We're homeowners!

So, it's finally happened: we bought a house! We closed on October 17, but not without a few mishaps along the way. We didn't know until the afternoon before whether it would even happen. We had to rush through the process of finding insurance (no easy task in FL). It was very stressful. And since then it's been a whirlwind.

We cleaned, we painted, we got to know Home Depot and Linens 'n Things pretty well. The previous owners left the place in a disgusting condition, so it took us about a week to get it looking halfway decent. This past Sunday we moved all of our stuff over, with the help of some friends. Now we are just trying to figure out where everything will go and adjusting to the new surroundings.

We are the kind of people who like to unpack and get things done, so I anticipate that the house will be put together pretty quickly. Of course, there is already a list of projects for the future, including the back yard, the porch, the utility room, etc. All in good time....

So, I guess this blog comes to a close. We are no longer desperately seeking a house. We've found it!

Thanks for reading.

-- Yana and Pete

Closing day came and went...

So we were going to close on the 10th, right? The seller's bank wanted to do this quickly, so they suggested October 10th. Eh, not so much...

It seems as you may already guess that we (the buyers) are the only ones interested in closing this deal with any speed. And by speed I mean we began this in May of this year! I think the banks/agents etc. could let this drag on indefinitely, it's only money.

We finally got the go ahead to get our inspector in the home for Monday. We also had a "pest" guy inspect for infestations, wood rot etc. Everything went fine (a few minor things to watch for in the future), overall the house inspected really well. So we can still make it to closing on the 17th, right? We can close on Friday and spend the weekend cleaning and painting! Nope!

Funny thing about seeing the home mostly empty and almostly yours, you start adding up everything that you and only you will spend in the future! Apparently this house does not come with a landlord to call!

Our bank has completed their appraisal/survey and shipped it off. I will say that our bank has really been pushing to get all this done and has been a great help. The title company does not seem motivated enough to pluck a fax or or whatever it is that they do (or not)...

Moving forward

We have finally come to an agreement on the price with all parties. In theory, we are moving towards closing. Can I get a cautiously optimistic "yay"?

-- Yana

The world is coming to an end!

Our financial system is on the brink of collapse! OK, maybe the situation is not quite that drastic. At least not yet... But it does make one pause in one's house-buying process and wonder, how will this affect us? Will our bank still be able to lend us money? Will the current mortgage holders be more or less likely to want to get rid of the burden of this house?

In the meantime, we got a call from our realtor last night. The first bank offered the second bank $1000 in the contract. The second bank has decided that they need $2500. Frankly, when you're losing almost $30,000, I don't see how an extra $1500 is going to make any difference, but that's just me. So, the sellers' agent wanted to know if we would be willing to spend that to close the deal. But then what's to stop the first bank from coming back and asking for more money, too?

Our realtor recommended telling the sellers' agent to go back to the first bank to negotiate, which is what we're doing. If they are so keen on making this deal, they will work something out. And if that doesn't work, maybe the two real estate agents can take that $1500 out of their commissions. It would only be $750 from each!

My hope is that we are getting closer to the end. This really, really needs to work out because we need somewhere to live! We have begun packing, because in either case, we're going to have to move in 31 days, whether it's into this house or an apartment somewhere. Keeping my fingers crossed!

-- Yana

contracts

After October 10th (our closing date), we will have to either move into "our" house or find an apartment...

You know what makes good packing material? Shredded MLS home listings and contracts...

And did I mention stressful?

So, it's Wednesday. We were possibly supposed to hear from the second bank yesterday. But we didn't. Our agent called today with an update, which is good. At least he's communicating with us. But the update was that there was no update, which is bad. So, we are still waiting and trying not to plan or decorate in our heads lest anything go wrong and we don't get this house.

-- Yana

Buying a house is confusing

While we were on vacation in Oregon and actively not thinking about the housing situation, we got a call from our realtor. We were coming up on our deadline for the Finch contract. Apparently, the first bank approved our offer. The realtor was "very surprised" that the bank didn't counter, but in my opinion, the bank is smarter than our realtor. It has perhaps come to realize that the housing market is not improving anytime soon, and getting something for that house is better than getting nothing. The bank wants to close by October 10, which is very soon!

But here's the catch: the sellers have two loans out on this house, the major one and a smaller one for about $30,000. While the main bank has approved, we still need to wait for the other bank to do the same. In theory, the main bank will pressure the second bank to sign off on the deal. However, it's been a week, and we still haven't heard. On our end, everything is ready to go. We have our lender all lined up and ready to close ASAP. We have a landlord who is practically pushing us out the door. We are also VERY ready to leave this apartment. Coming home from vacation to find a house infested with ants will do that for you.

The last thing we heard was that we might hearing something by next Tuesday. I really hope so because living in limbo is very stressful.

-- Yana

The Orlando Sentinel has gotten to Mike Thomas

There are very few things worth reading in our "local paper", the Orlando Sentinel, except maybe Scott Maxwell and Mike Thomas. Today's column from Mike Thomas, whom I usually agree with, stated that NOW is the time to buy a house in Orlando! You can read the column here and look at the comments (142 as of 7pm). Perhaps the sun has gotten to Mike, but I usually trust his opinion, just not on this subject...


Mike Thomas column

A Finch update of sorts....

Finch finally shows "inactive" online. Which means the bank is either looking at our offer, or someone else's. There is no way of knowing.

Yana emailed our agent to push or just really to inquire about the status of our bid on the Finch house last Tuesday. Our agent finally got around to replying on Friday, after Yana resent the email. It said the the sellers' agent was out of office. Today is Tuesday, I am certain we will hear something any minute now....any minute now...any minute now...

Catalpa update

The price for the house discussed below has been lowered to $229,000. Which makes it better...But with the electrical, kitchen, and bathrooms to be replaced, it still seems like a long shot. I understand the kitchen/bathroom thing is "cosmetic", but the electrical is a must fix!

I also can not believe that we get the agent's sigh/shoulder shrug for wanting a house with updated/functional electrical in this market. Are we wrong to expect functionality in a $200,000 purchase?

Catalpa-dream house or nightmare?

The seller's agent for the house on Catalpa (read below) called our agent last week and countered their own counter offer(?) from $230,000 to $225,000. We asked an electrician to do a rough estimate on redoing the electrical. He quoted us $12,000. Which is about what we expected. We asked our agent to pass this along to the seller's agent to see if there were some middle ground to meet.

He replied that he would not discuss this as we did not have an offer put on the table so to speak! I will remind you that he contacted us!

The electrician also said that we don't have to rewire the entire house as long as we only plug certain things into certain parts of the house. A lamp here, a vacuum there, maybe not at the same time. It is safe to say, we will not be using this electrician!

I understand that we are looking at older houses that have more charm, in my opinion, but also inherent costs to maintain. Is it too much to ask for functional electrical for close to a quarter of a million dollars?

I suppose everyone in real estate (agents, electricians, etc.) have made enough money...

Some news...

And it's not good news. Our landlord is kicking us out. (That's the downside of not having a lease). He wants to remodel our place and rent it out for a lot more money than what we are paying. This means that we now have 2-4 months to find a new place to live. While this is a decent amount of time, you must remember that we've been looking at houses for about a year now. How we can settle on something so soon, especially considering the amount of crap that's on the market right now, is beyond me.

We are deeply upset by this development for a variety of reasons:

1. We have to accelerate our house search. If we don't find anything to buy, we'll have to find another place to rent, which means we'll be locked into a lease somewhere, which we don't want to do.

2. We wanted to be the ones to break the news to the landlord that we would be leaving. I think we would have found it quite satisfying. It's like your boyfriend/girlfriend breaking up with you before you can break up with him/her.

3. On a personal level, I will be very sad to leave our apartment. As much as I've complained about it over the years, the place contains so many of our memories and "firsts." It was our first apartment, the place where we adjusted to living as a couple, the place where we spent our wedding night, the place that kept us safe through the hurricanes, the place where we've come home to each other for the past 7 years. I'll miss the gay bar on the corner, the barbershop quartet, the various wacky neighbors who have caused me grief, and many other things about it.

4. We seriously need to find a place to live. And SOON!!!

Here's where we stand. We've put our offer back in on Finch, though we are not very hopeful of a positive outcome. The agent for Catalpa contacted us to let us know the sellers are re-countering with $225,000. (Their last counter was $230,000). Now that we know the state of the electrical system in that house, we still think that's too high. We're going to try to get an electrician to give us an estimate on how much it would cost to update the house and use that as a bargaining tool. So far, we haven't seen any other homes that are interesting or in our price range.

-- Yana

The last house was owned by a Master Sargent and his lovely war bride. I know this, because there was a plaque stating as much by the front door. In the walkway was Sarge's souvenir from his time in Germany, a cuckcoo clock.

The dungeon, I mean bathroom featured nifty hanging lamps and plastic shower doors from "the future" circa 1983...

The kitchen was to the left of the front door. I don't get these houses with kitchens in the front windows. The pantry as you'll see below is great for stocking canned goods, and only canned goods as it was 6 inches deep!

The house was maintained well enough, but it was outdated, expensive, and on a busy street. And it was a 2/2. It was listed for $219,000...

Next up on the list was a house listed for $243,000. It was a 3/2. It did not have central air conditioning! It had window units! In Orlando! Florida! In 2008! For $243,000!

When you walk into the house, you are immediately hit with "icy cold" air from your first window unit perched about 7 feet up. Kind of like those convenience stores with sliding doors. The crawlspace was taken out so that you had high ceilings, which is great, unless you plan on adding central air.

The kitchen featured cabinets that went 12 feet up with zero counter space. When I say zero, I mean the stove was free standing and there was an easy chair where the fridge would go (no fridge).

The bedroom/bathroom had a very unusual feature. The bedrooms were side by side with one very long closet between them. You could not close the closet door as that was where the window unit was located. I have included pictures from the screen located in the "master" to the closet. I can only think that this was used as a hidey-hole during police raids.










We could barely contain ourselves, considering the seller's agent showed this house with a straight face. This was just unbelievable. This house is the reason the housing market is tanking. I doubt we will have any more contact with the agent, but if anybody needs a grow house....

The Search Continues

Well, we did a speed tour of some newer listings today. The first place was well done. It had a great layout, most everything was renovated. Nice backyard, great kitchen. But it only had 1 bathroom. It has been said that one of the keys to a successful marriage is 2 bathrooms. I am sure this seems nit-picky, but the house is listed for $260,000. Considering what they paid for the house 4 years ago, I doubt they will come down enough to put it within our range.

So, on to the next house. We recently to a trip to Charleston, and we have found a historical replica here in Orlando! Join us for a trip to "colonial Orlando"...

This is what is known in the olden days as a kitchen
> >>>>>>>>



On the left is where Ye Olde TV went. On the right is housing for colonial re-enactors?



Now hold on to something; this house is listed for $264,000!

Back to Finch?

Our real estate agent called us over the weekend and told us that the house on Finch is "available". It seems that 3 months (of non payment) is just the right amount of time for a bank to reconsider your offer! I do not blame the sellers; they offered a short sale to the bank. Which to me should signal that the owners are in over their heads and want out.

The bank has decided that perhaps their one solid offer, us, might be worth looking into. We re-looked at the house last night. It's funny, you make one of the biggest purchases in your life based on 20-60 minutes worth of inspection. We looked a bit more critically at the house, windows, AC, electrical, etc.

You also have to curb your inner HG channel tendencies (we could knock down this wall and put in a waterfall/koi pond in the living room). Mostly because the house is not ours yet...

One thing we noticed on the second visit was that the AC duct work only goes to the middle of the house. This house was built in the fifties, tar and gravel roof, so no AC. The AC was added later to the bedrooms, bathrooms and the living room. The kitchen and and "bonus room" have no AC vents. This can be rectified by running a soffit across the living room. It will look like a beam. There are also 3 different fences in the backyard, neighbors on each side and directly in back. So that will cost us. Electrical seemed ok, not new but at least not antique.

So we decided to "re-put" in our offer with the stipulation that the bank makes a decision in less than 90 days! Our agent gritted his teeth, smiled and submitted the offer. We will see...

Back on the wagon, I think

We took last week off to recover from almost buying a money pit. It was a close one, but in the end, I'm glad we chose not to pursue the Catalpa house. We withdrew our offer and are waiting to get our escrow checks back from the realtor. It certainly takes a lot longer to get them returned that it did for him to deposit them. I'm beginning to think it's intentional.

Over the weekend, we looked at 3 houses. The first two were foreclosures. Let me tell you, they were both awful. That's the thing about foreclosures; I have yet to see one that isn't absolutely horrible. If they were at least priced right and could be repaired... The first house had an interesting feature: a fake 2-car garage. Just inside the garage door, there was a cinder block wall. I guess these crazy people had expanded the master, but that left nowhere to park. The second house was basically a tear-down. It was full of mold and incredibly disgusting!

The third house was in Audubon Park, one of our target neighborhoods. It was very cute, though a bit small. Its major drawback was that it was located on the corner of a busy street. Not only would you have to deal with the noise, but I imagine it would also be difficult to sell down the road. And it had no dishwasher! Now, that's just unheard of in 2008.

We'll keep looking.

-- Yana

My dad is a dream crusher

OK, he's not really. He just took the wind out of our sails this weekend about the Catalpa house. After the counter offer came through, we decided to take the advice of a friend and go see the house again. On Saturday, we spent nearly 45 minutes in the home, turning on lights, flushing the toilets, measuring windows, looking very carefully at the ceiling for water stains, etc.

One thing that we did not notice on our previous visit was that the electrical outlets in half the house were not grounded. They only had 2 holes. I immediately knew this was a bad sign and dreaded telling my dad. He's an electrical and general contractor, and we rely on his knowledge of what can be fixed and how much it might cost. Dad basically said that to fix something like that in this house would be nearly impossible without major time and money spent. Because the house has a flat roof and no attic access, the only way to get to the wiring would be to rip out the drywall, which is a messy and expensive process. Basically, a flat roof makes it difficult to fix anything.

So, the end result is that we are going to walk away from this negotiation and continue looking. I guess we'll have to add another criteria to our search: a shingle roof. This is slightly problematic given that many of the homes we are looking at were built in the 50s when built up (flat tar and gravel) roofs were popular.

We're disappointed. I was so depressed about this that I couldn't bring myself to write yesterday. And it's not even about this house in particular, which should probably tell me that it wasn't the right house for us, but just about this search in general. I swear, we are not that picky. We're cautious, as Pete's sister put it. We don't want to get stuck with a money pit. We want the right house for the right price in the right neighborhood. Too much to ask? Apparently.

-- Yana

Our first counter offer

So, we heard back from the seller today. Their counter was $230,000, and they are not willing to fix a few of the things we asked for, such as windows that don't open. We were really hoping for something a little bit more reasonable, but such is life, I guess.

At this point, I think our next course of action is to go back and look at the house again. We'll be able to look at it more critically this time, now that the initial excitement has faded a little bit. After that, we may counter them again.

-- Yana

Getting closer?

Our realtor just called. He said the seller's agent has to drive out to Deland tomorrow to meet with grandma and grandpa (the sellers). Apparently, he has to do this between noon and 3 because that's when they're at their sharpest :( Poor old people! Anyway, he thinks that if there even is a counter, it will be pretty favorable to us. Yay!

-- Yana

Maybe we’ve finally found it?

Last night we looked at 2 more houses. The first was listed for a good price ($180,000), or so we thought until we saw it. It was a 3/2, but on the smaller side with about 1,200 square feet. The outside of the house was pretty nice, but the inside was a wreck, a flea-infested wreck at that! The only thing that house had going for it were the terrazzo floors. I don’t know how fleas even live on terrazzo!

As we were leaving, our realtor suggested we look at another home on the same street. When we pulled up to it, I realized that I had seen the pictures of it online but decided not to look at it because the price was too high. It had been listed for $250,000, but the price had been lowered that day. We fell in love with this place.

House on Catalpa Ln.
Beds: 3
Baths: 2
Sq ft: 1,990
Year Built: 1950
Listing price: $238,500
Additional info: 2-car carport, beautifully landscaped yard, inside laundry room, terrazzo underneath new carpet, original 50s bathrooms, old windows, old kitchen, new AC, clothesline in the back yard!

Out of the houses we’ve looked at, it certainly ranks in the top 3 for me. Anyway, we decided to put in an offer of $220,000. We’ll see what they say. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

-- Yana

Bringing you up to the present date...

We basically looked on and off until May when we finally found another contender. This one was in a very nice neighborhood called Audubon Park, about 5 minutes from where we live now.

House on Finch St.
Beds: 3
Baths: 2
Sq ft: 1,182
Listing price: $195,000
Last purchase price: $276,000 in 2006
Additional info: terrazzo floors, tiny kitchen, bonus room with no AC, great tree in front, great neighborhood, new double-paned windows

You might notice that the listing price is significantly less than what the current owners paid for it. Sucks for them. A lot. Good for us? We’ll see. This house was a short sale, which basically means that the bank is going to take a loss on it, and the sellers will walk away without a foreclosure on their record. We put in an offer of $180,000, but we were very willing to negotiate.

We didn’t hear anything for a while, and by that I mean over a month. When you’re dealing with a bank, it can take months for them to answer you. Finally, in mid-July, we heard that the bank had actually reworked the seller’s loan. This took the house out of the loss/mitigation department. The seller proceeded to miss the June payment, the July payment, and most probably the August payment. After that, the house will go back to loss/mitigation, at which time they may look at our offer again. Aaaaaarrrrhhhhh! It’s incredibly frustrating to be in limbo for this long!

Since we weren’t going to know anything about this house for a while, we decided it couldn’t hurt to look around a little bit. After checking the listings online, I found 5 houses that looked interesting. Our realtor showed them to us over the course of 2 days. Amazingly, we found one house we really liked.

House on Hargill Dr.
Beds: 3
Baths: 3
Sq ft: 1,859
Year Built: 1958
Listing price: $235,000
Last purchase price: $116,000 in 2007
Additional info: old windows, 2 car carport, pool, ugly tile throughout the house, island in kitchen, inside laundry room, corner lot with cinderblock wall around it

This house was great. However, the owners made some odd choices. The house used to have terrazzo floors, which we actually like, but they covered those floors with cheap and ugly tile. Why? The one good thing they did was to leave the original bathroom fixtures, which were in great condition. The main cost in upgrading this house would have been the windows. They all needed to be replaced, and in a house that size, that could have easily run us $15,000. Taking that into account, we decided to offer $200,000.

The following morning after looking at the house, I saw that the listing had gone inactive online. Our realtor found out that the sellers had accepted an offer from a guy who had terrible credit. His credit score was so low (500) that he couldn’t get a loan from a bank. He was trying to secure a loan from a private lender, but apparently that didn’t go well. He couldn’t even come up with $1,000 to put in escrow.

We put in our offer Friday night. $200,000, 20% down, we pay closing, we didn’t ask the sellers for anything extra… And we asked to hear back by Sunday night. There was no answer. On Monday, our realtor spoke to the listing agent to find out that our offer was rejected. They felt it was too low to even counter. I guess these sellers had already rejected 5 offers. Well, if they can afford to sit on a house forever until someone is willing to pay their asking price, they are welcome to it. Have they ever thought that since everyone is giving them “low” offers that maybe their asking price is too high?

After some discussion, we decided not to go ahead with another offer. We were willing to pay no more than $210,000 for that house, and we felt that we couldn’t give them an offer with our top price because there was nowhere to negotiate from there. The search continues!

-- Yana

It is a buyer's market!

I wanted to give you a little insight into what we do before contacting "our" real estate agent. Yana and I look online at Ziprealty, Trulia, Realtytrac etc. for houses in our range. We narrow the list down by price, location (the usual stuff). Out of possibly 80 listings we may find 15 or so we are interested in.

We look them up by address on the Orange County Tax appraisors site for information such as taxes, purchase price etc. We then drive by the ones we are interested in and if they are vacant, we stop and peek in the windows. Out of that list, we usually send 3 to our agent to schedule a look inside.

To put it more plainly, we do as much research as we can before we even get to the house. We believe that we are performing, in corporate speak, due diligence. And how easy is it for the agent? Show up, unlock the door and nod!

Homes we’ve liked or made offers on

House on Dunsany Ave.
Beds: 3
Baths: 2
Sq ft: 1,375
Year Built: 1957
Listing price: $250,000, eventually lowered to $235,000
Last purchase price: $175,000 in 2005
Additional info: fireplace, terrazzo floors, old kitchen, 50s bathrooms, 2-car carport, outside laundry, small porch

House on Silverstone Ave.
Beds: 3
Baths: 2
Sq ft: 1,859
Year Built: 1958
Listing Price: $250,000
Last purchase price: $265,000 in 2005
Additional info: fireplace, new kitchen, screened-in pool, garage converted into bonus room, inside laundry, shed with electric

The Search Begins

I guess our story begins like that of most couples. Almost eight years ago we met, fell in love, and later moved in together. My cat and I made the move to Pete’s downtown apartment. Pete and I were thrilled to “set up house” together. We bought furniture and household items. We cleaned and painted. The cat hid under the dishwasher.

Our apartment has a lot going for it. It’s in the front half of a duplex, with our landlord occupying the other half. The location cannot be beat. We are technically located in the Gay-sian district, close to bars, restaurants, coffee houses, and almost every other form of entertainment available in Orlando. And the rent is pretty cheap, too!

But there are also some negatives. There’s the dryer that doesn’t dry, the toilet that runs, the water heater that chooses for you when you will have hot water, the oven door that tries to close on you, the incredibly loud dishwasher, the crappy wiring that blows out light bulbs, the ants that come to live in the winter months… Let’s see, is there anything I forgot? Oh, yeah, it’s not ours. Every little thing that we want to do to improve our living conditions has to be run by the landlord. He’s mostly a reasonable guy, but it’s still a pain in the ass.

Right before I moved in, Pete had the opportunity to buy the duplex from the previous owner for a pretty good price. But he wasn’t really thinking about home ownership at the time, and I was still in school with basically no income.

After we got married in 2004, we started saving money for a down payment on a house. According to my dad, it was either that or immediately have a baby. Unfortunately for us, that was also right around the time that the housing market starting booming in Orlando and around the country. Prices shot up dramatically. Unlike most people during that time, we wanted to be responsible; we didn’t want to get into a loan that was over our heads. We have this crazy idea that you shouldn’t buy something you can’t afford. Funny, huh?

So, we diligently saved our money and tried to wait out the housing prices. But they kept rising and rising and rising… Which brings us to August 2007. We were hearing everywhere about the housing slow-down, but apparently no one else in Orlando was. While nationwide prices began dropping, sellers in Orlando were determined not be to part of that trend. No one wanted to budge an inch, and everyone felt entitled to make a $150,000 profit on their house. That’s right, I said PROFIT. There was a lot of speculation and a lot of house flipping going on.

Despite these obstacles, we decided to finally start looking because it felt like we couldn’t stay in our apartment any longer. Within the first month, we found a house we loved. In retrospect, we made the mistake that most first-time buyers make: we believed that there might be something else out there and didn’t make an offer in time. Although losing that house was a big disappointment, we kept looking.

In October, we found another house in the same neighborhood. This time we moved quickly to make an offer. The house was listed for $250,000, and we offered $240,000, which was the top of our budget. The seller didn’t even call us back. According to the listing agent, they had like 5 other offers. And they continued to have 5 other offers for the next 6 months, when they finally suckered someone into paying the full asking price.

Again, we were disappointed. In the next few months, we saw a lot of crappy and overpriced houses. I know that some people might say we’re too picky. We have a very limited radius outside downtown where we would consider living. In a city as small as Orlando, there is no reason to live anywhere but downtown. There’s nothing to do, and no public transportation to use to get anywhere. We want an established neighborhood with older homes and big trees. The idea of living in one of those cookie-cutter developments in revolting to me.

-- Yana

The basics

Let's get this out of the way first. Between my wife and I, I have the low credit score of 780, she comes in at 805! We have a 20% down payment saved. What's not to love?

-- pete