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House Hunting is Hard Work


terrawombat
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I can't believe the poor quality lenders posted here. Our lender has been the smooth sailing part of our home buying process.

 

Had our latest inspection last week. I absolutely loved this inspector. His online website was pure crap, but he was excellent. The last inspector we used had a real professional website but he was not that good. The inspection went well.

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I can't believe the poor quality lenders posted here. Our lender has been the smooth sailing part of our home buying process.

 

Had our latest inspection last week. I absolutely loved this inspector. His online website was pure crap, but he was excellent. The last inspector we used had a real professional website but he was not that good. The inspection went well.

 

My lender is PNC and although there were a lot of errors on the disclosures and applications they sent me, they have done their very best to make it right. Unfortunately, the paperwork is sent via a third party company and never passed through my loan officers hands. He said if he had seen it, he would have made the corrections on the obvious errors. The only thing that seems a little discouraging is that my loan officer assured me he would get me the correct paperwork over-nighted to my house, but that never did happen. He did fax over the corrected forms, though (they're not allowed to send them via electronic mail, for some reason).

 

I assume the home inspection was on the new house you were talking about. Did you put an offer on it? Or was this just a pre-inspection before the offer?

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Ahh. We are working with our bank directly and the bank alone. They were kind enough to waive our underwritting fee this time around since we had paid it for a loan on the house that had the contract fall through. We are also doing a conventional loan.

 

We put an offer in early last week at 4pm, had a response from the seller within 3 hours. We counteted the following morning and it was accepted within 5 hours. A very different experience than the last time where it would take a week or more to hear anything back.

 

The house is a newer construction 11 miles outside of town in the Flint Hills. Only has 4 acres but one property line in a creek. Lots of room for a shop. It is truly what we were looking for.

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We put an offer in early last week at 4pm, had a response from the seller within 3 hours. We counteted the following morning and it was accepted within 5 hours. A very different experience than the last time where it would take a week or more to hear anything back.

 

The house is a newer construction 11 miles outside of town in the Flint Hills. Only has 4 acres but one property line in a creek. Lots of room for a shop. It is truly what we were looking for.

 

Awesome! Hope you get it. It was a great feeling when I went from the Short Sale property to the one I'm at now. I had answers within hours, rather than months.

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Interesting couple of days, to say the least. First, I finally got all of the paperwork back to my lender and everything seems good on that end. Then I get an e-mail from my agent that says the underground storage tank has been taken care of. She attached an invoice to the seller's from "Mark's Arc Welding" showing about $1,700 in charges to dig down to the tank, cut it open, extract the contents, clean the tank, and fill it with concrete.

 

I'm thinking to myself, great, the seller called up some welding shop up the street and had them come over and do the work when it was supposed to be done by a certified technician. Called up the Maryland MDE (basically the state EPA) and obtained a list of all certified shops in MD. Sure enough, Mark's Arc Welding was on there. Still need to obtain some official documentation, other than an invoice, stating the work was done and certified.

 

Fast forward to today and I get an e-mail from my lender - the house appraised $16K lower than my offer. WOW. Either myself and my home inspector are blind or this house is a total POS. Waiting on a copy of the appraisal to see what comps he/she used, but the number sounds really, really low. Funny thing is, the appraisal number is exactly what I initially offered the sellers before we countered back and forth and settled on the offer we have now - guess I wasn't too far off base.

 

I suppose this could work in my favor if the seller's agree to renegotiate the contract at the appraisal value, but if they don't, I gotta walk because I can't front the $16K difference (nor would I want to).

 

The saga continues...

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Geeze, this is not a good time for appraisals. This afternoon our lender called and said the appraisal company had ours temporarily on hold. According to them, it is a 'complex appraisal' and will cost us $85 extra. Not sure what is complex about a rural 2006 construction home on 4 acres. Our lender said this happens from time to time. No big deal, will do it.

 

Let us know how the appraisal negotiations work out.

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I feel like something has to be wrong with the appraisal. I have half a mind to think the guy didn't even go to the right house LOL! I mean, two years ago, the place was assessed for 85K over what this appraiser said its worth. The town that the house is in has median home values about 130K over the appraised value. The house across the street is selling for 20K over the appraised value and it's half the square footage and 2/3 of the acreage. I'm completely baffled. The only thing I can think of is that is was hugely undervalued due to its age, but it's not like the place is falling down because it's 72 years old.

 

I dunno - I requested a copy and should hopefully have it tomorrow.

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The underwriters approved the appraisal so it's basically a no-go that my current lender will give me the money and I'm not in a position right now to shell out the extra $16K come closing time. Fortunately,the sellers understand my situation and have agreed to allow me to extend the contract so that I can have some time to secure a different lender and start the process all over again. We're giving my current lender one last chance and they have asked that the appraisal be reviewed. Unfortunately, it is very unlikely that the appraisal will be overturned and even if it is, it's even more unlikely that the appraiser will adjust the value to where it needs to be.

 

There goes my good rate...hope the rates are still low by the time my second lender locks me in. I will also forfeit the $460 fee for the appraisal.

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Welp,

I parted ways with this:

 

and signed my life away till 2042,

for this:

 

 

Yay me,

now time to move all the crap we've accumulated in our current house over the last 17 years :doh:

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Yay me, now time to move all the crap we've accumulated in our current house over the last 17 years :doh:

 

Looks super Jim (except for that nasty white stuff on the ground), hell of an upgrade. Congrats! WTH, it's only $$, you only live once, and it's good for the family. Lots of room to work the Jeeps now. Now, tell me where it's at so I'll know where to go when I visit my 95+ year old auntie in Reading? :cheers:

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Thanks guys!!!!

 

I just measured the garage,

26' wide 30' deep with 12' 9" ceiling height :rotf:

 

Yeah, that is defiantly a step in the right direction from the tarp garage,

and laying on my back wrenching under the stars. :thumbsup:

 

I'd planned on a slow move,

the little guy wants to finish out the school year,

but we started moving stuff today.:D

We'll see.

 

& Don, I'm about 20 minutes North of your aunt,

let me know when you're coming up.:D

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Got our appraisal back today. The house was appraised at the exact price we agreed on. What are the chances of that happening? Now we have to wait for underwritting to approve the appraisal, which they should since it was very positive. I suspect things will start happening pretty fast once again.

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Thanks guys!!!!

 

I just measured the garage,

26' wide 30' deep with 12' 9" ceiling height :rotf:

 

& Don, I'm about 20 minutes North of your aunt,

let me know when you're coming up.:D

 

That should fit anything you can lift legally in MA very nicely, but the door height is a little more important or you'll be going :doh:

 

That means you'll only be an hour away from my house, Don if you do come up I'd swing down to buy you a beer with all the help you've given me

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Got our appraisal back today. The house was appraised at the exact price we agreed on. What are the chances of that happening? Now we have to wait for underwritting to approve the appraisal, which they should since it was very positive. I suspect things will start happening pretty fast once again.

 

In my case, the appraiser had a copy of the sales contract and knew what the sales price was, but she was extremely conservative and basically blamed the low appraisal on the fact that there were very few recent home sales in the area so she had to use comparables that, well, don't really compare. She also docked the house about 750 sq. ft. because the garage was considered unconditioned living space. Granted, I won't be living in there (only in the figurative sense), but it has heat, air conditioning, insulated walls, carpet, running water, electric, and working sewer. In the legal sense, it absolutely should be considered conditioned living space.

 

I pulled a few of these photos off of the appraisal report. They're low quality, but this will hopefully become my new shop. Already got plans in the works to expand it to a third bay with a higher roof and taller garage door.

 

It was basically converted into a mancave and the left garage door is gone and now sealed up. Gotta make this back into a garage again.

 

 

Drop ceiling was added, which also interferes with the operation of the existing garage door. Kind of want to leave the ceiling intact, but gotta come up with a way to be able to use garage door well.

 

My favorite part of the house. No longer do I have to drive back home to do my business.

 

Currently in the process of switching lenders. Talked to a fellow that was recommended to me and got him briefed on the situation. He's looked over my current appraisal and did some research on the property and he feels there shouldn't be a problem getting it appraised for well above my offer.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Switched lenders, went from USDA to FHA and got the new appraisal report into today. It was valued at the contract price so we're good to go, plus I'm now putting down 3.5% so I only needed the house to appraise at 96.5% of the sale price. As far as I know, we're all set to close this Friday @3PM. Since this home sale isn't allowed to go smoothly, I received the bad news that the current owner has not yet found a new place to live and that I may have to do a rent-back to him. Although annoying, I'm going to take the opportunity to do a large majority of the improvements to the house if he is going to be a tenant since I can write off the work for my 2012 taxes. I'll probably do the fence, windows, and electrical work that I had planned.

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:thumbsup:

 

Our septic inspection failed, of course. The current owners bought the house with an unfinished basement and spent 4 years finishing it. That added another bathroom, a bar and a bedroom, thus requiring more lateral to be installed. They called US and asked if they could go ahead with the fix, which is was quoted pretty expensive. The plan looks good and still leaves plenty of room for a future shop. Naturally things were going too smooth.... last week our file with the lender was selected by an uncle sam agency for an audit which could delay our closing date for next week :fs2: Lets hope not!

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I type this reply from my new home. Took a long time, hit a lot of road bumps, but it seems to be worth it in the end. Now it's time for the move...not looking forward to that.

 

Only pic we got of it today...too busy moving stuff from my GF's Mom's place over to here (only about a 20 min drive)

 

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I type this reply from my new home. Took a long time, hit a lot of road bumps, but it seems to be worth it in the end. Now it's time for the move...not looking forward to that.

 

Only pic we got of it today...too busy moving stuff from my GF's Mom's place over to here (only about a 20 min drive)

 

 

Congrats!

 

Looks awesome!

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