We have our keys

Ok. Actually, not yet since there aren’t actually keys to the existing locks and we are getting it re-keyed.

But still. It’s ours. It’s no longer trespassing when we go in ….

As I mentioned, some work has already been started [...]]]> AAAAAANNNNNDDDD … .

We have our keys

Ok. Actually, not yet since there aren’t actually keys to the existing locks and we are getting it re-keyed.

But still. It’s ours. It’s no longer trespassing when we go in ….

As I mentioned, some work has already been started – cleaning, mold removal, replacing this front window, trimming back the tree to the right.

So, now we just have to hope the rest of the work can be finished by … Feb 29 or so …… We’d LIKE to move in by the end of the month if possible, but our current apartment is pretty flexible and we just need to let them know if we need an extra week or so into March.

We still need to pick out a new dishwasher and washer and dryer …. as well as look at cabinet options for now.

Also, pack.

Also, pick out specific paint colors for the rooms.

Also, plan/book a moving day/truck/etc.

So, you know. Forgive me if I’m a *little* busy!

The afternoon the house became ours I went back to take some more photos with the place at least with the trash out of it. Unlike the last time.

Please consider this your basic orientation to Schubert Headquarters.

More photos to come after the work is done ….

Keep in mind all the floors are changing, as well as the walls as well as the kitchen.

Thus concludes the final chapter of The Schuberts go house hunting…… for the forseeable future, at least.

I’d like to live somewhere longer than 2 years, please.

SO.

This whole house thing is such a comical, complicated mess.

5 years ago you could get a home loan for whatever amount you wanted, for basically whatever rate you wanted just by stating your income (not that we want a loan like that).

These last few weeks have been a [...]]]>

SO.

This whole house thing is such a comical, complicated mess.

5 years ago you could get a home loan for whatever amount you wanted, for basically whatever rate you wanted just by stating your income (not that we want a loan like that).

These last few weeks have been a bunch of back-and-forth texts and emails and phone calls and decisions, and changing of decisions and last minute decisions all so Andrew and I can take this quickly-depreciating liability off the bank’s hands.

It’s getting ridiculous.

The good news is – we are supposed to close next week.

The other good news is – some of the rehab work we had planned to the house has already been started (which means we are that much more likely to be able to move in by the end of the month)

The other good news is – we have already purchased our new oven/range and hood!

If you’re paying attention you can probably guess what the bad news is ….

As I’ve said (and as you’ve seen in the photos), there is a ton of work to do on the house. Work that we are totally OK with, that we are perfectly willing to pay for and/or do ourselves. The balance between low-house-price+work and eventual value of the house is definitely in our favor.

However. …. The loan company is not willing to approve the loan for the house as-is. Which makes sense.

But the seller can’t pay for the necessary work. If he could, it wouldn’t be sold as a short-sale in such disrepair.

And WE can’t pay for the work. Because even though we have the cash sitting in our savings account, the loan company “needs” us to have that money in reserve after putting 15% down on the house AND paying closing costs.

But they won’t approve the loan with the house as-is. Even though we have clearly stated we are planning on doing all that work (and more) immediately after escrow closes before we move in.

What is the solution?

Strangely enough, our realtor is paying for the repairs to be done to a house that we don’t even own yet.

Yea. I know. Bizarre.

So, Tuesday night Andrew calls me at work telling me that Tony (our contractor) is starting on the house NOW and we need to pick out an oven in the next 10 minutes so it can be delivered by Wednesday because the re-appraisal is going to be sometime before Friday.

Of course, I have done NO oven-research. I’ve never had to pick out an appliance like that. PLUS I’m at work with no internet access so I can’t even look at the links that Andrew sent me.

Luckily (luckily) our friend Fernando has worked for a home-appliance-gear-type-company for years and was taking care of it for us. We gave him the measurements and told him stainless steel and he picked it out for us.

I know that sounds weird, but I am totally OK with that.

Wednesday morning, Andrew went up to the house just to check on things, see if Tony had questions, etc. He said there were 7 people there working and they had already hauled out all the trash (so grateful we did not have to do that).

We are so so so close to closing on this house! It’s so amazing!

We’re basically not touching any of the money in our accounts until we have the keys in our hands …. And then we are writing a check to our realtor to pay him back for the work that is being done right now.

It’s really so weird….. But as soon as we’re in the house it will all be worth it.

More updates as I have them.

We had a few days of questioning and wondering and cautions optimism…. But, we are currently in escrow and hope to close mid-February!

Then, a few weeks of work and moving in sometime in March! In time for my 30th birthday!

We haven’t done an official inspection [...]]]> home A is ours!

We had a few days of questioning and wondering and cautions optimism…. But, we are currently in escrow and hope to close mid-February!

Then, a few weeks of work and moving in sometime in March! In time for my 30th birthday!

We haven’t done an official inspection yet, so we CAN still back out if there’s some CRAZY damage in there, but we KNOW it’s going to be a lot of work/clean-up/rehab, so unless there’s something completely unbelievable then we are good-to-go.

We got a rough rough rough estimate from a contractor friend of our realtor …. It actually came out to less than I had expected, but of course it’s just an estimate. He quoted 2 weeks to do it all, so we’ll see with that too.

The lot is ~4500 sqft which is smaller than we would like … But honestly, when alternative yards look like this:

… 4500 doesn’t sound so bad!

I’ve been pinning my house ideas over on Pinterest …. collecting boxes from work …. saving pennies for all the work that needs to be done!

After we put down our 15% downpayment, plus closing costs, plus money for the work on the house we will be broke broke broke…. But we’ll have a house.

And saving for other fun things will begin.

We need to have all the trash hauled out, replace the floors, replace the toilets/bathroom fixtures, paint, replace the kitchen, replace the front window, add rafters in the garage and some more little things here and there ….

No decisions have been made yet, but I think we’ll do our kitchen in a warm wood cabinets, with stainless steel appliances (we already have our fridge) …

We need to pick out flooring for ALL the rooms …

We’ll probably just paint it all white as a starting point, and then paint more colors as we live there longer ….

We’ll have basically 3 rooms for guests (with no beds), so let me know when you want to come visit!

We’ll have a little yard and maybe start planting veggies …

We’ll have lots of natural light for photos (important, obviously)…

We’ll have a driveway AND empty garage so Andrew won’t have to get up at 7:30a to move his car for the street cleaners…

We’re very excited.

More photos/details to come!

]]> http://thosecrazyschuberts.com/2012/01/the-schuberts-go-house-hunting-part-16.html/feed 5 http://thosecrazyschuberts.com/2012/01/the-schuberts-go-house-hunting-part-15.html http://thosecrazyschuberts.com/2012/01/the-schuberts-go-house-hunting-part-15.html#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:51:14 +0000 Amy http://thosecrazyschuberts.com/?p=18856

Annoyance and drama with Home A

On Wednesday, December 21 we got the email from our realtor, forwarded from Home A’s realtor, forwarded from the bank.

In spite of the fact that the listing clearly says the house has been approved by the bank at one price, the counter offer from [...]]]>

Annoyance and drama with Home A

On Wednesday, December 21 we got the email from our realtor, forwarded from Home A’s realtor, forwarded from the bank.

In spite of the fact that the listing clearly says the house has been approved by the bank at one price, the counter offer from the bank is asking for almost 10% more!

Which is pretty nervy considering if we get the house we’re going to have to put $20,000 of work into it to make it livable. HALF of which is replacing the kitchen because since the house has been empty RATS are eating through the cupboards.

True story.

And yet the bank is not bending over backwards to get this sucker off their hands.

It’s really too bad because if anyone at the BIG INTERNATIONAL BANK was actually looking at the details of this house they would probably be acting differently:

1. the house has had SEVERAL offers from buyers fall through over the last year. Why would that be?
2. The house has been on the market since October 2010. It’s been vacant since at least the summer, maybe before, and there is no way anyone has made a payment on the loan since then.
3. there is damage to the house that is literally getting worse by the day. The value of the house can only go down as long as it stays empty and unattended.

So -

We’ve counter offered – our original price plus we will pay our own closing costs – but have no plans to go any higher. Our realtor sent photos of the house damage along with our counter-offer…

..and shortly after that the seller’s realtor emailed back that she thinks the bank will accept our offer!

We’ll keep you posted!

Which means the first offer dropped out!!!

Which maybe [...]]]> So after weeks of wondering and looking at other listings and trying to manufacture the interest and enthusiasm to go look at other houses, on Monday morning (December 5) we woke up to find that Home A had been added BACK to the active listings!

Which means the first offer dropped out!!!

Which maybe means there’s something seriously wrong with the house that you can’t see?

So Andrew IMMEDIATELY sent an email to our Realtor (it was a bit early to call ) …. What does this mean? What happened to our offer? Why did the first people back out? What do we do now?

So many questions and excitement and worry about what could be wrong with the house and trying to figure out how much we want to deal with to get it.

We ended up re-putting in our offer on the house the next day …. And was accepted by the seller later that week!

Which means!! That once (if) the bank accepts our offer …. then we go into escrow…. or something like that….

Here are some more photos of what it currently looks like:

living room viewed from the entrance way:

kitchen viewed from the family room:

master bedroom:

living room viewed from the kitchen. That window is the front of the house:

As you can see the place needs some work…

We actually took a contractor over there to get a preliminary quote on all the work that needs to be done. And it is A LOT.

But, honestly, at this price in this neighborhood at this size, it’s still an amazing house…

and we’re excited!

I finally gave in to Pinterest to start collecting decor ideas! Plus, you know, we’ll be replacing everything in the kitchen, pretty much and all ….

BUT … Because it could be months before we hear anything from the bank AND because once we do the inspection we could find out there is SERIOUS structural issues, we’re still looking at other houses ….

So, at the moment it’s just a waiting game!

So, of course, I stealthily and sneakily pulled up the [...]]]> One Tuesday afternoon a week or so ago I was at work, stealthily and sneakily checking my personal email on my iPhone that I’m not supposed to have on at all and saw that there was a new house listing in our MLS filter.

So, of course, I stealthily and sneakily pulled up the webpage to look real quick before hiding my phone again ….

The first thing I look for is the street name – just because that gives me a general idea of the neighborhood the house is located in.

There are some neighborhoods that we are discounting right away (although there’s not an easy way to filter just those streets out of our MLS listings), and there is one neighborhood in particular that we would LOVE to live in but can’t possibly imagine being able to afford.

So, yea, when I saw that the new listing was IN THAT NEIGHBORHOOD and just a tiny bit over our target budget I called Andrew right away!

(low voice since I’m in my cubicle at work) “Andrew. A house just popped in for that neighborhood. Go look. Call Bryan. Ok bye.”

Since Andrew has far more flexibility re: phone, email, internet while he’s at work he handles most of the contact with our realtor, etc.

We made plans to see it with the realtor Thursday morning, but happened to be in Santa Clarita Wednesday morning and just drove by.

Adorable.

Seriously, just from the curb it *looks* like the kind of house/feel/neighborhood Andrew and I have both always pictured

So excited!

Thursday morning came and our realtor had to cancel – remember when I mentioned he’s also a fire battalion chief? Yea, that means when a tree crushes a Shell gas station he has to cancel on us.

Totally understandable, but we spend (ok, I spent) Thursday being a little stressed out. Houses in this price range in this neighborhood just don’t appear every day.

PLUS, Andrew’s mom drove by again on Thursday morning and says she saw 2 families looking at the house.

Awesome.

What if it sold before we could see it?

Not that we definitely knew we wanted it, but we wanted to at least get the chance to see it!

I think we nagged Bryan a bit.

oops.

We got a call from him Thursday night saying he would be free Friday morning.

Plan! Date to see the cutest little old house …..

(Julie met us there)

(amazingly huge gorgeous back yard that Andrew is just completely in love with)

The problem is it really is a LITTLE old house.

If it had maybe 200-300 more square feet I could totally see us buying it…. OR if we had an extra $65,000 or so sitting around to build on to the house before moving in.

But it’s 3 bedroom / 1.5 bath and 1120 square feet.

There is literally not enough room in the living room for our furniture. It’s just barely bigger than the apartment we’re in now (which doesn’t include all our stuff in storage). Plus I really have a hard time buying a house with only 1 full bath.

Sad.

But we’re going to watch the price … maybe if it goes down some more we can talk about it ….

That yard!!

]]> http://thosecrazyschuberts.com/2011/12/the-schuberts-go-house-hunting-part-13.html/feed 1 http://thosecrazyschuberts.com/2011/11/the-schuberts-go-house-hunting-part-12.html http://thosecrazyschuberts.com/2011/11/the-schuberts-go-house-hunting-part-12.html#comments Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:25:12 +0000 Amy http://thosecrazyschuberts.com/?p=18448 So by Monday I was pretty much sold on putting an offer on the last house – we’ll call it HOME A.

Of course, it’s not that easy. I have been looking at house listings online for years (years and years), so I had a much better idea of what was out there and [...]]]> So by Monday I was pretty much sold on putting an offer on the last house – we’ll call it HOME A.

Of course, it’s not that easy. I have been looking at house listings online for years (years and years), so I had a much better idea of what was out there and what we could expect in our budget.

Andrew still of course had to talk about it and think about it some more…

Tuesday he had off work and he drove up to Santa Clarita, took his mom by HOME A (and snuck in since it is not secured) and started to get even more excited about the possibility of buying that house.

Even so far as asking me what I thought about future remodeling projects…

By Wednesday, we were BOTH almost 100% on board with trying to get this house. I flat out told him I am ready to put an offer on it whenever he is.

There was another couple houses in Santa Clarita we wanted to look at, so we made plans to see our realtor Bryan on Thursday.

Of course, before then 1 of the houses we wanted to see sold and another actually has issues not mentioned in the listing and Bryan recommended not wasting our time.

So 1 house to see Thursday morning. It was fine. Not terrible. Definite potential – but the floor plan was strange.

Standing in the dining room of that house, talking about how much we like HOME A. Bryan brought us comparable sales and had done as much digging as he could about it ….

AND SO!! We decided to put an offer on it! SO excited!

We headed over to Bryan’s office for paper signing and all since we were in town (he can do it all digitally too, luckily), and we went over the big 14 page contract, details, and over all the ways we could get out of the sale any time if we wanted….

We submitted an offer for just a bit under the listing price, with a 15% down payment …. And fingers crossed!

Such an exciting day! Felt like a real grown-up! Since it’s a short sale, Bryan told us not to expect to be in the house any earlier than March. Crazy, right?

But Andrew and I were both confident about our decision … and it was such a fun thing to be able to do together for the first time ….

Then we got the email Friday afternoon. We are the ‘backup offer’ on HOME A.

GAH! So close! The MLS listing hadn’t even been updated, which means we had to have missed being the first offer by a day or 2…..

So.

Sigh.

Disappointing, of course, but there’s still a chance that HOME A will be ours ….

This house is a short sale. Which means even if the seller accepted an offer, they still have to get the bank to approve it. And in this case, the bank is one that is KNOWN to delay delay and drag things out.

So it is *possible* the first offer will fall through. And then we’ll see …. But that wouldn’t even be for months anyway (because of the bank).

In the mean time of course we are continuing to look at other houses, of course. Narrowing down neighborhoods. Refining what we are willing to sacrifice from our “would like to have” list. Continuing to save money. We’re actually pretty close to having a 20% downpayment, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing that this is going to take awhile.

I’ve actually started looking at listings *just* outside our budget so I’m roughly familiar in case the price gets dropped.

We’ll see.

Keep your fingers crossed for us! I’ll update again when we have more info….

SEE MORE OF OUR HOUSE HUNTING STORY

5 total – one of the ones I was really excited about sold in the intervening week.

We had originally planned to go spend the day in Santa Barbara – for [...]]]> One week after we drove around and looked at neighborhoods, we made an appointment with Bryan to actually VISIT some of these houses.

5 total – one of the ones I was really excited about sold in the intervening week.

We had originally planned to go spend the day in Santa Barbara – for our 6th anniversary – but instead went house-hunting. Just as fun. Just in a VERY different way.

The first part of our morning involved driving out to Canyon Country (WAAAY out) to just drive around a neighborhood where there were several listings, and see if it was the kind of neighborhood we wanted to actually look at houses in.. … So interesting to drive slowly by the house, trying to gauge the size of the lot, trying to determine how many meth labs are in neighboring houses, etc.

The rain held off for the morning …

After driving around Canyon Country, we had a bit of time to grab lunch before meeting with our realtor. Since Andrew’s parents live just a couple blocks from where the first house is, we headed over there to see the dogs and eat lunch (picked up El Pollo Loco. We didn’t just show up and raid their fridge).

Those dogs are always so excited to see Andrew!

The first house we visited Andrew was just IN LOVE with.

Built 1964 with the same owners for the last 45 years – which means the entire interior of the house is classic OLD PERSON. Close to our hearts, of course.

And it’s on a flag lot (which Andrew loves) with a big back yard …

This house actually would be a strong possibility – except it’s located RIGHT next to a high school. On the street Andrew used to walk down when he was ditching school …

Um. Yea, I don’t really want to deal with that…

Next we drove out to Saugus to see the other 4 houses.

While we are open to living almost anywhere in Santa Clarita, based on our budget it is most likely that we will be buying in Saugus.

1 of the houses we didn’t even go inside. Bryan took a look at the outside structure and just shook his head. Kind of why I like him, actually. Wouldn’t let us waste our time.

1 of the houses was … fine. FULL of people (there must be like 10 people who live there) so hard to see the inside, but there would be much more work than we really wanted to do on the house.

1 of the houses could be a possibility …. 3 bedroom. Decent backyard. I think it might have actually sold by now, but that’s OK. While we were there, in the backyard, it actually started to hail!

HAIL!

And Andrew told me he didn’t think I needed rainboots. Hmmm …

(Andrew in the backyard of the 3rd house. Taking shelter from the rain under the treehouse)

The last house we looked at this day is my favorite. One of those real TREASURES that comes along as a fluke.

4 bedroom, 3 bath, 1800sq ft., nice quiet neighborhood

And priced WELL below the neighborhood standard….

We assumed it was still available because there was something not-apparent that was wrong with it. … Or because lots of people want to buy a house in move-in quality.

And this house is NOT that.

It’s been vacant for months – on the market for about a year.

It’s actually not secured. …. Meaning anyone can get in through the garage if you really want to.

So we walk in and see this everywhere …

Whoever was the last to live here clearly left in a hurry (interesting since it’s still vacant)….

Trash and bobby pins and empty wine bottles …. But also personal photos and a karaoke machine and a mop.

Just weird.

One one hand, the master bedroom is enormous (below) … but on the other hand, one of the bedrooms has a square of carpet cut out and a floorboard pried up where someone clearly kept a stash of *something*

Seriously strange.

But all easy things to fix. Just pay a cleaning service to get everything out of there and scour the kitchen, paint, replace the flooring and you’ve got yourself a nice house in a nice neighborhood.

Bryan estimated about $10,000 minimum to put into the house right away. But *even* if we paid the listing price plus $15,000 of work into the house we still would end up with a house worth maybe $40,000-$50,000 more.

(comparable sales nearby over the last few months are as much as $100,000 more)

I could tell Bryan was a definitely excited about the *potential* in this house. You could tell he didn’t want to try to talk us into anything but at the same time stress what a good deal this house could be.

This was the last house to see of the day, so we stopped by to see my family on that side of town and then home.

And the whole time I couldn’t stop thinking about this last house (I need to come up with a nickname for it)…. I literally couldn’t sleep because I was thinking about the house. About where furniture would go and what we would do with the backyard.

By Monday I was sold on putting an offer on it…. Now to convince Andrew.

 See more of our house hunting journey

Like, we have an MLS filter email alert set up and everything…

It’s so exciting!

The first week or so I *obsessively* checked my email for updates ….. Now I only check the listing site about 4 or 5 times per day… haha!

It’s bad.

This is actually kind of a super-exciting edition of The Schuberts go House Hunting – complete with ACTUAL NEWS!

For past chapters: