According to the Bank - we're set

Ok, so the one thing we were worried wouldn't go through on time has now gone through. The last piece, the Mortgage Insurance, came in this morning. So we're set... as long as the sellers actually show up. Wow. This sucks. Haven't heard from Kevin yet, he's flying in today. Hopefully it all ends up working out and they are there tomorrow morning. I can only pray it does.

Really? (Is this really a good idea?)

Ok, granted I am not a Bengals fan and this has nothing to do with buying my first home, but -- Really? Chris Henry? Marvin Lewis, are you kidding me? Do you really think this is the best move for the team? I know you guys are short wide recievers and all but there's reasons why you cut him in the first place, even if the current charges get dropped, what's the chance he's going to get into trouble again in the future? I mean come on, I'd take that bet and I don't like to gamble. The Cinncinati Bengals need to rebuild their team and their image. Rehiring one of the convicts is probably not a good way of doing that. I mean the guy couldn't pay for a $300,000 house in Kentucky when he makes 3 times that in a year - he's just plain immature. Sure he can make some great catches and your team needs wide recivers, but mark my word - you'll be wishing you hadn't. Now that I have spoken my mind on something completely unrelated, granted it made me feel a little better, I am going to take my P.H.D in sportsology and go biking. :)

There's an elephant on my chest

ARGH! I think I am losing my mind. So now we are dealing with a pain in the ass loan and pain in the ass sellers. So if it wasn't bad enough that our loan has like 80,000 hoops to jump through - I cannot tell you how many letters I have signed saying I am working from home and I am not using my money for work supplies and I am using less than 15% of the house for the job and every other request under the sun -- NOW, the sellers don't want to sell, they'd rather go into foreclosure.

Ok, so today we found out that a) there's an assessment on the house for 2009 for the road - that's fine we knew that was coming and b) the sellers who are in deep doo doo when it comes to money were told by the bank that the bank wants ALL of its money back not just the money we are giving them and the seller's don't have it and now want to go into foreclosure.

So here's the story: The idiot couple took out money against their home to do some repairs. They took the money and instead of doing repairs they spent it other ways. (Kevin said this is very common right now - people taking out money against their homes for updates and then using it to buy a car, rv, etc.) So they took the money out and then realized they were running late on their mortgage. So they were like crap we cannot pay our mortgage we better use this $20,000 to pay off our mortgage. Well, the $20,000 ran out, they didn't make any repairs, and they still owed money. So a great idea dawned on them - let's get a credit card and use it to pay for our payments. Well, $9,000 later they are $29,000 in debt and still have no end in sight.

So that's when the bank stepped in and they decided to sell the house. This way the sellers don't go into foreclosure and the bank gets rid of the loan. It's called a short sale. Well, apparently they owe more than just the $29,000 because once they get the $228,000 from us they STILL owe the bank money -- This is where it gets interesting -- the bank must have recently reminded them: hey, we're getting $228,000 for the house BUT we want the rest of our loan back too because you didn't put it into the house. So now the sellers who have no money to pay the bank off are now deciding (AFTER THEY SIGNED A LEGALLY BINDING AGREEMENT TO SELL US THE HOUSE) never mind we'd rather go into foreclosure than sell you the house. They have owned the house for 36 years (what in the world did it even cost back then) and 36 years later they still owe the bank more than $228,000 on it? I just don't understand this situation at all.

So now we are kind of up a creek w/o a paddle. Kevin believes that this whole time the seller's agent has known about this situation, knew it might end like this and failed to tell us... which is a huge breach and makes the sellers agent liable too. Which at least makes the situation a little better because what's the point of suing bankrupt people for breach of contract? So we could sue the seller's agent too. Then again is it really worth suing them if this all falls apart? Would we waste more money than we would gain? Is it really worth the revenge? All this pain and suffering -- all this waiting and worrying and we may not get the house. I honestly felt like I was having trouble breathing after that conversation.

SO! Kevin is checking in with his boss and keeping us up to date. So far the guy... (there's a man and a woman -- we don't think they are married and at this point they may not even be together either if the seller's agent has to confirm with two separate people that they are coming to closing.) ...like I was saying: so far the guy is coming to closing. Which does us no good if the chick doesn't decide to sell. So she was supposed to get off of work at 4pm CST today and the seller's agent was going to try to convince her to come too. So we are waiting to hear from Kevin about her. Mike wants to punch these people in the faces when we see them at closing for screwing us around like they have - I don't blame him I want to too! This is ridiculous that this comes out Tuesday before we close on Thursday. I mean I don't even know what to say.

So that's that. Then there's this whole loan not getting finished in time. It was supposed to be final today but then they needed one more letter signed saying I won't be using more than 15% of the house for my job. So I sent that in but because it was one more thing they cancelled our closing. So now Lonna got it in as soon as I had sent it to her and is trying her hardest to get it back on track. So she thinks she can but we won't know until its approved -- which is why I am feeling a bit freaked out at the moment. I mean if it wasn't stressful enough before Kevin called now this. LORDY!

So I am trying to be patient but you can't help but wonder if this is some kind of sign from god. ***Psst - Don't buy the house.***

Well - One monkey off my back as of 5:37 pm CST our mortgage is approved. They ordered a mortgage insurance at 1-2 pm so they are waiting for that administrative piece to come in tomorrow morning before the put the closing back on the books but she said not worry about it and that she'd be calling back tomorrow with more details. Now that this is cleared - which originally was the scariest part - if those jerks don't sell us this house I am going to have a fit. I swear to goodness!!! Well I've worried about this enough today, I'll update this if I find out anymore, but until then I can't think about this anymore -- I am going to ride my bike a couple of miles or something.

3 Days left

So we're closing in 3 days. I haven't talked to Lonna since Friday but on Friday we were just waiting for final approval on the loan - UGH! Isn't it over with yet? I'll call later to see how we are doing because we have to close on Thursday seeing that Jake's dad is flying up just for this. I have some questions about the cashier's check and what we need to bring to the closing insurance wise too.

So we thought we'd be proactive and set up all of our accounts with utilities a head of time - Apparently, not so possible. I called Xcel and they won't set up your account until the moment you want to start service. Center Point's phone number doesn't even work! Minneapolis wireless you save money by signing up online (for immediate service) and to be honest I didn't even bother to call the City of Minneapolis to set up Water and Trash because I gave up. I'll just call on Thursday, but super lame. We wanted it all set up ahead of time so they could just turn/switch everything over when we called to turn on service. This weekend is going to be nuts isn't it?

Construction Begins

Today when I went to our house to meet the plumber and real estate agent -- I couldn't get to my house. I drove down Lyndale headed towards 38th Street and all of a sudden I look up and there's a road closed sign on 38th Street! I was like uh-oh this can't be good. :) I think its open to local traffic which will be good for us when we move next week! But if we waited any longer we might have trouble because they are ripping out all of the concrete down to the piping. Although they don't expect to have it done until Septemeber. But how scary was it when I drove up to find our street closed! I was like uhh... how are we going to move in!? :)

Its ok, the sooner its done the sooner we live on a PARKWAY! :) So that will be awesome!

If you want to check out the project go here: http://www.co.hennepin.mn.us/lyndalenorthofcreek

I want to hurt someone...

OK, Lonna is on my last nerve. SO! The Truth In Housing report (Or TISH report if you want to irritate Kevin - HA! He doesn't like Lonna either) mentioned something about an open waste line - but there is no open waste line. So we had to get a plumber come in and look at it today. Fun part was no one really knew what needed to be looked at/checked. So while the plumber was looking around the seller's agent and I were calling around trying to get a hold of Lonna, the Loonie Loan Officer, to find out EXACTLY what needs to be taken care of because she's the one who said something needed to be taken care of before closing. So we were also trying to get a hold of Kevin too because we thought he might also know... So after about 15-30 mins waiting around Lonna called the seller's agent and the seller's agent put the plumber on the phone for sale. So they talked for a while and he explained the situation and clarified there was no open waste line. So she was fine with that and instead of capping everything off which would have taken 1/2 a day and $750 we got a signed piece of paper saying that everything was fine. Of course that cost $150! $150! And it turned out he didnt even write down what she wanted to have written down and we couldnt read it.

So I get it to good ole Lonna and she claims she can't read it. Granted the penmanship was AWFUL but I could still read it. So she got all excited and then she realized it didn't say what she asked him to write - and it made it seem like a repair was still neccesary (PS thanks ya douche bag I paid you $150 and you couldn't even write things down right - Don't use Standard Plumbing). So she's kind of getting dramma-ie, talking about how i just wasted my money and how it was worhless and how it was a bad use of our money - WELL NO F*** B**** any money spent on a house I don't own yet is not a smart use of my money but you demanded it!!! So i am sitting here going what the f*** is going on, are we going to be ok or what!? So she called the seller's agent who was supposed to tell him exactly what to right and complained to her. Then she calls her appraiser and talked to him and explained the situation. They talked about things and he was going to go back and look at it and write an anadendum to the first report totak say everything was ok. She said that this would take care of everything. So according to her its ok now. Everything should be fine. WE'LL SEE!

But here's the kicker... As I was leaving she goes - "I don't know why they had you hire a plumber... I never told her (reference to the seller's female realestate agent) to hire plumber. I told her to go over there and check to make sure it was capped. She must not have known was that was and assumed we needed a plumber." At this point I nearly lost my temper. I was thinking you GOT to be kidding me!? Not only do I have a worthless piece of paper that doesnt do the job that it was purchased to do but I didnt need to get it in the first place!?! So I left furious and had to speed to let off steam.

When I got back to the townhouse, I got a call from Kevin. As I was telling him about everything that happened and explaining why I didn't understand why the real estate agent had us get a plumber when we didnt need one because all we needed was for her to go out to the house and confirm the lines were not open. I mean why am I spending money if I dont need to? That's when he dropped the bomb and I decided that US Bank was going to get a nasty letter. On top of which, I was going to find every place where I could rate a loan office so I could rate her poorly on ALL OF THEM!!! Apparently she specifically told Kevin that we needed to get a plumber to make sure the line was capped. SHE TOLD HIM WE NEEDED A PLUMBER. Why is Lonna telling me she never told anyone to get a plumber when she specifically told Kevin that we needed one? Hmm... something tells me that I am going to trust the father of the Best Man, who isn't making a dime off this deal.

That stupid f***ing b****, she straight out LIED to me. How dare she. And she's been string us along, not being forth coming and dicking Kevin around since we started. I am so pissed. I am going to write a letter immediately after we close. This is ridiculous. I'll wait to get a response from US BANK and then I am closing all my accounts and we're moving to Well's Fargo. In fact, I might open a Well's Fargo Checking account the day we close.

Moral of the story: LONNA J ESPEDAL SUCKS A**!

No customer service
Completely disorganized
Won't respond to calls or emails
Just plain useless

Don't get a loan officer who works at a bank! Go to an indepenedent mortgage broker who actually has to work to get clients. You'll be much more appreciated and they will treat you how you deserve to be treated.

Post-Inspection

Kevin said that after talking to the seller's real estate agent we didn't have very many options. We can pay for the roof ourselves, we can try to write a new purchase agreement to have the bank pay for it and find out they won't, or we can try to write a new purchase agreement to have the bank pay for it and find out they will pay for it... but it could take 3 weeks to find out if the board would approve it and on top of it apparently the seller's agent has recently gone through a similar situation and the bank rejected it. OR we could walk away from the property. So we had really 3 options: walk away and start over, say screw it and we'll pay for the roof, or postpone things for three weeks hoping against hope that the bank would approve it. So we are going to do it ourselves. Mike's going to get quotes on the roof and then also look into actually roofing it himself which seems like a huge undertaking to me (a person afraid of heights) but Mike seems pretty psyched about it. So I'll concentrate on weeding and plant material removal. :)

Let's see Lonna annoyed us again, she failed to mention when we needed a home insurance quote so of course she called today wondering when she'd get that and it was like well if you would have told me to get it I would have gotten it but since you didn't... YOU ANNOYING JERK... we didn't start the process. So, today we called our agent in OH to get an agent in MN and Mike is working on the quote. So annoyed. Why does it seem like we never find out about these things until the last minute? COME ON! I don't know what I am doing and your supposed to be experienced - you got to tell me when you need things. I am not a mind reader. She also wanted a letter from Nielsen on Nielsen letter head saying that I work from home. I guess the undewriter needed it. I just hope this whole process is on track for the 21st. I'll have to check in with Kevin to see if he's gotten an honest update on the timeline from her because he needs to know for plane ticket reasons. ARGH, she annoys me.

So if you haven't noticed I like changing my template... I can't decide on something. Also, here's the house if you'd like to see it: http://www.edinarealty.com/Listing/ListingDetail.aspx?Search=3b4f920c-63d9-477d-8294-0790c4e8299a&Listing=30219554&IRPAgentID=&Image=1&First=1&Last=1&pagesize=10&SearchType=&ListingDistrictTypeID=&FirstLetter=&Sort=6&Cookies=&UseColorBar=false

The Inspection

Bright and early at 9 am on Sunday we were at the home on Lyndale to go through our inspection. (Needless to say after a long weekend - I passed out on the in-law's couch later that day!) We got an inspection from Residential Inspection Services (952.929.7323) and he was really great. Very knowledgeable very thorough he made me feel better about some things because it gave me a much better understanding of many things. At the same time, he pointed out other things that I didn't even know about or notice - which caused me some anxiety. One being that the roof "which was replaced in 1999" was only a half truth. The front was replaced but the back was not and is in extremely poor shape and needs to be replaced immediately. So that's lame. (In fact, he said the front of the house looked rather worn and he suggested if we had the money to replace the whole thing, but he did say we could potentially just replace the back.)

I mean we were under the impression that this house was in decent shape and now out of the blue we have to fork out thousands of dollars for a new roof? So Kevin is contacting their realtor to get a feeling for their stance because he's mad too - when you say that a roof was replaced and don't mention it was only have replaced? I mean that changes everything - the house is no longer worth to us what we agreed to pay for it - but it's sold as-is so that's going to make things difficult. So we are waiting to hear back from Kevin. What a mess.

Other than the roof, everything was expected. There's some basement windows that have rot, which we knew about, that need to be replaced at some point because they have their gardens way above grade. The bottom board on two or so windows needs to be replaced. The gutters need to be cleaned and in some cases extended to do a better job of getting the water away from the house. The original garage door doesn't work which is fine at the moment because we have a shed to lock things in. The boiler and water heaters are new and running well. The windows are original and at some point need to be replaced. I mean it is old and the people who owned it were old - things weren't taken care of the way they should have been. And did I mention they had pigeons?

Ugh, who keeps pigeons as pets? The city of St. Paul is giving the pigeons birth control and our sellers are trying to encourage their existence. No wonder the next door neighbor has screens everywhere. The more I learn about them the more I think they had to be weirdos. I just can't wait to get into the house and start working on it. There's a lot of things that can be fixed without costing a lot of money. I am just worried about the roof, we didn't expect to have to replace something that intense and expensive right off the bat. *SIGH* I know this is totally cliched, but owning a house (and we don't even own it yet) is a lot of work! HA :)