Happy Thanksgiving!

I am so grateful to have another year with my family. With my dad dying a few months ago, it makes me appreciate my mother that much more.

I am also very grateful that I will be closing on my house on Tuesday. It's been such a long journey it almost feels like a dream.

It's just a great time in my life right now. I'm grateful for all of my blessings, both big and small.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Yay!

I'm so excited. As I was driving to my mom's yesterday I finally....FINALLY got word that I am clear to close on Tuesday, November 30th. When I got the news I literally cried...hard.

This has been such a hard journey. I can't remember if I wrote about this earlier, but I tried to buy a home back in the spring of this year and the deal fell through. I was pretty bummed about it because it wasn't my fault that the deal fell through. It was because of the HORRIBLE mortgage broker I was dealing with. He was a nightmare. The only thing that got me through was the fact that I kept remembering that everything happens for a reason. When God is ready for me to have a house HE will make sure it happens. That's exactly what happened too.

I loved the house I looked at earlier, but I realized shortly after the deal fell through that if I had purchased that house I would have been unhappy shortly afterwards. I don't want to stay in the city I'm living in now (which is where the first house was located). Now, I'm moving to a bigger house, which is closer to everything in a city that I love.

I've never been an overly religious person, but God really does give you what you're looking for in his time..which is really the right time.

I can't wait to get back to town to sign on the dotted line.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! I definitely know one of the things I'm giving thanks for this year.

Ugh

Ok. I knew I wasn't going to close today, but I thought there might be some chance that the bank would have gotten back to me by now. They pretty much assured me that the final paperwork would be looked at today. It is now 5:36 p.m., and I have heard nothing from them.

I'm not worried. They've already looked at everything else. They just need to look at the new sales price since the home appraised for lower that the sales price. I mean, but damn. How many people are buying houses in this economy? I'm being sarcastic of course, but this is ridiculous. They've had the paperwork since Thursday morning and (supposedly) a rush was put on it. We're now going on Tuesday. Sheesh.

It's not like it matters. I'm leaving in the morning to go home for the holidays. L said if I could stay until Wednesday morning then I could probably close by then. Are you serious? If I leave here on Wednesday afternoon/evening to go home for Thanksgiving then I might as well just stay here. It's not like it's a 3 hour drive. It's almost 10 hours (that's WITHOUT stopping for gas). No thanks. I can wait until I get back. Besides, it's not like I would be able to be in the house until I came back from Thanksgiving anyway...even if I DID close today.

However, it sure would have been nice to have the keys in my hand right about now.

The good news is, I got the appraisal back in the mail today. I was pleasantly surprised. The house was listed as having almost 2800 square feet. Well, I found out today (per the appraisal) that it has almost 3200 square feet. That doesn't include the unfinished basement. When I get around the finishing that (which WON'T be any time soon), the house will have over 4500 finished square feet. I'm really excited.

...but who the hell is going to clean all of that?

Really Bummed

I'm not going to lie. I'm really disappointed by not being able to close this past Friday. I thought for sure that I would be in my house by now. I wasn't planning on moving in this weekend, but I was going to have the house cleaned and start getting the feel of being a homeowner. Now I have to wait another week or so. Sigh.

I should have at least been trying to pack this weekend, but I couldn't even get motivated to do that. I don't know. I actually wanted to go out this weekend. This would have been my last time to go out here in Atlanta before the end of the year. I'll be out of town for the holidays, work and trying to move in the next few weeks. I don't know why I was so pressed about it. The bad thing is, I (still) don't know a lot of people, so the people I DO know already had things to do.

One thing I'm going to make sure I do at the start of the year is get out more. I know I said that before, but I mean it. It seems as if all of the people I meet through Meetup all live in Atlanta or other areas that are further away from where I'm at now, but closer to where I'll be moving to. I have to make sure that I take advantage of that and get out to meet new people. I may even have a cookout or two this upcoming year. We shall see.

Let's just get the damn keys first!

So Aggravated

So, I was supposed to go to closing yesterday (November 19th). Because the house I'm buying appraised for lower than the purchase price, we had to go back to the sellers to see if they would sell the home for the lower price (only $6k). They agreed, and I needed to sign an amendment they sent over which basically said that they were going to sell the home for a lower price and that they were changing the amount of closing costs they would pay (that's ANOTHER story). Anyway, I faxed the paperwork back to L's broker immediately, and they faxed the paperwork back to the seller a few moments later. However, the sellers took all day to send the paperwork back, and didn't fax it back until after 5pm!!! Grrr.

This in turn caused a delay in my file going back to underwriting for the final approval. Everything else has been approved, but they needed the amendment to provide approval for the new loan amount. Since there was a delay in the appraisal being done (yet ANOTHER story) and now the new price of the home, my closing has been delayed. The new closing date was supposed to be this coming Monday (November 22nd). BUT...the loan processor at the bank said that there is a 48 hour turn around for underwriting to look at the file for final approval. So, underwriting would look at the file yesterday or this coming Monday. Additionally, the attorney must have the paperwork in their office 72 hours ahead of time. So, in order for me to close on the 22nd, the attorney would have needed to have the paperwork in their office by this past Wednesday!

The problem is, I'm going out of town on November 23rd for vacation. So this means that I now won't be able to close until the day after I return - November 30th! Aaaggghhh!

I swear, I could pull my hair out right now. I so want to close on this house, but I'm realizing that everything happens for a reason. I don't know what the reasoning is for the delay in closing, but I'm certain there is a reason. This just pushes everything back for me. I thought I would have a few weeks to get the house cleaned, move in that house, move out of my apartment, etc. Now, it basically only gives me one weekend to have the house cleaned and to move in because, guess what, I'm going out of town AGAIN for work! This is crazy!

I can't wait for this whole thing to be over!

Stay tuned!

On The Home Front

Well, things seem to be going as planned with the house I'm trying to buy. Everything looks good, and the only thing I'm waiting on is for the appraisal to be completed. It was done this past Friday, so I'm just waiting to see what it appraises for.

I don't really have any worries at this point, but I'm still nervous about the closing. When the appraisal is reviewed by the underwriters for the last time, they will give the okay to close. Right now, I'm supposed to be closing this coming Friday. I keep wondering how I will react when I finally have the keys to my first home in my hand. I can't wait.

Just wanted to give a quick update. I'll be back with (hopefully) more news.

The House Search So Far

Hey guys! I know it's been a while since I wrote last. Things have been crazy. However, I do have some great news!

I FOUND A HOUSE!!!

I'm so excited. I found a house about a month ago. It's at a price I can afford, and it has everything I want. The only thing is, it's NOT in the area that I was originally looking for. I decided (while looking) that I really didn't want to live in the city that I live in now. I mainly was looking in my current area because it was the closest city (in Metro Atlanta) that I liked and was closest to my job.

Every time I looked in this area, though, there was this nagging feeling in the back of my head that I shouldn't be living here. Especially since I know I'm not going to be at my current job forever. So, my best friend, and "L" asked me to consider homes actually in the city of Atlanta. Against my better judgement I did that and in the process found the home of my dreams!

It has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a two story family room, formal living room, formal dining room, huge master bathroom and a basement (not finished - but a basement nonetheless).

I'm in the final process of getting my loan approved. I don't foresee any problems, so I should be closing on November 19th.

Please keep your fingers crossed and pray for me.

Until next time! :-)