We have officially taken a flying leap...
Our house is on the market to sell.
I am not exactly sure what to expect. The amount of work that went into getting our house and yard cleaned up and organized just to let the Realtor enter and take pictures was huge. The signing of paperwork for the Realtor, and her listing the home was very simple by comparison. Now, we wait....
We wait to see if there is any interest in the house at all. We wait to see if there are any offers. We wait to see if we are on the right track or the wrong track with our housing situation.
We are also waiting for news on the house that we are seeking to purchase. Just over a month ago, we made an offer on a house that was a hair away from foreclosure. It is in short sale. The sellers are asking their mortgage company to accept our offer, which is short of the amount they owe on the property. Short sales take time. So, we wait...
Patience is a virtue.
But, not a virtue that I possess.
This whole experience is very odd to me. It is not a crisis. We are in no rush. Actually, most of the events are completely out of our hands. There is not much to even worry about. Does this mean I might be gaining some patience? Weird.
I can see that there is some sort of lesson here. I just don't know what that lesson is. The Referee and I are growing. We are communicating, weighing options, processing information, and making decisions together. We have not had such joint effort in a long time, if ever. It is strange. Nice strange, but definitely out of the norm for us.
I know God is in control. He does not need me to micromanage things.
I can't wait to see how this story unfolds. The parts I have experienced so far have been fun.
The house we are trying to buy, was on the market over a year ago. Our friends who live just up the street from it mentioned that we should buy it and become neighbors. I laughed off the idea, because we were not in the market to buy a house at all. I didn't even look at any details of the house.
I have driven past the house many times, and saw the "For Sale" sign out front. I was not phased.
Something changed one day in January. I drove past that house to take Jersey #1 and Jersey #2 to our friend's house, and all was well. A couple hours later, when I drove past again, the sign out front caught my eye. The top of the sign had been changed. Instead of reading "For Sale," it said, "4-Bedrooms."
That afternoon, I got on the computer and looked up the house information in the real estate directory. The price seemed VERY low for that neighborhood. There were other homes in that same neighborhood priced at least 20% higher. Otherwise, I noticed the home had a lot of features we say we want in our next home--2 living areas, a smaller yard, and a garage, specifically. I assumed something must be wrong with it, to be priced so low.
The following week, when I met with my friend and asked her what was the scoop on that house, and why was it priced so low? She explained that it was in foreclosure, and the owners had moved out of state with a job change. They had tried to sell it, tried to rent it, and that did not go well. Her face lit up when she asked if we might be interested in it. Initially I brushed off her excitement by saying that we were not actually looking for a house at this point, because other bills would need to be paid before we could even consider asking for a mortgage. She told me she and her family would be praying about it.
It was February before I finally mentioned the house to The Referee and told him about it and about the details our friend knew. We took a look at our financial situation and ran some numbers. We decided to tackle a couple more bills before even contacting the Realtor about the house.
The next day, The Referee had an idea about how readjust our finances and pay off two more of our smallest debts. We jokingly call it his "out of the box" thinking. I love making those final payments and shading the debts off my spreadsheet. Our debt snowball is really rolling now!
We took a second look at our finances, and talked about the opportunity again. Do we dare take out a mortgage on a new house before selling our current house? Do we think our house will sell well at all? Are we remembering all the expenses that are involved in moving and re-hooking up utilities? Yes.
I emailed our Realtor and gave her the information about the house and asked her to give us the "inside" scoop on the status of the house.....and if it was even worth going to the bank and asking for another mortgage.
She emailed back and said that house was in short sale, not yet foreclosure. She said she had experience with short sales, and they take longer to process, but were not necessarily bad. Financially, the house was a good deal. She said she would go see it in person that afternoon and email me some pictures.
She actually called me from the house, because she was so pleased with it as a nice house for our family. She described the details and emailed me pictures. She said it was definitely worth going to the bank and seeing about a loan. So we did. That evening, the Realtor called me to say that the sellers had just decreased the listing price THAT DAY! They had no idea we were interested, and they are desperate to sell it. The decreased price was the exact price The Referee and I had talked about offering.
The loan adviser called me the next morning and said we were in good shape for a loan, and she only needed minimal paperwork to verify income. I admit I was a bit surprised by this information. Part of me was expecting the bank to say no to another mortgage, which would put an end to this pursuit immediately.
That weekend, we arranged with our Realtor to go see the house, in-between some of the kids' basketball games. I was shocked when both The Referee and I loved the house right from the start. (That was not the case with all of the homes we looked at prior to buying the house we currently live in). It really is a nice home. It was clear that it had been well-taken care of until this recent year when it had renters and sat empty. It would only take some cleaning and painting, and very minor repairs to restore its original beauty and functionality. It was a great fit for our family.
After contacting the seller's Realtor, our Realtor explained that the house was a hair away from foreclosure, so we should put our offer in right away. There was no one else making an offer, but our race was against the foreclosure. We collected the paperwork for the bank loan and got that ready for The Referee to FAX first thing in the morning. I emailed the loan adviser and told her the FAX would be coming, and we wanted an approval letter as fast as possible.
The Referee and I had a big discussion about this endeavor. We researched short sales and learned about how much they require time and patience. Short sales can bust at any point along the process. We decide that we are not getting our hearts set on this house. The odds were against us getting it, if it was that close to foreclosure anyway. We were not in a hurry to move, but were seeking this great opportunity. If it fell apart, we would be fine, because we already have a home. We have plenty of time to let the short sale process unfold, since we do not need to move.
We signed the offer paperwork, and waited on the bank. The loan adviser called me the next morning, and explained that it was going to take 2 or 3 days to get the approval letter. This same lady who was telling me on Friday that we were all set and in good shape, was now telling me Monday morning, that we needed more assets, and she couldn't understand my income (due to the shift differential I get for working evenings). I calmed her down by explaining my paycheck to her, answered her questions about our assets, and then said Ok we would wait on the letter.
I figured it was a no deal already, if the loan status had changed. I emailed the Realtor and The Referee and gave them the update. I was visiting with friends and sharing the story, when the loan adviser called again. Less than an hour had passed from our first phone call that morning. This time, she was cheerful and informed me that she was emailing me the approval letter immediately. She did not tell me what suddenly changed. My friend joked that maybe she just needed a cup of coffee first.
The Realtor sent the offer letter to the Seller's Realtor. Little did we know, they went back and forth all day long, sharing the details of the short sale process.
Late that same evening, our Realtor forwarded an email from the Seller's Realtor, saying that it was too late: the house was already in foreclosure, and an auction date was set. Ah, well. We tried. We decided it just wasn't meant to be at this time.
Much to our surprise, our Realtor called the next afternoon. The status on that house had changed, and the mortgage company decided to postpone the auction and look at our offer. We were ON again! How exciting!
An entire month went by, and we heard nothing about our offer. The internet was right, short sales take time. Our Realtor said that the Seller's Realtor kept assuring her it still looked good. We were growing doubtful. We passed the time by Spring Cleaning our own house and getting it ready for the market. We decided to go ahead and list it, and see how it did on the market, while we waited for the short sale process.
In the meantime, the neighbors noticed another Realtor at the house, taking pictures. It turns out that person was an independent broker who was taking pictures for the mortgage company while they assessed the value of the home compared to what was owed on the mortgage, compared to our offer. It made us wonder if it might be headed for auction afterall.
The Realtor came over last weekend to take pictures of our house. As we signed the listing contract with her, I was a bit overwhelmed by the idea of trying to keep our house clean and decluttered for showing for the next 6 months. Yikes.
After a long weekend of work, yard work, housework, and paperwork, The Referee and I had an interesting chat about how we pack our life. We decided we need to look at things differently. We usually say, "Can we do this?" We need to start saying "Should we do this?"
We decided that we have done all the hard work in this housing process. An offer is on the table. Our house is on the market. Six months from now, we will either have a new house or not. We will either sell our house or not. We are in maintenance mode right now, and that is good. In the meantime, we keep working, schooling, purging junk, and paying down debts. We thought we had it all figured out.
This morning, our Realtor forwarded an email from the Seller's Realtor which explained that they had made it through another step in the process. The auction that was set for today had been postponed. They had been meeting with a "screener" at the mortgage company so far, and now they were dealing with an actual closer/negotiator. It looks like we might be closer to an approval on our offer soon.
I am not sure how "soon" is defined in a short sale. It is a lesson in patience, for sure.
Our house is on the market to sell.
I am not exactly sure what to expect. The amount of work that went into getting our house and yard cleaned up and organized just to let the Realtor enter and take pictures was huge. The signing of paperwork for the Realtor, and her listing the home was very simple by comparison. Now, we wait....
We wait to see if there is any interest in the house at all. We wait to see if there are any offers. We wait to see if we are on the right track or the wrong track with our housing situation.
We are also waiting for news on the house that we are seeking to purchase. Just over a month ago, we made an offer on a house that was a hair away from foreclosure. It is in short sale. The sellers are asking their mortgage company to accept our offer, which is short of the amount they owe on the property. Short sales take time. So, we wait...
Patience is a virtue.
But, not a virtue that I possess.
This whole experience is very odd to me. It is not a crisis. We are in no rush. Actually, most of the events are completely out of our hands. There is not much to even worry about. Does this mean I might be gaining some patience? Weird.
I can see that there is some sort of lesson here. I just don't know what that lesson is. The Referee and I are growing. We are communicating, weighing options, processing information, and making decisions together. We have not had such joint effort in a long time, if ever. It is strange. Nice strange, but definitely out of the norm for us.
I know God is in control. He does not need me to micromanage things.
I can't wait to see how this story unfolds. The parts I have experienced so far have been fun.
The house we are trying to buy, was on the market over a year ago. Our friends who live just up the street from it mentioned that we should buy it and become neighbors. I laughed off the idea, because we were not in the market to buy a house at all. I didn't even look at any details of the house.
I have driven past the house many times, and saw the "For Sale" sign out front. I was not phased.
Something changed one day in January. I drove past that house to take Jersey #1 and Jersey #2 to our friend's house, and all was well. A couple hours later, when I drove past again, the sign out front caught my eye. The top of the sign had been changed. Instead of reading "For Sale," it said, "4-Bedrooms."
That afternoon, I got on the computer and looked up the house information in the real estate directory. The price seemed VERY low for that neighborhood. There were other homes in that same neighborhood priced at least 20% higher. Otherwise, I noticed the home had a lot of features we say we want in our next home--2 living areas, a smaller yard, and a garage, specifically. I assumed something must be wrong with it, to be priced so low.
The following week, when I met with my friend and asked her what was the scoop on that house, and why was it priced so low? She explained that it was in foreclosure, and the owners had moved out of state with a job change. They had tried to sell it, tried to rent it, and that did not go well. Her face lit up when she asked if we might be interested in it. Initially I brushed off her excitement by saying that we were not actually looking for a house at this point, because other bills would need to be paid before we could even consider asking for a mortgage. She told me she and her family would be praying about it.
It was February before I finally mentioned the house to The Referee and told him about it and about the details our friend knew. We took a look at our financial situation and ran some numbers. We decided to tackle a couple more bills before even contacting the Realtor about the house.
The next day, The Referee had an idea about how readjust our finances and pay off two more of our smallest debts. We jokingly call it his "out of the box" thinking. I love making those final payments and shading the debts off my spreadsheet. Our debt snowball is really rolling now!
We took a second look at our finances, and talked about the opportunity again. Do we dare take out a mortgage on a new house before selling our current house? Do we think our house will sell well at all? Are we remembering all the expenses that are involved in moving and re-hooking up utilities? Yes.
I emailed our Realtor and gave her the information about the house and asked her to give us the "inside" scoop on the status of the house.....and if it was even worth going to the bank and asking for another mortgage.
She emailed back and said that house was in short sale, not yet foreclosure. She said she had experience with short sales, and they take longer to process, but were not necessarily bad. Financially, the house was a good deal. She said she would go see it in person that afternoon and email me some pictures.
She actually called me from the house, because she was so pleased with it as a nice house for our family. She described the details and emailed me pictures. She said it was definitely worth going to the bank and seeing about a loan. So we did. That evening, the Realtor called me to say that the sellers had just decreased the listing price THAT DAY! They had no idea we were interested, and they are desperate to sell it. The decreased price was the exact price The Referee and I had talked about offering.
The loan adviser called me the next morning and said we were in good shape for a loan, and she only needed minimal paperwork to verify income. I admit I was a bit surprised by this information. Part of me was expecting the bank to say no to another mortgage, which would put an end to this pursuit immediately.
That weekend, we arranged with our Realtor to go see the house, in-between some of the kids' basketball games. I was shocked when both The Referee and I loved the house right from the start. (That was not the case with all of the homes we looked at prior to buying the house we currently live in). It really is a nice home. It was clear that it had been well-taken care of until this recent year when it had renters and sat empty. It would only take some cleaning and painting, and very minor repairs to restore its original beauty and functionality. It was a great fit for our family.
After contacting the seller's Realtor, our Realtor explained that the house was a hair away from foreclosure, so we should put our offer in right away. There was no one else making an offer, but our race was against the foreclosure. We collected the paperwork for the bank loan and got that ready for The Referee to FAX first thing in the morning. I emailed the loan adviser and told her the FAX would be coming, and we wanted an approval letter as fast as possible.
The Referee and I had a big discussion about this endeavor. We researched short sales and learned about how much they require time and patience. Short sales can bust at any point along the process. We decide that we are not getting our hearts set on this house. The odds were against us getting it, if it was that close to foreclosure anyway. We were not in a hurry to move, but were seeking this great opportunity. If it fell apart, we would be fine, because we already have a home. We have plenty of time to let the short sale process unfold, since we do not need to move.
We signed the offer paperwork, and waited on the bank. The loan adviser called me the next morning, and explained that it was going to take 2 or 3 days to get the approval letter. This same lady who was telling me on Friday that we were all set and in good shape, was now telling me Monday morning, that we needed more assets, and she couldn't understand my income (due to the shift differential I get for working evenings). I calmed her down by explaining my paycheck to her, answered her questions about our assets, and then said Ok we would wait on the letter.
I figured it was a no deal already, if the loan status had changed. I emailed the Realtor and The Referee and gave them the update. I was visiting with friends and sharing the story, when the loan adviser called again. Less than an hour had passed from our first phone call that morning. This time, she was cheerful and informed me that she was emailing me the approval letter immediately. She did not tell me what suddenly changed. My friend joked that maybe she just needed a cup of coffee first.
The Realtor sent the offer letter to the Seller's Realtor. Little did we know, they went back and forth all day long, sharing the details of the short sale process.
Late that same evening, our Realtor forwarded an email from the Seller's Realtor, saying that it was too late: the house was already in foreclosure, and an auction date was set. Ah, well. We tried. We decided it just wasn't meant to be at this time.
Much to our surprise, our Realtor called the next afternoon. The status on that house had changed, and the mortgage company decided to postpone the auction and look at our offer. We were ON again! How exciting!
An entire month went by, and we heard nothing about our offer. The internet was right, short sales take time. Our Realtor said that the Seller's Realtor kept assuring her it still looked good. We were growing doubtful. We passed the time by Spring Cleaning our own house and getting it ready for the market. We decided to go ahead and list it, and see how it did on the market, while we waited for the short sale process.
In the meantime, the neighbors noticed another Realtor at the house, taking pictures. It turns out that person was an independent broker who was taking pictures for the mortgage company while they assessed the value of the home compared to what was owed on the mortgage, compared to our offer. It made us wonder if it might be headed for auction afterall.
The Realtor came over last weekend to take pictures of our house. As we signed the listing contract with her, I was a bit overwhelmed by the idea of trying to keep our house clean and decluttered for showing for the next 6 months. Yikes.
After a long weekend of work, yard work, housework, and paperwork, The Referee and I had an interesting chat about how we pack our life. We decided we need to look at things differently. We usually say, "Can we do this?" We need to start saying "Should we do this?"
We decided that we have done all the hard work in this housing process. An offer is on the table. Our house is on the market. Six months from now, we will either have a new house or not. We will either sell our house or not. We are in maintenance mode right now, and that is good. In the meantime, we keep working, schooling, purging junk, and paying down debts. We thought we had it all figured out.
This morning, our Realtor forwarded an email from the Seller's Realtor which explained that they had made it through another step in the process. The auction that was set for today had been postponed. They had been meeting with a "screener" at the mortgage company so far, and now they were dealing with an actual closer/negotiator. It looks like we might be closer to an approval on our offer soon.
I am not sure how "soon" is defined in a short sale. It is a lesson in patience, for sure.
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