Wow, has it been that long since my last posting? Well, I have a good excuse. For the last few months, the wife and I have been trying to make a big change in our lives and it finally culminated last Friday.
Back in July, I called a realtor and we started the process for searching for a new home – our first home. We weren’t looking for anything special: one-story, 3-4 bedrooms, and moderate backyard. We were open to various neighborhoods in Dallas: McKinney, Allen, Frisco, Plano, and Rockwall. We spent our weekends seeing upwards of six homes a day. The weekends were draining, especially since I was working overtime as well. One trip to Rockwall ruled it out; it was too rural for me. Plano never seemed interesting. Frisco was too far away from work for me. Allen is expensive unless you live in the “shady” part of town. McKinney seemed like a good middle ground.
It may seem like a strange time to buy a house, what with all of the complete financial market meltdown, but what seems like a bad market to some is really a good investment opportunity to others. We met with a Chase bank representative and setup a loan. We had actually planned and saved for the last three years. After running through the ammoritization tools and calculating things by hand time and time again, we knew exactly what we were able to afford. Our lender was amazed at how much work we had done to prepare. Our hardwork paid off later.
After seeing approximately 60 homes, we invited our parents up to see our top 5 homes. They pointed out a few things we hadn’t noticed. We talked about them for hours and hours. Finally, we settled on a house and wrote the offer. After waiting for 4 days, the sellers decided they didn’t want to sell their home after all. The home was taken off the market and we were back to square one.
Twenty homes later, we finally found something we both loved. It had wood floors, nice backyard, granite countertops, 3 bedrooms, a study, was in an established neighborhood, and was in good condition. The price was in the ballpark; the floors and kitchen were upgraded to our liking. Overall, it was what we were looking for from the beginning. It had only been on the market for two days and we made an offer and started the process.
The selling agent went on vacation after listing the house, so we were left to deal with her mother. This woman became the selling agent as the listing agent was away for a majority of the negotiations; she quickly became a major hassle. The buyers were working on buying a forclosure and were having trouble dealing with the bank. They procrastinated, fudged the contract, and gave us grief. The selling agent changed a counter offer contract after the sellers signed it. They quibbled over small things like the refridgerator and demanded a 3 day lease-back.
Finally, we finished the contract and scheduled the inspections. All of the inspections came back without any issues (we of coarse we went to our own inspectors). We asked for a few minor things to be fixed that could be potentially hazardous. The financing was finished and we were set for our final walk-through. Unfortunately, they had chosen not to do one of the repairs.
Our lender waited until the last second to finish their paperwork but it cost us about $800 less in the end. When we got to closing, I was pretty pissed off about the repair the sellers refused to do. We kept our end of the contract and closed in 2 hours. The title closer kept receiving phone calls. Turns out the selling agent was trying to prevent the title company from releasing the keys to us before the lease was over. This was audacious and we took them anyways.
Our agent worked very hard for us. She did what I would expect of an agent. She was understanding and patient. Considering that we looked at nearly every home for sell in the area, patience was a virtue. She stuck up for us when the selling agent was being a pain in the ass too. All in all, I would absolutely recommend her to other people.
So after the house was funded, we received a call from our realtor informing us that the listing agent had incorrectly listed the house as being part of the community with access to a pool. Under the threat of legal counsel, the selling and listing agent agreed to do the repair, give us a handwritten letter of apology, hire a maid service, and write a $1000 check for a washer and dryer. I didn’t care about the pool, so I was very pleased to be saving even more money ($800 off closing, plus $400 our lender owes us for trying to double dip a fee, plus this $1000 makes for $2200 in savings).
So we’re in the process of moving, changing services, and preparing for ownership. We own our first home now! We had been saving for 4 years and it finally happened. No more stairs, no more balconies, no more loud neighbors, no more full parking lots, and no more living on inches away from your neighbors. This is going to be fun.