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November 17, 2013

Mortgages and escrows and short sales

.... Oh my!

I can't believe it has almost been a year since I bought my first house! Well, I'll be clear, it's not like I threw down a couple G's and bought the house outright, I put down my down payment and signed the papers on November 28, 2012. Let me tell you, sitting in a room with my real estate lawyer and real estate agents was a big "grown up" moment for me. I didn't even ask my parents to come along!

Like I mentioned in my update post, I probably dragged my parents to about 25 properties over the span of a month. I pretty much required their presence at every house. I needed to have both of their opinions, no matter what!

I actually felt in love with a different house. I was head over heals for the open layout and fire place and location. After a day of thinking about it, I contacted my agent to get the process started of making an offer. Just as I went to gaze at the pictures one last time, I noticed that there was already an offer on the table. I would be lying if I say I didn't cry about losing that house. I actually sent my agent an email with a bunch of sad faces. Real grown up, Amy!

Luckily, he understood my disappointment and urged me to keep looking. There were plenty of properties in the area with my requirements. Which by the way, was a garage... and a garage. I didn't really have many more amenities that I NEEDED to have. Outside of the price, I was pretty darn flexible.

The next time the four of us trekked out, I ended up stumbling across a house that was similar to the one that I lost. And the situation was very unique. The house was in a short sale and the seller had an offer for the house, but a few days prior, they found out the buyer was planning on renting the unit instead of living in it. Unforutnately for him, the Association doesn't allow renters so the buyer dropped his offer. The seller was days away from being foreclosed and the previous buyer's offer would be valid with the bank for another 30 days.

From there, time was on fast forward. I found a broker who helped me find a mortgage company, my credit was checked, and an offer was placed. Then a home inspector, a radon test, and furniture was purchased. The entire process went very smoothly, there were no problems and in literally 30 days I had my first house!!!

Well, to be clear, I'm not in a stand alone house, I live in a quad, classified as a townhome. But it's perfect for me and Leia. It's 2 levels with 2 bedrooms and 1.5 baths. And it has a fireplace, which turns out to be my absolute favorite part of the house. It also has a fenced in porch and balcony... perfect for enjoying the weather when you don't have your own lawn! There's laundry in my house and an attached single garage. Perfect little bachelorette pad!

Even thought it's almost been year, I just hung curtains with the help of my parents, just a few weeks ago. Did you know how expensive those things are?? I am still missing a lot of things I'd like to have in the house, but every day Leia and I keep making it more and more a home.

It's currently dark and close to bed time, so I think a future post will have some before and after pictures. Oh, and brace yourselves for the holidays... the place will be DRIPPING in Christmas. I am so excited! :D

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Short Sale is best than other like foreclosure. There are lots of benefits of short sale. You sharing really good post. I have read your post. I am glad to come across your Blog. Thanks for sharing a good post.

Steph said...

Buying a house IS such a grown up feeling!!

Unknown said...

It's amazing to see how far you've come! I'm also impressed that you followed every rule in the book, such as hiring an agent, broker, lawyer and everyone else that's needed to ensure that the paperwork is okay. There are some houses that have questionable papers or still don't have one, so you don't want to embroiled in a mess like that. I hope you're satisfied with this new home of yours!

Bruce Edward Schwartz @ Schwartz Wisot, LLP