Okay, how many of us are trying to buy a house right now?

[Rajah]

I can't believe this -- I don't think I've *ever* seen so many DISers trying to buy a house at the same time!

There's DH and me, binny, Beauty, and Jenzebelle... anyone else?

 

[Jenzebelle]

There are lots of us. My Realtor said that any house that stays on the market longer than a week is a bad sign.

Scary, isn't it?

 

[CarolA]

I am in the process of selling my house and building a new one. I have signed for the new house, but won't list mine until mid-september.

Houses stay on the market a lot longer than a week here so your market must be REALLY hot.

 

[caitycaity]

carol -- the houses where my parents just moved from stay on the market a lot longer than a week too.

 

[KaraKW]

I'm always keeping my eyes peeled... You never know when THE house will come up on the market! I'm also kind of hoping the market up here in the NJ area will "turn around" to be more of a buyer's market. Right now it's utterly obscene to see what houses are selling for! Unfortunately, I don't see the market turning in my favor anytime soon.

 

[phins_jazy]

We'll be joining you in about March/April or so. That is if we decide to stay in TX.

 

[sleepy1]

Hi,

We are also in the process of buying a new home right now. The only problem is it is contingent on us selling our current home in thirty days. The realtors have been showing our house for a week now and so far no offers . I really hope we do not miss out on this new home, the builder put so much extra into this house it is absolutely beautiful and the perfect floor plan for us. Good luck to everyone going through this, it can be very stressful, and Rajah good luck getting your mortgage.

 

[Rexfan]

Closing on our new house on the 30th! Here's to smooth transactions and moves for all of us.

 

[Beauty]

Well you know we are Tammi! We are still waiting on the company to sign the offer of our sellers new house so that he will drop the contingency on our contract...."based upon his buying a new house" did that make sense...LOL. Anyway it should be any day now for it to be official. Its already official enough that we have started packing. We will probably close the end of September or possibly sooner....depending on how quickly our seller's new house is available. I can't wait!!!!

Any news on yours Tammi??

 

[Ricola]

We are looking.

 

[Rajah]

Wow! I am still overwhelmed by the number of us looking for a new house around the same time!

Carol -- houses stay on the market longer here, too. Some anyway. I know the one we're trying to buy has been ready to move in for at least a week, and they had people looking at it a few weeks ago. I've seen other houses that have been on the market for several months. So it's not just your area.

Kara -- good luck!!

Phins -- where else are you considering going? I don't blame you for thinking of leaving. Texas isn't the last place I want to live, but it's not the first either. It's just the best for this stage of our lives.

Sleepy -- Sending some PD your way that you'll get a buyer on your current home! I know about "this" being the perfect floorplan. That's why DH and I are buying now instead of in two to 6 months.

Congrats Rex! And I second that sentiment! Here's to smooth sailing for all of us!

Beth -- no news on our loan approval yet, but we did get all the dates for our introduction and closing, and are working on the dates for appraisal, independant inspection, and pre-introduction meeting with the builder. Michael is going to call the loan office later today (like, in 30 minutes or so) to see if there's any news.

Ric -- good luck!

 

[Beauty]

Let us know Tammi! I'm praying and hoping for you!!

Our new house was on the market for 82 days so thats over 2 months.....it is definatly a buyer's market down here though...The interest rates are super, and there aren't too many people moving to Mississippi...LOL!

 

[Mamu]

Not trying to buy, just trying to pay the one I have off.

6 more payments and it's all mine and DH's.

 

[Rajah]

Originally posted by Beauty
Let us know Tammi! I'm praying and hoping for you!!

Will do, Beth!! Thanks for the prayers *Everyone* we're working with is under the assumption that we're going to get the loan, and they seem to feel confident that it will go through. That's a very good sign.

DH has decided there are several bumps in the road in the next few weeks where things could just fall apart.

We're past the worst one, which is getting pre-approved for this specific loan.

The next hardest hurdle (or is that hurtle?) is where we are now -- getting the loan fully approved instead of just pre-approved. That, IMHO, is the biggest one though most people I've talked to disagree and say the pre-approval is the worst and that once you're pre-approved, you usually do well on the full approval.

Then there's the appraisal. If the house/land come back appraised at a significantly lower price than what we're paying for it, then we'll want to re-negotiate things and start over. I don't think that's going to happen, though. The guy next door that I talked to said they *made* $10k right off the bat with their appraisal. If they're next door, I think the chances are we'll either come out even or also ahead.

Next is the inspector. If the inspection finds any serious problem with the house (like the foundation or any structural problems) that can't be fixed quick and easy, it falls through. Michael is afraid this will happen because they said there were 5 people before us looking at this house. The problem with that logic is that I believe the salesperson meant there were 5 people *looking*. Not 5 who tried to *buy*. Our neighbor never mentioned the house going from available to sold when we talked to him, and he's the type I'm sure would have mentioned it had it been "sold" and then put back on the market. When we signed the paperwork on Sunday, they switched the sign to Sold and took our picture, so they're fairly confident it will go through. So I think the inspection is going to go smoothly as well. Every single thing that our realtor, my parents, and I knew to look at was sound. Now we aren't inspectors, but if there's anything obviously wrong with it, I think we would have noticed.

Then is the last bump, and that's closing. We have to have a cashier's check for the down + closing on the day of closing. If, for whatever reason, we can't get that, then it falls through. I *don't* see that happening, though. I am confident that we will have the money at closing. Maybe just barely have it (we are two months earlier than we anticipated), but we'll have it. This deal is too good to pass up for the sake of two months.

If we get over all those bumps, then Labor Day weekend is going to be spent getting the house ready for us to move in. There are a couple of additions we want to do (put another coat of sealant on the tiles for example, and place a couple of safety decorative things that will hopefully keep the cats from killing themselves). Then it's move in! We're taking a month in the apartment before we break that lease so we have a full month to move everything casually instead of rushing with even more stress to get moved in one weekend's time.

 

[Beauty]

Well we have had ours inspected, everything is in great shape..the appraiser was called yesterday, no word yet if he has been or not. The loan is fully approved just simply waiting on the sellers to move their things which of course they can't do until this relocation company has signed their contract on the house they are buying.....We are hopeful in knowing an exact closing and possession date by this weekend.

 

[Jenzebelle]

Good luck! Getting all that done in 2wks is going to be a huge whirlwind.

IMHO the worst was the loan. I must have killed 3 trees with the amt of paper I used making photocopies and submitting info to the bank. It was so nerve wracking and such a huge P.I.T.A to get all my bank info and employment info and signing all of this paperwork.

 

[Rajah]

Thanks Jenz. I swear I have the best DH in the world! He took care of all of that yesterday, and he's excellent when it comes to finances and staying organized. I'm pitiful at it. So for him it wasn't very difficult to get things ready to take up. He did have to print out a few statements again that he was missing or stuff like that, but overall it wasn't too much of a hassle to get all of it. The hassle was essentially being interrogated. What he described sounded like the only thing missing in the process was the spotlight in your face

 

[binny]

well were just waiting and waiting and waiting for the Title company to get done and then were DONE!!! YAY
The loan was the easy part for us it was all done over the phone actually. we just went in and signed the papers afterwards.

The hardest part for us has ben dealing with HUD.

They are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo slow!

we still have to wait 5 days after we sign because they have to record it at HUD before we can get in and do anything "mad" all I want to di is get in there ad clean and paint you would think they would ENCOURAGE that

Oh well only a few more days!

 

[accomp]

Our house has been on the market for about a week. We have an offer on a house, but it has a contingency of selling ours first.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We have sold our house and acerage, and have purchased more acerage and are building a new Log Home on it as we speak! I can hardly wait!

I was noticing that a lot of us are doing that at the same time too! There is even another person building a log home on here too!