House Updates

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...updates on buying and selling houses :) I wasn't ready to write about this but I think now I can. Things seem to change moment to moment and it's been hard to pick a point to update. I literally had this post written 2 days ago, and then not less than one hour later, it was incorrect. So I might as well update now because next week things are going to change again.

On the selling of our house in Utah...the buyers asked for yet another extension to get their financing in order. With some initially bad news middle of last week, the lender fought back with a vengeance and was able to get them another shot. Seriously we are so grateful to this lender...she and her staff have gone so far above and beyond what everyone expected and we intend to thank them properly once this whole process is over. The good news finally came on Monday evening. We got word that the buyers had been approved for financing! We lived in that bliss for about 36 hours until the world came crashing down again. Because the terms of their loan had changed, they got sent back to the end of the line with the lender and it was going to take another 4 days before an underwriter would review their file. The appraisal had been scheduled for Wednesday afternoon...they were ready to cancel but kept it scheduled at our realtor's insistence. The appraisal results came in late yesterday. The first appraisal had come in right at selling price with no conditions. We couldn't expect to be so lucky this time - it came in $15k above asking price, but is contingent on some roof repairs due to some damaged shingles in the troughs above our front and back roof pitches. So now we are getting some roof estimates...while we await the decision of the lender. They expect that to come in on Tuesday. At this point, nothing would surprise me and it's getting harder to stay optimistic. The buyers submitted yet another addendum extending the contract dates...that's #10 for those who've lost track. The new financing and appraisal deadline is May 13th and the new closing deadline is May 20th. This scares me on so many levels. We are set to leave just 6 days later. All of our eggs are in this basket. So much hangs on the decision of this lender. I can't even fathom the possibilities of this deal falling through because it literally changes everything. So I try not to let my mind wander there...at least not too often. We cannot purchase a home in Virginia without closing on this house, but that's exactly what we are set to do...

On the buying of a house in Virginia...our trip was very eventful. We looked at 7 houses. We initially decided on one but were in a multiple offer situation and didn't want to go into a bidding war. So we decided on another house about a mile away. We were initially told that it was close to having a contract with another buyer, so we thought we were headed to option #3. But at the eleventh hour, the sellers canceled that contract and decided to work with us since we are such well qualified buyers. The only snag was timing. They wanted to stay in the house until June 24th but we pushed back to June 7th and they agreed. It leaves us with about a week of time between arriving in Virginia and being in the house. Not exactly convenient with 2 pets, but we're going to figure something out. The purchase of the house was also contingent on the sale of the house in Utah...putting everyone in a waiting game while we awaited the decision on our buyers' financing. It's all so intricately tied together and now I feel like we have started a cross country drama with a domino effect to who knows how many buyers and sellers. In any event, things are moving along with the purchase - we have already gone through the home inspection, appraisal and gotten all of the paperwork to our lender. The sellers actually want to close on May 31st and then rent back from us for 1 week, so that's the current plan.

So that's our update. This is definitely an emotional roller coaster and I am entirely sick of it all. I feel like it could fall apart at any time....crushing all of our plans. We haven't even started packing yet, or booked any hotels because of all of this uncertainty. It's definitely been a test of my patience, and now we must wait again until Tuesday for yet another decision that is out of our control.