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Somewhere in this image is my house...
Click image see a larger view.
Let's go back in time for a second...
On November 12th the seller's lawyers sent our attorney a letter requesting changes and modifications to the contract. Our lawyer didn't notify us of this letter until AFTER we contacted them with the results of the inspection. Those changes were...
* Change December 20th Mortgage Contingency date to December 9th.
* Delete the last sentence of Paragraph 7, Line 65, which was "Seller shall deliver possession to Buyer at time of Closing."
* Deem paragraph 32 (post closing possession) operative and adding February 2, 2005 as the date and $0.00 per day for the 2 days of post closing possession.
Here's an excerpt from an e-mail exchange with Mary...
MARY:
I can't believe they have the nerve to think they would not have to reimburse you for your expenses. Don't get too mad at the sellers, we don't know if it was their idea or the attorney's.
ME:
Yes, my lawyer agreed that it was nervy.
My lawyer spoke with their lawyer this morning. It seems the 2 day post closing possession is a MUST for the sellers. It would have been nice if they would have mentioned it before the contract was signed!
He drafted a reply and is asking for $200 for the 48 extra hours. (Our lawyer fee will increase by only $50 due to this because the seller's
lawyer has agreed to create that extra contract.) He's also asking for $5000 withheld from the sellers to insure they do leave after 48 hours and that they don't trash the place.
On November 16th our lawyer drafted a letter to the sellers to reply and inform them of our inspection issues.
* Mortgage Contingency date to remain December 20th.
* We agree to the post closing possession provided that the sellers pay us $100 per day and that $5,000 is withheld from closing to insure the house is delivered in a timely manner and in acceptable condition. That sounds COMPLETELY reasonable to me.
As far as the inspection...
* Sump pump is to be repaired/replaced by a licensed plumber and a receipt must be provided at closing.
* Furnace leak is to be repaired by a licensed heating/cooling repairman and a receipt must be provided at closing.
* Kitchen faucet leak needs to be repaired & confirms reverse osmosis filter is attached.
* Garage service door frame is rotted and needs repair.
On November 17th they replied...
* They insist the Mortgage Contingency date be December 9th as verbally agreed to by us. The reason was that they moved the closing date to accommodate us and due to that they lost their mortgage lock-in rate. Complete horse-shit since we never verbally agreed to ANYTHING and the January 31st date was on the ORIGINAL contract... they didn't change shit for us!
* They will deliver property at closing... no post closing possession necessary.
* They will repair/replace sump pump
* They will repair furnace leak
* They will repair kitchen faucet leak
* No repair will be made to the reverse osmosis filter since it's not hooked up due to the house having a whole house filter.
* They will repair the garage service door frame.
According to info I gathered from Mary though the seller's realtor, they were very pissed off because they wanted to have friends help move and they need time to move into their new house. I understand their side but we WOULD be paying mortgage for BOTH of those dates they would be staying and I believe it's very rude to offer us NOTHING per day when WE are doing THEM a favor and essentially letting them live in OUR house for 2 days! Not to mention the fact that, as our lawyer pointed out... if they trash the house with no sort of contingency ($5000 held back) we would be screwed.
As far as the mortgage contingency date, I didn't care if it was moved to the 9th (even though we did NOT verbally agree to shit) so long as Mark, our mortgage broker, didn't care.
We contacted Mark. I asked him who picked December 20th in the first place and asked why that date was on the contract. He told us that December 20th was picked because it was 45 days before closing and that the lender wouldn't process anything before 45 days because everything has to be fresh within 45 days or everything has to be redone. Okay... so it's clear... we NEEDED that date.
That concerned me greatly... if they needed their date and we needed our date, we were going to lose this house and since we've already paid for the inspection and the appraisal, so we'd be out money on this. The whole thing just pissed me off because December 20th WAS on the contact that they SIGNED!! Knowing shit like this could happen is why we hid the fact that we found a house from friends/family because I didn't want to have to deal with explaining that we had to look for another house now.
I immediately fired off an e-mail to my lawyer...
Here's what my lender told me earlier today...
"...the lender would prefer we not submit the file until 45 days prior to closing which is 12/16. We can have the full approval 3 days after that if all docs are in and good to go. You will be providing a commitment letter 40 days prior to closing which is way sooner than most transactions."
Just so we're clear... we want THIS house. When you draft that letter to the seller's attorney, please mention that we're willing to compromise.
If it requires bargaining with the post-closing possession.... $0 money... No money in escrow, etc. so be it.
Apparently, my lawyer either didn't get the e-mail or ignored my plea because our lawyer replied with...
* Mortgage Contingency date remain as originally stated in contract.
* Paid receipts will be provided at closing for replacement/repair or sump pump & furnace leak.
Now I had SERIOUS issues with this reply since I made it PERFECTLY clear that we were willing to bargain. His reply was cold and blunt. He didn't explain our reasons for being so adamant on Dec. 20th.
At this point I thought we were screwed. Keep in mind also that most of this happened while i was at work. I was pissed... I needed to make a phone call and I needed privacy... I went into my bosses office (he was on a business trip) and shut the door. I called Mary. I asked her to call the seller's realtor and explain everything. We weren't trying to be dicks... we HAD to have Dec. 20th. I told her that I gave my lawyer specific instructions that went ignored. I was trying to get her to get their realtor to 'backdoor' that information to the sellers.
She called back later informing us that the realtor said that the sellers were indeed pissed. She was able to calm Mr. "Seller" down... as I understand it, he is very high strung. She also made a few comments to Mary about how unreasonable Mr. "Seller" is.
The wait began... we didn't hear anything the rest of the day Thursday or Friday. In fact they made us wait the ENTIRE weekend.
At this point Mary was e-mailing us listings again. I figured that was a definite sign. We pissed away $600 and now we've got to start the entire process over again.
It wasn't until Tuesday the 23rd that we got a reply...
Attached is your letter of November 18, 2004 which I have signed and accepted on behalf of the seller.
FINALLY the saga was complete.
Back to Part X --- On to Part XII
With the contract signed, we had one week to get out of it and get our earnest money returned. So we hired a professional home inspector to inspect the house. We didn't know any home inspectors personally so we used the inspector Mary recommended (cough kickback cough) The earliest he was able to come was on Sunday, Nov 14th. His report would decide whether or not we were going to ultimately purchase this house.
I'm glad that it's customary that the buyers go along on the home inspection, because it's something I was GREATLY interested to tag along on.
We arrived at the house in the morning... I think it was 9am. Bill (the inspector) was already there but we had to wait a few minutes for Mary. When Mary finally arrived she knocked on the front door to learn that the Mrs. "Seller" and daughter were home. Mary expressed her disappointment that the sellers were home because it would hinder us being able to talk "privately". While we were upstairs the 2 of them kindly retreated to their family room downstairs to get out of our way... that was nice.
Bill was running around everyhwere with sensors and testing stuff. He tested every possible thing he could test.... he was running around so fast I just walked around looking at things. While we were talking to Mary, I asked her if she would asked Mrs. "Seller" if we could take some pictures of the house. I brought the camera in case they said yes. She gave us her approval... with that... I had a mission... to take as many pics as I couild because I knew that we wouldn't get inside the house again for 2 1/2 months! I took a good ninety something pics.
The inspection lasted a bit over 2 hours. Once Bill was done he sat at the kitchen table, pulled out a laptop & a printer and typed up a report. Once complete, he printed out the report right there in the dining room. The length of time this took makes me believe that he's got some sort of custom home inspection software and for a lot of the items I assume he was able to select options rather than type out everything... after all... the final report was almost 30 pages long!
In the report summary (2 pages) Bill noted the following issues...
* Sump Pump would not operate and needs replacing.
* Small Gas Leak at the pipe connection to the furnace.
* Kitchen Sink faucet leaks when turned on.
* No water comes out of the reverse osmosis filter faucet in the kitchen.
* Bottom right side of garage service door was rotted.
He gave us our copy of the report and from his laptop faxed a copy over to attorney's office. With that, we said our goodbyes to Bill and Mary and drove around the neighborhood a bit before heading home.
Back to Part IX --- On to Part XI
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I took this pic last weekend. After a light snow, Nicholas created "Frank" all by himself. He was kind enough to pose for a picture for me.
After that LARGE disappointment, we headed to the Cary house. I wasn't in a good mood. Unfortunately we were relying on Mapquest directions and we blew right past our turn. After pulling over, figuring out where we went wrong, we headed back to the turn and to the Cary house.
** THE LISTING **
Listing Price: $204,900
XXX XXXXXXXXXX
Cary, IL 60013
Bedrooms: 3
Baths: 2.5
Year Built: 1993
IMMACULATE HOME IN MOVE IN CONDITION! NEW CERAMIC FLOOR IN ENTRY, NEWER NEUTRAL BERBER IN LIVING ROOM, LIGHT OAK CABINETS IN KITCHEN, 1/2 BATH IN LOWER LEVEL + HUGE FAMILY ROOM LEAVES ROOM TO ADD A 4TH BEDROOM, BIG GARAGE IS INSULATED & DRYWALLED - OVER 27' DEEP FOR WORKSHOP OR STORAGE, LIGHT OAK DOORS & TRIM, MAINTENANCE FREE SIDING, FENCED YARD + WOODEN PLAYSET, WALK TO LAKE & BEACHES, TOO!
Other things noted in the flyer... Deck, Shed, and Lake Rights.
Living Rm: 17X17
Dining Rm: 10X10
Kitchen: 10X10
Family Rm: 25X14
MstBed Rm: 13X12
2nd Bed Rm: 11X10
3rd Bed Rm: 13X9
Style: BI-LEVEL
Type : RAISED RANCH
Lot Size: LESS THAN .25 ACRES
Mary told us that this house was just put on the market two days earlier. We were the first people to view it. It was so new that no pics were up on the MLS and it wasn't listed on Realtor.com yet. The house was priced to sell. Other comparable homes in the area sold for a bit more... but the sellers were already under contract for the new house they were purchasing so they were under a great deal of pressure from the seller of that house to sell their house quickly.
After we pulled into the driveway, my initial impression was "nice!" After opening the front door I realized that this is certainly a nicely kept home. I guess they weren't lying when they described it as "Move in condition".
The house is a raised ranch style. When you stand in the entry way you have a choice to go up a 1/2 flight of stairs to the living room/kitchen/bedrooms or down a 1/2 flight to get to the family room, laundry room and garage.
We went on to view the rest of the house. The more we looked the more 'right' this house seemed to be for us.
Once we viewed the entire house, we said our goodbyes to Mary and headed home. We needed some time to think....
Back to Part VI --- On to Part VIII
I liked it... the problem for me was that I wanted to see MANY more homes.
The pressure was on for this house. The new house the sellers were buying hit the market on 10/26/04, they were under contract on it by 11/02/04. They put their house on the market on the same day. We were the first people to see it on 11/4/04.
The seller's were already under contract with their new house and they needed to sell ASAP. Therefore they priced the house to sell. They were having a realtor's open house on Saturday and with it being priced so well and being in such good shape, it would certainly sell REAL soon.
While it met many of our requirements, it didn't meet them all. Here's the list from the Introduction....
What we are looking for...
Priced from $180,000 to $220,000 - $204,900
No Older than the Mid to Late 1980's - 1993
Move in Condition (or close) - YES
At least 3 bedrooms - 3 BEDROOMS
At least 2 bathrooms (with a Master Bathroom) - 2.5 BATHS
Separate Living & Family Rooms - YES
Decent sized Bedrooms - COULD BE LARGER
Decent sized Kitchen - COULD BE LARGER
Basement - For storage and my Office - A LOWER LEVEL, NOT REALLY A BASEMENT
Large Back Yard - YES
2 Car Garage - 2.5 CAR GARAGE
Nice area to live - YES
Low Crime Rate - YES
Great School System - YES
Near to Parks - YES
Near to Major Shopping areas - CRYSTAL LAKE SHOPPING DISTRICT 2.5 MILES AWAY
Pluses...
Fully Fenced in yard - YES
Deck - YES
Formal Dining Room - NO
Walk-in Closets - NO
Fireplace - NO
3 Season room - NO
Pool - NO
That weekend we hand wrote a "Pro's and Con's" list. There were 19 Pro's and only 6 Con's.
I would have a real hard time wiring up a house with a finished basement. It was well & septic and we have no experience with either.
But when I got honest with myself... I didn't think we'd find a house this nice, this close to work in our price range... Hell... it's 13 MILES closer than the Aspen house!. It would be stupid to pass it up.
Valerie and I finally agreed we would submit an offer on Monday.
Back to Part VII --- On to Part IX
The day was Monday November 8th. I arrived at work and began my day. At 9:30am we left to head to Mary's office in Libertyville. After waiting a few minutes for Mary to show up we headed into the office. We sat in a conference room and she went through the contract and filled in the blanks. The offer price on the contract was $190,000, the closing date was set to 01/31/05 and the mortgage contigency date was set to 12/20/04.
A few hours later came the negoation. We weren't going to get them to come down much. Getting the sellers to come down anything was just a bonus as far as I was concerned.
Mary suggested that we offer $190,000 with the contract. It was lower than I figured a first offer should be but she's the one who does this every day... I defered to her. My goal was to see if we could get the price down to $200,000.
It wasn't more than a couple hours later that we had our first counter offer... $201,900 with no Fridge or Washer & Dryer.
We countered with $193,000 and they returned a "final offer" of $199,900 with Fridge & Washer & Dryer.
With that, I called Valerie to confer. At 6:29pm we agreed to accept that price & they accepted our offer.
Later that night we had to initial the changes made to the contract. The house was ours. The hard part was done... or so we thought...
Back to Part VIII --- On to Part X
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