So, you know how last month I said that our offer was accepted and we were closing on July 28th? That wasn’t all as done deal as we had thought. That post was on the second of June and we were expecting to put down earnest money, have inspections, and carry on. A week went by, two weeks went by, three weeks went by and we kept hearing that the bank hadn’t signed the paperwork, which made no sense since we were accepting their counter-offer.

Finally a week or so ago (after waiting for a month), we find out that the counter-offer wasn’t from the bank that is doing the owner’s short sale, it was from the bank’s negotiator and he really was waiting for the bank to approve it. Did that mean that the bank could still reject what we had been under the impression for a month was pretty much sorted out? Who knows? Then they came back wanting to change the closing date to September 28. Then they decided they wanted to see $10,000 in our bank account right now to make sure they don’t get to closing with people who can’t close.

Ok, that’s great except we don’t have $10,000 in our bank account right now. George has a couple of large contracts with outstanding payments and I’ve been selling on Amazon, which won’t release my funds for a couple weeks. Even then it won’t quite be $10,000. So my parents signed a gift letter (which I think they will not need to actually fulfill) and we didn’t hear anything. That was a week and a half ago.

Last night we heard back. The bank has actually accepted our offer for real this time (!!). Our earnest money is going over today and George is setting up appointments for inspectors and things to come next Monday (I want everything inspected so I know just what we’re getting in to). Also, our closing date has change again (this makes date #4 in case you’re keeping track) to August 29th, which is a month earlier than the last nebulous date but also means we will be moving before school starts and before the weather turns. This makes me much happier.

Our big $10,000 accumulation project has been going pretty well. We have nearly $6,000 taken care of, up from the $2000 we had to apply to this a month ago. George has been working hard and I started selling on Amazon (mostly DVDs), which I’m thoroughly enjoying. I’m out of stock at the moment, but will have more up Saturday or Monday (links to the store and George’s business are on the blog sidebar). My brain has been back in business overdrive, which has its plusses and minuses.

Basically, all this means I have six weeks to pack up everything and get ready to move, come up with $4,000, and plan school for four children for next year (of course, I am not solely responsible for the first two items on the list). If you see me and I look like I might spontaneously combust or have big creepy saucer-eyes, you can pretty much assume this to be why.

When we first put an offer on this house there were a massive number of hurdles and things to get past and it seemed like such a ridiculous long shot. Now we are basically down to just one more big hurdle, the inspection, which we should have an answer on next week. The $10,000 I’m actually not too worried about. Getting it all done will be a lot of work, but I’m not really worried that we won’t have it in the end. The inspection, however, I am still pretty concerned about. Thank you all so much for your continued prayers. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed by the name of the Lord.

Rachel

P.S. Here’s a link to the house we’re trying to buy: http://bit.ly/M8CSbv

Well, a mere two months after we placed an offer on that short sale farmhouse in Oregon City (see the last post for a brush-up on the situation), we have finally heard back from the bank. And… they accepted our offer and our closing date is now July 28th! Since we offered a mere $50,000 less than the asking price, we were expecting a substantial counter of some sort. Instead they didn’t dicker about the price at all, and the only thing they wanted changed was instead of them paying the entire closing cost, they wanted to change it to 2% of the sale price. After talking to our mortgage guy, that amounts to a whole $2500 that is just going to get rolled into the rest of the financing. Translation: woohoo!

Sort of woohoo. Kind of like yay 42% of the process is complete and going well but there are still a couple giant, major hurdles woohoo. Hurdle #1 ~ We were originally planning to use a county grant for the down payment, which everything was set for when we made the offer in March. Last week, before we heard back about the offer, I went back to double check and make sure that was still clear, and guess what? Two weeks after we made the offer, they changed the maximum sales price requirement and now instead of being under the ceiling, we are $5000 over. When I called, they said that it didn’t matter when we made the offer and there was no grandfather clause. All that mattered was the sale price at closing.

So, that’s out. We have about two months to scrounge up $10,000. George has had a couple big contracts lately and I have started selling off everything that’s not tacked down. I found a whole box of old Gymboree stuff from when the girls were little and have all that listed. In that same box I found a bag of Gym stuff I bought to resell nine years ago. It still has all the tags on it and everything. So dumb! Well, it’s listed now, so we’ll see how that goes. I started making Kindle covers a few months ago and will be listing some more of those next week as well. My business brain has gone back into overdrive with crazy ideas. Super stress but kind of fun at the same time.

In addion to all that and in fashion that is completely consistent for us, we found out yesterday about the offer, and today we found out that George’s huge contract that he was expecting to start next week and would have provided a nice chunk of the $10k got canceled. Hahahaha!

That’s the panic talking. It’s chatty. But then, of course, there’s this: ²³ The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you. ” (Numbers 11:23). I love it that God is sarcastic. So that’s hurdle number one.

Hurdle #2 ~ Inspection. We are doing an FHA loan, and if the inspection comes up under their standards then the whole thing is off unless repairs can be made (time, money, just little things like that). The house is a hundred years old and kind of reminds me of the Weasley’s Burrow in Harry Potter. It’s been added to and rearranged and has lots of weirdness. Who knows what is going on inside the house guts. So I’m a bit concerned about that. For some reason I have yet to fathom, this worries George not at all.

Hurdle #3 ~ Yes, I know I said there were only two but in the time it’s taken me to write this I remembered something else to worry about. ‘Cause I obviously need more to obsess over. The appraisal! That beautiful little farmhouse we tried to buy last year fell through when the appraised price came in $10,000 less than the agreed-upon sale price.

The bank that is doing the short sale had an appraisal done already (two, I think), but we have no idea what their numbers were and it’s odd that they didn’t counter our asking price. Of course, if the appraisal comes in low they won’t be able to sell it to anyone else at the higher number either so there would be no benefit at all to them not lowering the sale price to match the appraisal. Hmm. Maybe I should start praying the appraisal comes in low after all. Hehe.

Well, I think that about covers it. We would surely appreciate your prayers for the down payment, inspection, appraisal. Oh yes, and sanity. That would also be nice.

George is actively looking for work/projects/servitude of any type so if you have a project let him know. The children have all volunteered to help. If you have lawns that need mowing or yardwork, please talk to Georgie. The girls have started making jewelry and I’m getting an Etsy store together for them. Should be running next week. The links to all of that and my auctions are on the right menu at the top beneath the big, tacky progress thermometer that I will likely forget to update because I’m terrible at remembering stuff like that. Hmm, actually I just went to update it and it isn’t working. I’ll find a new one Monday.

Here they are again:

House we’re trying to buy: http://bit.ly/M8CSbv

George’s work website: Red Pixel

Rachel’s auctions: rachelwife | ebay

Oh, also if you don’t have any work for us or want to buy any of our stuff but maybe you had a delicious breakfast and are now feeling so generally magnanimous that you would like to help out a little anyway, there is a donate button on the right sidebar beneath our business links as well.

So, now you are all caught up, I think! I’ll post more when we know more. We’ve been looking for a house for fifteen months now, and it’s been a long and discouraging process. You have all been and continue to be such an encouragement to us. Thank you for all your prayers.

George and Rachel

So for those of you who we haven’t talked to in the last week or who weren’t at Parish on Sunday, last Friday George and I put an offer on a house. This particular house is pretty much the only one George has been truly excited about, and he’s been drooling since he ran across it last July. We both love it. It’s an old 8 acre farmhouse in O.C., five minutes from church, three minutes off the freeway with a separate apartment that is currently rented.

We spent several months squaring away finances the way the bank likes it hoping we could qualify for this house and then as soon as we did, it went pending. This was maybe six weeks ago.

On Friday George called the listing agent who said that the deal had just fallen through and they were accepting offers again, so immediately we put in an offer. It was significantly lower than they were asking, but the same price as they had had it listed for a few months ago.

We just found out today that the sellers have accepted our offer. This house is a short sale though, so the sellers are only the first hurdle out of like twenty-five. Also, the previous deal fell through for some reason relating to the sellers and the short sale as opposed to the buyers. We’re not sure what happened there, but that’s not really super encouraging and the last house we had an accepted offer on fell through when their bank decided they weren’t going to allow a short sale at all so the sellers not only couldn’t sell to us, they couldn’t sell to anyone.

This house is pretty much our family dream. On top of that, with the rental, the monthly payment (depending on the bank’s counter and etc. etc.) is well within our price range. However, because it is a short sale and we have no idea what the bank is going to come back with for a counter if they come back with anything at all, I would say that statistically it is still a long shot. That said, I don’t think of God as someone overly concerned with statistics unless it’s to point out that the greater the odds against something, the more glory to Him when He makes it come to pass. Our God has very long arms as He likes to point out.

We would very much appreciate your prayers for the next couple of months (closing date is theoretically 5/31) as we go through this terrifying yet exciting serpentine process with the bank. Pray for the banks involved with approving the short sale (I think there are two), the appraisers, the inspectors, the sellers, the whole entire affair, and please pray for us during this time.

We’re trying not to be absurdly excited since this is the one that we want so badly and are more or less failing miserably. Thank you all so much.

George and Rachel