Posts Tagged ‘Foreclosure’

« Older Entries
1 Comment

Dazed and Confused


2010
03.04

Tags: , ,
Posted in Buying a Home, Counter Offer, Foreclosure | 1 Comment »

Day 66 - 25 to go.

 

Well, it looks like the mean ol’ bank has rejected our offer on the foreclosure house. Well, we think they did… Unofficially. Roxie spoke to the banks agent to find out where our offer stood. All he said back was that the bank has authorized him to lower the listing price to $7,000 over their previous counter offer to us. What?!? So basically we’re out. I don’t know about you, but I find that just plain rude. Whatever happened to common courtesies? Couldn’t they officially decline our offer instead of just throwing us into foreclosure purgatory? I mean, pick up the damn phone and communicate, people! Poor manners! Your mothers would not be proud! So, we remain in limbo, we may submit another offer to them, we may not. Don’t know, kind of pissed at the whole situation. It’s horribly poor form.

 

Yesterday we did the whirlwind of house tours. We were originally scheduled with Roxie to see 7 of them, but when we met her, she smartly reduced it to six, all in 2 1/2 hrs. Today, I’m suffering house shopping hangover. I can’t remember much, bit of a blur really. And it’s all topped off with one big headache! There were split levels, ranches and traditional homes all with doors… all with walls. Some with fireplaces and some without. Some had garages, some did not. Some had basements, some had the master bedroom in the basement. (Yeah right, let’s snuggle up in there!) There were dogs with tennis balls, parakeets, fish, renegade squirrels and one mean, angry cat. I remember being warm and I remember freezing. I barely recall the one that was my favorite of the day. I believe that it was too far out, or on the wrong side of town or… road… or… something, I can’t be sure. I also vaguely remember the one my husband liked, but something was amiss. No backyard or perhaps the front yard was an exposed urban wastland with apparitions of crosswalk guards yelling at school children… I don’t know. Anyway, none were all that noteworthy and I wouldn’t really be happy waking up in any of them… at least I don’t think so.

 

People, I’m beginning to feel a bit defeated. I’m told by many that spring will bring new arrivals to the housing market. Really? Spring??… When is that? A few more weeks? Months? We have to be out of here in 20 some odd days. My future seems bleak. I’m about to be 40 and homeless.

 

Time to face facts… Call the In-Laws… We’re movin in!

No Comments

Here We Go Again


2010
03.02

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Buying a Home | No Comments »

Day 64 - 27 to go. Mold dude just left with his new air samples and the snow is also almost off the roof, exterior inspection coming soon.

 

Yesterday, Roxie, our realtor, picked us up to go and take a look at a few more houses sans kids. Thank God. No bickering under the age of 40… Love you honey! :)

 

The first house was nice. Not very big, but just right with a nice fireplace and a great den. Outstanding views! A contemporary which was built in 1978 and boy, it looked it. I don’t think anything was ever updated in that place. First of all the exterior, blah yuck! 2 different shades of 70’s brown, I don’t think I could live there til that was painted. The bedrooms were a tad on the small side with barely a closet. The basement had a built-in bar complete with a padded patten leather arm rest around the entire top of it. This place would need a lot of work, a lot of paint and days of scraping off “ooo ugly” wall paper. It did have a skylight in one of the bathrooms which was pretty cool. Plus it had a garage and storage in the basement. All and all, the view saved it and pushed it on to the next level. Not too shabby.

 

The next house I found on-line, but it didn’t have any photos associated with it. Priced to sell on a sought after street. But what would await us there? Hmmm. As we pulled in I immediately knew it wasn’t for us. Tiny… Teeny tiny. We went in anyway. We couldn’t just leave, the owner was pacing, waiting for us outside. The entire house had just been redone. Very nice. Floors were gorgeous! Three bedrooms, one bath and I still don’t know how they fit those things into that box of a home. It will make a very nice place for someone who is perpetually single. On we go…

 

The third house of the day was another foreclosure home as sold “As Is”. I’ve been eyeing it online for a while. It’s in a prime location surrounded by million dollar homes, the photo of the exterior on-line was very nice. Cheap and cute. What the hell could be wrong with it? Why is it still there? As we pulled up I got very excited. I loved the street, the setting, the house from the road was beautiful and seemed big. Then… we got closer. The outside, even though it was brick, looked very shabby and in need of much love. It took us a while to unlock the front door. It seemed to be stuck and I was getting cold standing outside. Once we forced our way in, we were greeted with an abandoned and very cold home and… a living room full of boxes. We soon realized they were kitchen cabinets. Were they meant for this home or was someone just storing them there? As we walked into the dining room we saw something unexpected. A HUGE addition that was mid rough-in construction condition. This thing must have been 1,000 sq. ft. on it’s own with vaulted ceilings. Just framing however, nothing more. It was left totally in a state of disregard. It was sad, and… it was leaking.

 

The kitchen, circa 1950 baby blue was completely trashed. Things were torn out and strewn all over the room. Paint was peeling off the ceiling, trash was on the floor. Oh my, major renovation needed. The thing about this house was that it just kept going. Wow it was BIG. We walked down a level to 3 bedrooms, a den which overlooked a pool and 2 baths. Then down another level to a basement with 3-4 rooms. Upstairs there were another 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths. Or, one full bath and one… well, just let me say this… I thought I had a mold problem. Honey, I’ve got one mushroom compared to this place. This bathroom was a Mold Hot House! Just swarming, swarming with black mold. It was on everything. The walls, ceiling, floor, tub, sink. Oh, I felt dirty just looking at it. I needed a shower, but just thinking of taking a shower while looking at that bathroom made me cringe! Oh, if this place was in better shape I’d scoop it up! This house with the in-process addition must have been over 4,000 sq. ft. The kids wouldn’t have to argue over bedrooms, they could each have 3. But even if someone gave us that place for a dollar, I don’t think we could ever afford to bring it up to livable and healthy conditions. Oh, and the pool area was so incredibly lovely. Sad, so sad…

 

The fourth house of the day was just down the street from the contemporary Open House we loved on Sunday, only this one had a garage (storage!) and a pool (BONUS!). We took a look inside. Oooo… funky. Funky in a good way and funky in a weird, yeah I’ll have to replace that, way too. It was on a hill which meant walking up a flight of stairs to get to the front door. I didn’t mind this though, the view from the front porch was pretty cool. The kitchen was outdated and small, but doable. The rest of that floor was in good shape with the exception of the main bathroom. There was a mirror on every square inch of that bathroom including the ceiling. These owners must be beautiful people with a vanity problem. I think we’d have to leave it just for a conversation piece. The basement was a whole other experience. I felt like I entered the choice swingers pad. Mirrors everywhere, hidden doors that lead to wet bars, wine racks, shelves, closets, the garage, and other strange shaped rooms. Totally bizarre. The basement was also where we located the mirror surrounded fireplace. Why they don’t put fireplaces on the main level of the home is beyond me. Anyway, we liked it. It was funky, weird, and totally us. Needed a lot of work and we’d be compromising a bit on space and yard. The backyard was just a pool and patio, no actual grass, with a screened-in porch off the kitchen. The only downfall is that it’s in the city and Baltimore knows how to tax. The taxes, oh the taxes. I could buy a car with the taxes on that place. Well, we’ll keep that one in the back of our minds.

 

I don’t know folks, It’s looking grim. Kinda running out of time here. Nothing feels comfortable, nothing feels right, like our foreclosure home does. I wish we’d hear back from the bank on our counter offer soon. But, in the meantime we will soldier on, that’s what we do. We are circling again with Roxie on Wednesday to tackle the other end of town. She has 7 houses lined up and 3 hours to view them in. It will be a sprint! Better wear my running shoes. Stay tuned.

No Comments

Kids… Let’s Go See Some Open Houses


2010
03.01

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Buying a Home, Open House | No Comments »

Day 63 - 28 to go. We are having the mold retested on tuesday and have postponed the remediation til the 8th. The inspector (using term loosely here) didn’t do a baseline comparison of the exterior and we have found out that this is definitely something you do when testing for mold. Geez! How hard is it to do a job right the first time these days?

 

Well, we still haven’t heard regarding our counter offer on the foreclosure house that we submitted nine days ago. In the spirit of keeping our housing options open, we went ‘Open Housing’… with the kids.

 

The first house we didn’t even go in. My husband and I just didn’t vibe with the neighborhood. Way to suburban for us. I felt like I was on the set of Edward Scissorhands, so we drove onto the next locale. My kids didn’t even notice, they were both thumbing away on their machines.

 

The second house was cute, in a nice ‘normal’ neighborhood but it was a bit small. The kids started arguing over which bedroom was going to be theirs even after we told them we weren’t even going to buy this house. My daughter gave up and decided she would room in the basement using the pool table for her bed. She was quite excited about this.

 

The third house was in the Homeland section of Baltimore City. Big house on a busy road. 4 bedrooms, large basement detached garage, and a kitchen that needed updating. My son looked at me with a big smile on his face and nodded… “I like this one.” Again the two of them started fighting over claiming rights to bedrooms. My daughter even stood in the one that was “hers” with her arms crossed and a mean pouty look on her face that said… “I’m not moving from this spot… Go get my things, I’m moving in!” It was nice, but didn’t feel right.

 

The fourth house was in the Mt. Washington neighborhood. A contemporary that was very nicely and recently redone. We really liked it. Nice sized kitchen, large floor to ceiling windows, beautiful bathrooms, and… one of my favorite things, a sun porch. The only problem was where would we put all our junk? There was no garage and no basement. We did walk around it a few times soaking it all in, trying to picture living there, but we couldn’t get past the storage issue. Yeah, where would I put my collection of “I can’t remember what’s in that box, but I know I need it” things. As we were leaving I realized I only had one child. Where was my daughter? I couldn’t find her. She had closed herself in a closet, again pouting over the bedroom choices. This time she wanted the master because it had it’s own bathroom.

 

Today Roxie, our real estate agent, is taking us around to a few more places… this time without the kids.

 

BTW – A birthday “shout out” to my Mom and my niece. Have a Happy Birthday!

No Comments

Do Banks Counter Foreclosure Offers?


2010
02.23

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Counter Offer, Foreclosure | No Comments »

Day 57 - 34 to go.

 

Yes, they do. Mine did anyway. I actually just thought they would deny our offer all together. But to my surprise… they countered! It took them exactly a week to get back to us with their new price. It wasn’t as great as we had hoped it to be, remember… we really lowballed them. Well, they highballed us back. I fear this could go on for sometime.

 

We have now countered their counter with another lowball number. This time we sent along a little ammunition. Pictures of the state of the interior and our contractors bid to bring it up to snuff… and the waiting game goes on.

1 Comment

Still Waiting


2010
02.17

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Home Inspection, The Offer | 1 Comment »

Day 51 - 40 to go.

 

Still Waiting… double entendre intended! I feel like this house, the process, the weather, my physicality is just plain lifeless. I’m stuck in a blah blob milieu.

 

The Home Inspection process is turning out to be a long one. The inside of our house has been thoroughly inspected, however, we are still waiting for a “mold test” sample to come back… What exactly will that report state? I’m wondering… Our radon test was fine, we passed. The pest inspection, also fine. But we are being held up because of the snow. AARRGGHH the damn snow! The inspector can’t inspect the exterior of the house with 4 feet of snow on the ground and the roof. The buyers had us sign an addendum to the contract so that they can have an ‘inspection extension’. This is what is said…”Buyer requests an extension of the time frame to inspect roof and exterior components of the property due to weather conditions. Said inspection will be done within seven (7) days of notification by Sellers agent to Buyers agent of the roof being clear of snow.” Well, the way the weather is going that may be well into June. So we’re… Waiting Again!

 

The offer on our foreclosure house is still out there in the foreclosure abyss. No word yet. – Waiting Again!

 

Every day I’m checking out the new listings on-line. Maybe one here, another there, but nothing really worth looking at. I guess everyone is waiting for the snow to melt to list their house. – Waiting Again!

 

This waiting game is making me fat! There is nothing to do but eat and watch the Olympics. Oh well…Go team USA!.. pass the brownies.

No Comments

Making an Offer


2010
02.12

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Foreclosure, The Offer | No Comments »

Day 46 - 45 to go.

 

We were getting ready to submit an offer on the foreclosure house when our agent Roxie sent us this email… “Hi, I just got off the phone with the listing agent for the foreclosure. He said they will not be able to have electric or plumbing working for the FHA inspection. According to your lender, your loan will not be approved without it.”

 

GASP! What did this mean? Was that it? Was it over? It can’t be. You see, we were planning on getting a FHA 203K Rehab loan to fix up the house. We knew it would be subject to an FHA inspection, we just didn’t know the inspector needed working electric and plumbing. What kind of a rehab loan is that?

 

rehabilitate [ree-huh-bil-i-teyt, ree-uh-] -tat-ed, -tat-ing.
–verb (used with object)
1. to restore to a condition of good health, ability to work, or the like.

 

Exactly… Rehab, to me, means it is in desperate need of help, nothings working. And in this case, nothing is! So, let me understand this… in order to get a Rehab loan, the house needed to have already been rehabilitated enough to actually have working electricity? I just don’t get it!

 

Depressed and defeated we drank heavily and went to bed.

 

In the morning woke up with new vigor. Nothing like a good nights sleep to clear your head. This whole thing had to be WRONG. We emailed over our concerns to our lender and did a bit of our own research via the internet (what did we ever do without it?) We checked out this site www.fhainfo.com looking for answers:

 

FHA 203K Loan – Eligible Property:

 

To be eligible for the FHA 203k mortgage loan, the property must be a one- to four-family dwelling (it is, ok, check) that has been completed for at least one year (built in the 50’s qualifies, check)… Homes that have been demolished, or will be razed as part of the rehabilitation work, are eligible provided some of the existing foundation system remains in place. (that’s the plan, Stan.)… the rehabilitation funds will only be used for the residential functions of the dwelling and areas used to access the residential part of the property. (Yep!)

 

We dug further… On properties older than 30 years and over $7,500 in rehabilitation costs, the cost estimate must include a contingency reserve. The reserve must be a minimum of ten (10) percent of the cost of rehabilitation; however, the contingency reserve may not exceed twenty (20) percent where major remodeling is contemplated. If utilities were not turned on for inspection, a minimum fifteen (15) percent is required. (Ah HA!) There it is! Right there!

 

We sent this info along to our lender, and lo and behold, she confirmed it! Crisis averted! Moving onward!

 

The next stumbling block, other than the blizzard of 2010, is the fact that the listing agent for the foreclosure doesn’t think the bank will take less than 13% off the listing price. Are they insane! Who would buy this place for that? It is NOT livable. No kitchen (no cabinets, no appliances, even some hook-ups are missing), It’s listed as a 2.5 bath, but really it’s one. I could only find one toilet in the home. I don’t think a hole in the floor qualifies. It’s also listed as a 3 bedroom, but during our inspection of the property the “master” had absolutely no vents. How would we get heat in there? We’d freeze! So, I wouldn’t really consider that a bedroom, plus it didn’t have a floor. But here is our problem… The bank who is handling the foreclosure is in Texas. TEXAS! The house is here in Baltimore. How would the bank even know the condition of the house? Would they fly someone up here to check it out? Not for the price we are offering. I guess we are going to have to rely on the listing agent to communicate our concerns to the bank. If he actually does, will they even care? Not sure… But my money is on NO.

 

Even so, we are going to offer… 42% lower than the asking price. We think it’s fair, it’s basically the cost of the land plus the cost of the garage (which is new) hmmm, priorities I guess…

 

Yesterday we drew up the papers. Geez! Like 40 pages of signatures and initials all to see if the bank will accept our lowball. Seems like a lot don’t you think? Especially when the odds are stacked against us. Roxie is sending it off today! We have heard rumors about how long it takes a bank to get back to you on an offer on a foreclosed home. Apparently, they’re backed up with stacks of foreclosure paperwork. But we have been assured with this property, it might be just a week. Well, we shall see…

No Comments

The Waiting Place


2010
02.11

Tags: , , , , , ,
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!

1 Comment

Quiet Neighbors


2010
02.04

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Buying a Home, Foreclosure | 1 Comment »

Day 38 – or maybe I should say 53 to go.

 

We toured 4 more houses today. The first one, a short sale in the Mt. Washington area of Baltimore. It was very cute, nice sized rooms, kind of meandering and it had… drumroll please… A Mudroom. Total “country charm in the city”… lots of character! I dig character. The porches out the front and back doors were wonderful. I could see sitting there having coffee in the mornings. But, seriously, when have I ever sauntered outside in the morning with coffee? My mornings are way to busy to sit with coffee, it’s more of a jog with coffee. Anyway, the downside of this house was the small yard, no garage and it’s just a tad too close to the edge of the not so nice side of Baltimore. I decided to keep this one on my “back-up” list.

 

The second house was smack dab in the city. A nice part of the city, but city non-the-less. But it was HUGE! I couldn’t believe the size of the place. But, that’s about the extent of it’s allure. The house was out-of-style and needed updating to no end. Plus, it had a slate roof that has seen better days. We would need to replace that. I don’t think it had central air and I’m not going back to window units. Also, the back door, again was up a flight of stairs, kinda hard for my cute little pooch. It did have the slightest bit of potential… but a bit my friends, just doesn’t cut it.

 

The third house was touted as a 6 bedroom in Towson, Maryland. Six bedroom, WOW! What would we do with all that space? From the photo it looked like a split-level (we know how I feel about those.) You see, I grew up in a split-level. I like my childhood home. I enjoy going back there, I have wonderful childhood memories of that house… I just… don’t want to grow old in one. Been there, done that if you know what I mean!

 

So, we arrived at the 6 bedroom house. And parked in it’s parking lot. Yes, that’s right. It’s Parking Lot! It was located directly behind a plaza and the driveway was a part of it’s lot. This house was awful! Hated it before I even walked in. Oh, can I say it again… Awful! I think it used to be a day care center or some kind of doctors office I wouldn’t send my worst enemy to. There was a yellow sticker on one of the “bedroom” doors that said: “Do not enter without knocking first.” I can’t imagine what used to go on in that room. No, no, no. Let’s go!

 

The fourth house was also in Towson, another split-level, and a foreclosure. Better location than the last, but I think it had been abused in it’s past life as a frat house. Oh, if those walls could talk. There were remnants of a hot tub on the back porch which smelled of old pool. This place had abandoned IKEA furnishings, carpets that I think were at one time tan, the walls I believe were white, and the bathrooms, well, I couldn’t tell what color they used to be. And way to many water stains to actually believe the house would stand another 5 years without crumbling onto itself. AARRGGHH!

 

At least the first home was kinda cool. Short Sale… Hmmm. Even hearing back from a bank on an offer on a short sale can take a month. And if you’re not really sure if it’s the house for you, do you really want to waist the time? Especially, when we need to be out of this one in 53 days.

 

So, Roxie took us back to our foreclosure home. The one we love! To see into the basement. Our contractor was meeting us there to assess it. As we were waiting for him to arrive we walked through it again, checked out the garage and scanned the grounds. There’s this oh-so-cute-and-spooky cemetery right next door. Old, abandoned cemetery with the vestige of a church’s foundation. There are maybe 30 or so gravestones and we wandered through them to get a better look. The majority of dated back to the 1800’s. From what I gathered mostly family plots. Very cool, very cool. I can just see them illuminated for my annual Halloween Party. I loved it! Now that’s character. Yep… about 30 of them.

 

I really like the foreclosure house. I can tell my husband likes it too. We bring it up to each other all the time. It’s the one, we both know it. I guess we just want to see exactly how sound it is and exactly how much bread it’s going to take to make it fabulous. You see, looking to buy a house isn’t just buying a house, it’s buying a home. One my kids will be raised in and hopefully one some day they will bring their families home to. And even though it’s not much now, we sort of feel at home at that foreclosure… and we like the quiet neighbors!

No Comments

Searching for a New Home – Part Two


2010
02.03

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

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.

No Comments

And the Quest… Is On!


2010
02.01

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Buying a Home, Contractor, Foreclosure | No Comments »

Day 35 –

 

We went to two open houses over the weekend. This was a hoot. The first one… too small. But amazingly the new bathroom in that house was bigger than the kitchen. I could have fit my whole family into that bathtub. It was almost like they just took a hot tub installed it and called it a bathtub. I couldn’t believe the size. I’m still dumbfounded by it. I think my son could use it as a half pipe.

 

The second one, great location, strange layout. To get to the family room (which was kinda cool) and to the backyard you had to walk through the master bedroom. That’s right. You heard me. Imagine my 11 year old having friends over and wanting to play outside and run thru my bedroom right when I’m changing. Nope, don’t think so. Movin’ on.

 

Today Roxie, our agent, picked us up took us to 3 places that were on my list. The first, which I really like from the photos on-line was extremely disappointing in person. It was on a hill which made the backdoor 2 stories up. My small dog couldn’t run down those steps to pee if he wanted too. We could build him an extreme dog slide, but… no. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

 

The second, was ok. First of all, it smelled right away like “old people”, we can fix that. We also would have to take off some hideous wallpaper, do A LOT of painting, and re-do the kitchen. That kitchen was old! The oven in the wall was something I had never seen before. I’m guessing “50’s modern?” It looked more like a microwave. I couldn’t fit a turkey in there if I wanted to. There was even a Montgomery Ward Brand TV in the kitchen which was so old you have to actually get up off your chair to change the channels. My kids would flip to see such a relic. There was also a strange bedroom in the basement with a shower. Not a bathroom with a shower, just a shower, right there in the room. But, all in all I think with my creative ability that place had some potential and it was the perfect size. It even had a dream feature of mine… a mud room. Oooo, I get giddy at the idea of a mud room. Keep that house on the maybe list.

 

The third house we saw was my foreclosure house. I couldn’t wait to get there and see inside. After my initial walk through I was jumping up and down, literally. I loved it! It was bigger than I thought it was going to be, which was a good thing. The layout was also kinda cool. I was sold. I could see myself in it baking christmas cookies in the kitchen. Even though there currently is NO kitchen. I, my friends, have the gift of visualization. I just can’t understand why some people don’t have it. Some will write off a house just because they don’t like the paint color. People it’s paint! $25 at the hardware store. Deal with it! But, they just can’t see a room in their heads as another color. I don’t get people like that. Kind of feel sorry for them.

 

Anyway, this foreclosure home did have a few odd things. There was a big hole in the floor of the living room that was covered with plywood. The basement, which is partially furnished, is only accessible from the outside. The non-existent half bath had a divided light french door, that you could see through. What’s with that? The master bedroom didn’t seem to have any vents. Not sure how the heat gets in there. But these things seemed like it they were an easy fix. But then… our contractor extraordinaire showed up and stomped all over my parade. It seems I may need anywhere from $90,000 – $150,000 to update all the things the last guy did wrong (‘Harry Homemaker’ he called him), and build an addition. I was hoping more along the lines of $70,000. And this ballpark estimate is without him looking at the basement (we couldn’t get it open. It was sealed with a Master Lock.) The estimate could even get worse once he got into the basement. Boy-o-boy, to be able to pull that off, I’d have to get that house for a song. Like $72,000 less than they are asking for it. And it’s a foreclosure, bank owned. Do they even negotiate that low?

 

I did learn one Interesting thing today… I was thinking of building an addition OFF of back of the house. It is a ranch after all, like to keep it long. But our contractor said it would be easier to build up instead of out, cheaper too. Wow, wouldn’t have thought that. Keeping that one in mind.

 

I did mention my foreclosure house to our mortgage broker, mainly because I didn’t know if I could get cash on top of the house price for fixing it up. Wasn’t sure how that worked. Her initial e-mail reaction was “YEESH!!!” Yeesh, what the hell is yeesh? That doesn’t sound good. She thinks we may need a “rehab” loan. A FHA 203K Rehab Loan. Whoa, sounds complicated. And complicated it seems to be. Inspectors, licensed contractors, higher interest rates… blah blah, blah. Is this something we really want to tangle with? Well, if we can get that dream house for a dream price… damn straight.

 

The best thing about this whole process is, I’m kinda having fun. It’s an adventure into uncharted territory. My husband too has finally taken to looking on-line at what is out there. Before it was just me. You see, he was the strong one. He held out til we were under contract. I was weak! Well, good for him. And, I’m glad he’s finally on the band wagon. It’s exciting now that we can share in this quest to find a new abode. I’m just hoping it remains fun for a while, I’m sure it will start getting stressful as we get closer to closing on our current house and haven’t found our new one yet.

 

Well, we are back at it tomorrow. Roxie is setting up more appointments so we can see other homes, walk through them, get a sense of how other people live, moth balls, old TV’s and all. It’s a lesson in urban anthropology. :)

« Older Entries