Hullo from the "there be dragons here" area of MA

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Lily left the valley
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Re: Hullo from the "there be dragons here" area of MA

Post by Lily left the valley »

I hate being right about bad things.

Long story short because I don't have time for the long, we need to bring just over $700 for our "cash needed to close".

Oh, and I don't know if it was a cut out from the cellphone or not, but our new interest rate is 3.75%, not 3.5%. Not the end of the world, but "so what else is new". :hand:

Today's the day I finally yelled at our mortgage guy. He, of course, fought back with "I never said"s and "that's not exactly what I said"s. I did tell him that several folks involved with the process have outright asked us how our bank stays in business.

What really irked me is he kept repeating, "But you have that money." I finally asked him what was he talking about, because we were really tired of folks assuming we had a mattress full of cash, and he said, "The last time I looked at your accounts, both in your checking and your line of credit, you had adequate funds to cover the cost of closing." I reminded him that our home owner's insurance company doesn't take the one year's worth of payment until the day of closing, and that we still had to pay March rent. Then he asked (not for the first time), "Don't you have a credit card?" to which I laughed and said, "Yes, with <bank's name>. That's where our living expenses are coming from right now since it's still in the interest free period, and we don't have enough money in there for all of this either." I think that's when the light bulb finally went off in his head. Then he says, "Well, can't you just pay your rent late?" Actually, when I re-read this after posting, he originally said, "Why are you paying rent at all?" I had to remind him that we'd not been able to give a real 30 day prior notice because the closing kept changing, it's already March as of today, and technically our lease doesn't end until April. :hand:

I am not going to call spouse at work and ruin his day. I already called our landlady and explained the situation, and she's fine with delayed payment.

It ain't over 'til it's over! :popcorn:
--Proud member of the Industrious Cheapskate Club
--Currently pondering ways to encourage thoughtful restovation and discourage mindless renovation.

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Vined Porch
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Re: Hullo from the "there be dragons here" area of MA

Post by Vined Porch »

Hugs Lily ,stay strong
This may be completely off base,but I wonder if instead of paying a whole year home owners insurance on closing day ,would they let you pay monthly installments by direct debit to free up some cash now?
I only ask as that is how we pay our insurance through State Farm,but I am aware that not all insurers may offer the option so was just throwing it out there .
Fingers crossed for you!

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Lily left the valley
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Re: Hullo from the "there be dragons here" area of MA

Post by Lily left the valley »

Vined Porch wrote:Hugs Lily ,stay strong
This may be completely off base,but I wonder if instead of paying a whole year home owners insurance on closing day ,would they let you pay monthly installments by direct debit to free up some cash now?
I only ask as that is how we pay our insurance through State Farm,but I am aware that not all insurers may offer the option so was just throwing it out there .
Fingers crossed for you!

Thanks, Vined.

Because of the nature of our loan, we had to pay the full year up front. It's one of the ways they help you budget, as a lot of folks get confused about the escrow and such. We always have to be a full year paid out in advance for the life of the mortgage. We did set up an autopay, though. Got a deduction for that. :D

The walk through went just fine. Nothing had changed except they did actually have another oil delivery, so the tank is at 1/2 full. So although that's why it's still in closing costs, it's one less thing we have to come up with funds for in the near future. So sort of a trade off. :lol:

When I was chatting with our realtor about all that had been revealed this morning during the walk through, at one point I asked him, "Are we closing tomorrow?", and he said "Of course." I smiled at him and said, "Then no matter what, today's a great day."

He actually offered to drive us down tomorrow, which is great. No chance of us getting lost.

Despite our initial misgivings because 42 was such a nightmare, we really did make the right choice for our realtor.

Speaking of 42, he told me today that the home went back on the market already, and is also back in "pending" status now. So glad we walked away from there. The plumbing must have really blew out after all.
--Proud member of the Industrious Cheapskate Club
--Currently pondering ways to encourage thoughtful restovation and discourage mindless renovation.

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Lily left the valley
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Re: Hullo from the "there be dragons here" area of MA

Post by Lily left the valley »

One thing I forgot to do today was bring my camera. I wanted to take a picture off the front porch so folks could see what an amazing view we have. I will do my best to bring it tomorrow, and hopefully we'll get "home" after the closing before dark.
--Proud member of the Industrious Cheapskate Club
--Currently pondering ways to encourage thoughtful restovation and discourage mindless renovation.

SkipW
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Re: Hullo from the "there be dragons here" area of MA

Post by SkipW »

OMG, you have the patience of a saint. I would have switched banks and had the mortgage guy taken out and shot by now.

Good luck...and when it is all done, just sit back and relax, take it all in and let the pressure slide way. Stuff will get moved, everything will get cleaned, etc, etc. Just enjoy the moment.
Etta says "WOOF"

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Lily left the valley
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Re: Hullo from the "there be dragons here" area of MA

Post by Lily left the valley »

SkipW wrote:OMG, you have the patience of a saint. I would have switched banks and had the mortgage guy taken out and shot by now.

Good luck...and when it is all done, just sit back and relax, take it all in and let the pressure slide way. Stuff will get moved, everything will get cleaned, etc, etc. Just enjoy the moment.

Skip, I have to say that your response gave me a chuckle. All the posts I remember of yours make you out to be a laid back and positive person. So for you to be in our "taken out back and shot" camp, it's very humorous and validating. (Maybe it's Etta's disarmingly cute picture?)

We have, I admit, thought much the same. Unfortunately, because of the blood debt, they dinged our credit with a ridiculous amount of checks, which dropped him an entire tier of credit rating. We did look into another bank, but there was too high a chance we wouldn't get it just from what our current rating is. It's almost like mortgage guy and his cabal intentionally dinged it so much that we wouldn't be able to switch. Hard to prove that, though.

We are planning, however, to pay down everything we can with this bank (save the mortgage) and swap to a credit union most folks at his job use within a year. It's not a horrific amount for that time period, so as long as nothing goes emergency at the house, we should be able to do it. :handgestures-fingerscrossed: A house anniversary present, if you will. Hopefully the porch smile can be propped temporarily until we can get enough funds together to take care of that properly. (The porch overall is likely to be one of our bigger budget projects we wanted to tackle sooner given not all the columns are straight anymore.)

We'll still have our mortgage with them most likely, but we'll see how things go and whether it's worth trying to try to refinance or whatever we might be able to do to completely sever our ties.
--Proud member of the Industrious Cheapskate Club
--Currently pondering ways to encourage thoughtful restovation and discourage mindless renovation.

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Re: Hullo from the "there be dragons here" area of MA

Post by Nicholas »

Lily left the valley wrote:
SkipW wrote:OMG, you have the patience of a saint. I would have switched banks and had the mortgage guy taken out and shot by now.


I hate to put this another way, but so do the sellers!

Our Fort Laud house had a horrible closing, because the flipping Miami amateurs, decided to try and pull a fast one, and took the verified cash funds to try something else with it. My Realtor as well as the Lawyer said "Its Miami, we hate dealing with buyers from there because they have a different agenda"...and thats all I will say about that.

After a month past our closing date, I told the Realtor to put it back on the market, THEN the Miami folks gave half cash and opened up a mortgage for the other half.

Hoping the best for you Lily and Mr Spouse.
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Deb
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Re: Hullo from the "there be dragons here" area of MA

Post by Deb »

Waiting to hear that the keys are in your hands!! Hoping today went smoother than the journey to get there did!!

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Lily left the valley
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Re: Hullo from the "there be dragons here" area of MA

Post by Lily left the valley »

The only oddball thing this morning was finding an e-mail from the apartment related realtor's secretary asking IF they could do a showing anytime between a 2-7pm window today. I barely got this e-mail within a 12 hour window notice (of the start of the requested time) to boot since the time stamp was 12:20am today.

I was a bit steamed about that, having JUST had the "please not on Thursday because...closing" discussion with the realtor within the last two days. (I think the IF was all in caps because she knew how insane it was to ask when I'd made it clear even to her prior that this was the one day we really did NOT want to do a showing.) I wrote back with a longer reminder, with an inferred "No."

On one hand, I still felt bad because I've been in their shoes trying to fill a vacancy, but we had given them ample notice of the only day we didn't want to do one, and simply did not need to be worrying about trying to be around for that today of all days! (I also did not want to be changing locks in the dark since I knew at least the basement entrance door had no light anywhere nearby.)

Compared to the last seven months (including the house search overall), today was a piece of cake. :occasion-candle: The attorney for the mortgage folks was quippy and precise as he burned through the paperwork as spouse signed where he was told to do so and I scribbled clarifiers and notes on our copy as they went along. He answered the few questions we had exactly and promptly. There were no surprises today during closing. Everything went as we expected except not nearly as long as we thought it would be--and we're certainly not complaining about that! It also gave the attorney plenty of time to officially file before the end of the office hours so it would all be done today. Mortgage guy did not show, which no one who knew the backstory found odd in the slightest. In my mind, it was an excellent closing to our house hunting tale.

We took our realtor to lunch after, then went to local hardware store to get the deadbolts, then Baker to change the locks before I realized we forgot to pack tools. So, back to the apartment where Sean started to try to pack the PT tight and I said "NO! Just cardboard for now." He still grabbed other stuff that was waiting on the 3 season porch for the move over while I was gathering tools. :roll: Very little trouble with all but one deadbolt. The side screws were horribly stripped and I had only grabbed the basics of screwdrivers and a small wood chisel if needed as well as a bag I could then use for garbage with some basic cleaning stuff plus and drinks. So I sent him back to get my drill and bits, then started noting stuff mentally as I fiddled with one metal kitchen drawer that seemed off, and realized I had forgotten the camera. :oops: When he got back, the last was done quickly and it was cold because the temp really dropped last night and the wind today was crazy! No storm door in two of the three we worked on as a buffer.

We did manage to find what seemed to be the one missing set screw for the interior doorknob end on the front door quite close on the floor nearby, but I realized that neither really fits right and I'm thinking because they're not the usual "no head" threaded straight shaft set screw that both were replacements. That's when I realized my next trip over will need a clipboard, paper and writing implement to start the post closing list of things that will need doing.

Now we're back home and warming up. (Glad we shut the heat off completely while we were doing the doors.) Two of the radiators downstairs had a bad hiss when we kicked the heat back on, so I'll be keeping an eye on the adjustor for those.

As we walked out, I did realize I forgot my ghost lamp I meant to bring. I might still wander over later tonight to put that in and on.

One thing I am sure of now is that the basement door jut out does have the original wood siding under the AC siding. When it's a bit warmer, I'll take a closer look at it from the inside to get a better idea of what shape it's in, as there is no light in the stairwell between the cellar door and the outside ground level door. I've got work lights somewhere...just haven't gotten to those boxes yet.

The funniest thing was that I noticed someone had wedged the downstairs toilet tank lid under the ball. Apparently when I tested the shower yesterday, I didn't ensure that the water was completely off, so we think they assumed the toilet was running. As soon as we put the tank parts back in place, it filled as normal and we heard no running water since I had already shut the shower off in full. So someone other than the realtor did go in there since our final. We also found a few storms moved up from the basement but not in place. I honestly don't know what they were thinking to come in like that? Well, they can't do it anymore.

Since it's official that we are now new-old house owners, I asked "Mr. Spouse" if I could tell folks his name here because it felt weird calling him spouse all the time, and he said, "Sure." Then he asked, "Well what do they call you?" When I told him, "Well, Lily, of course," he said, "Well they can call me Mr. Lily if they want." :lol: This is one of the reasons he's a good partner for life. Laughter is important. His name is Sean, though we will always chuckle if someone does call him Mr. Lily.

Nicholas, I don't doubt there are plenty of sellers who have the same issues. I know ours was getting a bit "Why not yet" herself, and I can't say that I blame her. I am glad she didn't go as far as do that request to perform or whatever it's called--I can't recall the exact phrase right now. Thankies for your well wishes!

Deb, key in hand (in case I accidentally lock the bottom lock), and new locks in place on the top. Eventually we'll get a nicer set overall, but the cost was so little for the short term, I'm glad we just went with what many recommended and just changed the deadbolts for now. I just wish the finish on them wasn't so shiny even though it matched two of the doorknobs for the short term. It really was a nice ending, I think. Of course, now a new adventure begins. :D

OH! We did finally turn around that huge console that is still in the garage. The left side has a Markel Playmaster record player, and the right side indeed has a radio. Speakers are in the center lower part, and either side of that are storage. It seems the one to the lower left is made to hold records in an interesting way. Pictures later!
--Proud member of the Industrious Cheapskate Club
--Currently pondering ways to encourage thoughtful restovation and discourage mindless renovation.

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Willa
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Re: Hullo from the "there be dragons here" area of MA

Post by Willa »

Many congratulations on closing the house, at last !

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