Plenty of stress on tap
Searching for a house is a lot of fun. Going to open houses, driving around scouting out neighborhoods, daydreaming about where we might end up and what we’ll do with more than 860 sq/ft. But the stress apparently really kicks in after you find a house and start the buying process.
When I bought my first house, it was pretty stress-free, except I had to make some minor “improvements” to the house myself before VA would approve the loan (it was unoccupied and in rough shape and the owners weren’t about to do anything to it). And it was only $50K.
Now we’re almost having to sign a new addendum every day and spend a lot of time waiting on people who are waiting on someone else to do something. We’re also condensing our closing down to two weeks. Our initial offer was posted on 11/9, and we’ll actually be closing on 11/24. I think that might be a record. We just got the appraisal and are waiting on underwriting to be expedited, and also waiting on the sellers to get appraisal and inspection reports back on the property they’re trying to buy to see if they can close. Any little thing that falls through will delay closing. Ugh! So we’re supposed to close on Wednesday only we don’t know for sure so can’t order refrigerators or utilities or cable…
Then in the meantime, we have to figure out what to do with our current house–sell or rent–and last night I confirmed that the new large living room windows are apparently heavier than the frame can support and so the structure is collapsing under the weight. Hooray! So who knows how much that’ll cost, and we’ll have to fix it before either selling or renting.
Not to be all bitchy, but I’m just blogging about what I know today. 🙂 The moral of this story? Ask me in two weeks. Heh… We want to eventually build, but judging from this, I’d probably wind up in an asylum before it was over.
November 18th, 2004 at 6:51 pm
I think closing on my house was about two weeks. Of course, it was a brand new house, and we were actually 90% done with closing before the house wa even done.
I’m renting it while the Army sends me around the old Confederacy…got an AF Captain living there right now.
November 18th, 2004 at 11:02 pm
Congratulations SU. The place looks wonderful from the pics. We were “fortunate” enough to rent an apartment that is being converted to a condo about a year and a half ago. Real-estate prices are CRAZY in New York, and Brooklyn is now almost as expensive as Manhattan. Still, being the tenant, we are guaranteed an “insider price” that is $60K below market. The identical unit next door which was unoccupied sold at full market price in 3 days.
Unfortunately, although we’ve signed a purchase agreement and got preliminary approval for financing, we probably won’t be able to close until mid January. The seller is still waiting on some paperwork for a tax abatement he applied for.
What a headache buying a home is.
November 19th, 2004 at 8:20 am
Who is MX5?
November 19th, 2004 at 9:54 am
MX5 is the new coblogger around here. You guys need to start paying attention 🙂