Moving on Up!!! Or to the new House

It’s been three weeks since we made the blue and yellow house our home.  I could say I was sorry for not posting this sooner, but truth be told, I haven’t really had enough time to myself to be sorry.  I don’t really talk about everything that happened in between.  You know: First Citizens being jack wagons, the sellers not completing their end of the deal in a timely manner or closing.  It was just a bunch of frustration that is FINALLY over and we’re moving on, moving in and moving up.

Jason got to patch up all of the holes while we waited to go to the Lawyer's office the morning of closing

So moving day was fun….said no one ever.  Ugh!!  I hate moving day.  Closing on the house was at 1 pm and we got out of the lawyer’s office around 2.  Jason and I promptly returned to the rental and grabbed the first load.  I had Pop’s truck and Dad’s trailer, Jason had his own truck and his Grandpa’s trailer. 

We proceeded to the new house and quickly unloaded.  By the second uploading of stuff, we had reinforcements.  My mom and dad both responded to our cries of help and even Jason’s boss David came.  Mom and Dad with the Jimmy SUV and David with his truck.  Mom also went ahead and packed the Camry too.  So to count, we had 3 trucks, 2 trailers, 1 SUV and 1 car fully loaded with stuff.  Multiply that by 3 trips and then one extra mini trip with just Jason and I to end the night. 

Jason's in the front, then David, then Dad, then Mom and I'm pulling up the rear!

All of the vehicles!!  And our stuff

Whew…too much stuff!!!  What was I thinking? 

I was probably thinking that I needed it, which I didn’t.  But that’s ok.  Lesson learned…the hard way.

By the end of the day the only thing we had set up was the mattress and the sheets, on the floor.  We hadn’t bothered to turn on the A/C since we had the doors open all day, so it was 84 degrees in the new house.  We went to bed using only the top sheet and were still hot.  Jason set the A/C to 62 and then we tried to snooze.  That was at 11:30.  At 1 am we both were awake shivering.  The A/C works well!

Day 2 consisted of additional trips for me and Jason as well as my Dad.  Dad and I went to Winston to get a fridge.  Needed.  Jason continued pulling things from the rental and bringing them to the new house.  We met up at the new house around 11 with additional company: Grams , my Aunt Kathe, my lil’ cuz Joey and my Pops.  Pops spent the entire morning mowing the yard.  Bless his heart.  3 hours and that was non-stop going at speed 5.  Yowzers.  Grams, Kathe and Joey helped un-pack the kitchen.  Jason and Dad rearranged furniture upon my request and I’m really at a loss for what I did all day.  After everyone headed home around 2 or 2:30, I was ready for a nap.  But my oh-so-lovely future husband wouldn’t let me.  We had to go to the rental where my dear mother and sister had spent most of the day cleaning.  Bless their hearts.

                Side note:  they took their dog Wetmore with them.  He suffers from sepearation anxiety.  These are my father’s exact words:  “Melinda, you’re not paying attention to Wetmore, so he’s eating the paper towels”  Ha Ha, I thought it was funny.

Until next time!

With Love,

Meredith

Our Current State of Affairs

Our Current Situation Continues

Empty cupboards = High Anxiety

Sorry.

I know it feels like a decade since I last wrote a blog post.  In reality, I think it’s been 2 months.  I apologize.  I think my stress level over buying a house has been astronomical to say the least.

Yes, I know I kept saying that everything seemed to be going really easy.  And for the first portion of the house buying process, it really was very easy.

But as I last mentioned, we were waiting on the lot loan to come through in order to move forward.  Well we waited, and waited and waited some more.  First Citizens finally decided to correct their little snafu of sending someone four hours away and hired another appraiser for the land.  But after hiring them, it took the appraiser close to a week to actually meander over to Davidson County.  The appraisal was completed on a Monday and the paperwork wasn’t turned in until a Friday.  Total B.S., I know, but when you can’t make someone do something, they’re in no hurry.  

So the appraisal went to First Citizens and then to a lawyer to close out that loan.  Here in lies the problem.  We didn’t have an easement that connected the land to the roadway.  In technical terms: it was “landlocked.”  Well that was no surprise to us.  We could have easily told them that.  

And the lawyer said “don’t worry about it,” so we didn’t.  That was a Wednesday I think.  Turns out the lawyer was working on getting an easement drawn up.  A week later we got the paper work.  On Monday we received same, sent it to Andrews so that Jason’s parent’s could grant the easement.  They signed it and got in notarized and we had it back by Wednesday.  As soon as Jason got it out of the mailbox, he took it straight to the Davidson County Courthouse and got it recorded and then notified the lawyer and our SunTrust banker.  So we thought we were golden.  Finally.

By the way, this was after close to seven weeks of trying to secure the lot loan.  That’s right, 7!!!  It’s pathetic.

After returning from the Courthouse, Jason looked through the rest of the mail.  Take a wild guess as to what else was in the mailbox?  Oh yea, a letter from First Citizens saying we had been denied the lot loan.  What the hell!!??!!!  We had given them seven weeks and then all of sudden they were giving us no time to fulfill the easement obligation.  Screw you First Citizens!!  We promptly called our guy at SunTrust and asked what the dealio was.  I will be drafting my F*%( you letter to First Citizens in the coming days.

SunTrust guy made it all right.  Finally.  A few days later Jason went down to First Citizens in Charlotte and closed the loan.  That was on Wednesday, May 30.  We were set to close on Thursday, May 31.  SunTrust had sent everything to the lawyer’s office and told us that we were finally approved for the home loan on Tuesday, June 5.  Sheesh…what a process.  The lawyer requested that we set the closing date for today, June 8.  So we did.  By the way, this was the third time we had changed the closing date.  Each time we had to get an extension signed off by us and the sellers agreeing the contract addendum.  

Well, while getting everything together for our closing date, the lawyer ran a title search on the property on that same day.  For those of you who don’t know, a title search double checks that there is nothing pending on the property.  We had to have one for the lot loan too.  It insures that no one is owed money or has a say in the property that we’re not aware of.  It’s not a bad thing, but they wait to do it at the end of the loan process.  It seems backwards to us because if there are any problems, everything that is set for completion gets put on hold.

And guess what?.... when the title search was run for the house, the lawyer discovered that the sellers had taken out a line of credit against the house and that it wasn’t closed out yet.  So yea, while Jason and I had been busting our bums to get everything ready for the closing date, the sellers still hadn’t completed everything on their end.  We were told this could push back our closing again, from Friday to the end of the month.  THE END OF THE MONTH?!!  Crap.  

Via Lillan G on Pinterest

We called everyone we could to try and get some answers.  We called Monica, who was reassuring that we might still be ok.

It turns out that Wells Fargo was as helpful to the sellers about closing their line of credit as First Citizens was with getting us our lot loan in a timely manner.  This is in part to the sellers not paying off the credit line until May 31.  A full 2 weeks after the original closing date.  And from what we’re told, WF requires 22 days between the balance being paid off and signing the satisfactory closing document.  Hence, the end of the month.

But SunTrust guy is working very hard for us to get the process expedited.  And even though we did not close on the house today, we are hopeful that the middle of next week will be the big day.   So that’s where we are, again.  Waiting in limbo for people to get their shit together.  

Our shit has been together since the end of April, when I thought we would be moving in less than 2 weeks.  So our house has been a maze of boxes and empty cupboards for quite some time.  My crafting has taken a nose dive, my patience is at an all time low and Jason is growing antsy.  

Here's a look at our current state of affairs

The Kitchen:

The Dining Room:

The Guest Room:

Even the hunting boots are packed: 

 

Ugh…we are so ready to move…. I hope that’s when you’ll catch me next.  D-Day!

 

Love

Meredith

Current State of Affairs

The waiting game has officially begun. 

We are in a holding pattern.  

Everything goes so smooth and for us at least, very quickly, until you reach the point we’re at now.

Over the last 5 weeks Jason and I have been communicating with SunTrust as well as First Citizens (the bank handling the lot loan) in an attempt to get everything settled.  We haven’t had to sign any more papers, but fully expect to in the next few days.

First Citizens is slow.  I don’t know if this is single bank thing or if all banks suffer from that disease.  They waited a week or so to finally decide they wanted to appraise Jason’s land.  When they made that decision, they waited another week to actually put someone on the task.  

The problem?  They  hired someone in Andrews, NC.  For whatever reason, when Jason’s parent’s moved, the address of the land owner moved too.  We still can’t explain it, but we are having to deal with it.  So when the appraiser said he wasn’t able to locate the land on the map in Andrews, we just rolled our eyes and told him it was because it was four hours too far west.  Go figure.  

Image of NC provided by geology.com

So now we’re waiting on a local appraiser to finish his job and cut the d*&m check so we can finally sign the bagillions of dotted lines that we know are going to be coming for our actual loan.

In the meantime, SunTrust has had us gathering paperwork upon paperwork to prove where our money is coming from.  Funny thing is, sometimes we provide with an explanation and they don’t understand it.  For example, when one withdraws $700 from an account and then turns around and deposits $700 a mere 4 weeks later, where do you think the money for the deposit came from?  Me too!  SunTrust, not so much.  You literally have to spell it out for them.  In our case, not once, but twice.  

Also, did you know that there were a lot of people involved in your loan?  Yea, me either.  First, we have the mortgage counselor.  The guy we’ve been dealing with mostly.  And then he has an assistant who will begin communication with you after you’ve been pre-approved for the loan.  And then she turns all the paperwork over to an underwriter.  By the way…WTF is an underwriter?  Sounds like an under-wearer to me, and hello! We all wear underwear, so you’re not so special, mmkkay?  (Monica and SunTrust had both warned us that underwriters have an ego issue)  

Image provided by google images 

 Be careful when you google underwear and hit images.  Just word to the wise on that one!

And while I’ll be the first to admit, I have absolutely no idea what an underwriter does, I have to wonder how new each case can possibly be and what the hold up is.  I would think that the forms would be pretty straightforward these days.  The language doesn’t change, just the numbers on the lines, so just fill in the blanks, hand me my money and let me move forward with this process.   KAPEESH!?

So while we wait, we have been slowly but surely packing the house.  The non-essentials are almost boxed up and our guest room has become quite the hazard zone, hard hat may be required.  I’ll have to check with OSHA on that one and get back to you.

I will do my best to keep the blog more updated about our house buying process and the move and decorating in real time from now on.  But then again, those things may take precedence and who knows when the computer at the new house will be ready to go.

Love you all and thanks for being on this journey with us as we continue to move forward in our journey!

Love as always,

Meredith

Not what we were planning

Wednesday morning we went straight to SunTrust and met with the banker to discuss our options.  Jason and I were fully anticipating the green light on an FHA loan and were ready to sign on the dotted line.

But when we got to laying out the specifics with SunTrust, there were some major differences in the FHA loan versus the USDA loan.  

The FHA loan required 3.5% down, which we were fully aware.  We had the money ready to go.  But after checking really really closely, SunTrust wasn’t 100% sure that the land amount was right for an FHA loan.   It could still be too much land and not enough house for the government backed loan.  

We liked this house too much to let it go.  Besides, the foreclosure had already been snatched out from underneath us, we really didn’t want this one to be snatched out either.

Because there was even a slight possibility that the FHA loan would fall through, we started discussing our other options for obtaining this house with SunTrust.  

We talked about a conventional loan.  We didn’t have 20% to put down for a down payment, but we weren’t completely doomed just yet.  If we only the 3.5%, we could still get a conventional loan, we would just have to pay extra for a little while in what is known as PMI.  It stands for Personal Mortgage Insurance.  Now… I don’t know the specifics of how it works; but it’s something like paying the bank your extra principal for a little bit to insure you won’t fault on your loan.  Or something like that.  Basically, we have to pay extra on our monthly mortgage until that extra amount totals 20% of the full loan amount, getting the bank their 20% down payment.

Okay…so we finally had a viable option that didn’t hide cracks in the offer documents.

Oh…but wait.  That 3.5% you have to put as a down payment, yea, it can’t be a gift (as was the case with us.  We were using wedding money, gifted by my parents as a down payment).  If you were using gift money for a down payment, then it had to be 20%.  Go figure…..this was just another heart rate increase inducing moment!  For Pete’s Sake!!  We would have been able to use the 3.5% had it been in my account for longer.  But since I had my parents hang on to it for a while, then it caused issues.  I mean, goodness…they don’t make this easy on you, do they?

But, SunTrust was very understanding and was still willing to help us figure out a way to get our house.  Yes, I am referring to it as our house at this point.  We started to look at what assets Jason and I did have, out right, in our names.  Maybe we would be able to take out loans against those things to secure our down payment.  Does it seem a little backhanded and if you’re not careful, could it get you into a very bad bind financially?  Yes to both.  But as I’ve previously shared, Jason and I were okay as far as paying our debts was concerned and the extra burden wasn’t going to be an issue.   Especially since I did have the 3.5% in the bank that we could immediately turn around and use towards that loan. 

So what were our options?  The jeep that we arrived in?  No. Still in my parent’s name.  Jason’s truck?  Possibly, but it really wasn’t worth enough.  Can you believe it?  The truck that my fiancé drives like a mad man on crack and that won’t stay running without a new issue every other week wouldn’t help us out of this one.  That’s when one of us (I really don’t know who) mentioned that Jason was the sole owner of about 5 acres in Davidson County that was worth quite a bit more than the 3.5% that we needed.    And guess what?  SunTrust agreed to it!!  

So we decided to get a lot loan and use the money from that loan as our down payment for the home loan.  Make sense?  I hope so, ‘cause I’m not explaining it again.  Basically, Jason’s land would be collateral against the loan and if for whatever reason, we faulted on it, the bank would end up owning a portion of the land.  We weren’t using all of the land, because we didn’t need it.  We just need enough to get the 3.5%. 

So Monica, who had been patiently sitting in the parking lot of the bank, rushed in, we signed our initials all over the paperwork again and we submitted our offer, again.  

By 4:30 pm, we heard back from the sellers about our offer.

Okay…I’m just going to keep you in limbo for a minute.

Sucks doesn’t it?  Imagine how we felt.  

We had to make sure we kept ourselves very busy at work so we wouldn’t go crazy with the stress of not knowing.

Ok…

In 3……………………

2……………………

1……………………

OUR OFFER WAS ACCEPTED!!  WE GOT THE HOUSE AND WERE OFFICIALLY UNDER CONTRACT!!

 How we felt about that news!!!!!!

Stay tuned!

Love as always

Meredith