We won the house, and had to shore together the 28k to pay for it. I had already been approved for $45000 from citi mortgage and thus expected that i would be able to purchase this house with those funds.
Not so easy, however. It seems that mortgage companies will not often approve a specific house until they have their appraisers come check the place out and make sure you aren't inflating the price to get more money than the house is worth.
We had 2 months from april 22nd, the close on the house.
Citibank finally got back to us june 5th. Their prognosis? the house was in poor to fair condition and their underwriters would not approve a mortgage on such a house. And heres the catch, you can't do work on a HUD house until you own it!
So there i was, unable to aquire funds to buy the house and unable to repair the house to get the funds.
Lauren had 15k aside by her parents for paying off some of her college loans, and i had about 5 thousand myself, but we were still short. Unfortunately my stepfather was too busy using his money to buy boats anbd motorcycles to help me out and her parents were tapped out. Finally, i went and decided to apply for a personal loan. Key bank would only approve 6k, and I still had to come up with another 4k at a minimum (this didn't cover the backtaxes from the prior owner, nor the homeowners insurance).
I was about to give up hope when I got an apporval noticce from citibank, the disorganized corporation approved me for 10k!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Eureka!
After months of looking we finally found a house that mostly satisfied our needs, it was a HUD foreclosure and was currently in the bid stage, that is, it was open to bids, and the highest offer at the end of the weekly bidding phase would have themselves a house.
It was listed as a value of $26000, so we contacted the realtor and was explained the bidding process. We could make any bid we liked, but obviously the lower we bid the higher the likelihood someone else would beat us.
At this point i was very tired of losing out on houses i had fallen in love with. So i bid high, maybe too high - $28000. I didn't care, i wanted the house!
At midnight the bidding process was over, but we wouldn't know till morning. I can say that I hardly slept fitfully!
Well good news, we won the bid!
It was listed as a value of $26000, so we contacted the realtor and was explained the bidding process. We could make any bid we liked, but obviously the lower we bid the higher the likelihood someone else would beat us.
At this point i was very tired of losing out on houses i had fallen in love with. So i bid high, maybe too high - $28000. I didn't care, i wanted the house!
At midnight the bidding process was over, but we wouldn't know till morning. I can say that I hardly slept fitfully!
Well good news, we won the bid!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Perfunctory
I have always (at least as long as i considered the future) known I would not be happy without owning my own house. Of course, I was not making nearly enough to even consider ownership. However, after I met my future fiancee (Lauren) and it turned out she was a law student, our economic mobility seemed far more plausible.
One problem, Lauren was not yet working, and I was making peanuts as a police dispatcher. So that definitely limited our options. However one thing in our favor was Lauren's desire to live in Maine- a ridiculously cheap place compared to New York.
Second problem, every jackoff real estate investor was snatching up all the cheap houses in Maine to renovate and make a profit.
We had Only 2 REquirements:
(1) We could afford it
(2)It was close enough to a city area for Lauren (and I) to work
Lauren and I scoured about two dozen real estate sites (including craigslist) and we found a number of houses that with a little finagling would be within our (my) budget. But, every damn time that I tried to contact a realtor, the useless buggers would come back to me and say "Sorry! the house is under contract as of yesterday".
Would we ever find a house?
One problem, Lauren was not yet working, and I was making peanuts as a police dispatcher. So that definitely limited our options. However one thing in our favor was Lauren's desire to live in Maine- a ridiculously cheap place compared to New York.
Second problem, every jackoff real estate investor was snatching up all the cheap houses in Maine to renovate and make a profit.
We had Only 2 REquirements:
(1) We could afford it
(2)It was close enough to a city area for Lauren (and I) to work
Lauren and I scoured about two dozen real estate sites (including craigslist) and we found a number of houses that with a little finagling would be within our (my) budget. But, every damn time that I tried to contact a realtor, the useless buggers would come back to me and say "Sorry! the house is under contract as of yesterday".
Would we ever find a house?
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