Ongoing.....

Since our last chat not much has changed, except for our closing date.

Again.

And for good measure, AGAIN!!

That's right, it changed twice. We extended our closing date to October 19th and then we were requested to push it even farther to October 31st. Just in case.

Just in case what exactly?

Just in case USDA closes for a week in October to do their end of year reports.  Just in case there is a nightmare with USDA boundaries. Just in case our underwriter didn't have all their shit together.

Oh I am so ready.

This is my favorite time of the year and I am being jipped. I don't get to decorate, or bake. In fact, my house has been half-packed for over a month now!

I am missing out on a great time of year, of settling in and getting cozy. A time when we still have semi long days and sunshine to dry the paint. Time before the rains to dry our crawlspace and blow insulation into the attic. The magic Indian summer that Washington always manages to snag. We don't get to take advantage.

Although, I did sneak up to the house yesterday and place gutter splash guards at the bottom of all the gutters. In our inspection we found that there is nothing directing rainwater away from the foundation. No problems with the foundation (thank goodness!) but it does cause a water issue in the crawl space that can be remedied for $30 at home depot. I wanted to get those babies down before our first big rain so that we don't have to deal with it.

In going up to the house we did find that the previous tenants are completely moved out. They even were nice enough to do a real good thorough cleaning of the place! It even looked like the carpets were steamed. On a bad note, every door was unlocked.   I went through and locked up most of what I could, the slider doors don't seem to lock but we put sticks in the tracks.

I was so nervous on the drive up that it would be trashed and vandalized but so far so good! I just want to get in. I just want my home.

For now, we wait some more. You think I would be so much better at this waiting game now that we are 6 months in to this process!!

I leave you with the listing photos until we can get the keys and take our own:

Nothing goes as planned

We are now at the end of September and I still am sitting in a rental apartment surrounded by boxes.

Our closing date was supposed to be on September 14th. Now our new date is September 28th and we were told a second extension may be necessary. An extension into October.

Oh and USDA underwriting does their end of year reports in October so they close down for about a week. So we may not actually be able to close in time for that extension.

Did I tell you that my agent says we most likely wont even get this second extension? Did I tell you that the closing date is in less than a week? And we haven't even applied for a second extension?!

This has been tough. We got our acceptance from the lien holder at the end of July. We were told that we had a complete package to ship off to USDA and that we had a 97% chance of everything being perfect.

BWUAHAHAHAHA They got JOKES!! JOKES I TELL YA!!!

The day we went to go do a walk through of the house after acceptance we found out that the seller's still had not completed the list of things they needed to fix (it was a whopping 4 things that would cost about $250) and so that would postpone us being able to go to underwriting.  A little over a week later we received confirmation that the repairs were made and we could move forward.

I then got a call saying that their was a disputed item on my credit that didn't show in the first few initial credit checks and that USDA had changed the guidelines and would not accept someone with a dispute. We had to hire a company to take the dispute status off of my credit item. They took about a week for some reason and by now we were pushed to about 3 weeks out from our closing date.

Once we FINALLY got the dispute taken off my credit they ran a new check. Wouldn't you know it, my score dropped by about 23 points just because I no longer had a disputed line item (which still should be in dispute or taken off completely). I got a call while driving to work and was told that I was now 3 points below where I needed to be to be accepted for the USDA program.

Yep. Ridiculous.

I was under the impression that we just had to get through this one hurdle and then we would be in the safe zone and on our way to home ownership!

We had no options. We were told that the deal would have to die unless we could find a cosigner. There was no way to raise my points in time for closing. So I had them run Cory's information for the whole loan. Wouldn't ya know it, he could be on the loan alone. One problem was his debt to income ratio. You see, we just bought a truck about 2 years ago. A brand new and expensive truck. But we were told if he sold the truck he would still be eligible for the loan.

I did what any good girlfriend would do, I went to the dealership the next day and sold them Cory's truck just so I could buy it back. It cost us another $4,700 in taxes and licensing but it means we could have the house.......

Or so we thought.

One thing after another keeps happening.  And time after time we find a way to fix it.

I don't know how many times I have had to turn in the same paperwork just to get a call and be told they need it again. Or how many times I have had to micromanage them and tell them how to do their jobs.

We received confirmation last week that our loan was accepted through the mortgage company and could finally be sent out as a complete package to USDA.  Oh, and we have EQUITY!!! So we actually rolled closing costs in to our loan so we can have cash money for renovations.

It has been tough. It has made us fight hard and we will not accept defeat. This house will be ours. One way or another.

I'm assuming their will still be more to creep up. It seems that there always is. We will just keep moving forward and please just keep those fingers crossed for us. We need some luck around these parts. We really need something good to happen.

Initial here, sign there

Yesterday morning we started the day out with a lot of thinking.

Numbers and fine print were on the agenda.

We went and met with our awesome lender, Robin Gentry at Mortgage Advisory Group, and submitted or last few statements and paystubs. We signed a whole bunch of papers and got the ball rolling for the USDA loan that we are utilizing.

The rates right now are insanely low (3.75% anyone?) and we are hoping we can lock-in within the next few weeks!

So now we have our closing date of no later than September 14th and we are just waiting on a few repairs to be made this week so the appraisal can go through.

We are really hoping that it is appraised a little higher than purchase for some instant equity. The goal is to be able to roll about 3k of our closing into the loan so we have some cash to do some of the immediate fix-its from the inspection. We are only able to do that if we are appraised higher. So fingers crossed!

We also got the chance to drive up to the house and do a walk through. Make sure we are still interested and see if we have any new questions. We met our agent, Ginger York from Keller Williams, as well as the listing agent there to sign the final addendum.

As we did I found a very large discrepancy in our closing costs of about $1700! So happy I found it and so nice to see that off the balance!

As we wandered the house we realized a few things that we never noticed before and were reminded of a few glaring things as well.

The sellers are no longer living there and have a bit of stuff moved out so we really got a better feel for the size of the house and I was so pleasantly surprised! It's much bigger and taller than I remember!

We also realized, now that crap isn't everywhere, that every room has different carpet. The living room is yellow, dining room is hardwood, kitchen is vinyl, family room is berber biege, hallway is yellowish, guest rooms used to be white/gray, master is a different tone of biege/white, master closet is pink, and the step into the garden tub is pink carpet too!

We also have every room except the master painted a different color. And some are multi-colored! Paint funds will be extreme! I will be taking donations/helping hands for that project!

Other than all the fun cosmetic projects, I went through our inspection sheets and feel pretty confident about getting our home homey and livable by the holidays!

Until the next bump in the road, I leave you with paperwork!

We got it!

We freaking got it!

We are officially in escrow!

We got the call yesterday that the lien holder approved our price and we can follow through with the purchase of our own home!

The only snag so far is that they lowered the amount they are willing to pay for closing. A bit of a bummer but not too big of an issue.

We are sitting down on Tuesday with our lender to start all the paperwork and then heading out to the house to meet with our agent and see the home again!

I can not wait! We are so terrified and so excited!

If all goes as planned we should be in the house by the end of September. Which means..... We will be in our home for my favorite time of year!

Please keep us in your thoughts so it all goes smoothly!

Down with the cuteness

It's been a tough few months. We are so ready to have an answer on this house. Or to at least have a direction, a timeline, any news at all. But we don't and so we wait.

In the time of waiting and saving we try to embrace each other and keep the love alive. No easy thing when we work opposite schedules,let me tell you!

Once a week we hit a movie or dinner, sometimes lunch if we won't see each other for dinner.

I love these little moments we spend together. I am reminded daily of how wonderful he is and how freaking cute that face is!  Even when the laundry doesn't get switched or the dishes put away or any little thing doesn't get done he gets away with it because that freaking face!

It makes me a bit nervous about what our future child will get away with!

So until we have a house to fill our time and drive us crazy I will just continue to enjoy our time together!

Cuteness and mushy overload!

Stagnant.....

We are stagnant.

We are stale.

We are DONE!

Done with the waiting and having our life on hold! This home buying process has been draining. So draining. And we have only just started.

We are almost three months in from the date of placing an offer and I feel like nothing has changed. It was all go go go at the start. So many addendums, inspections, drive bys. It all was happening so fast. And then we hit the brick wall that is a short sale.

We are at the mercy of the lienholder. Just waiting and waiting for the call and hoping it is a good one. And then the stress really starts.

Until then our lives are on hold. We just keep working and saving and passing each other like ships in the night. Only pausing once a week for dinner together. We miss each other. We miss our lives.

Right now we can't change a single thing about our money. I can't switch to a better job, although I Sooo desperately want and need to. The vw is slowly breaking down and not so reliable but we can't get a new car. Our mattress leaves much to be desired and we are taking turns sleeping on the couch.

It's not all negative but it is all tho he that we badly need to fix, replace or purchase and we can't. We must wait. Our credit can not change until the keys are handed over.

I can't release until then. The pressure is so needing a little escape. A little good news, a little forward motion, a little something, anything.

The abyss of not knowing is driving me insane. I just want our life to begin! Until then, we do drive-bys (with the tinted windows rolled up) about once a month to remind me why we are doing this. So, I leave you with this....... A picture of our hopefully-ours-home.

I'm back!

Oh happy day! I finally downloaded the Blogger app so I can actually blog again!

Our powercord broke a few months ago for our laptop and trying to blog from my phone on the full site was next to impossible but now I'm mobile! Yay!

I work in a few minutes but just wanted to say you shall be expecting much much more from me!