Yesterday James came home and told me our agent was going to crawl into the crawl space and remove the dead rats before the appraiser saw them. He said the only advice he gave her was to wear a respirator. I flipped out. I started hurling questions at him like "Why is she doing that?", "Did you try and talk her out of it?" and "Does she know we want to look at other houses?". He had no answers for me. Our sweet agent is no spring chicken. She has no business going pro bono into a crawl space to remove dead, rotting rat carcasses in a house we may not even get. It's just whack.
For starters we got our bids back from the contractors. We had to get 2 bids from licensed contractors on how much it would cost to fix the deck, put up siding and replace the roof on the barn. One bid was $31,000. The next bid was $17,000. How there is such a huge difference is beyond me. What those bids do mean though is we rescind our offer, make a new one with those costs factored in and put in a new closing date. Starting all over again. We have no idea what the bank will do. We never heard from them in the 3 months its already been. They never even got to consider our first offer. Thankfully the appraiser came too early and that's why all this is happening. So, now we have to deal with dead rats.
James and I decided to go ahead and re negotiate the house price. It's low, like $50,000 less than our original offer. We are also trying to get a construction loan to pay for the fixes. We wait. We decided that if the bank takes it, great. Freaking awesome. If not, oh well. Someone else who has the budget can fix the problems. We are not going to fight to get this place knowing all the fixes it needs. The list is starting to get ridiculous. James has already found another house he likes and wants to go look at it. He doesn't seem to get that a short sale takes a very long time. The listing agent supposedly has a knack for speeding up short sales but she isn't doing it fast enough for James. Me, I am fine. I have recently discovered that we may not actually be able to comfortably afford this place. James thinks we can do it, but it will be tight. So I am fine with it taking forever and us saving money. To me that seems logical. To James that seems painful and a waste of time. He thinks the bank is dicking us around and doesn't want to be stuck waiting on this house to go through. If it doesn't go through he feels we may have missed out on other opportunities. He has a point. However, it's a catch 22. If we are smart and wait until we can comfortably afford a house we lose out on the best interest rate there will ever be. It royally sucks. We have not told our agent this. She is willing to crawl into damp death to help us get this place. Her heart is in it more than ours.
Don't get me wrong, I really want this place. I would go get those nasty fuckers if I could. But I can't. Neither can James. In our efforts to get as much money as we possibly can he works his ass off in overtime and going to school. I watch the kids so we don't pay for daycare. That leaves no time to go clean dead rats. Bless our agents heart.
However, if we have little faith the bank will take our offer and we are ready to pursue other housing avenues wouldn't you tell your agent this before you let her go clean up dead rats? I would. James did not. All he did was tell her to wear a respirator. He didn't even ask if she had the proper tools to do such a task.
After my flip out and hearing each others sides on the issue we came to mutual agreement. James is a smart cookie. If she does that for us and we do get the house for the cheaper price, we are in the win. We owe her big, but we are all the better for it. We emailed her today though stating we didn't want her compromising her health for our benefits. We stated that if the rats get discovered they should be removed by a professional who gets paid. We said we would remove them ourselves. I am not sure why James said that part when we obviously won't be removing them.
He sent me the pictures of the house he likes. It's less land, more expensive and has bizarre roofs in the bedrooms. It supposedly has a view, is in a neighborhood and is less than a block from his moms.
This buying a house game is painful.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Friday, November 9, 2012
Practice Buying A House
When we first started looking at houses we were going for bottom of the barrel places. We were looking for a diamond in the rough, a smoking deal, a dream house for a cheap price. THOSE DO NOT EXIST. Oh, and pictures tell a thousand lies. James would find these houses online, we would scroll through the images and call our agent to get us in there right away. Wrong. We started to drive by the house before we called her and had her show us the house. Wow. There is so much crap for sale. Often these houses had piles of trash sitting in from of them or piled in the yard. One time we drove all the way to Arlington to look at this super cute place. It was cute. However, it was right on a river so that meant our kids would eventually die there. It had a pig pen, full of trash. Mostly kid toys that had rotted from the damp Washington weather. It had a ginormous barn though and James wanted to check it out. So glad we did. It was packed with trash. It had holes everywhere. Someone took a lot of drugs there and punched holes in the walls. It looked like whoever lost the house moved into the barn. We thought they might actually still be living there. I stole a baseball, a super cute wood box and a Mensa cookbook. Other barrel houses were located right underneath transporters, or located right along the path of gigantic power lines. Others looked like meth heads were your neighbors or meth heads were former residents. Others were in the middle of nowhere. Some were right on the road. Some were so close to your neighbor you could chat while in the shower. All of them needed a new roof. As a matter of fact, if you look around, 90% of places anywhere here need a new roof. It got us thinking. We would drive to a destination and look at houses along the way. Houses that were not even for sale and we would ask ourselves if there was one we would want. You know what the answer was? No. It surprised me. I never had looked critically at a house before. Oh sure, they were cute, they had a nice color but would I live there? No. Every single one had a problem. They were too small, too shitty, to close to a busy road, they needed a new roof, they needed serious landscaping, they had no land, they were too old, they were too far away from civilization, the reasons go on and on. Plus, that was based off their outside appearance. Who knows the disasters they were on the inside. My cousin is right. I sound like a snob. But when you consider your children, the enormous debt you are about to accrue and your happiness you understand my fickleness. Try it. Drive through a typical neighborhood and picture yourself living there. You'll find yourself snubbing them too.
I did it all for the trailer, the trailer.
You know the new American Dream where you live off the land and grow your own? Yeah, that's us. James and I have this wonderful (not realistic) dream of growing our own fruits and veggies, having an orchard, cows, chickens, pigs, goats and sustainable living. In order to do this we need some serious land. That land also needs to have a primo location for my moms trailer.
While we go from property to property we ask ourselves, is there a spot for the trailer? If there is, we like it more. If there's not we try and find the benefits of buying it. I am the type of person that has to talk about things right away. Many times I have texted my mom "We found a spot for the trailer!". She is to the point now she doesn't want to hear about it. This hurts me. I neeeeeeed to talk about these places, I have to get the excitement out of me so I can concentrate on the house. Once it's out of me I can see clearly. I can see why the house works or why it's actually whack. The secret garden house had a good spot in the woods. Our Campbell road house has a good spot in front of the woods. Several plots have been raw land and James fantasizes of all 4 of us living in the trailer. This is not a possibility. I will not have it. The Mill Creek house would have brought the property values down in the neighborhood. The double wide place already had a trailer on it. My moms trailer has acted as a great grounder for us. It puts us in perspective, makes us think about what we ultimately want and what we are willing to work with. We love the idea of this trailer surrounded by gardens and animals. We love the idea of our moms getting together and sewing things inside of it. We love the idea of a cute little playhouse for the whole family to enjoy.
While we go from property to property we ask ourselves, is there a spot for the trailer? If there is, we like it more. If there's not we try and find the benefits of buying it. I am the type of person that has to talk about things right away. Many times I have texted my mom "We found a spot for the trailer!". She is to the point now she doesn't want to hear about it. This hurts me. I neeeeeeed to talk about these places, I have to get the excitement out of me so I can concentrate on the house. Once it's out of me I can see clearly. I can see why the house works or why it's actually whack. The secret garden house had a good spot in the woods. Our Campbell road house has a good spot in front of the woods. Several plots have been raw land and James fantasizes of all 4 of us living in the trailer. This is not a possibility. I will not have it. The Mill Creek house would have brought the property values down in the neighborhood. The double wide place already had a trailer on it. My moms trailer has acted as a great grounder for us. It puts us in perspective, makes us think about what we ultimately want and what we are willing to work with. We love the idea of this trailer surrounded by gardens and animals. We love the idea of our moms getting together and sewing things inside of it. We love the idea of a cute little playhouse for the whole family to enjoy.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Knowing When To Walk Away
Looking back, it seems so clear. There should never have been a debate. We should have just looked at each other and said in synch "NO!". James and I have seen several houses that we wanted but after many tugged heart strings, sleepless nights and indigestion we walked away from and in hindsight wonder why they were even considered.
Lets go to the beautiful 10 acre parcel that was $190,000. Oh yes. It had a cute house, a hot tub, beautiful long driveway, clear skies, tons of beautiful trees and a badass shop. It was captivating. It did have some issues. The previous owner had stolen all the appliances when they lost it. They had also let the dog(s) pee their little hearts out. The floor had actually rotted away from so much moisture. The carpet was gone, the floorboards needed replacing. When you have 10 acres why does your animal have to pee inside? We debated. We decided oh what the hell, it's SO cheap we can fix these problems! We were actually thinking of putting a reality home on the land. Then our real estate agent informed us that the property lines were up for interpretation. What? Yes, that's right. Here was a plot of land that the bank knew was 10 acres but had no clue where they started and where they ended. Awesome. We debated some more. It turned out the house could have very well been half on the property, half off. The shop, our top reason for purchasing could have not even been on the property. Who does this? Whidbey Island people that's who. Someone put incredible time and money into building this place and it wasn't even on their property. We also learned that the 40 acres of undeveloped land beyond ours could potentially be developed. That meant our driveway would become a freeway and the house was practically next to the driveway. Hmmmm, still worth it? Ultimately we decided that the money and time it would cost us to figure out the property lines was not worth it. We moved on.
Another winner we debated on was a foreclosure in Mill Creek. When you read Mill Creek you might as well read $$$ signs. It was in this NICE neighborhood, very close to a golf course and it had a pool. James and I went to it 3 times in the same day to behold its potential majesty. We were convinced this was it. We got our agent to drop everything and show us. OMG. That place was N.A.S.T.Y. You walk in and the smell of mold hit you. The laundry room, now void of its appliances, had a huge wet hole in the corner where James guessed the washer had leaked for years. Nothing in the house had been updated since the 70's. That included wall paper, carpeting, cabinets, you name it. The backyard was small and quite intimate with the neighbors. It was all concrete. There were large frogs in the hot tub. The pool was huge. There was not a barrier keeping tiny children from its harmful waters. The bedrooms were the real winners. Every single one of them had poop in them from a dog and the master bedroom had blood all over the floor. I am pretty sure a very sick old dog died in there painfully. The kitchen was the mold culprit. There was a door on the stairway wall that led to an attic crawl space, aka a door to potential death for my children. We left. We debated the whole way home. Could we buy it, fix its problems and flip it before it killed our children? We decided no. It was a painful choice but we got to it very quickly. As it turns out 7 people had put offers on it so we would have lost out anyway.
James found a house on a pleasant 2 acre parcel that had a house and a double wide on it for super cheap. The land was nice and flat. Very square. It was ideal. The house was whack. It had very low ceilings that covered up gorgeous tall ceilings. They put thick boards up on the walls instead of painting the existing walls or putting up wallpaper. The layout was bizarre. It was small. It was whack. The double wide was horrendous. Rabbits had clearly been bred there. It stunk so bad of rabbit. Someone had built a wonderful green house and then let it rot completely away. That place needed to be condemned. It was sketchy, unsafe and becoming one with the land. Our agent informed us that with our particular loan the bank would more than likely make us remove the double wide. For starters, it was never legally put there. It was too close to the house for it to be a legal residence. There was no deed to it either. The bank wasn't even sure it was part of the parcel. They thought the previous owner put it there but they weren't sure. If we bought it we would have to pay for its removal before we got our plot. So we debated again. Was the land alone worth it? No. It was not. That's the house that made us raise our limit. No more shitty cheap houses. We raised our limit and naively thought we would see better things in higher priced houses.
Lets go to the beautiful 10 acre parcel that was $190,000. Oh yes. It had a cute house, a hot tub, beautiful long driveway, clear skies, tons of beautiful trees and a badass shop. It was captivating. It did have some issues. The previous owner had stolen all the appliances when they lost it. They had also let the dog(s) pee their little hearts out. The floor had actually rotted away from so much moisture. The carpet was gone, the floorboards needed replacing. When you have 10 acres why does your animal have to pee inside? We debated. We decided oh what the hell, it's SO cheap we can fix these problems! We were actually thinking of putting a reality home on the land. Then our real estate agent informed us that the property lines were up for interpretation. What? Yes, that's right. Here was a plot of land that the bank knew was 10 acres but had no clue where they started and where they ended. Awesome. We debated some more. It turned out the house could have very well been half on the property, half off. The shop, our top reason for purchasing could have not even been on the property. Who does this? Whidbey Island people that's who. Someone put incredible time and money into building this place and it wasn't even on their property. We also learned that the 40 acres of undeveloped land beyond ours could potentially be developed. That meant our driveway would become a freeway and the house was practically next to the driveway. Hmmmm, still worth it? Ultimately we decided that the money and time it would cost us to figure out the property lines was not worth it. We moved on.
Another winner we debated on was a foreclosure in Mill Creek. When you read Mill Creek you might as well read $$$ signs. It was in this NICE neighborhood, very close to a golf course and it had a pool. James and I went to it 3 times in the same day to behold its potential majesty. We were convinced this was it. We got our agent to drop everything and show us. OMG. That place was N.A.S.T.Y. You walk in and the smell of mold hit you. The laundry room, now void of its appliances, had a huge wet hole in the corner where James guessed the washer had leaked for years. Nothing in the house had been updated since the 70's. That included wall paper, carpeting, cabinets, you name it. The backyard was small and quite intimate with the neighbors. It was all concrete. There were large frogs in the hot tub. The pool was huge. There was not a barrier keeping tiny children from its harmful waters. The bedrooms were the real winners. Every single one of them had poop in them from a dog and the master bedroom had blood all over the floor. I am pretty sure a very sick old dog died in there painfully. The kitchen was the mold culprit. There was a door on the stairway wall that led to an attic crawl space, aka a door to potential death for my children. We left. We debated the whole way home. Could we buy it, fix its problems and flip it before it killed our children? We decided no. It was a painful choice but we got to it very quickly. As it turns out 7 people had put offers on it so we would have lost out anyway.
James found a house on a pleasant 2 acre parcel that had a house and a double wide on it for super cheap. The land was nice and flat. Very square. It was ideal. The house was whack. It had very low ceilings that covered up gorgeous tall ceilings. They put thick boards up on the walls instead of painting the existing walls or putting up wallpaper. The layout was bizarre. It was small. It was whack. The double wide was horrendous. Rabbits had clearly been bred there. It stunk so bad of rabbit. Someone had built a wonderful green house and then let it rot completely away. That place needed to be condemned. It was sketchy, unsafe and becoming one with the land. Our agent informed us that with our particular loan the bank would more than likely make us remove the double wide. For starters, it was never legally put there. It was too close to the house for it to be a legal residence. There was no deed to it either. The bank wasn't even sure it was part of the parcel. They thought the previous owner put it there but they weren't sure. If we bought it we would have to pay for its removal before we got our plot. So we debated again. Was the land alone worth it? No. It was not. That's the house that made us raise our limit. No more shitty cheap houses. We raised our limit and naively thought we would see better things in higher priced houses.
Who Has This Much Cash?
Supposedly the housing market has seen better days. This is another reason James has pushed so hard to find a house. If we get one, we are looking at an awesome interest rate. One of the best. Okay, let's go buy a house!!
We have seen a few we would buy and have put offers in on 3. The first one was this super cute house in Mukilteo. We knew this one was a winner. The woods were the backyard, it was immaculately landscaped, it was in Mukilteo (hello $$$) and it was cheap. With a few minor fixes we could flip it and make bank. The only weird thing with it was one day we went to check it out, for the third time, and in the master bedroom was a floor FULL of dead bees. No joke. We went for it anyway although we were very nervous and we were SO close to getting it. Out of nowhere we lost it to some business who bought it for CASH to turn it into a rental. Whack!!! Our agent assured us we were what the bank wanted. We were a family, first time buyers, she said they liked that thing. Apparently they like cash much better.
We were hurt but okay after a few days. After all, that place had a room full of dead bees and absolutely no explanation. We could have been stung to death there. Our second offer was this crazy house that I am glad we lost. It was awesome though. It had a secret garden. It wasn't even listed in the write up it was that secret. It had a gorgeous view. It was very private. Our neighbors were political hoo haws. It was a terrific price. However, the previous owner killed herself (not in the house) and it had foreclosed. It had more shelving than a hardware store. It was kinda small and a dog had its nasty way in the office. We made an offer anyway and lost it to another cash buyer. Seriously? Who has this much cash?
Our third offer is still good. I am waiting for the cash buyer to come and steal it away from us. After what we are finding out though, they can have it.
We have seen a few we would buy and have put offers in on 3. The first one was this super cute house in Mukilteo. We knew this one was a winner. The woods were the backyard, it was immaculately landscaped, it was in Mukilteo (hello $$$) and it was cheap. With a few minor fixes we could flip it and make bank. The only weird thing with it was one day we went to check it out, for the third time, and in the master bedroom was a floor FULL of dead bees. No joke. We went for it anyway although we were very nervous and we were SO close to getting it. Out of nowhere we lost it to some business who bought it for CASH to turn it into a rental. Whack!!! Our agent assured us we were what the bank wanted. We were a family, first time buyers, she said they liked that thing. Apparently they like cash much better.
We were hurt but okay after a few days. After all, that place had a room full of dead bees and absolutely no explanation. We could have been stung to death there. Our second offer was this crazy house that I am glad we lost. It was awesome though. It had a secret garden. It wasn't even listed in the write up it was that secret. It had a gorgeous view. It was very private. Our neighbors were political hoo haws. It was a terrific price. However, the previous owner killed herself (not in the house) and it had foreclosed. It had more shelving than a hardware store. It was kinda small and a dog had its nasty way in the office. We made an offer anyway and lost it to another cash buyer. Seriously? Who has this much cash?
Our third offer is still good. I am waiting for the cash buyer to come and steal it away from us. After what we are finding out though, they can have it.
Piss and Shit
My husband grew up in houses his father built and paid for in cash. My parents never bought a house, I mostly lived in apartments. For our wedding gifts we asked for money so we could build up a down payment.
My husband became obsessed with buying a house soon after he got his great job. I was very skeptical. I thought we needed 20% down. Not so it turns out. I let him do all the looking since I was convinced we were a very long way from purchasing. It took awhile before I could be convinced to go look at places. I was very scared of getting attached to a house then learning we couldn't buy it because we didn't have the money after all. Well, that has happened but so has a myriad of other things. Buying a house is whack and I am here now to chronicle our adventures nearly 2 years after starting this process.
I just want to let it be known: There are way too many houses out there with animal feces in them. That's right. I am going to say that, oh, ALL the houses we have looked at, roughly 40 or more, have ALL had some sort of dog shit, cat piss, rabbit funk and blood in them. WTF people! WTF!!!!! James, my husband, and I have looked at houses all over the price range. They all have this animal fiasco. It's disgusting and sadly no longer a surprise. Currently we are in the process of buying a short sale (which is anything but short) and we were so pumped this house didn't have that problem. As we go back to work out logistics we have sadly seen it happen. A few times we drove to the house just to check it out. Both times we have seen this cute little white dog yapping it up, alone. We went the other day into the house with our agent and the dog was gone. In our favorite room, a huge reason we picked this house, it reeked of piss and there was a green towel by the door. Soaking up dog pee. I wanted to scream. The owner accepted our offer, it's OURS. She has her own place. She is leaving her dog, at our place alone, for hours, to pee in the house. Why can't she keep the dog at her own place? How is she leaving it for so long? Why is it inside? We may walk away from this one. It's starting to show problems. For starters it's going to need new carpeting. Secondly and thankfully the appraiser came before he was asked and found some expensive problems. We are trying to see if we can work them out but for me, it's the pee.
My husband became obsessed with buying a house soon after he got his great job. I was very skeptical. I thought we needed 20% down. Not so it turns out. I let him do all the looking since I was convinced we were a very long way from purchasing. It took awhile before I could be convinced to go look at places. I was very scared of getting attached to a house then learning we couldn't buy it because we didn't have the money after all. Well, that has happened but so has a myriad of other things. Buying a house is whack and I am here now to chronicle our adventures nearly 2 years after starting this process.
I just want to let it be known: There are way too many houses out there with animal feces in them. That's right. I am going to say that, oh, ALL the houses we have looked at, roughly 40 or more, have ALL had some sort of dog shit, cat piss, rabbit funk and blood in them. WTF people! WTF!!!!! James, my husband, and I have looked at houses all over the price range. They all have this animal fiasco. It's disgusting and sadly no longer a surprise. Currently we are in the process of buying a short sale (which is anything but short) and we were so pumped this house didn't have that problem. As we go back to work out logistics we have sadly seen it happen. A few times we drove to the house just to check it out. Both times we have seen this cute little white dog yapping it up, alone. We went the other day into the house with our agent and the dog was gone. In our favorite room, a huge reason we picked this house, it reeked of piss and there was a green towel by the door. Soaking up dog pee. I wanted to scream. The owner accepted our offer, it's OURS. She has her own place. She is leaving her dog, at our place alone, for hours, to pee in the house. Why can't she keep the dog at her own place? How is she leaving it for so long? Why is it inside? We may walk away from this one. It's starting to show problems. For starters it's going to need new carpeting. Secondly and thankfully the appraiser came before he was asked and found some expensive problems. We are trying to see if we can work them out but for me, it's the pee.
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