Posts Tagged ‘Escrow’

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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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The Waiting Place


2010
02.11

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Posted in Buying a Home | No Comments »

Day 45 - 46 to go.

 

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we’ve had a bit of snow recently here in Baltimore. I can’t believe it, but there is over 44″ outside my window. The world has stopped, cabin fever is setting in and I’m about ready to murder my kids!

 

Here is the bane of my frustration: My life is on hold… with just about everything…The home inspector needs to come back to inspect the exterior of the house, too much snow. The kids have been out of school all week and won’t be back til next Tuesday. They are driving us batty and for a couple who works from home, with them here, we can’t get anything done. I also can’t search for a new home in 44″ of snow. We can’t put an offer in on the foreclosure house we love because our agent is snowed in and can’t get to her office. The bank is closed, so I can’t deposit the checks I have, therefore I can’t pay my bills. I don’t even think the mail system is running. I’m losing it! I… my friends, have entered… The Waiting Place! I have never liked the waiting place, it’s NOT for me. I need life to move! Things to happen! I’m not bored, just utterly frustrated. So, being in this mental state, I thought I’d pay a little homage to the incomparable Dr. Seuss.

 

I’m headed… I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place…

 

Waiting for a car to go
or the inspector to come,
or entering escrow
or the mail to come,
or finding out what they know
or the phone to ring,
or the melting of snow
or waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
I seem to be just waiting.

 

Waiting for the potential buyers to bite
or waiting for the power to light a lite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for the appraiser, Jake
or to look for a house, or a Better Break
or a string of emails, or a pair of pants
or an offer to go in, or Another Chance.

 

Everyone is just waiting.

 

NO! That’s not for me!
Somehow I’ll escape all that waiting and staying.
I’m determined to find the bright places where the snow is decaying.
With the For Sale signs flip-flapping, once more I’ll ride high!
Ready for anything under the sky.
I’m SO ready! You see…I need to find a house to buy!

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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…