franandaj
I'm so happy, I could BOUNCE!
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
Im starting this thread because what I thought (silly me) would be a relatively simple process, has turned into an incredibly long and drawn out, aggravating struggle. Since I want to keep my PTR mainly about our upcoming trip to WDW with a little appetizer of a quick trip to DLR, Ive decided to post here about the future of our Disney Dream home.
For those who are not up to speed here is the history in a nutshell. This is the story of me (Alison) & Fran (my Disney Spouse and partner of over 15 years).
1) About a year ago, two investments that we inherited from my FIL sold. Fran and I decided not to reinvest them and took the money. While the IRS was happy to relieve us of some of that financial burden, we were still able to keep a nice chunk of the cash.
2) In September 2012, we started to work with an architect for plans to build a second story on the residence of my deceased FIL. Concurrently we also looked to see if there were any already built homes on the market that would meet our needs. We could use the funds we had set aside for building the addition as our down payment. If that happened we could rent out the FILs house (which we recently remodeled prior to learning that the investments would sell).
3) No homes met our needs so we proceeded with the plans for the addition. The house was in a historical district and had to pass a hearing where the neighbors would be allowed to air their grievances. Well they had PLENTY of grievances, and after the hearing we vowed that we wouldnt live on that block if you paid us a million dollars! That was July 8th, 2013.
4) So about four weeks ago we kicked our search for a house into overdrive. Within the first week, we found a perfect house. In a five day period, we had viewed the house three times. In less than a week, we put in an offer, and then had to go through the process of pre-approval for a loan. This took another five days. When we could finally present the offer to the seller, her DIL went and had a baby, postponing the appointment.
In the meantime another offer came in.
5) Originally we were approved for a loan of 49% with us putting down 51% as a down payment. When we heard about the other offer we told our realtor we would have to walk away since we didnt have any more money. Then they told us they could come up with additional money to give us some room for a counter offer. So late last night we were again printing, signing, scanning and emailing yet another offer to be submitted today with the competing offer.
6) So the offers were presented today. They were identical! The seller countered with Best offer to be accepted. Now we didnt have any more money since we used up all the money that we were told that we had from the loan broker. However magically the loan broker was able to come up with another amount equal to the one that he gave us last night. I dont like this loan broker.
Luckily, Fran and I are not strangers to the loan broker field, and we actually have our own broker who helped us out a few years ago. This morning she called him and had him look into some financing options. We are going to send him paperwork over the weekend and see if he can do better for us. We now have two counter offers in with our agents. One of them is $1 above the asking price of the house, the other is $10,000 above the asking price.
I decided that I needed to do a little bit of Columbo work and asked our agent if they knew anything about the competing buyers. Evidently, they are a straight couple, the husband is a doctor and he really is meh on the house. The wife is in love with the house. Also our agent says that in his experience in Real Estate, Doctors tend to be very tight with their money. I am hoping that his meh-ness will help him to underbid on the house and we wont have to pull out the big guns offer.
So thats where we stand tonight. Supposedly we will hear something tomorrow, but Im going to hope for Sunday. The other thing is that the Doctor is NOT prequalified for a loan and we are putting down a much larger down payment, so over all we look a whole lot better on paper. Cross your fingers folks!
Im not posting any pictures of the house here yet so as not to jinx the thing. Im already too attached and am afraid if we dont get it. Believe me, if we get the place you will get blow by blow details of the move in and decoration. So much so that most of you wont need to come to the housewarming party!
If youre interested in hearing more about the house, this is where I will be posting it so as not to hijack my WDW PTR any longer with chatter about our house! If we dont get it, I will continue my saga on the search for our Disney Dream home.
And anyone who is new here, the reason that it will be a Disney Dream home is that we have been collecting Disney artwork, figures and anything else Disney for decades. We have been on the lookout for over a year to find a big enough house to display all of our cool Disney stuff!!!!
This is going to be the next best Disney place in Southern California, well next to DL, the Archives at the Studios, and in Glendale, maybe a few of the Disney stores and so on and so on! But you get the idea!
Links
The Walk in Fridge
The Cul de Sac and Yard
Pool and Tiki Bar
The Family Room, Our Main Living Space
We Found a Dining Room Table
We got some Mickey Chandeliers
The House is all Ours
Starting Work on the House
Closet Work
Closet Work, Part 2
Our First Piece of Furniture in the House
Some Knick Knacks for the House
Electrical Work
The Completion of the Bedroom Closets
The Master Bath Toilet is More Comfortable Now
The First Disneyfication of the House
Progress in Olga's Wing
New Chairs and a Kitchen Upgrade
The Haunted Mansion Room Begins to Take Shape
Rough Sketch of the Haunted Mansion Room
Some Decorations for the Haunted Mansion Room
Another Decoration - Dead Men Tell No Tales
Plans Finally!We have a matching Bedroom Set!
Moving Plans and more details
We're Finally Moved in Part 2
First home cooked meal in the house and small organization
Mega Cabinets moved
Pantry Done, TVs mounted and Tub Fixed
KVC Preview
For those who are not up to speed here is the history in a nutshell. This is the story of me (Alison) & Fran (my Disney Spouse and partner of over 15 years).
1) About a year ago, two investments that we inherited from my FIL sold. Fran and I decided not to reinvest them and took the money. While the IRS was happy to relieve us of some of that financial burden, we were still able to keep a nice chunk of the cash.
2) In September 2012, we started to work with an architect for plans to build a second story on the residence of my deceased FIL. Concurrently we also looked to see if there were any already built homes on the market that would meet our needs. We could use the funds we had set aside for building the addition as our down payment. If that happened we could rent out the FILs house (which we recently remodeled prior to learning that the investments would sell).
3) No homes met our needs so we proceeded with the plans for the addition. The house was in a historical district and had to pass a hearing where the neighbors would be allowed to air their grievances. Well they had PLENTY of grievances, and after the hearing we vowed that we wouldnt live on that block if you paid us a million dollars! That was July 8th, 2013.
4) So about four weeks ago we kicked our search for a house into overdrive. Within the first week, we found a perfect house. In a five day period, we had viewed the house three times. In less than a week, we put in an offer, and then had to go through the process of pre-approval for a loan. This took another five days. When we could finally present the offer to the seller, her DIL went and had a baby, postponing the appointment.
In the meantime another offer came in.5) Originally we were approved for a loan of 49% with us putting down 51% as a down payment. When we heard about the other offer we told our realtor we would have to walk away since we didnt have any more money. Then they told us they could come up with additional money to give us some room for a counter offer. So late last night we were again printing, signing, scanning and emailing yet another offer to be submitted today with the competing offer.
6) So the offers were presented today. They were identical! The seller countered with Best offer to be accepted. Now we didnt have any more money since we used up all the money that we were told that we had from the loan broker. However magically the loan broker was able to come up with another amount equal to the one that he gave us last night. I dont like this loan broker.
Luckily, Fran and I are not strangers to the loan broker field, and we actually have our own broker who helped us out a few years ago. This morning she called him and had him look into some financing options. We are going to send him paperwork over the weekend and see if he can do better for us. We now have two counter offers in with our agents. One of them is $1 above the asking price of the house, the other is $10,000 above the asking price.
I decided that I needed to do a little bit of Columbo work and asked our agent if they knew anything about the competing buyers. Evidently, they are a straight couple, the husband is a doctor and he really is meh on the house. The wife is in love with the house. Also our agent says that in his experience in Real Estate, Doctors tend to be very tight with their money. I am hoping that his meh-ness will help him to underbid on the house and we wont have to pull out the big guns offer.
So thats where we stand tonight. Supposedly we will hear something tomorrow, but Im going to hope for Sunday. The other thing is that the Doctor is NOT prequalified for a loan and we are putting down a much larger down payment, so over all we look a whole lot better on paper. Cross your fingers folks!
Im not posting any pictures of the house here yet so as not to jinx the thing. Im already too attached and am afraid if we dont get it. Believe me, if we get the place you will get blow by blow details of the move in and decoration. So much so that most of you wont need to come to the housewarming party!
If youre interested in hearing more about the house, this is where I will be posting it so as not to hijack my WDW PTR any longer with chatter about our house! If we dont get it, I will continue my saga on the search for our Disney Dream home.
And anyone who is new here, the reason that it will be a Disney Dream home is that we have been collecting Disney artwork, figures and anything else Disney for decades. We have been on the lookout for over a year to find a big enough house to display all of our cool Disney stuff!!!!
This is going to be the next best Disney place in Southern California, well next to DL, the Archives at the Studios, and in Glendale, maybe a few of the Disney stores and so on and so on! But you get the idea!
Links
The Walk in Fridge
The Cul de Sac and Yard
Pool and Tiki Bar
The Family Room, Our Main Living Space
We Found a Dining Room Table
We got some Mickey Chandeliers
The House is all Ours
Starting Work on the House
Closet Work
Closet Work, Part 2
Our First Piece of Furniture in the House
Some Knick Knacks for the House
Electrical Work
The Completion of the Bedroom Closets
The Master Bath Toilet is More Comfortable Now
The First Disneyfication of the House
Progress in Olga's Wing
New Chairs and a Kitchen Upgrade
The Haunted Mansion Room Begins to Take Shape
Rough Sketch of the Haunted Mansion Room
Some Decorations for the Haunted Mansion Room
Another Decoration - Dead Men Tell No Tales
Plans Finally!We have a matching Bedroom Set!
Moving Plans and more details
We're Finally Moved in Part 2
First home cooked meal in the house and small organization
Mega Cabinets moved
Pantry Done, TVs mounted and Tub Fixed
KVC Preview
right we ya Alison and Fran. Paula xx
nobody who's meh about this beautiful house should be able to live there.
for coming out of lurkdom!
and 
we're all with you kid and very protective of you & Fran and that HOME I like that he is NOT pre-qualified I also LOVE your Columbo skills....good thoughts good thoughts
for you and Fran.
Yes, your situation seems way more difficult than anything I've heard of. The universe is really making you work for this....but it will totally be worth it in the end! Hang in there! You can always PM or email or FB if you need to vent privately. 
