We will have been in the house a week tomorrow. Dustin and I are still on our air mattress and the boys have sleeping bags. We did bring over the washer, dryer, and fridge but that's all. Our week has been so busy that we haven't had a chance to get anything else before now.
Actually, as I'm writing this Dustin and Caleb are at the storage unit trying to pick up some things, but it's 9:23 p.m.
Monday night I left work, picked up Jacob from football practice at the Jr. High, drove him home to change and get some food. We then drove to drop him off at his basketball practice and then back to the Jr. High for Parent Information Night.
Tuesday - I left work and raced over to the Jr. High for Jacob's football game and then drove to the High School to attend Parent Information Night.
Tonight - I just picked up Jacob from football practice and came home. I've accomplished nothing but this blog. We don't have internet access but somebody around here has Wi-Fi - how exciting!!!
We do get Monday off - so I'm hoping to get the house in some sort of order.
I'll also be glad to get regular TV back. I like old westerns but if I see another dvd episode of Bonanza or the Lone Ranger I might go insane. Did you know that the Lone Ranger had once been a Texas Ranger and that his name was Reid? Also, Silver had been a wild mustang that the Lone Ranger saved from being finished off by a buffalo. We have the first episode! I love that the people making copies from old original film got the film backwards so all the words on the buildings are backwards. That made me laugh.
The guys just got back so I'm off to delegate!
Showing posts with label Moving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Moving. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
We're In!
As many already know we were finally able to close on our house.
Here's how the story goes...
On Tuesday, September 30th we were scheduled to close at 2pm. I had arranged for a sub to teach my class for the second half of the day. Right after I left I received a call saying that the appliances could not be installed because they had to be paid for out of the closing funds. We had been told originally that the appliances could be taken from another inventory home; however, since banks had taken over the inventory homes that was no longer possible.
We were very upset. We were afraid that we would never see the appliances if we closed and they weren't already installed. I asked if we could receive a credit for them at closing and we would then purchase our own. We were told that that was not an option because our loan was an FHA loan.
There were many, many, many phone calls made and received Tuesday afternoon. I was informed that closing was being pushed back to 4pm - if it happened at all. Even as we were heading across town to the Title Company we received a call that the closing might not happen.
We arrived at the Title Company at 3:58 p.m. We sat in the lobby waiting until 5:15p.m. As we were waiting another family came in also planning on closing on a Royce home. The difference was that one of them had actually worked for the company. It was very interesting getting to hear a lot of inside information. It helped pass the time a little more quickly.
It took hours to get everything signed and all the details taken care of. It turns out that our home had about $48,000 worth of liens on it that had to be paid out of the closing funds. We finally finished after 8p.m. Many people stayed late in their offices to get the house not only closed but funded on September 30th - before October 1st. We then had to drive to meet the former Royce sales associate to get the keys. It was 10:45 p.m. by the time we got to the house on Tuesday night but it was finally finished!!!
We were blessed beyond measure to have Sara Robinson, our realtor and Shawna and Sharon with Countrywide working countless hours to close this house. The only sane thing in all of this mess was that I knew without a shadow of a doubt that they were there for me. Also, we are learning that God's timing is perfect but that His timing is not always our timing. Patience has never been one of better qualities.
Wednesday - We called the appliance company to see what time they would be bringing the appliances. We were told that the appliances would be delivered on Thursday instead. OH NO - here we go again.....
On Thursday Dustin called the appliance installer to see what time he should meet him at the house. The installer told him that our home wasn't in his area. AAHHH!!!! I called the company back and they did get to the bottom of it. Thankfully, Thursday afternoon our appliances were delivered and installed. PRAISE GOD!
We spent our first night in the house on Thursday night - October 2nd.
Here's how the story goes...
On Tuesday, September 30th we were scheduled to close at 2pm. I had arranged for a sub to teach my class for the second half of the day. Right after I left I received a call saying that the appliances could not be installed because they had to be paid for out of the closing funds. We had been told originally that the appliances could be taken from another inventory home; however, since banks had taken over the inventory homes that was no longer possible.
We were very upset. We were afraid that we would never see the appliances if we closed and they weren't already installed. I asked if we could receive a credit for them at closing and we would then purchase our own. We were told that that was not an option because our loan was an FHA loan.
There were many, many, many phone calls made and received Tuesday afternoon. I was informed that closing was being pushed back to 4pm - if it happened at all. Even as we were heading across town to the Title Company we received a call that the closing might not happen.
We arrived at the Title Company at 3:58 p.m. We sat in the lobby waiting until 5:15p.m. As we were waiting another family came in also planning on closing on a Royce home. The difference was that one of them had actually worked for the company. It was very interesting getting to hear a lot of inside information. It helped pass the time a little more quickly.
It took hours to get everything signed and all the details taken care of. It turns out that our home had about $48,000 worth of liens on it that had to be paid out of the closing funds. We finally finished after 8p.m. Many people stayed late in their offices to get the house not only closed but funded on September 30th - before October 1st. We then had to drive to meet the former Royce sales associate to get the keys. It was 10:45 p.m. by the time we got to the house on Tuesday night but it was finally finished!!!
We were blessed beyond measure to have Sara Robinson, our realtor and Shawna and Sharon with Countrywide working countless hours to close this house. The only sane thing in all of this mess was that I knew without a shadow of a doubt that they were there for me. Also, we are learning that God's timing is perfect but that His timing is not always our timing. Patience has never been one of better qualities.
Wednesday - We called the appliance company to see what time they would be bringing the appliances. We were told that the appliances would be delivered on Thursday instead. OH NO - here we go again.....
On Thursday Dustin called the appliance installer to see what time he should meet him at the house. The installer told him that our home wasn't in his area. AAHHH!!!! I called the company back and they did get to the bottom of it. Thankfully, Thursday afternoon our appliances were delivered and installed. PRAISE GOD!
We spent our first night in the house on Thursday night - October 2nd.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Hope lingers
Each day we are told that the new house is only days away from closing, but then it doesn't happen. I began looking for lease homes and found one that I really liked. When I called on it today I was told that it is no longer available.
We have our temporary apartment until Sunday, Oct. 5th. A friend at church just moved out of their home and told Dustin that if we need to we can stay there until everything closes. They will be using the home for a lease home anyway.
This has been a very trying experience for me and I'm afraid that I have been failing the test that has been put before me.
I was refreshed at church when Pastor Kerry gave a sermon about the children of Israel in the desert. God had brought them out of the Red Sea and led them into the Desert of Shur (ironic) because they were not "sure" at all. They became frustrated at the lack of water, then they were fearful of the waters at Marah which were bitter. As usual they wanted to turn and go back to what they knew.
Moses cries out to God and God shows him a tree (something that was there all along), but God waited for them to call on Him and then opened their eyes to what was available to them. He then brought them to Elim (a place of abundance of the water they needed). God was taking them to Elim but when they got to Marah they almost gave up and turned around because they couldn't see Elim, which is only about five miles from where they were.
Pastor Kerry said, "If your frustrated, fearful, tired, don't give up - Elim's right around the corner; you just can't see it yet. But God knows it's there."
God, in His loving mercies and ultimate wisdom, leads us into and through the deserts where we must call out to Him and rely on Him to make it through to get to that Promised Land (not Perfect Land) that God has called us to for His purpose in our lives.
We have our temporary apartment until Sunday, Oct. 5th. A friend at church just moved out of their home and told Dustin that if we need to we can stay there until everything closes. They will be using the home for a lease home anyway.
This has been a very trying experience for me and I'm afraid that I have been failing the test that has been put before me.
I was refreshed at church when Pastor Kerry gave a sermon about the children of Israel in the desert. God had brought them out of the Red Sea and led them into the Desert of Shur (ironic) because they were not "sure" at all. They became frustrated at the lack of water, then they were fearful of the waters at Marah which were bitter. As usual they wanted to turn and go back to what they knew.
Moses cries out to God and God shows him a tree (something that was there all along), but God waited for them to call on Him and then opened their eyes to what was available to them. He then brought them to Elim (a place of abundance of the water they needed). God was taking them to Elim but when they got to Marah they almost gave up and turned around because they couldn't see Elim, which is only about five miles from where they were.
Pastor Kerry said, "If your frustrated, fearful, tired, don't give up - Elim's right around the corner; you just can't see it yet. But God knows it's there."
God, in His loving mercies and ultimate wisdom, leads us into and through the deserts where we must call out to Him and rely on Him to make it through to get to that Promised Land (not Perfect Land) that God has called us to for His purpose in our lives.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Latest Housing News
Earlier today I was informed by our loan officer that we are scheduled to close on "House #2"(from an earlier post) on either Friday, 9/26/08 or on Monday, 9/29/08.
Please pray that we can close on Friday, 9/26/08 without any further delays or complications.
Please pray that we can close on Friday, 9/26/08 without any further delays or complications.
Monday, September 8, 2008
It's not meant to be....
Well, once again we will not be going with house #3. The inspection done this morning showed that the electrical, plumbing, AC, heat, etc... are all in major need of repair. The inspector also said that if anyone had allergies (Caleb, Isaiah, Me) they would be very sick there.
Technically we still have a contract with Espree. If they can close us in the time period we have available we may still go with that house. Otherwise, we are ready to rent.
Since our home sold so quickly and easily in a depressed housing market and yet we can't seem to buy one, we are beginning to wonder if God has a path for us to follow that we don't know about yet. Only time will tell.
Technically we still have a contract with Espree. If they can close us in the time period we have available we may still go with that house. Otherwise, we are ready to rent.
Since our home sold so quickly and easily in a depressed housing market and yet we can't seem to buy one, we are beginning to wonder if God has a path for us to follow that we don't know about yet. Only time will tell.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
A Moving Experience
Dustin and I decided in July to sell our home and find something a little less expensive. Remarkably, we received a contract after seven days - something almost unheard of these days. We viewed several houses and decided to put a contract on a house that we really liked.
House #1:
The house was very nice and had been totally redone. It had been painted inside and out. It had brand new carpet, granite counter tops, new hardwood flooring, etc... It was a trying experience in the offer/counter offer times. Finally, after much negotiating we reached a verbal agreement. About fifteen minutes after our verbal receipt was given another offer was presented for full price. There was a question as to whether or not the verbal agreement would be recognized. It was and we proceeded with the inspection. Unfortunately, after receiving the inspection report we learned that there were many issues with the home that would be almost impossible to negotiate. In addition, they were issues that were not disclosed on the seller's disclosures. We decided to terminate the contract in our option period.
Upon returning from out of town, we learned that the title company had not received the release of funds paper from the sellers. After much phone tag, the sellers' realtor was finally able to be reached and the title company received the needed paper. Then the title company didn't want to release the funds because they said they wanted to make sure it cleared. We knew that the check had cleared the day it was deposited. After many more attempts and presenting the bank statement that showed the check had cleared we finally received our money back after a week and a half. (We desperately needed the money in order to put a contract on another home).
House #2:
We decided to purchase a brand new Royce/Espree home. It was actually larger than the home we were selling and was much less expensive. It was awesome to know everything was new. Everything seemed to be progressing nicely, and we had enrolled Isaiah in the elementary school the new house was zoned for.
The week that I started back to work I received a call from our realtor letting us know that there was a rumor that Royce builders might be having some difficulty. The next day I sent an email message to our loan officer at Hammersmith Financial (an in house lender for Royce) and it came back to me. I called our realtor who immediately went to work to find out what was happening. She was informed that Hammersmith was no longer being used and that all client files were being transferred to Countrywide (not a reassuring feeling knowing what happened with Countrywide earlier in the summer).
More strange things began to occur. Many Royce employees began to lose their jobs. There were only two builders left to take care of all the houses in Houston and the surrounding areas. Stewart Title refused to close anymore Royce homes because of liens being placed on the homes by contractors. We were told that only a few of the major things from our inspection report would be able to be fixed. Alamo Title would be taking over the closing of our new home. We also had to amend the contract to take off having the fence provided, but the sales price was dropped by $2,500.
Tuesday, September 2 I received the HUD statement for the upcoming sale of the home we were selling. When I looked at the amount we were to receive I nearly passed out because it was much lower than what we were expecting. We did not realize that the money in our escrow account would not be received at closing (Live and Learn), but that it would be refunded to us within thirty days. In addition, the HOA transfer fee went from $75 when we purchased the home in 2007, to $1,500 (YIKES! Is that legal? The developer who did it said it was.) All of this meant that we would not have enough funds to close on our new home. Panic began to set in.
I contacted our new loan officer with Countrywide (Shawna - She is awesome and a major blessing!) I told her everything and we adjusted the funds and she received clearance to get the loan taken care of. When she called me Tuesday night to tell me the loan portion would be fine, she also mentioned there might be a question as to whether the house would still be able to close on Friday due to issues with the builder. She said there was a meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning and that either she, the Royce sales associate, or my realtor would be calling me Wednesday to let me know what was happening.
Wednesday, midday, I received an email from my realtor saying to call her right away. When I called her back she said the house would not be closing on Friday and that all of the sales associates had lost their jobs. There is some issue with the houses being tied up in litigation currently and that it would probably be five or six weeks before we could close. We now had less than 24 hours to be completely out of the house we were selling and to find a new place to stay for short term.
I took a half day off on Thursday and went to get a mailbox, transfer our mail, and start searching for a new place to stay. Dustin and I went to three apartment complexes on Thursday evening. The last one had pity on us and have allowed us to lease the "guest suite" apartment for the next month. We know from talking to others that this was a complete miracle.
House #3:
At 2:45 a.m., after completing the packing and cleaning I decided to check www.har.com to see if there were any new listings. I did find one that interested me very much and is also in the right school zone and much closer to where we work. On Friday morning at closing I told our realtor about it and she was excited about it because she had just learned about it the night before too. She was going to wait until after closing to present it to us. She made a call and we went to see the house after closing. We really like the area and the house has been updated - it's 35 years old. We made an offer.
This morning we received a counter, we countered, they accepted. We are having an inspection done on Monday morning. (The inspector knows us well - he's giving us a discount this time). Please pray all goes well. It does seem that God has had a major hand in all of this. It's obvious that His timing is not our timing, but it's always perfect! (The current closing date for this house is September 26th).
Dustin keeps telling the boys and me that this has been like a giant treasure hunt and the prize will be great.
House #1:
The house was very nice and had been totally redone. It had been painted inside and out. It had brand new carpet, granite counter tops, new hardwood flooring, etc... It was a trying experience in the offer/counter offer times. Finally, after much negotiating we reached a verbal agreement. About fifteen minutes after our verbal receipt was given another offer was presented for full price. There was a question as to whether or not the verbal agreement would be recognized. It was and we proceeded with the inspection. Unfortunately, after receiving the inspection report we learned that there were many issues with the home that would be almost impossible to negotiate. In addition, they were issues that were not disclosed on the seller's disclosures. We decided to terminate the contract in our option period.
Upon returning from out of town, we learned that the title company had not received the release of funds paper from the sellers. After much phone tag, the sellers' realtor was finally able to be reached and the title company received the needed paper. Then the title company didn't want to release the funds because they said they wanted to make sure it cleared. We knew that the check had cleared the day it was deposited. After many more attempts and presenting the bank statement that showed the check had cleared we finally received our money back after a week and a half. (We desperately needed the money in order to put a contract on another home).
House #2:
We decided to purchase a brand new Royce/Espree home. It was actually larger than the home we were selling and was much less expensive. It was awesome to know everything was new. Everything seemed to be progressing nicely, and we had enrolled Isaiah in the elementary school the new house was zoned for.
The week that I started back to work I received a call from our realtor letting us know that there was a rumor that Royce builders might be having some difficulty. The next day I sent an email message to our loan officer at Hammersmith Financial (an in house lender for Royce) and it came back to me. I called our realtor who immediately went to work to find out what was happening. She was informed that Hammersmith was no longer being used and that all client files were being transferred to Countrywide (not a reassuring feeling knowing what happened with Countrywide earlier in the summer).
More strange things began to occur. Many Royce employees began to lose their jobs. There were only two builders left to take care of all the houses in Houston and the surrounding areas. Stewart Title refused to close anymore Royce homes because of liens being placed on the homes by contractors. We were told that only a few of the major things from our inspection report would be able to be fixed. Alamo Title would be taking over the closing of our new home. We also had to amend the contract to take off having the fence provided, but the sales price was dropped by $2,500.
Tuesday, September 2 I received the HUD statement for the upcoming sale of the home we were selling. When I looked at the amount we were to receive I nearly passed out because it was much lower than what we were expecting. We did not realize that the money in our escrow account would not be received at closing (Live and Learn), but that it would be refunded to us within thirty days. In addition, the HOA transfer fee went from $75 when we purchased the home in 2007, to $1,500 (YIKES! Is that legal? The developer who did it said it was.) All of this meant that we would not have enough funds to close on our new home. Panic began to set in.
I contacted our new loan officer with Countrywide (Shawna - She is awesome and a major blessing!) I told her everything and we adjusted the funds and she received clearance to get the loan taken care of. When she called me Tuesday night to tell me the loan portion would be fine, she also mentioned there might be a question as to whether the house would still be able to close on Friday due to issues with the builder. She said there was a meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning and that either she, the Royce sales associate, or my realtor would be calling me Wednesday to let me know what was happening.
Wednesday, midday, I received an email from my realtor saying to call her right away. When I called her back she said the house would not be closing on Friday and that all of the sales associates had lost their jobs. There is some issue with the houses being tied up in litigation currently and that it would probably be five or six weeks before we could close. We now had less than 24 hours to be completely out of the house we were selling and to find a new place to stay for short term.
I took a half day off on Thursday and went to get a mailbox, transfer our mail, and start searching for a new place to stay. Dustin and I went to three apartment complexes on Thursday evening. The last one had pity on us and have allowed us to lease the "guest suite" apartment for the next month. We know from talking to others that this was a complete miracle.
House #3:
At 2:45 a.m., after completing the packing and cleaning I decided to check www.har.com to see if there were any new listings. I did find one that interested me very much and is also in the right school zone and much closer to where we work. On Friday morning at closing I told our realtor about it and she was excited about it because she had just learned about it the night before too. She was going to wait until after closing to present it to us. She made a call and we went to see the house after closing. We really like the area and the house has been updated - it's 35 years old. We made an offer.
This morning we received a counter, we countered, they accepted. We are having an inspection done on Monday morning. (The inspector knows us well - he's giving us a discount this time). Please pray all goes well. It does seem that God has had a major hand in all of this. It's obvious that His timing is not our timing, but it's always perfect! (The current closing date for this house is September 26th).
Dustin keeps telling the boys and me that this has been like a giant treasure hunt and the prize will be great.
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