Inspection

The inspection went well - very well. This is the 4th time we've met with this inspector and we are starting to understand his 'gallows humour'. Anyway he found some minor electrical issues (a few hours of an electrician) and not much else. While on one side I am happy, this means we won't be able to reduce much more.

I think that's fine. This house is a God-send after what happened with the last one.


The owner made us cornbread pancakes and was very nice. She has taken pride in the renovations she's done and it's been properly done which is much more responsibility than any other homeowner we have seen so far.

The Grays showed us the paperwork they faxed over to the collection agency. No word from them. I guess they are giving up hope too. I never really held out for much anyway, and while 242 is a deal I still had to contend with fixing that parapet wall at some point (30k expense) and all those DOB permits that were taken out and never closed. I would also have had to deal with the landmark violations that were existing (windows) It also needed a new roof . All this would have brought the price up to very close to what we are paying for 242. The saddest bit is that they were offering us a seller's concession which means they would have given us back 3% at closing and that would have paid for the closing costs.

We asked for seller's concession on this one but no avail.

280

Our inspection is tomorrow so we are moving fairly rapidly now. I've looked into this oil issue and it's not as bad as it sounds. Most of Long Island uses oil heat - it's more efficient and the carbon footprint doesn't depend on oil usage (as propane is an oil by product) as much as it depends on your system. Meaning whether our oil system could be a Prius or an SUV but it's not oil that's the problem

This real estate brokerage firm is quite a large one so I don't think we will run into the same issues as we did with the other one and the house is occupied by one owner which removes the tenancy issues. The downside is that there is nothing that stands out much about this house and it's pricier than the other one.

But it has something the others didn't have and that is - availability!

I've moved on from 242 - I think it's silly to go hunting after such a bargain and lose sight of the fact that we want a house more than we want a deal of a century. It would have been nice to have both but this isn't bad at all considering the house-hunting season is almost over and we fell into this one so easily after losing the other one.

And so it goes

No news from the collection agency I just can't believe they aren't interested in selling bad debt for decent money! Anyway we send in an inspector on Saturday to 280. Saw another place today which was nice but asking for 725 and unfinished basement. Sarah really liked it but the lady is really unwilling to go down in price so if Sarah can talk them into a seller's concession or a cheaper price, we might consider.

280 Leff**ts

They accepted our offer of 705k with a counter of 708k. We will huddle and discuss soon but still waiting to hear from the collection agency as to the fate of 242 and if they are willing to sell to us at 620k. If so, it would be the deal of the century...

If not, it's not like we don't have other options I suppose. More expensive options but nevertheless, a house...

Latest developments

Sarah & Oli got the paperwork from our lawyer yesterday and have learnt
that the seller's mortgage has already been farmed out to a debt
collector who is in foreclosure proceedings. From the looks of things,
they
could foreclose any day if they wanted. They were willing to take 515k
after closing costs from Bluewater Capital, but even that deal
expired on 8/15.

Oli is going to call the company this morning and suggest they
foreclose. Then we can buy title directly from "HomeEq" for our original
price (less a few costs, of course)

That's where we stand on 242.

Meanwhile we are going to see another place for sale by owner on
Thursday in the area.

Its been a nice change of events and maybe we can catch a break for once

Not bad news

We got our deposit check back today even though we didn't ask for it yet and we deposited it. Of course, we are still proceeding with the other plan (of calling the seller's bank) and now, we are quite interested in this new place on Lefferts.

It has no outstanding landmark violations, all the renovation work seems to be done properly and above board with permits & licensed electrician & contractors. The only issue of oil heat is becoming moot as the owner is willing to reduce by 10 grand to 713k. We are still only offering 708k and sending in an inspector if she accepts it.

Hopefully with no violations, we won't be captive to this particular lender and we can get a better interest rate than what we've been getting. Previously we were stuck with Chase because they were willing to loan us the money with these violations.

Here are some pictures Sarah took today when she went back

Moving on

As per my sister's advice, we got back into the saddle this weekend. Saw a slew of places (including a condo) and one 2 family house stood out - coincidentally on Lefferts Ave again. (The 2 that have fallen through thus far were both on Lefferts). This is the eastest one by far and asking for the same price as the one we lost last summer.

It's been renovated and not badly either. Some design elements were thought out - the top floor has a skylight and some walls knocked down and the bathroom already enlarged (space taken from a closet - all these limestones have the same layout so we were going to do these things ourselves anyway)

The basement can also be a rental unit and has been laid out that way with a kitchen & bathroom. A big drawback was that it was an oil powered house which is expensive and stinky in the basement. Taking it out and replacing with gas is going to be expensive.

We are seeing another 2 family later this week that Sarah has been on the trail of and we saw another 2 family we had seen before that the price has dropped. Not an ideal block and a small footprint.

The condo was interesting - converted so it was only 6 units and 2 bedroom units. The 2 ground floor apartments with private gardens had already been taken and I suspect they are the nicest ones. The top floor has potential and roof rights which would be an option for Mike & I. They were asking for 375k. The price is not unreasonable and we could probably afford it but it would be settling for something we hadn't really expected to.

We will hear on Monday when Oli calls the seller's bank to "report on them" to see what happens. There is a slim chance the bank will say "sure cheat us out of 100 grand, we don't mind, it's too much of a hassle to foreclose" which is what the Grays hope (they don't say so but I could tell they were holding on to it) and if so, we have a house. If not, then we get our money back and move on.

I don't really feel like I want to sue or avenge ourselves on these sellers although they have done us wrong - I think it's best to move on and walk away. It's only good real estate karma.

Sigh...

So contrary to popular belief that we lost the house...we sorta didn't. The last we left it with the broker, since we were reluctant to buy a house that was 'questionable', she said she would refund us our deposit.

I gave the Grays a few days to think about it and when we spoke last week, I was surprised to hear they hadn't given up hope on the house. Sarah didn't want to come right out to say so, but I could tell she wanted to force the seller to sell us the house. She had attempted to contact the broker to say, sell us the house or we tell the bank on you etc.

Mike and I were just going to walk away from the deal and start all over but since they wanted to pursue the situation to its bitter end, we formulated a plan.

We told the broker we changed our mind and since they said it was all legal & aboveboard then we were willing to buy the house. Since the only real obstacle to that is legality (and our very prim & proper real estate lawyer) we agreed that we would secretly (through our lawyer) let the bank that owns the mortgage know about this shady deal they were attempting. If the bank was fine with it (which the Grays have talked themselves into believing they will be) then we are off the hook in terms of legal issues and also, our lawyer could then satisfy his need of keeping everything clean. Our lawyer thinks the moment the bank finds out, the deal is dead but that's the chance we take. The Grays think to negotiate a short sale with the bank requires 3 months and the bank will be grateful for any money they regain from this deadbeat guy.

Time will tell.

Our rate has been extended to Sept 15 so we have 3 weeks to do this. The broker is back on board and she also has informed me that the tenant is moving out next week. I'm not holding out much hope for this whole thing but I'm not unpacking everything that I've packed. It was just too heartbreaking...

Shambles

Oh well now we lost the house and I am all packed up in various boxes, suitcases & milkcrates. We are going to have a talk this weekend (well I am) with the Grays to see if they still want to continue the partnership.

I am heartened by the fact that under a lot of stress & back and forth, we didn't really argue amongst ourselves at all. We all carried out specific tasks the others didn't like or couldn't do and between 4 busy schedules we made it work for us. It bodes well for the house renovation work that's for sure. We respected one another's opinion and sometimes deferred and sometimes insisted and it worked out great. Mike didn't do much in terms of talking with brokers, lawyers & such, but once the house gets underway they will see how useful he is 'in the field'.

Day 2 of post house death is not awful. Mike and I had dinner last night while I was midway through my workday (I'm on nights completely now) and he left for his man-cation this morning to NC. I have a fun filled weekend ahead as today is my last day on the job. The Grays and I chat on Sunday at our wrap party to see what we want to do. Their timeline is different from ours of course and they have been set back a year.

Oli mentioned our lawyer said we might want to sue the seller but I don't know about that. I'm not really keen to be litigious about it. I want my deposit back so I can buy another place and that's that.

My landlord is probably going to raise the rent since he has been looking around and seeing he can get $400 more for the apartment. It doesn't matter how much he likes us, really. Mike and I have been discussing that if the Grays don't want to come back, we will just get a 2 BR co-op in Lefferts Garden. We will be able to afford it easier and it will help us build equity until we are ready financially for a landed property.

A lot to mull over. Thanks everyone for your sympathy & good wishes & calls. It was very comforting.

Deal is Dead

As to be expected, our lawyer doesn't really think this is 100% kosher
so it looks like they are returning our money & the deal is dead

The Truth

Finally the real estate broker 'confesses' to me that this house has been a short sale all along. Apparently it is not illegal to not tell the buyers that they are buying a short sale house. What they want is a simultaneous closing

http://realestateinvestorweblog.com/2008/05/24/short-sale-all-about-simultaneous-closing/
http://www.foreclosureforum.com/mb/messages/25063.html

She said she understood if we were uncomfortable with the situation but they had a title company (who coincidentally was also their lawyer) who was familiar with seasonings and short sales and wanted to proceed.

I told her if our lawyer was satisfied with the paperwork and that it couldn't legally affect us, then we would be fine with it. She agreed so we are now waiting for their lawyers to chat.

If we had known this was a short sale to begin with, we could have done things so differently. I am not averse to structuring my loan differently or working with them to try to complete the sale. Now we are back where we started and have wasted all this time.

There's no way our stick-in-the-mud lawyer would ever agree to any of their sketchy deals so I'm pretty sure it's not an option. So now we have to discuss the 4 of us, if we want to continue being partners and looking for another house. Mike and I would like to continue but I know the Grays are fatigued and their timeline is different and they just spent a year looking for a place to no avail.

Nothing New

They have given our lawyer the new attorney details but same old same old. He hasn't returned our lawyer's calls. The title company has cried foul with the seller's tricks and has refused to deal with them and told the other local title companies not to deal with them also.

I have exhorted the real estate broker to stop being funny and just sell the damn house already. Our lawyer is writing the formal letter saying we must close by Sept 15 or we get our deposit back. Our rate has also been extended to Sept 15. If we don't close, no one is liable for the extension fees. If we do close, we are liable for the $4000 but by then, I think I wouldn't even mind paying that for this house. Anyway, that's the risk we are taking.

So we are in a holding pattern but there's no real stress anymore since Sept 15 is a month away. If they want to keep playing games, then we get our money back. If they decide to play it straight and decide on a closing date, we will be there. I have told our landlord we are staying till the end of the month at least and he's still incredibly understanding.

Update but not really

The real estate broker is giving me mixed messages about everything but
we are standing firm. Till they hire a new lawyer the deal is off. We
are issuing a formal letter saying if we don't close by Sept 1, then our
deposit gets returned. We are well within our right to take it back now
as we are well past the contractual date but our lawyer is being careful
and covering our behinds

Is it silly? I still hope for a last minute revival. Because this house
was such a good deal, it's hard to walk away from it and the seller
knows that. So we are bound in this unholy pas de deux and neither of us
can walk away while the other twists in the wind.

Im being dramatic. It's the lack of sleep.

The deal that won't die

It is just incredible how much more of this we can take. The seller has
said that they will do whatever it takes to close and the title company
wants them to sign a piece of paperwork (presumably to indemnify the
title company and us from any illegal wrongdoing). The broker called and
told me she's getting that paperwork to the seller and they will get it
signed tonight.
The closing is off for tomorrow of course, there's just no time for all
this to happen in time. We don't really know what's going to happen
because as usual this all went down at 6pm when everyone had left for
the day.
There's still life in this puppy yet which is just unbelievable.
However, I refuse to give up. I know that God willing, if I am to have
this house everything will be fine.

More disappointing news

Our lawyer has spoken to the title people, and they believe our seller is trying to break the law. He thinks their intention is to sell their house to a corporation (themselves) at a lower price, and present that to the bank as a short sale. They would then use the corporation to sell the house to us and make a profit.

I don't know if that's why the closing has been pushed so many times or whether the other lawyer balked or whatever, but it looks like we definitely won't be closing tomorrow.

It has been a long and painful road hasn't it?

Now i have to unpack all my boxes. I guess I can always pretend I'm moving into this apartment.

Disappointing news

So it is confirmed the sellers got a new lawyer. However, our lawyer feels that this happened too late in the game as there are several pieces of paperwork they need to have before we close tomorrow. So he feels that closing is probably not going to be able to happen.

It is a pity because their lawyer was always ignoring our lawyer's phonecalls and faxes and emails and I feel that because she was a litigator and not a real estate lawyer she was never around and very antagonistic towards him. It was a very weird situation. We would get one message from the seller (via the broker) and a completely different message from our lawyer (via their lawyer). So it is a good thing she's no longer in the picture, just not so good it couldn't have happened a little earlier.

The walk through for the apartment is still happening at 5pm tonight. I start work at 4pm and with a complicated balloon light for the night work, I don't think I can miss the first half of the day. I don't really want to walk through a house I won't be owning anyway.

Hope

I woke up at noon today after sleeping 12 hours to a slew of text messages. The real estate broker had left a message for our lawyer that the seller has a new lawyer and that the deal was still on. She wants us to do a final walk thru at 5pm Monday and we close Tuesday at 10am.

I tried to call Sarah cos she has been dealing with everything since she came back 2 days ago but no answer so I guess things are all right once again.

It was great to sleep so long I've been averaging 4-5 hours a day since we went on splits/nights and the real estate stuff happens at noon and I only go to bed at 6 or 7am. It was even greater to get this news...

Thank you, everyone, for your kind thoughts and emails and prayers. I have a feeling that's why this deal was salvaged at the last minute.

More developments and the beginning of the end - one way or another

My lawyer calls and tells the other lawyer called and said they were off the case. He asked why and they said figure it out yourself. And then they hung up. The other lawyers seem to do a lot of hanging up on my poor lawyer.

Anyway i believe the seller lost the house (through foreclosure or something) and no longer has the right to sell it.

I texted the real estate broker (she doesn't pick up phone calls from us anymore) but no reply.

Aug 12, 2008

This is it. (I think) The end of the road. We are going for Aug 12. I have booked a moving company for Aug 13. I have told work I won't be there Aug 13 and will be late Aug 12. Mike returns on the 12th (not in time for the signing but in time for the move)

Our lawyer is tearing his hair out trying to get the other lawyer to talk to him but he's just getting blanked. For a while, (and still) I think the other lawyer is just playing games with him 'cos he somehow managed to antagonise her. I don't really know what's going on with these 2 lawyers. Today he got word from them that "it's going to be ok" which I don't really know what that means - are the agreements ready? Can we close?

So many questions. One really shouldn't be approaching the sale of the house with such questions.

I have given up trying to be the go-between for this whole thing. I detest our lawyer and his negative helpless attitude. I despise the real estate broker for her ineptitude. The way I see it, we make this closing appointment, they don't show up with the right documents then we don't close. So we are out the bank attorney's fee of $250. But this way, we can look at everyone in the eye and determine who's been the funny one this whole time.

Let's just see what happens. I have paid rent till the 15th. I might have to beg our landlord for our apartment back, I think he secretly wishes we would stay (he really likes us, we like him too) but our worst case scenario isn't bad. I have to keep things in perspective, so I don't buy a house. It isn't the end of the world.

No go Aug 6

The bank has been unable to update our documents and will only be able to do so at the end of the day today. Which means we can only schedule a closing 48 hours from today - Aug 8 is the earliest. I have told all relevant parties.

We are still waiting to hear back from the seller. I guess the biggest question is now, does he even have the right to sell the house since we have waited so long?

We will know more tomorrow.

Power of Attorney

Mike has signed over his POA to me which means our closing schedule is made a lot easier even if it doesn't happen Aug 6, the stress is off. He's prepping a very important job and I can tell he feels he's in over his head a little. At least this helps. While no one really wants to move into their first house quite this way, we have to do what we have to do. Mike & I have never done things very conventionally anyway.

I have contacted 3 movers to get quotes to help with the move. We decided I just couldn't ask friends to help and I have a tight window since my weekend is Fri/Sat only and next weekend is already the 15th and we are only paid up here till the 15th. The cost is something we hadn't budgeted for but it is what it is. I was going to get cleaners to come in at the new place but maybe now I will just clean it myself. It will work out. I'm not worried about the monetary aspect of things (right now anyway)

Once the mortgage broker gets a copy of the POA and signs off on the whole thing, we will be able to confirm a date hopefully the 6th and then I will go back to the real estate broker to see how far along she has gotten with her agreements.

Scheduling

The mortgage broker is now frantically trying to make an appointment at the bank for Wednesday Aug 6. Mike is going to be in Baltimore Aug5 till the 14th. Which means he has to sign over his power of attorney to me on Monday so we can close on Wednesday after Sarah gets back from England at noon..

You still with me?

Crazy huh?


If this is all possible however (power of attorney, Wed afternoon closing) then if we see those agreements by end today, then we are a go for Aug 6.

Meanwhile my house is half in boxes, I am dog sitting, still in the middle of a job and we also have a houseguest.

We can do this!!