Our New House: November 2017

Monday, November 20, 2017

Closing Date

We finally got a closing date of the 29th. So just a week and a half left.

I've been busy packing in the house. Most rooms are packed up, except the essentials we still need.

Mike on the other hand.....well let's just say I hope he works well under pressure! He got a small start on the garage and that's about it. He'll be home early all this week since it's the Thanksgiving holiday week and will be working on getting the garage packed up. We also got a Uhaul truck lined up to be picked up next Monday afternoon -- feels real now! 9 days to go!

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Taking Down the Playset (11/14/17)

Mike took the playset in the backyard down tonight. It's looking a little empty and sad!

Appraisal is DONE! (11/14/17)

We got word this afternoon that the appraisal has been done and came back just fine!!!! What a relief! We can now move forward and get all the packing done and be ready to move to our new house! We still don't know the closing date but should find out in the next day or so, and they are still hoping for next week-before Thanksgiving! Yay I'm so relived that part is done and I can be happy to pack and this is really happening!!

Still Waiting (11/14/17)

It's been nearly 2 weeks since the appraisal has been done and we still have not heard the results and set a closing date yet. It's officially too late in the process to get that info and still close on the original date of 11/17/17. Our realtor talked to the appraiser this past Friday and he said he'd have it done that day or on Monday - it's Tuesday now with still no answers. I'm beyond frustrated!

I'm hesitant to pack because I'm afraid that the appraisal doesn't come in for enough and we have to cancel the sale. I don't want to unpack, how sad! Obviously there's a good chance it'll be just fine but this whole process hasn't been all that easy so I'm not ready to just trust the process and pack it all up. We did hear from our buyers bank that they are just waiting for the appraisal and then can set the closing date and everything else is pretty much ready. This also worries me....we could find out and only have a few days to pack! I have packed a lot already, but there's still a lot to pack and Mike hasn't even touched the garage yet.

It's been a total roller-coaster, I've been so frustrated and stressed. I know we could find out any minute about the appraisal and the closing date and my mood will immediately shift, but until then the days just keep ticking by with nothing. I'm ready -- Lets do this!!!

The New Appraisal (11/2/17)

Today the appraisal was done on our house. Now we wait impatiently for the results and the confirmed closing date.

The Inspection (10/25/17)

Today we had the inspection completed on our house. All was good, just a few small things that Mike could fix. The radon test came back good. Now the next step is the appraisal.

New Offer (10/22/17)

On Sunday evening we received an offer! It was very similar to our first offer, we countered and all accepted. Whew! What a relief to not have to put the house back on the market. The buyers are motivated and would be ok with the same 11/17/17 closing date if the bank can make it work with the tight timeline, but 11/30/17 "or sooner if possible" was put in the purchase agreement as the new closing date.

Our Buyers offer Fell Through (10/19/17)

On Thursday evening we found out that our buyer no longer qualifies to buy our house! Not the news we wanted at all!! She had her title work done and a $40k lien came up against her. She would have to pay that lien and so she no longer qualified to pay the amount in the purchase agreement. She was able to qualify for an FHA loan for $15k less that our agreed amount, which is what we are thinking the 2nd appraisal was for - but we didn't want to take $15k less. Our realtor called back the 3 people that originally had requested showings but we cancelled once we got the offer. Two of them were still very interested and wanted to come on Saturday for a showing.

The Appraisal (10/12/17)

We were ecstatic to get what we did for our house, however there is a chance that the house may not appraise for that much since it is in an older neighborhood. Our realtor warned us about this and it's been something that has been bothering me since we started this process. There are not a lot of comps to match up with ours, so until I get that appraisal I don't feel comfortable that it's all going to work out. The appraiser came on Thursday, October 12th. The Bailey house was done on a Friday and we had the results back on Monday, so I was hoping to hear by Monday if not sooner. The weekend went by with nothing, Monday comes around and we get a request for another appraisal on Tuesday. What, why!?!?! We asked and the only thing they could say is the one previously done was not valid and the bank ordered this one. So I left the house on Tuesday for the new appraisal, when I returned after the hour appointment they requested there was not a business card left on the counter. I'm not sure if anyone came or not. A couple more days go by and we still don't have the results of the appraisal.

We got an Offer!! (9/29/17)

The house went on the market first thing in the morning on Thursday, within 15 minutes of it hitting the MLS I had a request for a showing right away at 10:30 am! Wow this is great!! Then another for the next day - Friday evening. Friday afternoon we ended up getting an offer from the very first person that looked at it! We went ahead and had the showing Friday evening and then ended up getting 3 more showings for Sunday. By Saturday morning we wanted to get back on the offer, we wanted to have the 3 showings but since they were another day out we didn't want the offer people to wait and maybe pull their offer so we decided to go with the offer since it was very good! We ended up cancelling the 3 showings on Sunday. What a good feeling this was to have an offer so fast and not have to deal with a long period of time doing showings!

Putting our house on the market (9/28/17)

We did some decluttering over the next few days in order to prep our house to put it on the market. It officially hit the market on the morning of Thursday, September 28th.

Putting in an offer (9/21/17)

After we looked at the "Bailey house" we decided this is the house for us! It did take us a week to get approved and an approval letter. The house didn't have any other offers yet so we scheduled a second showing to make sure and put in an offer that night. We offered lower, they countered back in the middle and we all accepted!

We set the closing date to 11/17/17 to give us time to sell our house and they put in the agreement if we didn't have a signed purchase agreement in 30 days they could cancel the offer.

The Showing (9/13/17)

We went and looked at the house at 5 pm which was the day that the house went on the market. Initially looking at the house I thought right away that it's not my style, which is hard because we literally just got done making ours look beautiful and exactly how I want it. But this house has so much potential!! We wanted a main floor bedroom and it has it; we wanted the kids together upstairs, and it has it; we wanted a formal dining room and it has it! It also has a formal living room on the main level - there's so much space that we would have empty rooms because we don't have furniture to fill it! The basement is huge and has a huge storage room which I love! The backyard is not totally flat like I wanted, but the kids are super excited to have a hill to sled on and there would even be space for Mike to build a detached garage and you wouldn't even notice the space being gone. The garage is attached and an oversized 3 car, which Mike loves!! Like I said, it just has so much potential! We didn't really want another project house, but the things we would do to it are more like weekend projects and nothing has to be done - it would just be us making it our own.