A New Complication?

So we were contacted by our mortgage broker the other day--she wanted to let us know that the condo that we're in the process of purchasing is not yet FHA approved.

We were a little dumbstruck by that.

We looked into the complex because it was an FHA approved complex. The seller was aware we'd be using an FHA loan to make the purchase. But apparently, that particular unit has not been fully approved yet.

Oi.

So she wanted to let us know that this could cause some delays--depending on where the seller is in the approval process, it could take anywhere from an additional 30 to 60 days to close on the condo. Mr. Cap promptly began panicking as soon as he heard the news--particularly because the mortgage we'd planned on was based off of a 30-day forecast, and if the rates go up (and it takes us 60 days to close)...we could be looking at spending more on our mortgage than we want to.

I guess things can't stay interesting in life without a few curve balls! I've been keeping an eye on the housing market's interest rates the week, and it looks like we're still in good shape. If the rates keep dropping (or even if they stay the same), we could actually end up with a lower mortgage than we were counting on (which would be a million different types of awesome). But of course there's always the possibility that the rates will go back up...but we'll just have to sit with our fingers crossed for the time being and see where things lead us.

Home Inspection

Today we attended the home inspection for the condo that we put an offer in on.

The results were definitely promising! 

We chose an inspector that my boss had recommended (his inspection skills led her to back out of a deal to buy one house that would've had extreme structural issues). I have to say he did a very thorough job--and since I work as QA in the biotech field, it was interesting to seeing auditing techniques used in a very different circumstance/setting. 

We got to take a nice tour of the house again (and think about what we wanted to do with certain areas of the home), and Mr. Cap was extremely pleased to discover that there was a cable outlet located in the loft area (which will probably become his "man cave"--haha). Everything was a little bit smaller than I had remembered, but that's likely due to the fact that we had looked at 5 different places on the day that we had visited the condo for the first time. So some other locations were mixed into the memories.

But overall, we're pretty happy with the location and the structural integrity of the building. The cellphone reception isn't great, but that's something that we might be able to address in time (and what can we really expect when the condo is right next to conservation land?). 

The inspector told us that overall he was really impressed with the building. He said it wasn't sloppily built (but neither was it "perfectly" assembled). The builder had also apparently added in some additional things that weren't required by code, but were really good additions to have. He inspector told us that only once or twice a year he inspected a home that was in as good condition as this one--even though it's new, he'd seen plenty of other "new" buildings that weren't constructed properly. There were only a couple of minor issues he noted, and they're both things that should be easy to address.

We're happy that the inspection went so well. It was definitely on the expensive side (and the realtor/mortgage broker told us the inspection wasn't required since the building was new), but it really gives us quite a bit of peace of mind--and if we do end up staying in the condo for only 5 to 10 years, it's unlikely we should have to face any real problems with the building.

Now that is something worth paying for.

Offer Accepted!

So at present, we're back in the running for that condo!

Mr. Cap and I agreed on how much we'd be willing to spend on a monthly mortgage, the mortgage broker helped us work something out that (basically) fit into our plan, and our offer got approved by the seller!

Now we have a home inspection planned for this week, we've sent the P&S over to our family lawyer to look over, and I need to get myself over to the mortgage broker's office at some point this week to start the official mortgage application.

I hope everything goes smoothly...we have until Monday to get everything in order/over to the seller. I really really hope that there are no complications in the process...

On the bright side, Mr. Cap seems pretty excited about the prospect of owning this condo. That makes me happy, and I feel a lot better about things knowing that he's on board with this. 

Nervous

The condo we put an offer in on last week responded to our realtor today asking if we'd be willing to do more negotiation.

I'm really nervous. The terms they put down aren't bad ($2k more than we were offering, and now willing to cover our closing costs). I'm just nervous about what Mr. Cap will want to do. He's been very cautious for this entire thing, and he's been trying to stay "uninvolved" as much as possible. I think I'd be willing to make the deal due to these terms, but I don't know if he will.

Ahh! I've left him a message at work asking him to get back to me on how he'd like to proceed. I don't want to wait too long in case another offer comes in that's better for them, but I also don't want to appear too eager. I hope he gets back to me by lunch time at least...

Feeling a Little Defeated

It seems that fewer and fewer homes are showing up on the market, recently. Which I'm sure is due to the time of the year. However, I was hoping that we might be able to find something before this point...but still, no luck.

We're trying to keep ourselves to a budget when buying a home--that's the correct course of action, right? But everything that piques our interest is either just barely out of our budget range, or is gone before we even have a chance to look at the place.

Other buildings that look like they'd fit our criteria are way over-priced. I can't get a decent mortgage idea on them because I don't know how much the owners will actually sell for.

I'm still struggling to understand why some people put their houses way over market value. To my understanding, if the house doesn't appraise to what you agreed to pay, then the buyer has to make up the difference. So if a house is $100k over-priced, is and buyer really expected to drop that kind of money?

I suppose if they want the house that badly, it's their own choice. But I don't understand the people that never drop the price (or raise it) when they find they aren't selling.

We looked at one little house over the weekend that was kind of cute--and also over $50k out of our price range. But the assessed value of the house was well within our price range. And the owners had already dropped the price by $20k. I'm not sure why it's thought that people will pay so much more than the actual value.

I'm really feeling defeated today, and I sort of want to give up looking for awhile. Mr. Cap hasn't been especialy helpful recently, and he still seems more than happy to continue to live out our life in my parents' basement. 

I don't feel like I have a "home" in the basement. I can't do anything to it that makes it feel like mine--and most of our possessions are stored away in a container in a warehouse somewhere. I'm frustrated that we haven't had more success.

Once again, I feel like Mr. Cap is concentrating on very different areas of life than I am. He's currently making an attempt to find a friend-group--which I think is a really good thing for him. But it's hard to measure what's more important--going out with new friends, or actually checking out houses when we have soem time together. We've had to put off/cancel more than one showing because he had "plans" on that night. 

It feels like I'm fighting a losing battle most days. 

I know eventually we'll move out--we don't have much choice in the matter, after all, since my family is planning on selling the house next year and it's not like we could afford to buy it. But I wish he felt the same sense of urgency that I do. It's like the clock is ticking down, and he's putting on headphones to try to avoid the sound. The same result is going to happen, whether or not he pays attention to it--we're going to have to move. Whether it's into a home or into a shack is for him to decide. Tomorrow we're going to talk (together. for the first time.) to the mortgage broker, so we can sort of force Mr. Cap into accepting that he's a part of this process. The broker no longer feels comfortable with him making changes to the plans from the sidelines, and passing those changes on to her through me. So we shall see what comes of this.

I'm nervous, but I hope that everything will work out in the end.

Keep on Trucking

Our offer for the condo yesterday unfortunately did not make the cut. 

However, after looking at the listing for the condo that was re-posted this evening, it appears that the other 2 people we were bidding against also did not make the cut. Because the condo is back online...and at a higher price. 

When we made the initial offer yesterday, we thought we'd start strong by offering them $1k more than the asking price (since we knew we had competition). But when we heard back from the listing agent today, we were told that the price they had posted on MLS was not the price they're actually accept on the house. The lowest they'd be willing to accept was $5k higher than the listing pricing. And the $5k in buyer's closing costs that they were supposed to cover (according to the paperwork that was given to me on Sunday by the realtor)  no longer applied. So altogether this puppy was going to put us $10k back from what they originally implied with their listing.

So Mr. Cap and I said that's all fine and dandy--we don't need the condo that badly. Especially if the company isn't going to be upfront on the actual acceptable price. Now that I see the condo has been re-posted on all the realty websites, I'm under the impression that the other potential buyers felt the same way we did.

Maybe, if it's still on the market in a few weeks, we'll re-submit our original offer to them. It couldn't hurt. But I image they'll manage to sell it before then. Since they've updated the listing with the actual price they want now, it's more likely that people in that price range will check the place out.

It's a shame, since we quite liked it. But it wasn't "love"--I think we would've been happy there, but we never got that feeling of "THIS IS THE ONE!" that I've heard other people mention.

So we shall keep on trucking, and hope that eventually our house shows up for us to find. :)

Progress Update

A crazy few weeks have passed! Not much happened with the house search, since we weren't sure if the government shutdown would get in the way. But this past weekend we started looking at places again and I think Mr. Cap found his "happy place".

Unfortunately, said happy-place was located on a hill. And to get to the hill the house was on, you had to drive up a series of ill-maintained (and very steep) roads. Happy-place house had to be crossed off our list purely due to its location. In the winter, it would be dangerous both coming and going. And the town the house was located in isn't well-known for improving their roads.

However, it was an absolutely beautiful piece of land. The house was a tad out-dated, but for what the yard looked like, it would've been worth the money to update it. Bad roads can be a total deal-breaker, though (especially after living off of a bad road for 15+ years. All the cars on the street were in the shop constantly for repairs). 

We did find another place this weekend (a condo this time, instead of a house) that also made Mr. Cap pretty happy. So today we're going to try to put an offer in on it. It's only been on the market for a couple of days, and there are already a couple of other offers out on the place. So we're going to cross out fingers and hope that our offer looks more appealing than any of the other people. We don't have any contingencies, so I hope that looks good to the seller. But if someone offers more than we do, we'll probably be out of the running. It's kind of exciting yet stressful.

Currently we're waiting for our agent to finish writing up the offer letter so we can sign it and send it over. I really hope that we make whatever deadline the listing agent has set up!