This is the second part of a series of posts. Click here for part 1.
Let’s go ahead and stick with the home buying theme here. I mean, the first one wasn’t really a “panic” when we bought it.
After we lived in the townhouse for a year or so, we decided to start looking for a rental house again. But this time we finally found one from a nice husband and wife. It was a nice place with a giant backyard – deck, big trees, on a cul-du-sac, quiet – you get the point.
We had been in this place for probably 3 years when we had a knock on our door one morning just before Thanksgiving. We usually didn’t get anyone knocking on our door so it was incredibly unusual let alone at 7:30 AM. I was getting ready for work and wasn’t dressed at the time, so my wife hands me the baby and I stand around the corner while she answers the door. It was the wife of the couple we were renting from and she was visibly upset when the door opens.
She’s there to hand us a letter and tells us that she is sorry but they will need to take the house back from us because they are getting divorced and she would need a place to live. Well, sure, that is of course understandable, but holy smokes! We’ve got to find a place to move in 30 days. Around the holidays. With a infant. Merry Christmas.
We had been starting to save for a down payment for a house but didn’t quite have the amount we wished we did, and we hadn’t even started looking for houses. So now the hunt was on to find a rental house. We look for some places closer to my office, in and near the neighborhood we were renting in, and everywhere in between. We finally find a pretty nice place we’d like to rent nearer to my office and get an application to take home and fill out – and to think it over a little bit. The previous tenants had just moved out (so it was just becoming available), the owners were there cleaning it up, and (most importantly to us at the time) would agree to a short-term lease so we could keep saving a little and buy a house in a couple of months.
We fill the application out that night and I fax it off the next morning. I wait an hour or two before calling to confirm they received it and am told that a lease agreement was signed the previous night. GREAT. So now what? We’ve spent probably 10 of our 30 days at this point and had absolutely no more leads. Well, one of our good friend’s mom is a realtor (you see where this is going? Not so fast…) – we had previously had her scoping out any rentals that she could find. After a few leads that didn’t pan out on those rentals, we asked her to pull up a few houses in what we perceived our price range to be. We walk into one of the for-sale house and we both see IT. The payments for this house would be similar to the rent we are paying now and we did have some saved for a down payment. But at this point we had only 2 weeks or so left before we had to move out. Surely we couldn’t get all the inspections taken care of and the the house closed that quickly, could we?
We decided to give it a shot. If we get it and can’t close in time, we could come up with some short-term arrangements until we could actually move in. We put an offer down that was pretty much what the owner’s were asking (because we – the buyers – were the desperate party) and see what happens. Well, supposedly, the owners get another offer the same day as our and propose counter offers to both. That seemed really sketchy to us, but we had house fever at that point and, honestly, we needed a house! We agree to their counter offer and start the ball rolling on the closing process.
All said and done, we get the paperwork taken care of and are slated to close and move in before Christmas. Everything is going along as best as it can with having to pack that fast, an infant in the house, and the holidays to take care of. Then, days before we are scheduled to close, one of the worse ice storms Oklahoma has seen hits the state. Electricity is intermittent. Because of packing, one side of the garage was full of boxes and my car was outside. It had 3/4” of ice on it. The big trees in the back yard of the rental? The giant maple lost 3 large branches. The Bradford pear was completely destroyed.
The roads were impassible for probably 2 days. Then we get the call from the mortgage company – they haven’t had electricity (like most of the state) and are unsure if they will get our paperwork finalized and over to the closing company.
At the absolute last minute, they get the paperwork sent over and we actually close on time and get moved out and back in the next day. One of the first boxes of nonessentials we unpack is he Christmas Tree – with 8 days to spare. The house is the one we are still in today. This year will be the third Christmas we’ve had in the house.
So, now maybe next time we have to make a major purchase, we will be able to take our time and do it on our own pace, right? Well…
