large pieces, bedroom furniture, couches, etc. Then, tomorrow, the home office.

 

As far as the sale of this house goes… Well, we’ve run into a few snags. Come on… Didn’t we all know there would be snags.

 

Two nights ago was our last night in the house. We were about to be celebrating with the tenderloins I had marinating in the fridge and the bottle of red just waiting to be uncorked. The next day would be filled with moving all the stuff we need to survive for a few months, the kids and the dog to the in-law’s. The movers were coming on wednesday (today) and we were suppose to be closing on monday. All was in the works.

 

Just before the steaks were to go on the grill we received word that out buyers aren’t happy with what we have done regarding the home inspection. Really? Hmmm. They wait til now to tell us this!?! We remediated the mold, we fixed the broken heat pump, we had the oil guy come and give recommendations on the oil that strangely appears on the wall by the oil tank, but they want more. There were a total of eleven issues they wanted us to address regarding the home inspection. I think they actually expected us to take care of each and every one! Who does that? But we did what we could afford, addressed all “health and safety” issues, and we’re done!

 

It seems their biggest issue is the subfloor in the master bedroom, it kind of bounces in one place when you walk over it. Now, I have ran on this floor, exercised on it, put furniture on it all with no problem, but they would like it fixed. I think it’s just not nailed down properly to the joist under the floor, or it has come unnailed over time. Either way, I say get out your own damn hammer and fix it.

 

Our biggest issue is the fact that we are planning on moving… like NOW! If these people decide they don’t want the house, well, hell… I don’t want to move in with the in-law’s. I… and I’m sure they, would rather us stay here. Plus we’ve already paid for the PODs that are in my driveway, a deposit on the movers, a mold inspection at the new house (that we won’t be buying if we can’t sell this one), and we have scheduled cancelations of BGE, the phone, DirecTv and the alarm company. We have even gone to the extremes of scheduling an installation of high speed internet at the in-law’s so we can work. Oh, my what a mess…

 

Wow! What a way to ruin a beautiful evening and dinner. So, we were thinking of calling their bluff. They must have movers lined up too, right? And really, I don’t think we are being unreasonable. We did the necessary fixes. Come on… Nothing is perfect. No, you get no more money from me! Buy it or don’t buy it, I just need to know ASAP! If they screw us my husband will not rest til someone pays for all the expenses we have accrued to be able to be out of here by closing. He basically told our agent to tell them they don’t know who they are fucking with, but I’m sure our Roxie would never use that kind of language with their agent.

 

In the end we caved, ever so slightly. We had our contractor come by and take a look, just to make sure we were right about the floor and the building won’t be caving in on the new residents. And he confirmed what we thought all along, a few screws and nails and we’d be all set. In any other situation, I’d grab the hammer myself, but, no, I’d have to have some kind of receipt that a licensed contract took care of it. So the guys are coming by on Thursday to screw my floor! So, I’m pissed that we caved and are forking out more money to sell this place. But the alternative scares the shit out of me, and that would be they hire some hard-up structural engineer who’s business has been really slow lately due to the economy and he recommends to them that they need a whole new floor system and support beams.

 

Well, my house is half empty and we still don’t know if we are solid and going through with the sale. God willing, signatures will come.

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The Appraiser’s Coming Today?


2010
02.08

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Posted in Appraisal, Headaches of Selling Your Home, Home Inspection | No Comments »

Day 42 – 49 to go.

 

“The Appraiser is Coming Today?” Are you kidding me!?! This is the message I received while biding my time with 30 other people in the waiting room of my pediatricians office. I knew the Home Inspection was tomorrow, and knew there would be an appointment with the Appraiser sometime in the future, but now?.. Today!?! In 3 hrs!?! The house is a complete disaster! We have been snowed in, the kids are home from school, my daughters bedroom has become her pull-everything-out-and-play-with-it-on-the-floor amusementzone, the dishes are piled high in the sink, mud and dirt from shoveling the driveway is sprawled across my kitchen floor along with every mitten, snowsuit, boot and hat we own. AARRGGHH! I’ve got to get home and clean! NOW!

 

2.5 hrs. later… Phew! I made it. The house is not the cleanest I’ve seen it, but at least it’s presentable. Hopefully we can maintain it thru tomorrow when the Home Inspector invades my home. Of course, wouldn’t you know it, we are expecting yet another foot of snow, so I’ll be spending all my time in line at the grocery store, because… I’m out of milk.

 

Well, here I go again, following my kids around with a dust pan. Just for one more day. I think after tomorrow I’ll finally be in the clear. And we can proceed with our normal messy lives.

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Rationalizing My Insanity


2010
01.25

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Posted in Headaches of Selling Your Home | 1 Comment »

Day 29

 

We had a showing last night at 5:30 pm. A second showing! It was a Sunday, a very busy and irritable Sunday. I awoke at 5:30 am to get everyone to my son’s hockey game. We piled into our car for what will be the first of three times today. I passed out juice, apple slices and pop tarts. I remarked to my family how wonderful it would be to see the sun come up, trying to set a positive mood for the day. My husband then doused my happy moment by informing me that we’d be at the rink before we see the sun… Bummer!

 

The Baltimore Stars (my son’s team) lost to Metro in a very heartbreaking game. We were up 4-2 with 3 minutes left in the game. They eventually lost 5-4. Driving the knife in deep when they scored their winning goal with 17 seconds left in the game. My talented son did have two goals! Yeah, way to go. Ok, get back in the car!

 

So, we piled back in and got home around 10:45. Almost ready to clean, I had to make sure my family was feed so I whipped together an early lunch of BLT’s. I might as well clean off the bacon grease from the stove too. Ok, smellly hockey players showered and now playing video games, it was time to clean. I think I was finally done by 3:00 pm. That was a lot of cleaning, making beds, picking up and folding of laundry. I even disassembled a tent. When did she put that up? Wow, I had really let the house go since the last time we had a showing, when was that… really… only a few days ago?

 

The last frontier was my shower. To clean it and sooth myself with streams of hot water. On my way, I grabbed a beer. It was Sunday and a football game was on somewhere so I figured I deserved it. Finally Done! I think I actually got to sit down for an hour. I wanted to give relevance to my beer by turning on the football game, but my son was too busy killing things with his Wii. So I watched him destroy the enemy and rested.

 

5:30 and time to pile the two kids and the dog into the car and give the buyers the space they needed to marvel at my immaculate home. I figured we’d drive by a house that was for sale near by, check out the exterior and the location, phone in a take out order for pizza and subs, drive to get the food, then head home. The whole experience should take about 40 minutes. The previous “second showing” we had lasted that long, so why not this one? We were ready! My daughter had her Nintendo DSI, my son his PSP, my dog his bone and my husband and I our conversation and music. We were all set. By the time we got to the pizza place it was pouring down rain and extremely foggy or froggy as my daughter used to say.

 

With hot pizza and subs now on my lap (packed car, no where else to put it) we started our drive home… Or should I say by our home. They were still there. Ok, let’s just circle the block. “I’m hungry” I heard whined from the back seat. “Me too” piped up the other one. We drove by again. Still there. We decided to drive around a few minutes more by checking out an area of the neighborhood where we don’t venture too often. Down windy roads, twisting, turning, checking out the houses. “Wow, why don’t we buy that one Mommy” I heard as my daughter pointed at a modern mansion that must have been 6,000 square feet. “Oh sorry, no honey, that one is too expensive.” I told her. “But what if it was for $20 could we by it then?”

 

“Let’s see where this road goes.” “Yeah, turn here Dad.” “OK, now lets go this way.” We started to wander aimlessly. Then I chimed in… “Wait… Should we turn here? I don’t think we came this way… I don’t know where we are YOU’RE driving! It’s too damn foggy I can’t see the road. Watch out for THAT DEER!

 

We… were lost. We were 5 minutes from our house and we were lost on account of fog. We actually contemplated parking outside of a house where there 52″ was visible through their window. The game was on!

 

“I’m really hungry,” “I’m tired.” my kids moaned. “Don’t worry we’ll find our way back, they’ve got to be gone by now.” my husband said. Eventually, we found our way out of the labyrinth of fog and drove by our house again. They were still there! It had been over an hour, what are they doing in there? How long do they need? Don’t they realize its a Sunday night and we have kids? I have to feed them, bathe them and get them ready for bed. This is ridiculous! Why did we agree to a Sunday night?

 

By now all the heat from the pizza had been transferred into my jeans which made my legs all sweaty and clammy. My husband started to turn the radio up to drown out the sounds of dueling PSPs and the incessant and repetitive background music from my daughters’s Nintendo DSI fashion game. When she started yelling in a language that I’m sure wasn’t English and crying. I tried to reassure her. “Don’t worry honey, we’ll be home soon” I said. “NO its not that, I can’t figure out this game! She wants a camminensoul-a”, exclaimed my daughter. She continued to pound away at her Pink DSI. “Ella, what are you talking about?” I asked. Now crying in frustration, “She wants to buy a C-A-M-I-S-O-L-E and I don’t have one.” “Oh a camisole. Ella, it’s like a tank top.” I said. “Well, I’ve SHOWED her every top in the store and she’s NOT HAPPY! and she WON’T LEAVE!” …Well my beautiful daughter… need I say more.

 

Frustrated and loosing patience we parked on the street next to my house and waited. My daughter was still bemoaning at her pink machine. When the adults LOST IT! My husband and I started yelling at her, “put the damn game away if it’s going to make you cry. And if you don’t stop it this instant we will take it away from you and smash it on the road!” My son’s stomach continued to growl which was audible over the whirling sound his PSP was making. He started to whine “I’m hungry and I just want to go home”. That was it! I was so done! (Remember we’ve all been up since 5:30 am) they were burnt out and famished. I was sick of sitting in this car and I needed a martini!

 

OK, so screw the people! 5 more minutes and we are going home! They have to understand we have children! 5 minutes later we drove with all intentions toward our driveway… then… drove passed it. I guess even with uncontrollable and whimpering children we just couldn’t jeopardize the potential sale of our home. Our kids now totally drained had to only suffer another 15 min when we got the text from our agent that they had left. Praise Jesus!

 

When we got home, my kids collapsed on the couch. Yet they still managed to have the strength to turn on iCarly. Our food was cold and my lap smelled of pizza. I turned on the oven to reheat our food while our agent was putting on her coat to leave. On her way out, Roxie informed us that the people wanted to bring a contractor by at 6:30 the next night, but she refused! God love her! And we settled on 8:20 the following morning. Well, at least by then the kids will be at school. If these people don’t give us an offer soon, I’m going to have to start charging them admission!

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Why Do We Do This To Ourselves?


2010
01.22

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Posted in Headaches of Selling Your Home, Showing | No Comments »

Day 26 – Not much new to report. Just waiting for the showing on Sunday. We have also rescheduled our Open House. It will no longer be Valentine’s Day. We are shooting for January 31st instead.

 

Why do our houses look their best when they are for sale? Sell anything else you’ve used for a while and that ’s just not the case. If I were to sell our ride-a-mower for example, it is not in the same or better condition than when we bought it, plus it’s covered with caked on grass. A car… same or better condition… don’t think so, sure you vacuum it out, but the leather is never the same. A dining room set, used scratches and gouges to prove it. But my house… o-ho-ho-ho ho, MY house, it’s looking better than I’ve ever seen it! Hell, it looks even better than when my Mother comes to visit. I’ve got orchids in my bathrooms for crying out loud! And there are actually hand towels in there! I am currently living in a place that is comparable to a 5-star hotel! The problem I have with that is… Why now? Why hasn’t it been like this the entire time I’ve been living here? Who am I trying to impress… oh right.

 

When we sold our last house we went to the extremes to sell it. We refinished the original wood floors, repaired and painted the wood ceiling in the sunroom. Cleaned every square inch of molding. We even went as far as to take all the glass knobs off of the interior doors, strip the paint off of them, polish the brass and reattach. This processs took a whole 2 weeks, and lots of counter space… just for door knobs! Once we moved out and the house was still for sale we went even further. In the master bedroom we put a fresh coat of white paint on the walls, repaired a window that had looked like crap for 12 years and installed new wall-to-wall carpeting. Just to entice a buyer. Did I ever get to enjoy that… NO!

 

Don’t worry… I get it! Yes, I understand why… Because our homes increase in value and we are selling them for more than we bought them for. Real Estate is an investment… Well, not this time sister! I’m not selling my home for more than I bought it for. I’m selling it for 10% less than I bought it for! And that’s not including the costs for all the updates! Yet, my home has been polished head-to-toe. New paint, random holes patched, updated heat pump, brand-new instant hot, a couple new windows, new exterior door to the pool (I knocked a hole in the exterior of the house for this one), and I totally re-did the pantry with a beautiful and expensive glass tile backsplash. Bitter? Yes, a bit… It’s in far better condition than when we bought it. It is… almost perfect.

 

The other day we had a new window pane installed in our multi-light window at the front of the house. The center pane was dreadfully foggy. You couldn’t see the trees in the front yard through it. I now have an unobstructed view, and it is beautiful! The guys did a great job on the sill too. Which I’m going to have to paint this weekend! I can now enjoy it. But for how long? Hopefully only for a few months more. But come on! Why didn’t we change it out when we moved in and enjoy it for the last few years? Why do we do this to ourselves?… It’s disturbing.

 

I’m sure whichever house we buy we will spend many blissful years polishing once again… Getting it just right. Let’s just hope once it’s finally done we don’t move out the next day and if we do… at least with profit in our pocket!

 

Amen!

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Should I Sell Before I Look?


2010
01.19

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Posted in Buying a Home, Headaches of Selling Your Home | 1 Comment »

Day 23 – We have 2 new showings: One today at 11:00 and one tomorrow at noon.. Here’s to hoping they are shopping and not just browsing. Clink!

 

As I have mentioned before, we purchased our current home before selling the last one. This might have been the beginning of our downfall. We basically had 3 mortgages for more than half a year. We will NOT be doing that again, and unless you’re swimming in cash I don’t recommend you do it either. So, that leaves me in a predicament I have yet to experience. The “what happens when we sell” predicament.

 

Should I sell my home before looking for the next one? How long will we have to find the next house? Two months? One? Three? And what if there is nothing out there I like? Will we have to rent? Would doing that disrupt my kids even more? What if I can only find something that is ok and not a house I’ll want to live in for a long time? Will we have to go through all of this in another few years? What if the contract on our new home goes south and we have to be out of this house in a week?.. Will we be moving in with my in-laws? Questions, stress and apprehension filled my soul.

 

All that aside, I told myself I wasn’t going to even look for a new place before we were in escrow. But, come on folks, I’m a woman, I love to shop. I basically couldn’t help myself. So, I surfed the internet…

 

I checked out a few real estate websites… Well, if anything it was reassuring! There were actually decent homes out there in nice neighborhoods and within our new “low” price range. I covertly started to make a list. Hold everything… Wait just a minute… Look at THAT house! It is perfect! Everything I want!.. oooo that’s the one!

 

That was it! That was where we were going to call home. I just knew it! I could grow old in that house. It was ideal.

 

My husband and I were driving the kids home from school one day when I said, so there’s this house on the way home, let’s just drive by it just to “check it out”. (Remember, I’m not “looking” yet.) He agreed. He thought it was nice, and then he saw there was a small pond in the side yard. He saw ice hockey at home in his future. Ok, he was in. I couldn’t wait to take a look inside (when we sold our house that is) I started to dream about it, remodeling it and decorating it in my head. Then, one day I went on-line to look at the photos again because I needed to see what wall my yellow painting would work on. Gasp! It was gone! SOLD! Noooo! I was in shock. I began to experience the 5 stages of grief. Denial: It’s still there, maybe if I type in the MLS number again, or check another real estate site. Anger: If my damn house would have sold in the first 10 days that house would have been mine! Bargaining: Maybe I could offer the new owners more money to move. Depression: This sucks! That was my house, my dream home, I’ll never find another one like it, we’ll end up living in a split-level on a cul-de-sac. Acceptance: Alright, it’s gone, it wasn’t meant to be. I’m sure there are others out there. Let’s just click through the websites again… Hey, Wait just a minute… Look at THAT house! It is perfect! Everything I want!.. oooo that’s the one!

 

Seriously… I think I have a problem…

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Potential Buyers Arriving at 10:00am


2010
01.18

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Posted in Headaches of Selling Your Home, Showing | 1 Comment »

Day 22 – Sunday showing went well, the people like the house but want to come back when it is not raining.

 

We had a showing yesterday at 10 am. It was a Sunday so my plan was to sleep-in til 8, clean til 9:45 then take my daughter and my dog to the park. I woke up to pouring rain. Guess the park’s out. What am I going to do while my real estate agent is showing my home to potential buyers on a rainy day with a 7yr. old and a dog?

 

Cleaning went much faster than I had thought. Having done it so much lately, it was basically a touch-up. It was 9:15 and I was done. I had time to take a shower. But did I want my bathroom to be all steamy and wet for the potential buyers? I smelled, so yes. As I was turning the shower off, I reached for my towel. I didn’t want to step out onto the dry floor and have to mop that up too. I started to dry off and I then realized I was standing in an inch of water. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I said aloud. Since when does my shower not drain? I’ve lived here how long and I’ve never had this problem. And today of all days, no one’s going to buy the house with a shower full of water. I bent down and begged the water to drain. “Please, please, please.” I whimpered. I began stomping on the drain with my foot, like that would help. “Oh, come on… not now.” I bellowed. Slowly and eventually, it drained. Delighted, I stood up accidentally hitting the shower valve with my shoulder, turning the shower back on full blast soaking myself and my towel. For a split second I lost all mental capacity and for the life of me could not remember how to turn it off. Somehow I managed. I stood there drenched, realizing that I was going to have to walk across the bathroom, dripping along the way to get a new towel. Yep, cleaning that floor again.

 

At least I now know what my daughter and I can do for an hour… Hit the store for some Draino.