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The House Hunters Thread

Amandine!!! You closed!!! The paperwork is over!! Now the unpacking begins :) I''m so excited for you--the previous owner sounds so nice! YAY for you!!

rhb, I want to kick somebody in the SHIN for you. I cannot believe that you are finding out 2 days before you''re scheduled to close that it isn''t going to happen. Like you said, you''ve worked SO HARD to get everything taken care of in short notice and now you can''t close because of the bank!
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I am so exhausted from this house that I can barely even type about it. I spent the weekend doing as much research as I could. I woke up at 4 a.m. this morning to get some work done so I could spend time at Town Hall going to several offices. I''ve been on the phone with several civil engineers. I did get a hold of the surveyor who did the Title V inspection 10 years ago. I''ve been able to piece together all of the property lines by using plot plans from neighboring properties (which I got from a wide variety of resources because town hall only had one). The only remaining question mark is the street frontage. I am going to the house tonight to take that measurement myself and that will be it. I won''t go into the details, but getting a land survey done will cost us $2K along with a complete headache trying to change the deed. The deed is wrong--if everything goes as planned with the measurements tonight then we''ll have an acre. I''m fine with an acre. I just can''t believe the deed AND the official assessor''s map are BOTH off by .25 acres.

We sign the P&S tomorrow and have to apply for our mortgage this week. I have a pile of papers I still need to fax to our mortgage broker, but haven''t had time to do it.
 
Congrats to Lynnie and to Amandine!!

RHB:
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I am so sorry.
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That is incredibly frustrating..sending you dust that this gets resolved VERY quickly and you get a fast closing date with easy rescheduling. It is such a pain to make all those phone calls scheduling turn off and turn on of utilities. Sending you big hugs as well..

NEL: You have been working so hard to solve a major puzzle! I feel exhausted for you just reading your post. I think you''ve earned a deep breath and a glass of wine! Remember to give yourself some time to relax when possible. Sending you dust that everything else goes smoothly.

Well..this is probably my last update for a bit. We are still closing May 5..and moving officially May 15. So we need to start packing. Unfortunately I have law school finals until May 7. So this is going to be um..interesting. But that''s how I do things, I definitely brought it on myself (one of my friends graciously reminded me that yesterday).
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Anyway, best of luck to everyone and back to studying!
 
Thank you everyone! We found out last night that everyone is READY and WAITING. Now just for the seller''s short sale paperwork to be signed..... we''re hoping Thurs, so we dont have to change any of our plans, Fri makes it more difficult.

Amandine Yay! Congrats on your closing!! best of luck with the unpacking! Remember to take a moment and breathe!

NEL Thanks for the offer - hope you have a long reach in the kick... we''re down the coast from you.
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I''m sorry for your heartache in all this. But hopefully its a full acre and all will be well! Granted 1.25 is better, but an acre is great! Good luck!

Sarah Thank you so much! I will keep everyone updated. Hopefully they get their act together today....... Good luck with the closing and the move!
 
SarahLovesJS, just another week to go!! Closing in the midst of finals sounds like a whirlwind, but don''t worry too much about packing until your finals are over! Once May 7th gets here, you can worry about packing eveything up! You''ll still have a week at that point!

rhb, I''m keeping my fingers crossed that Thursday is the day!!! When will you know for sure? Do you think you''ll know today?

Today I finally feel some relief. We know know that the land is an acre, so we are going to leave it as is (not get a field survey or change the deed). I''ve been speaking with both our lawyer and the sellers'' lawyer to get the final version of the P&S to me this morning so that we can review it one last time and sign it tonight. I faxed over a batch of documents to our mortgage broker today and only have to fax over the final version of the P&S to her tomorrow. Next up is the appraisal...
 
Yes, we''re hoping they give us the green light for approval today. Then we could set up for thurs. If it comes tomorrow, we''d have to set up closing for Fri. So frustrating.

Nel glad you''re feeling a bit better. best of luck with the appraisal process!
 
Wow I can''t believe some of the things you ladies are going through! You are all doing an amazing job of it though.

Does anybody have any experience with well water/septic? We are looking for a place with some land and that means that we''re looking out in areas where there''s very little public water/sewer. I''ve never been on well/septic, and I''ve been trying to do some research on it in my spare time but are there any major points to consider? FI assures me that as long as it''s properly taken care of everything is fine, but I''m not so sure.
 
rhb, did you get word yesteday? Are you going to be able to close tomorrow?

ts44, I grew up on well water, but when buying we only considered one house that had a well. The biggest issue we had with our well growing up is that it would occasionally run dry. There were also issues when it would flood.

The house that we were looking at that had a well ALSO had city water, so the well was only used to water the lawn. The homeowners had prevoiusly used the well for drinking water, however a stream ran through the property and that stream was deemed "conservation land" by the gov''t. Because their private water and sewerage was near this stream, the homeowners had to install a very expensive system (out of their own pocket). They made the upgrade to the septic, but couldn''t afford to upgrade the well system, which is why they could no longer use it for drinking. Once I found out that the gov''t could force you to upgrade your systems if you lived near conservation land, I stayed far away from it.

The house we are buying has private sewerage. In terms of maintenance, you need to pump it every couple of years. When buying, we researched how many times it had been pumped and obviously it had to pass Title V. Also, homes with private septic are not supposed to have garbage disposals. Who knew.

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We signed the P&S last night. The sellers'' agent had accidentally printed out an older version of one of the addendums, though, so it was hectic. My meticulous husband brought a copy of all the suggested changes and noticed that one wasn''t in there. Chaos insued. We finally got the sellers'' agent to come out and everything worked out fine.

I think we''re going to go ahead and lock in our rate today. Also, the seller wants to rent the property from us for a week, which means that we would only have 1 day to move (She''d move out on June 30th, we''d move in on June 30th). I''m not sure if it''s such a good idea, but I also don''t want to be mean and tell her no.
 
congrats NEL! What rate are you locking in at? Good luck with the last steps and you deserve some celebration after this long and arduous journey!!!!

I''d say maybe go half way on the week? One day is tough unless you''re ok with being on mattresses etc. that first night..even then, it''ll be rough.
 
Thanks, Janinegirly! You have been such a sweetheart and super supportive. I appreciate it very much!

I genuinely think it will be much easier from here on out. Our mortgage broker has everything she needs from us, we just have to fax over the final P&S and we''ll have officially applied for the mortgage. I don''t have the appraisal scheduled yet, but it should be in the next 2 weeks and I''m not worried about it. At this point I feel we have plenty of time.

Yesterday the rate from the lendor we are using was 5.375%. I haven''t asked for the rate today, but I would love for it to be 5.25%. The rates have been trending down slightly over the past couple of weeks.
 
We did hear from everyone. All the paperwork is in. Short sale approval FINALLY in. Now the mortgage closer is contacting our closing company and they know we would like to close tomorrow. Hopefully everyone makes this happen. I''m really sick of waiting!

congrats NEL, so glad things are going well. We locked in at 5.375 as well, with no points. Wish it was a bit lower, but whatcha gonna do? :-)
 
Bad news...not sure what''s going to happen.

The appraisal came back for the purchase price, we thought we were square. The UW''s are being unreasonable. They told us we were fine, so we went ahead with the inspection yesterday. Today we get back a list of ''conditions''. 2 conditions physically can not be met.

The house we''re *attempting* to buy, is 2 stories. There are no comps that are 2 stories. End of story. We used square footage, acreage, features (like sheds and carports) for comps. They all happen to be one story homes. They support the price and the UWs don''t have a problem with the value (on this front anyway). However, they want 2 story comps.

Condition 1 - At least three solds, and Condition 2 -at least two actives. The solds can''t be more than 90-120 days old with comparable square footage, beds, baths, and acreage, etc. Well lo and behold, there are NONE ZIP ZERO ZILCH in the last 120 days. Yes, ZERO. The other way it was worded is that they also have to be in the house''s "Immediate Neighborhood". Well, NEWSFLASH!! This house is NOT in a subdivision. It has NO NEIGHBORHOOD! Yet, it is what they require. Our appraiser is going back a year to try and find something they may consider, but there physically are none in 120 days.

If they won''t take what we can find and be reasonable, this whole deal is done. We''ll miss the tax credit and probably not be buying any house at all. Worse off, we already submitted notice to vacate on our apartment and since there was a waitlist for our floorplan, it''s already been leased. So we have to move to another crap ass apartment if this falls through too.

Ugh. I just want to cry. Another *Former* fan of House Hunters who now officials hates HGTV and how damn easy they make this whole process seem. We were so happy yesterday evening, the inspection went well, no major problems. We thought were almost done.
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rhb, I am keeping my fingers closed that tomorrow is your day!!

Audball, I am sooo sorry this is happening. Not having comparable sales comps has always been a fear of mine--I've never known what is to be done in a situation like that. I know that the last house we were going to buy had virtually no sales comps in the area for the past six months and I asked my agent what would happen in a situation like that. We never got that far! What's infuriating in your situation is that a.) you have the one-story comps and the underwriters seem okay with that, but STILL need the 2-story comps. and b)They severely limited your window by only allowing comps from the past 120 days! That's crazy! It's hard enough finding comps within 6 months (which seems to be the industry standard), but 4 months would be extremely difficult.

I am so, so sorry that you're in this situation. Especially since you basically HAVE to move whether or not you get the house. The feeling of everything falling apart and being powerless to stop it is the worst. At this point, is finding another lendor completely out of the question?

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I breathed a sigh of relief today only to find out this afternoon that apparently I wasn't supposed to be on the P&S because the mortgage is going to be in D's name only (I'm job hunting and didn't want that to be an issue if I found a job before we closed). I told our lawyer (who works for the lendor!) to take me off the P&S since I didn't think I would be considered a "buyer" two weeks ago. He assured me I should still be on there even if my name was only going to be on the deed. And now here we are--the P&S has been signed, we absolutely have to apply for the mortgage by tomorrow and I have to revise the P&S.
 
Audball-We went through something similar. We are in an area in California absolutely riddled with short sales but of course nothing is actually closing. And if you are someone who has owned your house for years you don't move unless you absolutely have to since home values are SO low right now.

Anyway, last year when we were buying we had the most pain in the butt underwriters ever. I mean EVERY DAY I would be assured they had everything they needed, then they came back with some ridiculous request later that night. We did use a mortgage broker and they were servicing our loan in-house, so she might have been able to do some convincing. But we really didn't have any comps in our area either that were either sold or for sale and for a realistic price (i.e., not a short sale). Our house was an anomaly in our neeighborhood because it was a divorce sale. It was an issue for a day or so, then our broker put some pressure on them and they accepted a few other comps that were outside of their first parameters instead. It was a few stressful days but they did finally relent.

Is there any way your agent or even you guys could talk to the underwriters and try to reason with them? Ask them if there is anything else they would accept or anything else you can do for them? You might find that they can accept some combination of other things in lieu of the two conditions that can't be met.
 
Date: 4/28/2010 8:00:20 PM
Author: NewEnglandLady
rhb, I am keeping my fingers closed that tomorrow is your day!!

Audball, I am sooo sorry this is happening. Not having comparable sales comps has always been a fear of mine--I've never known what is to be done in a situation like that. I know that the last house we were going to buy had virtually no sales comps in the area for the past six months and I asked my agent what would happen in a situation like that. We never got that far! What's infuriating in your situation is that a.) you have the one-story comps and the underwriters seem okay with that, but STILL need the 2-story comps. and b)They severely limited your window by only allowing comps from the past 120 days! That's crazy! It's hard enough finding comps within 6 months (which seems to be the industry standard), but 4 months would be extremely difficult.

I am so, so sorry that you're in this situation. Especially since you basically HAVE to move whether or not you get the house. The feeling of everything falling apart and being powerless to stop it is the worst. At this point, is finding another lendor completely out of the question?

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I breathed a sigh of relief today only to find out this afternoon that apparently I wasn't supposed to be on the P&S because the mortgage is going to be in D's name only (I'm job hunting and didn't want that to be an issue if I found a job before we closed). I told our lawyer (who works for the lendor!) to take me off the P&S since I didn't think I would be considered a 'buyer' two weeks ago. He assured me I should still be on there even if my name was only going to be on the deed. And now here we are--the P&S has been signed, we absolutely have to apply for the mortgage by tomorrow and I have to revise the P&S.
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Hi NEL and NF, yes, this is a very defeating feeling. It's like they're writing the conditions to be something they know we can't meet (and they are, even our broker said they're trying to get us to quit so that they don't have to write the loan). At this point, it is out of the question to switch lenders. We're in FL, and tihs is a USDA eligibile property. The lender we're using is the only one left accepting USDA applications, and even they stopped accepting them 3 days ago. So the only way to switch is to go back to FHA, but then we have 3.5% coming out of our pockets for the downpayment (about $6k) and because of the inspection (house is being sold as-is with right to inspect btw) we can't really afford to switch at this point. The shed attached to the carport (which is detatched from the house) had live subterranean termites that we have to (per the mortgage) complete full treatment on before they'll write us (about $1k to do the whole house and detached structures) and the AC inspector said we have a 12 year old AC Compressor/Handler that has a 14 year life span. So we're looking at having to have that replaced all but immediately and he estimated for the size and the fact that there are 2, we'd be looking at about $8k. So with everything we need to do quickly, I don't think we can comfortably afford to switch to FHA. We need that money to help fix some of these things. Not to mention the rennovations it needs to be suitable for us to live in. I'm just getting to the point where I feel like we're not supposed to be buying right now and that for some unknown reason to me, God is trying to tell me to back off and let it go. This is so hard.

As for trying to reason with the underwriters, we're not even allowed to talk to them. So we're pushing our broker, who's pushing the lender, who is supposedly 'pushing' the underwriteres to make this happen, but the lender doesn't want it to for whatever reason. Our broker has been great this whole time and has been honest about where he thought we were/how we were doing, etc. Even he told me yesterday that he is not optimistic about what this outcome will be.

The UWs whole argument is that this house isn't marketable. They've more or less accepted the value that the appraiser put on the house (*another story, see below), but they're saying that a two story home is not something that sells easily and that is why they won't do it. And they kind of have a point, I guess. This house had been on the market for almost 500 days when we made an offer, and we've been their sole offer the entire time, despite that they've dropped the price by more than $50k in the last year and a half. The location is a stable area too, so there isn't a lot of turnover and while 2 story homes do exist, none have been sold or listed for sale in the last year, let alone four months (save this one). This is NOT going to be our forever home and I can't help but wonder if it's going to be this difficult for us to sell this house when we're ready to move on.

*They're still arguing the value isn't there too though. This house is about 5 minutes from a small community airport. My FF is a private pilot and for us, this was a good thing. But the UWs think that the value should be docked severly for being so close to the 'noise pollution'. It's tiny 2-4 seater cessna style planes. It's not like living under the final leg of an international airport with 747s. The appriaser already deducted $5k in value for being so close in proximity, but they're pushing for it to be more. The appriasal (as is) came in at EXACTLY what we're in contract for. So if they push and make the value less, then we're having to renogitate with the sellers (who we KNOW want to sell this place) but they're on the verge of it being a shortsale which we don't have time for. They're kicked in 6% for our closing (a little over $10k) so if they dock the value, to keep themselves out of shortsale, they'll probably ask to take back closing costs first, and again, with all the repairs and rennos needed, we can't afford to do it.

I'm really coming to the conclusion that we can't afford to do this. Not comfortably. Not really at all. The terms as is would be fine, but they just aren't gonig to let this happen.
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Thanks everyone for letting me vent, S is already stressed out (finals week) so I've been trying not to put anymore of this on him than necessary.
 
Audball- I just wanted to say that I''m so sorry all of this is happening to you. It does seem like an impossible situation. Hugs to you and your SO.
 
Ditto CTek Audball. What a sucky situation. I hope you get things squared away soon.

BTW CTek, how''s your home selling adventure going?
 
Thanks for the support HH and Ctek...It means a lot. This is jus tso frusterating. S really doesn''t want to let it go, but I have a sinking feeling that it''s time to walk away.
 
Date: 4/29/2010 2:10:12 PM
Author: audball
Thanks for the support HH and Ctek...It means a lot. This is jus tso frusterating. S really doesn''t want to let it go, but I have a sinking feeling that it''s time to walk away.
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What do you stand to lose by walking away? Would you get your deposit back?
 
Date: 4/29/2010 5:23:42 PM
Author: Clairitek
Date: 4/29/2010 2:10:12 PM

Author: audball

Thanks for the support HH and Ctek...It means a lot. This is jus tso frusterating. S really doesn''t want to let it go, but I have a sinking feeling that it''s time to walk away.
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What do you stand to lose by walking away? Would you get your deposit back?
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We''d be out the money for the appraisal ($400) and the money for the inspection ($425). We would get our earnest deposit back ($500). We have an ''out'' if we want to take it. The house was as-is with right to inspect. The house currently has (the shed only) subterranean termites. We can back out if there''s anything in the inspection we don''t like, but that''s a big one. Other issues include air on it''s way out, etc. Besides the fact that atm we can''t get financing...

At this point, if this house doesn''t work (doesn''t seem like it is) we won''t be buying a house right now. So we''re also out $400 from the appraisal on the first house we had a contract on so we''re out a total of $1225 for nothing. Grand scheme of things, not the end of the world, but it still sucks to take that kind of hit. Not to mention the emotional roller coaster of the last 4 months.

Overall though, I''m done and over it. I''m ready to start looking at rental homes so we can get a yard for our new dog. The rent we''re currently paying on our townhouse ($1408/mo) will EASILY afford us a 3/2 house probably with a garage and definitely a fenced yard. I think that''s our best bet at the moment. At least that way we''re not stuck in a house that seems to be truly unsellable. We are finishing up our master''s degress and who knows what doors that would open up. It seems like it be what''s best for us and I can''t help but feel that this is happening for a reason we don''t yet know.
 
I just wanted to send my support out to you Audball.
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I am sorry you are going through this, but I think you are looking at things the right way and have a good head on your shoulders. Again, I am sorry..sending you tons of hugs and dust. Please keep us updated on your search for a new rental if that''s the direction you go in, I know y''all will find something amazing!
 
NEL: Thank you for the input on the well water/septic. The not having a garbage disposal is something I didn''t know, and what''s funny is the house at the top of our list right now has a garbage disposal! FI noticed it when we were in there. I mentioned the concern about the well going dry to my sister, who is a geologist, and she did some in-depth research on the aquifers in the area. She said we won''t have to worry about it running dry without a MAJOR prolonged (year+) drought, which in NE Ohio will never happen, so that gives me some peace of mind.

Audball: I''m so sorry for your troubles.
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It sounds heartbreaking and I''m so impressed that you''re maintaining a positive attitude - I''m positive something good will come your way!
 
Hi everyone! I am finally jumping in and already frustrated and feel the need to vent.
So we are living abroad and have been searching the listings for the last two years. We finally have our move back date and have been sending my FI's parents to scoope out potential streets and areas.

So there is this one house that we are in love with and would consider making a trip home just to see it, but we wanted our parents to look first because if they didn't think it was amazing we weren't going to make the trip. So we realized we need to hire an RA so we called the RA for the house and left a long detailed message with her secretary. Our issue is we are probably honest to a fault so we laid out the situation.

3 weeks passed and we never heard back so we looked into it more and decided hiring a buyer's agent is better for us. We found one we liked and have hired him and sent him a list of houses including the one we love and asked him to find out more information. Imagine my shock yesterday when the other RA calls about the house. I am not a rude person and I wasn't sure how to handle it so I kept the conversation vague and short, but I did ask the questions I had about the property since I am still not impressed with our buyer's agent and him not responding to some of our other questions. She of course was pushing herself on us and I just kept being vague like thank you, we will call you if interested.

I wasn't sure what I was supposed to say- I have never done this before and frankly before then it had been 4 days and we had not heard back from our agent (and we have not actually signed ANYTHING with him) and I was getting a bit annoyed. SO...last night we finally talk to our agent and he comes out and says they spoke to the RA from the house we loved and they said they felt she knew too much about us and you could tell they were pissed. We were honest and like we called her a month ago before we even spoke to you and she coincidentally got back to us yesterday. Now it makes sense she called back because she didn't take our message seriously at first and obviously now does and wanted to poach us. Our agent was like from now on you just say we hired someone else. I admit I should have said that, but I am always polite and have trouble in new situations and again my frustration is that I felt really chided and that our agent was thinking we are sketchy and was sort of reprimanding us. Did he not think we interviewed or spoke to other agents before hiring him? Isn't that normal? We have never been through this and I am still not 100% happy with his lack of communication so I hate that I am feeling guilty when I don't think I did anything wrong and I don't want this relationship to be strained, but I also don't like feeling like a child when we are spending an obscene amount of money (stupid long island prices). ARRRRGH. Sorry for the length I just have no one else to talk to about this!
 
Are you under contract with this jerky agent? Your agent needs to be on your side. There''s a time and a place for egos and this is not it. If you don''t care for his style of communication or his attitude, then you should really look for someone else. When you call to fire him use the same line he told you to use on the other agent "we hired someone else." If he pushes you can be honest and say you don''t care to be condescended to and have chosen someone else who has a preferable communication style.
 
Date: 4/30/2010 8:55:52 AM
Author: Hudson_Hawk
Are you under contract with this jerky agent? Your agent needs to be on your side. There's a time and a place for egos and this is not it. If you don't care for his style of communication or his attitude, then you should really look for someone else. When you call to fire him use the same line he told you to use on the other agent 'we hired someone else.' If he pushes you can be honest and say you don't care to be condescended to and have chosen someone else who has a preferable communication style.
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This was the first thing I thought as well--sba, did you sign a contract with the the pushy agent? With all of the agents out there, you need to keep interviewing until you find one that you really click with. While a pushy agent may be good when it comes to buying and getting everything done (who knows, he may be a fabulous negotiator), having to deal with a pushy agent while you hunt will make you miserable! Keep searching!

Audball, how are you holding up today? Are you working against any type of deadline here or is it over simply because it's at a standstill and you can't get approval. I think you scheduled close date was 5/12, right? And the mortgage commitment is usually 2 weeks before closing (which would have been 4/28). Is the house absolutely not happening if that is the case?

I guess at the very least you can get all of your deposit money back. I know how much it stinks to be out the inspection (and appraisal). I agree that the emotional loss is harder than the financial loss. The good news for you is that a.) You can most certainly find a fabulous home to rent with a great fenced-in yard for your doggy and b.) I think you are absolutely right about having trouble selling the house in the future since it's been on the market for 500+ days. Renting for another year or more will be fine--we went through something similar last year. We wanted to buy in 2008, but it didn't happen, so we decided to move out of our 2-family rental and rent a single family home until we were ready to buy. We found a house that was perfect for the two of us (plus a fenced-in yard for the dogs) and have been very happy there. Everything doees work out for a reason!

ts44, it's great your sister is a geologist and could give you that information--that's very helpful! Do you guys think you'll be putting in an offer on this house?

laughwithme, are you still around? I think the last we heard from you is that you had an offer on the table! I've been wondering if the sellers accepted or you were able to negotiate something...
 
HH and NEL - we haven''t actually signed yet! Which makes me happy. We are going away for the next 10 days sans computer (thank goodness) so I am going to use that time to have a serious talk with the FI about this guy and if he is the right one for us. I think you are both right and this is such an important thing that I feel I should listen to my gut.
 
NEL: We aren''t sure! It seems strange since we''ve only looked at like 25 houses to consider putting a bid on one, but it''s in the area we want, and it''s the right size, the right price, and as far as we can tell it has good "bones". There are a few things we''d have to change, but they''re all cosmetic. The kitchen was redone and has granite countertops, but they only put new hardware on the cabinets and they''re bowed and sagging, so new cabinets would be a must. The house is a typical center-hall colonial, and to the left as you walk in there''s a front living room and then directly behind that room is a family room that''s the same size. However, for some reason there''s no doorway between the front living room and the family room, you have to keep walking down the hallway into the kitchen in the back, then make a right turn into the family room to access it - so at some point we''d have to cut into the wall between those two rooms and open it up because it feels too closed-in as it is, if that makes sense. At the same time, I''d do wood floors in both rooms because right now they have carpet and it''s kind of janky-looking.

Most importantly, it has LAND! Three whole acres of it! Two acres are woods going straight back, and the back of the lot is bordered by a cornfield. If they ever did put a development in back there as the area expands, you would never see it through the woods. And it''s only five minutes from a freeway. FI is starting to get emotionally involved in this house and I keep telling him to stay impartial, but it''s hard for him because he wants land so bad. The other houses we''ve seen have all had less than half an acre.

We''re going out again this Saturday to look at more in the area, but frankly I''m almost ready to discuss putting a bid on this one. It''s only been on the market for 50 days though, so maybe the sellers would take a long time to accept an offer?
 
ts44, this sounds good so far! If it''s in the right location, is the right size and is the right price, then that''s a great start. And as you said, having a few acres is important for you and FI and having those woods (in case of future developments) is great! If the yard is an acre, that shouldn''t be too overwhelming. I''m saying that hopefully because we are in a similar situation and have never had to take care of a yard that was more than about a third of an acre (at least not since I was a kid).

The updates don''t sound overwhelming either! New cabinets won''t be bad and you can figure out exaclty how you want to connect the living/family room after living there for a bit. Putting in hardwoods won''t be bad. We plan to do that in our master bedroom as well, which is currently the only carpeted room. We may wait a couple of years, I''m not sure yet. Our home also has a living and family room that are right next to each other and the exact same size. They do have a hallway in between (the original front door opened up to both of them), but we can''t tear down the wall and completely open them up because the original staircase goes in between. Anyway, if you decide to get this house these projects sound do-able!

Good luck!!
 
Thanks again everyone. We''re hanging in there. We''re sort of going to be forced to make a decision today about whether to stick it out or walk away. I''m on the walk away side of the fence, S is still on the sticking it out side. The scheduled closing date (5/12) is absolutely not going to happen. IF closing this deal at all could still happen, we''d be looking at first week of June (if we''re lucky) for closing. That''s making me uneasy since our lease is up 6/30.

We have until tomorrow to submit notice on our townhouse. We either renew and keep our current rate forcing us to pull out of the contact, we can terminate and risk having to scramble to find something at the last minute (within in ~2 weeks of being utterly homeless...) if the deal fails entirely (which seems likely), or knowingly pull out today and terminate our lease giving us 8 weeks to find a great new rental.

I''ve scheduled to go see a townhouse that I think we can make work for us this afternoon. It''s price/month is nearly HALF what we''re paying now, certainly smaller and lacks some amenities, but it has its props. We''d lose sqaure footage (about 600, that we honestly don''t need/use), we''d lose garages (which while I adore, are not worth double in rent to us), but we''d gain a butt ton of cash in our pockets/month that we''d otherwise spend on rent (about $1000/month total between lower rent and utilities) and this townhouse has a small fenced courtyard that would suit our 11 lb mini schnuazer just perfectly. If it looks as nice as the photos when I see it today, I really feel this is where we should go. $1000/month over the next 1-4 years could really boost the bank and savings making this process a bit easier on us (financially) on our next go around.

S also is a private pilot. He has his license and his VFR rating. He''s been itching to do his Instrument rating but we haven''t had the spare cash. His flight school is running a special (through tomorrow, of all days....) that as many hours as you want to pre-pay for, they''ll take 30% off. That''s HUGE savings for something he will be doing as soon as possible anyway. The only way we can afford to do so is to use the little bit of money we have set aside for the house, for his hours. This also means pulling out of the contract and *prefearbly* finding less expensive housing so we can save save save....

Lots to think about. The broker also noted today that if UW doesn''t clear up the appraisal issues/conditions until the end of next week, USDA is running 3 weeks for loan guarantee and for our state (FL) USDA funding is supposed to "burnt out" around ~5/13 which is why we were aiming for 5/12. He said there''s a solid chance that even if the appraisal stuff does get cleared up in the next week to ten days, that we can still lose financing and have lost time to find a new rental and the great opportunity for S''s flight hours.

I really feel it''s just not the right time anymore and that we need to walk away. I just hope I can convince S to let this go and move on. He''s so disappointed, not that I''m not. I''ve just been the one in the thick of it for so long, I know all the details in and out of the ups and downs and he''s been so busy the last few months he''s been involved, but certainly not to the extent that I have. He still has hope. I feel after talking with our broker that the hope is gone and I''m trying to make him see it. This is happening for a reason, I think we need to take the sign, take our out, and move on.

I''ll let you guys know how everything turns out for us, in the meantime, thanks again to everyone for your support and well wishes. I do hope everyone/everything is going in positive directions for you all. I don''t have time to write to everyone individually at the moment, but you''re all in my thoughts and I hope things are going well.
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Sorry to hear about all the troubles audball, but it sounds like you have a great perspective on things and a plan that will help things go smoother the next time around.

Also, it''s so cool your hubby is a pilot! I"m terrified of heights, so I''m always impressed by people who love it up there!
 
Date: 4/30/2010 7:02:18 PM
Author: MakingTheGrade
Sorry to hear about all the troubles audball, but it sounds like you have a great perspective on things and a plan that will help things go smoother the next time around.

Also, it''s so cool your hubby is a pilot! I''m terrified of heights, so I''m always impressed by people who love it up there!
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Thanks MTG. It''s pretty cool to go up with him.

Anyway, we decided to pull the plug on this whole operation. Our broker, real estate agent, all of the above are disappointed to lose out after all this work, but I feel it''s what we need to do. We''re still uncertain as to whether or not we''re going to sign our lease tomorrow or let that go too...we''d really love to get our costs down. The apts I saw today are not acceptable. We''re going to try and ask for a 2-3 day ''grace period'' on the 60 day notice and see if they''ll let us decide on Monday. Tell them that there are issues with our contract and that we should know something by Monday. That would give us the weekend to see if there''s something out there that we''d like to save money. If it''s the same cost, we might as well stay and not incur the pain and costs of moving...hopefully they''ll be receptive. For now, though, no house for us. One day, one day...
 
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