OT Finally! Actively house shopping

Dear Night, sure hope you will be able to get things just the way you want them to be! Or at least the way that will be acceptable! The best of luck! Barbara in SC

Oh, Nightmist, I hope you have great luck in finding what will fit your lif e! I have usually done a list of "these things I will not budge on", then a list of "these things are negotiable", and a third list of "just do not wa nt these things". And then realize it is all negotiable ;))

Keep your sanity and peaceful feelings during it all, and please keep us up dated!

Ginger in CA [real email is snipped-for-privacy@msn.com]

has been going all to heckies for better than a decade.

I have convinced them at long last that it will be more economically sensi ble to buy.

Hello Night Mist, This move sounds like it is well thought out. What you want and don' t want. There are always things I had to put up with that seems to go with every house. If you get 95% even it would be great. Having an acre sounds wonderful, so hope you can put in a nice garden. Good luck on your house h unting. Sandy$

After scouring the listings and contemplating and discarding a number of foreclosures, we are going out to look at a house. Those foreclosures are tempting, but after viewing the specs, it seems that there is always a potentially (or genuinely) catastrophic problem with them.

The place we are going to look at is practically perfect on paper. So now we have to go look and see what is actually wrong with it that you don't see looking at the outside. Outside it has a couple of things wrong that are actually pretty minor.

I had looked at the listing, considered and discarded this place previously. It was too good to be true and the taxes listed were low enough I thought it had to be wrong. Come to find out it is an irregular lot and most of the land is not even cleared. With only two acres roadside, the taxes are legitimately quite low. Still, a 4 bedroom house with a four horse stable, on 23 acres, 20 minutes out of town, with low taxes, and less than $10k over the list price range we were looking at, there has to be something wrong with it. DH says that maybe the universe has just decided to be kind to us.

We shall see.

NightMist

PS the laundry hookups are in the bathroom

oooh, keeping fingers and toes crossed that this is right for you! New moon fortunes?

Ginger in CA [email to respond is snipped-for-privacy@msn.com]

On Tuesday, June 20, 2017 at 10:32:35 AM UTC-4, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:

Well that was disappointing.

I had a tape measure with me and the listing flat out lied about room dimen sions and total floor space.

The downstairs is OK, though the "Laminate wood flooring" turned out to be that thin self adhesive stuff you use to do a quick repair on cheap furnit ure. The bathroom is absolutely wonderful though.

The upstairs was an architectural nightmare.

At a guess? One of the owners who were a senior married couple (from publi shed tax roles) became ill. We speculated this by the smell of the place. One of their children and their family moved back in to help out. We conj ecture this by the description of an equestrian business that was running o ut of that address. We are guessing that this is when the stable was built and a couple of modifications done. One of those modifications was turnin g the upstairs into three bedrooms, in part by moving the stairs. To call the bedrooms cramped would be being generous. You literally could not fit a twin bed into one of them. They wallpapered the ceilings, and it it is f alling off in a couple of spots. We think that originally the stairs had a landing and a turn, now they are a steep and narrow single flight with odd spacing, like who was meant to climb up and down them had legs that were n ot quite human normal. In changing the stairs they stranded the attic door mid wall about 4 feet away from the floor. Which is a pity because it is naught but a good big unfinished room at one end of the second floor. Why they didn't just put in some insulation, lay some flooring over the slab wo od, and smack up some sheet rock is beyond me. I risked life and limb to g et in to take a look and the room is even wired. Why go to considerably mo re work and expense to make a mess of the whole second floor when finishing one room would have done the job admirably? DH suggested we lowball the place and see if they take it. My thought on t hat was well OK, but if they do take it where are we going to live while we fix it up enough that everyone has a place for their bed?

NightMist still looking

Well, the search for the right-for-us property is always a challenge. Don't get too stressed out by it all. Deep breaths!

From experience I can say that living in a house while remodeling it at the same time is not very fun.

G> > > oooh, keeping fingers and toes crossed that this is right for you!

ensions and total floor space.

be that thin self adhesive stuff you use to do a quick repair on cheap furn iture. The bathroom is absolutely wonderful though.

lished tax roles) became ill. We speculated this by the smell of the place . One of their children and their family moved back in to help out. We co njecture this by the description of an equestrian business that was running out of that address. We are guessing that this is when the stable was bui lt and a couple of modifications done. One of those modifications was turn ing the upstairs into three bedrooms, in part by moving the stairs. To cal l the bedrooms cramped would be being generous. You literally could not fi t a twin bed into one of them. They wallpapered the ceilings, and it it is falling off in a couple of spots. We think that originally the stairs had a landing and a turn, now they are a steep and narrow single flight with o dd spacing, like who was meant to climb up and down them had legs that were not quite human normal. In changing the stairs they stranded the attic do or mid wall about 4 feet away from the floor. Which is a pity because it i s naught but a good big unfinished room at one end of the second floor. Wh y they didn't just put in some insulation, lay some flooring over the slab wood, and smack up some sheet rock is beyond me. I risked life and limb to get in to take a look and the room is even wired. Why go to considerably more work and expense to make a mess of the whole second floor when finishi ng one room would have done the job admirably?

that was well OK, but if they do take it where are we going to live while we fix it up enough that everyone has a place for their bed?

Well then, after looking at some horror shows, some foreclosures, and findi ng that there was darn little that came close to our requirements out of to wn, we huddled, decided, and made an offer on that first place we looked at . The one with the mangled second floor. We are not wild about essential remodeling on a house we are living in, but it is structurally sound, dry, well insulated, and 23 acres. Thus several steps above anything else we ha ve seen. Plus the mold issue in our current bathroom is making me sicker e ver day and the DDs are totally freaking out about it.

So we offered, they didn't even counter, just said too low, we offered agai n, they came down $5K, my middle DD said offer $2K more and I will make up the difference. So we did that. They said we need at least $3K more, and I drew the line. We kept looking. 3 weeks along now and they called back a nd said OK we will take your offer.

So, earnest money has been given over, and the fussing about with papers an d bankers and inspections and all commences. We are expected to finalize a round the end of October.

DD3 says she is never doing this again _ever_. Unless the publishers Clear ing house people come a knocking and hand her a check for a bajillion dolla rs and she is able to buy total awesomeness without fretting and fussing. I told her heck with that, if we suddenly and unexpectedly become rich, we will buy a piece of land and build a castle on top of The Hive (the Raccoon City Facility from Resident Evil movies and games). Or maybe just build T he Hive and stick an old trailer on top. You only pay taxes on what they c an see from the road after all.

NightMist

Yeah! Can you send me your address for a little giftee to head your way for the n ew house?

Use snipped-for-privacy@msn.com for email G> Well then, after looking at some horror shows, some foreclosures, and fin

ding that there was darn little that came close to our requirements out of town, we huddled, decided, and made an offer on that first place we looked at. The one with the mangled second floor. We are not wild about essentia l remodeling on a house we are living in, but it is structurally sound, dry , well insulated, and 23 acres. Thus several steps above anything else we have seen. Plus the mold issue in our current bathroom is making me sicker ever day and the DDs are totally freaking out about it.

ain, they came down $5K, my middle DD said offer $2K more and I will make u p the difference. So we did that. They said we need at least $3K more, and I drew the line. We kept looking. 3 weeks along now and they called back and said OK we will take your offer.

and bankers and inspections and all commences. We are expected to finalize around the end of October.

aring house people come a knocking and hand her a check for a bajillion dol lars and she is able to buy total awesomeness without fretting and fussing. I told her heck with that, if we suddenly and unexpectedly become rich, w e will buy a piece of land and build a castle on top of The Hive (the Racco on City Facility from Resident Evil movies and games). Or maybe just build The Hive and stick an old trailer on top. You only pay taxes on what they can see from the road after all.

Well the assessment has been done, we've gotten the report, and in a number of ways it is a hoot! :D

The best example is she keeps referencing the place as "in the extremely ru ral township of". OK, so it is 20 minutes to the nearest Starbucks via the expressway, but it is only 20 minutes and the on ramp is less than a mile from the house. Dri ving the regular roads it is less than 10 miles to town, and that is passin g through one of the larger villages on the way. I don't imagine that she counts that the biggest organic herb farm in the county is an easy walk in one direction, and the biggest organic fruit farm is a slightly longer walk in the other. I think the cats subtly exerted telepathic influence towards our decision b ecause it is so close to their dealer. They really really enjoy the organi c catnip from the herb farm. Anyway, 10 miles from town is so _not_ extremely rural! Lady is from Buffalo, so maybe the cows next door influenced her notion of rural.

Oh, and I spied a couple of alpacas in a field on the way out there. Gonna have to track down who owns them and find out if they are a hobby or part of a commercial enterprise.

NightMist dazzled by the prospect of locally sourced alpaca

On Saturday, June 10, 2017 at 12:12:12 PM UTC-4, Night Mist wrote:

has been going all to heckies for better than a decade.

I have convinced them at long last that it will be more economically sensi ble to buy.

We are progressing!

Since we did not have credit cards or loans or any such long term debt, we had no credit rating. Therefor the bank has had to go seriously old school in writing this mortga ge. This has resulted in mass confusion among the underwriters for the last cou ple of months. You would not believe how many times I have had to say, "Check the papers, you already have that." because they are dealing with a whole bunch of pdfs of scanned documentation. I had coffee with the vice president of our bra nch when he had to scan in around half a ream of papers we brought in for h im. Then eventually he had to drive down to Pennsylvania to have words wit h the supervisor in charge to get them on track and to quit asking for thin gs they would know they could not have if they had gone through the files a s they were supposed to. We went through three different household members on the mortgage because they kept making assumptions without looking at th e paperwork. They said put the person with the largest income on, we did t hat. Then they had to take her off because she had no credit rating and was not on any of the bills. Then they wanted me on, because I am telephone woman and they talked to me the most. Then they discovered I was one bill shy of the number they wanted. Finally we got DH on it because he has that extra bill (because gas company policy was outdated and they wouldn't put it in my name without DH's "permission", and we couldn't get both of us there at the same time because somebody had to watch the kids. Yes that _still_ bur ns my butt!)

We have finally got everything situated to the mortgage underwriters satisf action. Now we are waiting for that last letter that means the lawyers run with it for a bit (title search and all that), and then set the closing da te. Our consumer contact guy keeps saying how "unique" this mortgage is to wri te. I keep telling him, not unique, retro. This is how it was done 20-30 years ago, before it was considered "normal" to live with crazy amounts of debt. Maybe I am weird, but I really really hate debt of any kind, and wor k intently to pay off any that I fall into as quick as I can.

Yeah, I am having to adjust to the idea of having a couple three decades of debt. Buying a house is not something you can do out of pocket though, un less you are really really rich or have some pretty unusual circumstances g oing on. I just keep reminding myself of all the money we will actually sa ve, and the freedom we will have to do what we want with the place. The fact that we will be warm and dry this winter, and can make sure we sta y that way every winter hence forward, also helps a lot with my attitude ad justment.

NightMist