So our “earnest money” check was cashed today, after the homeowner signed the offer last week… Granted, that is the furthest we have ever gotten in shopping for a house, but it still does not mean much – since this is a short sale, the offer still has to be approved by the bank holding the mortgage and the investors who actually own the mortgage. We will see.
Man, Do I remember the house hunting drama.
We must have looked at over 50 houses trying to find the “right” one. Our persistence (mostly her stubbornness) paid off in the end.
I’ll keep you in my prayers for a successful completion.
I appreciate that, Bob… We have been looking for over a year now, and have honestly lost count of the number of houses we have looked at. Hopefully this will work out, though given the condition the house is in, that is only just the beginning…
Linoge,
I have the original blue prints for the home.
I can promise you: It doesn’t matter what shape the house is it — It is only the beginning.
The only difference is the timing, some houses require immediate action and some require a few months.
We lucked out and found a great house that had been well maintained– a home owned by only 1 couple. A home that was built in 1969
Yet, there are so many projects stacked up waiting for time/energy/money.
Start asking for gift cards (birthdays/Christmas) to your local hardware stores.
Keep us informed and good luck friend.
Heh, well, this house will need about its purchase price in work within the first six to twelve months of ownership. Granted, if we can actually get it, we are purchasing it at a very good price for the area and neighborhood, but that is still an imposing amount of work.
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I can definitely understand maintaining and improving a house (and have every intention of doing so with any house we purchase), but this one actually requires some habitability repairs (broken windows, destroyed carpets, etc.). Once that gets taken care of, though, the real fun starts
Funny you mention the blueprints… there is a really nice house for sale in town that was a custom build for an engineer back in the 60s. Same owners still, and he has full documentation of everything in the house (a house which even has its very own fall-out shelter under the carport). A little cheaper, and it might have been ours…
Thanks for the good luck – the bank has not said “no” yet, but they have not said “yes” either.
I would be all over the house with the fall out shelter. Of course, my wife would never see it unless it was nuclear war.
She’s a weather nut. I’ve had to pull her inside and into shelter when there was a tornado less than a mile from the house.
I’ve been hearing that banks are taking up to 3-4 months to approve mortgages. Hang in there.
Believe you me, I was. Unfortunately, though, it is a bit far from where we want to be, it was a bit expensive, the house was a little quirky (hey, it was an engineer’s custom build), and the backyard apparently has standing water quite frequently. No individual item of those was entirely disqualifying, but taken collectively… yeah, you know how it goes
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The bank that owns the mortgage on this particular house has promised closing within a month (for whatever that is worth), and USAA says they can do two weeks if we push really really hard (from my past four years of experience with them, I can believe it). But first we have to get the mortgage-owning bank to acquiesce to taking a 50%+ loss on their investment in the house…