Closing!

After putting in our offer on June 29th and all the drama that has occurred in the last two weeks, we have finally closed on our first house.

For those of you who haven't heard, this house was a short sale; so most of the time we were waiting for the sellers back to work out an arrangement with the seller and approve the sale. Matt was calling our realtor every week to see if there was any progress. This required multiple extensions on our contract offer to be signed while we waited. When the sellers bank finally got everything in order, then we got the joy of jumping through all the hoops that our mortgage bank required. Since we were applying for an FHA loan, the bank could have stricter requirements. The bank appraised the house at the exact value at which we were purchasing the house. While this did not affect the process of getting the loan approved, it does seem a little shady. The bank also had to inspect the house and the inspector came back with a rather substantial list of thing that had to be fixed before the loan could be approved. Some of the things on the list were ridiculous: cleaning the gutters, painting the trim around the windows, removing the broken garage door opener, and putting up a railing on the stairs. Other items seemed reasonable: having the furnace and roof certified by professionals. We were able to negotiate with the seller to pay to have the small things done around the house. We had the furnace inspected and it past what ever test was required. The roof was a different story. We knew from our original inspection that the roof was going to need replacing in the near future, but we were hoping to get through the winter and replace it next summer. However, the bank was requiring a roofer to say that the roof would last two year and no one was willing to put that in writing. So we agreed to have the roof replaced. But the bank would not let us escrow the new roof. Basically we were being forced to gamble and put a new roof on a house that could possibly not end up being ours. Obviously we decided to bite the bullet and got it done. Unfortunately, our main realtor was in and out of the hospital during these last couple weeks, so it ended up being a whirl wind of stress and complications.

In the end, it worked out and we are now homeowners. Although there are many things we still would like to do as we get settled. Our first projects include: raking the leaves in the yard (yeah fall), putting in a dehumidifier in the basement, removing drywall in the basement and maybe removing the carpet in the dinning room and living room.