Finally Doing It...

Well, we're at that point in our lives where we're married, have two kids, an SUV, jobs...and now it's time to add the mortgage. We're finally going to be buying a house! Yeah! We are very, very excited by the whole thing. If all goes well, we will close on the 18th, and move on the 24th.

Our new house is 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, 2501 square feet. We have a one car garage and a two car garage (which really helps since there are no basements in CA!). The layout can be seen here.

I've included pictures of the backyard (Judith has taken to telling people: "My mommy and daddy are buying me the house with the swing!"), the upstairs tech center, the laundry room, and the kitchen. We'll send folks the address with the Gregory birth announcements. We've been holding off on the birth announcements, hoping to be able to include this information as well.

This is also why we haven't been posting much lately. Paperwork, house hunting, buying, etc., have all consumed an enormous amount of time and energy. And now we're in the process of trying to pack up a house with an infant and toddler. The toddler is the bigger problem - something gets packed and it's what she "needs" NOW! And then there are times she wants to help - and just throws whatever into any box. Yikes! Overall, she's had A LOT of change in her life this summer and so we're just being super patient with her. We are helped by the fact that she really does like the new house!

House hunting out here is an interesting experience, too. There are a huge number of homes sitting vacant these days, but banks are trickling them onto the market so as not to further depress values. And anything on the market is a foreclosure or a short sale. Then there are "real" short sales and "maybe" short sales. Foreclosures include houses that were foreclosed, bought at auction for cash, and then cleaned up to be liveable again (as is the case with what we are buying). The tightened credit market means that you cannot get a mortgage for a house without a working kitchen, and a good, liveable condition - so we couldn't buy a run down house for $150,000 and fix it up how we want. (Run down being a very interesting concept in a community that is only 6 years old, where 90% of the homes have granite countertops - standard!). You would be amazed at what some people have stripped houses of - all the carpet and flooring, all cabinets, all appliances and light fixtures, every switch plate, and anything else they can possibly take!

With short sales, some are approved by the bank before they go on the market, but most are not approved until after there are offers in hand. The approval process once there are offers is often at least 4-6 months, with some taking closer to a year! We decided to stay away from those and only look at foreclosures and pre-approved short sales. We are also lucky in that we spent a great deal of time when we first moved in, entertaining ourselves by walking around the model homes. We know what the floor plans look like, what's standard in the community, etc. This was great information for us - we were able to only look at seven homes. But all Foreclosures and pre-approved short sales are getting multiple offers, including investors offering all cash - so things move quickly.

There were two other homes we were interested in. One had 11 offers, and the seller was only interested in an all cash offer. So we moved on. The second had 22 offers in the first 24 hours on the market. It was going for $75K over asking - about $65K over our budget! Then there was this one. We saw it the day it went on the market, put in our offer (the first offer where we actually put pen to paper), and prayed. We are fortunate that we got the house only because of our real estate agent - his father-in-law has been doing business with the selling agent for more than 30 years. They've known each other a very long time. And so looking at the 17 offers, the real estate agent recommended ours over the others that were in the same ball park. YEAH!!

All houses are going for over their asking prices out here. But what's interesting is then the appraisal process. So we bid what we were willing to pay (because there are no counter offers - you put your best offer forward and wait and see). The appraisal however, came back lower than what we bid. We went back and offered to pay what the appraisal was, and removed all contingencies immediately. They accepted the offer. Super yeah - a discount on a house! :-) We were thrilled because the appraisal process seems to be pulling everything back in check and preventing another housing bubble here with multiple families vying for just a few houses.

So we are out of underwriting and just waiting for the title company to prepare the documents at this point. We sign documents, and then get keys two to four days later. Of course we'll need to redo landscaping - all the grass is obviously dead, as are all the plants out front. We're going to have to paint a lot of the house (which we'll do before we move in - our pastor is actually going to come help - but that's another story!). We have some work to do with the pantry (the previous owners stripped out all the shelves - a pantry doesn't do you any good without shelves!). We also need window treatments, and will probably be starting out with paper blinds! We need to re-caulk a sink and a shower, seal the granite counters, and bug bomb the place as well. But overall, we're in great shape and very excited.

We promise that as we get settled, we'll do a better job posting pictures, etc., again. If you'd like to see some recent photos of Judith and Gregory, we have a few uploaded to Kodak Gallery.

And for those who are coming, Gregory's baptism is coming up on September 5. We'll have a new house to show those who are in town!!!