Buying a house

[davisherm]

We could use a little thought, prayer, and any spare energies you might have floating around.

Sapphire and I are in the house hunting business. We've been so for about two months now and it's been getting a little frustrating. However, after a couple false starts, we think we've found the place. We've put in a bid on it and are cautiously excited. The last time we found a place we really liked, things didn't work out so very well. But this is with a different realty group and in a different location. The energy of the place is fantastic. We'd basically have an acre of land that is mostly woods with a cleared patch for the house and yards. There's so much that just felt right about this place that we don't want it to slip through our fingers.

When we got out of the car and started walking around, an entire murder of crows took to wing, surprising the agent, because he's been there a bunch of times and that had never happened before.

Here's the listing pictures:
http://fulcobor.fnismls.com/publink/Sea ... Ids=215404

Here's what it looks like from the sky. It backs nicely against a state-owned forest and the road is technically a dead end, as the last 3 miles of it are really only a seasonal track that isn't paved.
http://tinypic.com/r/2ni5e2q/6

Thank you so much everybody!

[Kystar]

Wow, that looks lovely!

I do hope you guys get it! And you don't discover 80 million things wrong after you've bought it like my Hubby and I are dealing with now! But, I won't hijack your thread with our house woes!

GOOD LUCK!

[Crazy Healer Lady]

Lighting a candle and sending all the best energy your way!! It looks absolutely stunning! You guys will have lots of privacy, a tonne of play space for your little one, excellent space for gardening, a very lovely and spacious home, and maybe even fresh pine nuts up through the woods come autumn! (By the way, the maple leaves make good dolmades ) Are the two buildings two homes, or a home and a giant workshop?

Good luck!!!!

Edit to Add: Around the perimetre, are those all maples?? WOW you could even put fruit trees around there! You guys will have so much space and so much freedom!!! You could even plant a family tree!!!

[davisherm]

Thanks you guys, we can really use the support and energies. I know both of you are fully aware of just how much stress this is.

The place is located just perfectly. The woods were just so peaceful while we were there. There's maple and oak and poplar and three or four OLD birch. There's also some pine in the back woods. And speaking of woods! The state forest is full of great trails to follow and there's little lakes and creeks!

The other large building is the garage. And what a garage! It's really quite something. We will not be lacking for storage space. I could park both our cars in there and still have room for a workshop and all sorts of storage in the built-in racks. There's also an overhead storage area with a winch to pull heavier items up rather than having to use the ladder and carry it up by main force. One of my favorite features, and something I've been saying for years that I wanted, is the back up generator with a cut-over into the house's mainline.

We plan on planing some apple trees and raspberry bushes, as well as a whole garden full of organic goodies. Everything about this place just strikes exactly the right cord.

Oh Gods please let this work out!

[Crazy Healer Lady]

*Gasp* You could have a living fence!!!!!

[davisherm]

Actually, I've mentioned the possibility of Hawthorn to my Sapphire a few times now. Makes a perfect living fence. Although one that makes yummy berries sounds better to me!

[davisherm]

Soooo the seller has accepted our offer.

We are slowly getting excited. There's still a lot to be done with paperwork and bank and stuff, but woooooo!

Thank you all so much. I'm sure your help is making this go smother than it could have.

[Crazy Healer Lady]

Never doubt the power of the PL Blessing Chain!!!

[davisherm]

Bank finally called us back. Fingers crossed and directions called!

[davisherm]

Just a quick update - we hit a few speedbumps.

Long story short: First the appraiser used some dirty pool to evaluate the house lower than its actual value and then did some really shady things with the comparable houses, which brought the bank's estimated value of the house below the amount of the offer we made to the seller. This forced us to negotiate with the seller to accept a lower price, which meant that they dropped the offer of a sellers' concession to pay the closing costs. This will cost us more up front, but less in the long run so it's actually a silver lining, but it's delayed things somewhat.

After that, and a full two and a half weeks after the appraiser did his job and now a full month after we started the process, the lender got back to our broker and and informed them that, while their retail entity does lend for manufactured homes, their wholesale entity (who our broker works with) does not. Thanks for the information we could have used four weeks ago.

The bright side to that is that we were using the broker because they are my credit union and that's who they were doing all their Federal Home loans through. As of like 5 days ago, my credit union completed the paperwork with the Federal govt. to do their own financing on FHA loans. We are their first! So we get to stick with my credit union as the lender, which makes things nice and easy and keeps everything with a group that I trust fully.

AND since the process was all initiated through them, our loan officer thinks that it shouldn't actually delay our closing by very much at all. So we could still be in our house before September!

Speedbumps yes, but I swear it's all seeming to work out for the better. Talk about things falling into alignment!

I'll keep everybody posted. Thank you again for all your prayers and energies and happy thoughts!

[Crazy Healer Lady]

WOO HOO! It all works out! Just keep looking at the next step, not the next forty!

[davisherm]

So speedbumps have suddenly become road spikes. ugh.

The federal housing authority - the folks in charge of underwriting our loan - are dragging their heels on getting us any information. It's been 3 weeks and we just found out that our home inspector was not qualified to the degree that FHA wants to verify the foundation meets their requirements. So we're now on hold waiting for a certified engineer to look at it.

In addition to that, the FHA is also getting squirly over my overtime status - apparently it's not enough to see that I've worked an average of 20 hours of overtime a pay period for the last 3 years. They want a written statement from my company which states that I will likely continue to be able to do so. This is something that my company cannot do.

Not sure if we need a helping hand from the Divine Ones Themselves or just some calming energy for all of us. It's all so very frustrating!

[Kitsune]

I'll send what I can, Davisherm.

Here's hoping that they'll get off their high horse and just give you the house already.

[Crazy Healer Lady]

Sounds like you need a bulldozer of an entity to help... Kali?

[davisherm]

Thank you Kitsune! Yesterday turned out to be a much better day. Our lawyer has a very calming demeanor and has walked hundreds of people through buying their first house. It's still a giant pain in the rump, but things appear to be moving again.

LOL! CHL, I think of Kali as more of a many-armed wrecking ball! But considering all the corvid activity around the place, I think that Morrigu, my Lady of Ravens, might be a more applicable candidate. Especially since I feel like I've been seeing her everywhere lately! Or perhaps Odin. He's often crow or raven aspected as well. Either one would make for a powerful hand on my shoulder and while I'm more Celtic than Norse, I sure wouldn't say no if old One Eye offered a hand.