this just blows my mind...

As you may know, on Thursday of this past week Jim, the garmin, and myself set out on our fourth bonding experience of this past 9 months.  Basically, I could have had a child in the time it has taken Jim and I to find me a house...which I find oddly creepy and sad.  Either way, we sped through the East Valley, and Jim got very acquainted with Gilbert and the 202.  We saw 8 houses in a matter of 2.5 hours, and the day was quite a blur!

With Wanda being so unpredictable, it was time to find a true front runner that would make me feel awesome about cheating on her and not make my bank account wince.  We found that exact thing in a house on Orchid Lane (nice ring to it, right?).  Orchid was an identical floor plan to Kent, except flipped and it was on the cheaper side of the subdivision in terms of HOA fees since there was not access to a community pool.  This was all fine and dandy for me, since Orchid Lane had a pool, and Pebbletec at that!  

The main advantage of Orchid was the price (only $2,000 more than Wanda!) and the fact that it needed zero repairs or updates.  Orchid had beautiful, over-sized tile and upgraded shag carpeting that was in great shape; a kitchen island with wrap-around counters; a separate shower and tub in the master bathroom with double sinks; and an actual laundry room.  I had more storage and more kitchen, but I gave up a walk-in closet in the master and some living room space; but I did gain a pool and a newer house (built in 2002!).  The even better part about this house was we could close in about 50 days!  They had a contact fall through on 11/10, so basically someone had already done the leg-work for me, and I reaped the benefits.

Here are some pictures of Orchid from the listing:

view from the front door

view from the edge of the kitchen

kitchen

dining room view

this color is even more hideous in person, and it will be changed

back patio, you can semi-see the pool

Now, I know that every time I write something on this blog, the next day it changes, but that is part of the fun I guess =).  Our paperwork is still in on Wanda, and we are in a first come, first serve situation with 2 houses now...which is kind of exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time.  However, we do have a tentative closing date of January 25 and we are AWC-I with our contract right now, which means the seller has accepted it, and now the bank has to as well; Jim says we will know by Friday where we stand...

Fingers crossed...

things fall apart

...november 22, 2010...
This was the day we were supposed to open escrow.  This was the day that I had been waiting for for 7 months.  And it never happened...

I got a call from Jim as I was leaving work around 6:45pm on this night, and he wasn't calling with good news.  Jim explained that escrow did not open today, and that the bank had made some changes.  He said that the bank had decided to move up the closing date to December 6, and that this was just not possible to close in that amount of time with the type of loan I have.  Basically, the deal was null and void after the 6th, and I'm assuming renegotiations would take place or they would find a new buyer.  I was so disappointed, because I had no idea that they were allowed to do something like this so late in the game.  However, Jim pointed out there was no point to have an inspection and appraisal done and lose out on that money if the deal was not going to go through.

He advised me to start looking again.

I laughed, I cried, I was dumbfounded and angry all at the same time. All this work, by all these people, for nothing...

She was going to be a good house!

they want me to pay WHAT?

...mid September 2010...
After a few weeks of waiting, we finally heard a response from Webster.  Tom called me up and let me know that Chase and Webster were negotiating the offer, and that Webster was wanting more money than Chase was willing to give them.  It came down to the fact that Webster wanted me to pay about $2300 more out of pocket to make up for the money Chase would not give them.

Well, this was just ridiculous to me given that I had been waiting almost 5 months for this, and they refused to tack on the extra money to my purchase price.  Tom didn't sound optimistic that this would be resolved in a timely fashion, and I agreed the banks were being extremely difficult.  Now I was thinking about the tax credit, as well as the possibility that this was not going to work out; if the banks didn't come to an agreement, there would be no deal.

I called Jim and spoke to him about it as well; he told me that he was going to negotiate my out-of-pocket cost cost down from $2300 to $1250.  This was something I could stomach a little bit more...

The wait continued on, but I asked Jim to send me new listings for Gilbert, just to see what was out there.  I hadn't looked in over 5 months, and the market had continued to fall during that time.  Not kidding, there were 123 homes for sale in my price range; it was ridiculous. I had Jim check on one home, because based on the pictures it was the only one that was on the lower end of my price and looked awesome; it already had a few offers on it, so we decided to stick it out with Wanda...

breaking and entering

...april 29, 2010...
We received a signed purchase contract on Wanda on April 29, one day before the cut-off for the tax credit!  I was freaking out about this, because we had not gotten this "far" before, so it was a big deal that the deal was moving forward so quickly.

I told a handful of my coworkers about the purchase contract, and they were so excited for me (or they really wanted to get out of the office) that we piled in the car and drove over to the property.  Luckily, I have brave friends, and we were able to get into the house and walk around.  This proved to be great news, because I was able to take my mom and Drew there later in the day!

My mom loved the home as well, but firmly dubbed it "the hole" because of the work it needed haha, and we have fondly referred to Wanda as such ever since...

Things were looking up; and the mental planning began!

falling in love again

...part deux...
We pulled up to Wanda and I instantly loved the neighborhood.  My initial favorite thing about the home was that it was dual brick and stucco on the outside, and looked very different than your traditional Arizona home.

Wanda was a 1400 square foot home with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths.  She had a gigantic great room that led right into the kitchen--which had wrap-around counters!  The master bedroom was a good size and the walk-in closet was massive.  The back yard was big enough to fit a pool, and there were no homes behind me.

Now, those were the positives of Wanda, but she needed some serious work.  Wanda needed new flooring/carpet in the entire house; she needed new appliances in the kitchen and laundry room; she needed new toilets and possibly a new shower in the master bathroom; and she had a few cracks in her that were concerning...BUT, it was the perfect house and it had so much potential to be exactly what I wanted it to be.

As I stood inside Wanda with Jim and my father, I debated out loud with them if I would be offering on Wanda or Jasper.  Both homes were asking the same price, but Wanda needed way more work.  I told Jim I didn't think Wanda was worth $119,000 or even $110,000 with the repairs and updating she needed.  I thought about Jasper and its benefits, but I just couldn't pick it over Wanda.  Wanda had a lower HOA fee, was less than 15 minutes from my office and could truly become my home.

Jim and I decided to ultimately offer $105,000 on the property, knowing full well that it would be counter-offered.  He submitted the offer on April 26, 2010, and we prayed he would get a signed purchase contract by the end of the month, since the homebuyer tax credit was coming to an end...it was going to be an interesting week.

third time's a charm

...april 23, 2010...
I saw more of Jim in April than I did my own boyfriend...
With another 6 houses to look at on this day, my dad and I set out to meet up with Jim again.  This would be my third time venturing out into house hunting land, and I was ready to find my perfect home.  I had finally let go of Kent, and was ready to open my mind up to just about anything.  I had Jim extend my listings to include some older homes (built after 1995), and it proved to offer more of a selection.  All of the homes we looked at today were in Gilbert, which I had decided would be the best place for me as opposed to Chandler.

Unbeknown to Jim, there was one home I was particularly interested in seeing this day...but when Jim rattled off the various street names on the list for the day, my house didn't make the cut...

We saw more two-story homes this day, which was not ideally what I was looking for, but the prices were ridiculous.  We saw a house on Jasper, that was in the same neighborhood as Kent.  Jasper was a two-story, 1800 square foot home that was amazing.  It needed to be cleaned and re-carpeted, but other than that it had wood floors and spacious closets and an upgraded master bathroom.  We actually spoke to the owner, and she made me feel really good about the neighbors and the community itself.  It was definitely at the top of the list for the day at $119,000.

We were literally across the street in a different subdivision looking at a house on Spawn, when Jim got a phone call.  Now, I had not shared with him my desire to see the particular house, but when he got off the phone he asked if I would want to squeeze in one more home for the day.  When I asked him which property had come available, he said Wanda.  I, literally, squealed with delight and told him I had really wanted to see it based on the pictures...  We skipped the remaining two homes and went straight to Wanda...