Sunday, May 11, 2008
Things are going to change around here!
Well, I figured out how to allow another person to post to the blog, and who else would I invite to help me document life in uptown New Orleans but the person with whom I happily spend most of it? My girlfriend Becky is a most welcome addition to this publication, and I hope very much that you enjoy her writing as much as I do.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
The Great Plumbing Adventure
So I knew when I purchased the house that it had some problems. A couple of spots showed water damage, a clear sign that the roof was in need of repair, albeit minor. Inspections had revealed several other warts, including damaged ducting under the larger unit, a problem with the kitchen faucet in the same unit, some electrical issues that will be addressed at a later date, etc. Looming large among these problems was a bigger, stinkier problem.
The roof is an old asbestos slate roof. Becky's research indicates that the house dates back to before 1909, so I doubt the roof is the original. It is clearly as old as Methuseleh, but it seems to be holding up well for its age. Jean-Paul recommended Stokes Roofing, a local outfit he has used a number of times for a number of his properties. Mr. Stokes was wonderful, and had the repair work done in a matter of 2 days after my close. In fact, the day after he finished, New Orleans experienced one of the heaviest downpours I remember this spring. With the roof repaired, it was time to focus my attention on the problem that was actually causing me the most concern: the toilet in the rental unit.
The inspections had revealed that the toilet on the rental side had lost its drain. The pipe that was supposed to carry the flushed contents had broken loose from the piece where the toilet bolted to the floor. That piece, a collar over the drain pipe, is called the toilet flange, an in this case it was wide open to the crawlspace. This meant that anytime the toilet was flushed, raw sewerage was being dumped into the dirt underneath the house. I am not sure how long this state of affairs had existed while the previous owner was residing in that unit, but I can tell you that there were a lot of air fresheners in the closet.
So, not knowing too much about plumbing, I had called a couple of plumbers over to take a look. The first plumber glanced at the problem and immediately quoted pretty high (like multiple thousands of dollars). I am pretty sure he just didn't want to have anything to do with the mess. The second plumber that I called, on a recommendation from Jean-Paul, was Chris Montalbano of John Montalbano plumbing. Chris was full of information and not afraid to crawl around under the house. He told me that it looked like there was more damage than I had suspected, and he wouldn't know for sure what we were dealing with until he got a chance to dig up a few things under there. He gave me some advice about tracing out the pipes and getting some more information so that he would be able to "surgically strike" the problems on his next visit. I thanked him, and as he left I realized there would be some getting down and dirty for myself.
I picked up some coveralls, but before I actually got a chance to get too dirty, my friend Jack came by to see how things were going. Jack is in the midst of a much, much more intense remodel. He purchased a home right after the storm that had gotten some water damage. He gutted it to the studs, re-roofed it, levelled it, ran his plumbing and electricity, framed out rooms, and now has his bathroom tiled. He has a wealth of knowledge to share about all of the phases of the project he has been through, and he had the suggestion that we tear up the bathroom floor to get to the toilet drain. I have to say, that idea beat the crap out of crawling through it. He also suggested that it would be much, much cheaper for us to repair the pipes ourselves. Since he apparently had the expertise to help me with this project, I decided to opt for the "Do it yourself" solution.
Tearing up the floor was easy. First, we removed the toilet and set it on some old towels in the bathtub. That way, any leakage from the water in the tank actually went down a drain pipe (for the first time in who knows how long). A brittle piece of old, yellowing linoleum glued only at the edges came up in seconds, revealing a sheet of 3/4" plywood covering most of the bathroom floor. With a hammer and a device like a mini crowbar we pulled nails out of it until we could use real crowbars to get it out. We saw an old cast-iron pipe sticking out of the mud which is where the "flush" is suposed to go.
Seemed easy enough at that point. Home Depot has rubber "boots" that can join pipes together. Some PVC pipe and a boot and we could have this thing fixed in an hour or so. We acquired our parts and began the repair. Unfortunately, at some point during this process the pipe we were working with just fell over. Into the, um, mud. After some evaluation, which included some shovelling and clearing, we determined that we still needed to use a boot or two, but in different places and with more PVC. A long, sweaty, stinky day later, we had a pipe coming out of the floor which successfully connected into the sewer system, and the foundation was laid for the toiled to be reattached. Of course, since I plan to tile, the toilet is going to have to wait to actually be reinstalled. More later.
The roof is an old asbestos slate roof. Becky's research indicates that the house dates back to before 1909, so I doubt the roof is the original. It is clearly as old as Methuseleh, but it seems to be holding up well for its age. Jean-Paul recommended Stokes Roofing, a local outfit he has used a number of times for a number of his properties. Mr. Stokes was wonderful, and had the repair work done in a matter of 2 days after my close. In fact, the day after he finished, New Orleans experienced one of the heaviest downpours I remember this spring. With the roof repaired, it was time to focus my attention on the problem that was actually causing me the most concern: the toilet in the rental unit.
The inspections had revealed that the toilet on the rental side had lost its drain. The pipe that was supposed to carry the flushed contents had broken loose from the piece where the toilet bolted to the floor. That piece, a collar over the drain pipe, is called the toilet flange, an in this case it was wide open to the crawlspace. This meant that anytime the toilet was flushed, raw sewerage was being dumped into the dirt underneath the house. I am not sure how long this state of affairs had existed while the previous owner was residing in that unit, but I can tell you that there were a lot of air fresheners in the closet.
So, not knowing too much about plumbing, I had called a couple of plumbers over to take a look. The first plumber glanced at the problem and immediately quoted pretty high (like multiple thousands of dollars). I am pretty sure he just didn't want to have anything to do with the mess. The second plumber that I called, on a recommendation from Jean-Paul, was Chris Montalbano of John Montalbano plumbing. Chris was full of information and not afraid to crawl around under the house. He told me that it looked like there was more damage than I had suspected, and he wouldn't know for sure what we were dealing with until he got a chance to dig up a few things under there. He gave me some advice about tracing out the pipes and getting some more information so that he would be able to "surgically strike" the problems on his next visit. I thanked him, and as he left I realized there would be some getting down and dirty for myself.
I picked up some coveralls, but before I actually got a chance to get too dirty, my friend Jack came by to see how things were going. Jack is in the midst of a much, much more intense remodel. He purchased a home right after the storm that had gotten some water damage. He gutted it to the studs, re-roofed it, levelled it, ran his plumbing and electricity, framed out rooms, and now has his bathroom tiled. He has a wealth of knowledge to share about all of the phases of the project he has been through, and he had the suggestion that we tear up the bathroom floor to get to the toilet drain. I have to say, that idea beat the crap out of crawling through it. He also suggested that it would be much, much cheaper for us to repair the pipes ourselves. Since he apparently had the expertise to help me with this project, I decided to opt for the "Do it yourself" solution.
Tearing up the floor was easy. First, we removed the toilet and set it on some old towels in the bathtub. That way, any leakage from the water in the tank actually went down a drain pipe (for the first time in who knows how long). A brittle piece of old, yellowing linoleum glued only at the edges came up in seconds, revealing a sheet of 3/4" plywood covering most of the bathroom floor. With a hammer and a device like a mini crowbar we pulled nails out of it until we could use real crowbars to get it out. We saw an old cast-iron pipe sticking out of the mud which is where the "flush" is suposed to go.
Seemed easy enough at that point. Home Depot has rubber "boots" that can join pipes together. Some PVC pipe and a boot and we could have this thing fixed in an hour or so. We acquired our parts and began the repair. Unfortunately, at some point during this process the pipe we were working with just fell over. Into the, um, mud. After some evaluation, which included some shovelling and clearing, we determined that we still needed to use a boot or two, but in different places and with more PVC. A long, sweaty, stinky day later, we had a pipe coming out of the floor which successfully connected into the sewer system, and the foundation was laid for the toiled to be reattached. Of course, since I plan to tile, the toilet is going to have to wait to actually be reinstalled. More later.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
So what happened at the closing?
Well, it's been a really busy few days, and I don't expect that things will be slowing down anytime soon. I've got quite a few things to share, but overall things seem to be moving along very well.
On Wednesday of last week, I closed on the house. The scheduled plan was for me to meet Jean-Paul over at the house for a final walk-through at about 9 AM. Since I began the day too excited to sleep, when 9 AM finally rolled around I was ready to roll. In fact, I was able to take advantage of the morning before 9 by bringing Becky to work downtown and stopping for a cup of coffee with her on the way.
Jean-Paul met me at the property at 9 and we began the tour. There had been a little concern that the owner might not move out by the closing date, but those fears proved unfounded. The walk-through showed that she had, in fact, removed almost everything from the house and that it appeared ready for the myriad of improvement projects that had been tumbling around in my brain, or in conversations with Becky and my family and friends. The house seemed like it was in the same shape it had been in when I placed my offer, so I gave my approval and we were off to the title company.
We used Crescent Title, an organization Jean-Paul recommended from what seemed like a longstanding good relationship. He knew the folks over there by name and had nothing but good things to say about their service, competence, and efficiency. Based on my limited experience, I can only agree. The folks over there were very nice, even offering me cookies right out of the oven while we waited for 10 o'clock to arrive. They seemed to reciprocate Jean-Paul's goodwill, and one of the staff members showed me something I never hope to see again... a water bill for $42,000+ dollars. Yikes!
While I was in the waiting room, looking at a magazine for New Orleans homeowners, Doris (the seller's agent) arrived. She was a real sweetheart, as she had been during our previous encounters. She was not accompanied by the seller, but we had known that the seller might not be able to attend the closing, and Doris had power of attorney to sign and complete the sale. Since it appeared that all of the relevant parties were present, then, we moved to a conference room to begin the closing.
They sat Jean-Paul and myself on one side of the big table, with Doris on the other. Bob Bergeron, the attorney who handled the closing, sat at the head. He was very friendly as he quickly and efficiently handed me a stream of papers to sign and explained to me what each item was. About 5 signatures into the process, the seller showed up with a friend and the stream of documents received even more signatures. I thanked her again for the opportunity to purchase the home, and she reiterated again how much she had enjoyed living there, especially during Mardi Gras. The stream of papers to be signed slowed down and finally ended, the seller and I shook hands, and everyone wished me good luck, a wish I returned to the seller. I stood up from the table officially a homeowner. Then I sat down again and wrote out a couple of important checks they had forgotten to ask for during the signing process. Jean-Paul also wished me luck and gave me a nice gift as well.
I walked back to my car wanting to jump for joy. In my mind, I was picturing the scene from the movie "Major League" where Wesley Snipes figures out that he has not been cut. He maintains a straight face in front of all the other players, but sneaks outside to yell in triumph and perform a little dance of jubilation, and that's about how I felt. With a big folder of paperwork under my arm, I got in my car and headed for the office.
And that's how I became a homeowner.
On Wednesday of last week, I closed on the house. The scheduled plan was for me to meet Jean-Paul over at the house for a final walk-through at about 9 AM. Since I began the day too excited to sleep, when 9 AM finally rolled around I was ready to roll. In fact, I was able to take advantage of the morning before 9 by bringing Becky to work downtown and stopping for a cup of coffee with her on the way.
Jean-Paul met me at the property at 9 and we began the tour. There had been a little concern that the owner might not move out by the closing date, but those fears proved unfounded. The walk-through showed that she had, in fact, removed almost everything from the house and that it appeared ready for the myriad of improvement projects that had been tumbling around in my brain, or in conversations with Becky and my family and friends. The house seemed like it was in the same shape it had been in when I placed my offer, so I gave my approval and we were off to the title company.
We used Crescent Title, an organization Jean-Paul recommended from what seemed like a longstanding good relationship. He knew the folks over there by name and had nothing but good things to say about their service, competence, and efficiency. Based on my limited experience, I can only agree. The folks over there were very nice, even offering me cookies right out of the oven while we waited for 10 o'clock to arrive. They seemed to reciprocate Jean-Paul's goodwill, and one of the staff members showed me something I never hope to see again... a water bill for $42,000+ dollars. Yikes!
While I was in the waiting room, looking at a magazine for New Orleans homeowners, Doris (the seller's agent) arrived. She was a real sweetheart, as she had been during our previous encounters. She was not accompanied by the seller, but we had known that the seller might not be able to attend the closing, and Doris had power of attorney to sign and complete the sale. Since it appeared that all of the relevant parties were present, then, we moved to a conference room to begin the closing.
They sat Jean-Paul and myself on one side of the big table, with Doris on the other. Bob Bergeron, the attorney who handled the closing, sat at the head. He was very friendly as he quickly and efficiently handed me a stream of papers to sign and explained to me what each item was. About 5 signatures into the process, the seller showed up with a friend and the stream of documents received even more signatures. I thanked her again for the opportunity to purchase the home, and she reiterated again how much she had enjoyed living there, especially during Mardi Gras. The stream of papers to be signed slowed down and finally ended, the seller and I shook hands, and everyone wished me good luck, a wish I returned to the seller. I stood up from the table officially a homeowner. Then I sat down again and wrote out a couple of important checks they had forgotten to ask for during the signing process. Jean-Paul also wished me luck and gave me a nice gift as well.
I walked back to my car wanting to jump for joy. In my mind, I was picturing the scene from the movie "Major League" where Wesley Snipes figures out that he has not been cut. He maintains a straight face in front of all the other players, but sneaks outside to yell in triumph and perform a little dance of jubilation, and that's about how I felt. With a big folder of paperwork under my arm, I got in my car and headed for the office.
And that's how I became a homeowner.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Closing Day
Well, it's about 4:45 AM on Closing Day, and in 5 or 6 hours, barring any unforeseen catastrophe, I am going to be a homeowner. I woke up about an hour ago, and after much tossing and turning I realized that I am probably not going to be getting back to sleep. During this insomniac period, I have had a chance to reflect on the series of events that has brought me to this point. Since I somehow have it in my mind that this blog might provide some useful information for potential home buyers, I thought I might take advantage of this time to share that information.
Am I ready to buy?
I guess the first step was actually deciding whether or not I was ready or even if I really wanted to buy a home. There were a lot of factors that affected that decision, like income, debt, real-estate prices in an area where I might like to live, do I want to be responsible for my own yard, building upkeep, etc. Fortunately, there are a bunch of "calculators" on the Internet that helped me get some perspective on this. Just Google "rent or buy" and you'll see what I am talking about. I think one of the biggest factors in this decision was that I started to get frustrated with the fact that paying rent is really just like buying a house for someone else that I get to live in for a short while. I've been in New Orleans almost 10 years, with an average rent of maybe $650 a month. That's $7800 a year, $78000 total dollars that all went to paying for someone else's property. And improving the places where I lived just didn't make much sense if I didn't own them, although I thought of any number of constructive projects.
What's it going to cost (and how much can I afford)?
Knowing that I wanted to buy didn't really get me all the way there. I started surfing real estate websites like some people surf, uh, sports websites. Having tried quite a few, I ended up deciding that the Latter and Blum search engine is a little better than the rest. I was able to narrow down my search pretty well using their search form, and I found a number of houses that, according to the "loan calculator," seemed well within my price range. So I called a mortgage company to find out how much money, based on my income, debt, and credit history, that I could borrow. Along with letting me know a total amount that I could borrow, he lender was also able to help me estimate what my monthly payments might be on a given amount, and that was a real eye-opener. Finding out just how much property taxes and insurance add to the monthly note made me back off for a while, but finally, armed with the knowledge of how much I could realistically spend, I charged boldly forward with my house-hunting.
I quickly discovered that New Orleans property is expensive. In fact, it seemed for a long time as though the only properties I could afford were either in need of complete renovation or located in pretty bad areas (and by bad I don't mean "too far from the grocery store"). A friend of mine who has purchased a couple of homes in the area mentioned that he got started by purchasing a duplex and renting out one side while he lived in the other. As I started to do the math (House Note - Rent paid by my tenant=more affordable) I began to realize that this was really going to be the best way for me to obtain the kind of property I wanted. My search began to focus more and more on "doubles."
I found a house I really like! Now what?
Well, since I had been searching online for my own house I thought I might not need a real-estate agent. I thought I might be able to finagle a lower price by cutting out the middle man, as it were. Fortunately I was quickly disabused of that naive notion. My real estate agent, Jean-Paul Villere, ended up being crucial to the process. He was introduced to me by my girlfriend, and I would recommend him to anyone. He and his wife have purchased and renovated a number of homes, and his experience was so helpful I am pretty sure I would not have gotten to this point without him. I also know I would never even think about cutting out this particular middle man (a real estate agent) again.
So, once I found some houses that interested me, I emailed him to find out if he had any additional information on the properties. In some cases, he had seen or shown the property before and could give me a frank evaluation. In others, he gave an opinion of the asking price based on square footage and location. Using this information, we finally got down to a list of properties in my price range that I wanted to actually see. At that point, I also wanted the expertise of a couple of people very familiar with home buying to help me out, so on a day when my parents were visiting, we scheduled 4 home viewings.
Most of the homes were, in our opinion, overpriced for the amount of work they required to become livable/rentable. One of the homes was in excellent condition, but unfortunately the location was a little scary. The neighborhood, while improving, still had some pretty obvious criminal elements that ended up scaring me away.
We tried this once or twice more, but none of the houses we saw made me want to make the giant commitment of home ownership (which was sad, really, given that I really, really wanted to buy a house). It got to where I knew almost all of the homes that were available and why they weren't really right for me, so Jean-Paul was emailing me new listings that met my criteria as they came on the market. That turned out to be the ticket, as the house I ended up making an offer on came on the market right at the end of a visit from Mom. She and Becky drove by and told me it was worth a look, so we scheduled with Jean-Paul to see it that afternoon. While it needed some work, the price was pretty good for the location and I really liked the layout. It was obvious that this home was going to work if I could get it for the right price. Now it was time to make an offer.
Making the offer
I really had only the vaguest idea of what was to happen next. Again, thank goodness for my real estate agent. Becky and I met with him that evening and he explained the next few steps even as he prepared the paperwork. We used a state-issued contract to make the offer. Basically, the offer is a legal document that says "I will by this house at $xxx. If you agree, I will have ten days to have some experts look at it and tell me all the things that are wrong with it. At that point, I might ask for a lower price or for you to fix some things, to which you can agree, disagree, or offer some compromise. Depending on your response, I can accept it or call the whole thing off. If either one of us calls it off for no reason after that point, that person might get sued." If the owner agrees, and signs the offer, then I have to give them a deposit and the house is "under contract," basically, the accepted offer becomes a legally binding document and we both have to follow what it says. Again, it was great to have Jean-Paul there as he suggested adding things like "The washer and dryer come with the house, the Air Conditioners come with the house, etc." Also, he suggested not giving them too much time to think about it, so the offer expired the next day.
They accepted the offer! What now?
The seller and her agent had a couple of minor changes they wanted to make to the offer before they accepted. The price I had offered was OK, but they wanted to make sure we were both clear on how some things were going to work during the 10 days I had to have my expert inspectors look at the house. So they "counter-offered," basically taking the same document I had sent over, marking some changes on it, and signing it. Once I signed again to approve their changes, we had the beginnings of a deal! Now begins a really busy couple of weeks.
Now it was time to line up the inspectors. Jean-Paul again helped to guide me through this process. We had a plumber come to inspect the drains, an exterminator to look for evidence of termites, and a general home inspector who pretty much looked at everything else. The total cost of the inspectors was about $750, which is paid straight out of pocket (it's not involved with the loan financing or anything). I also lined up a roofer to give me an estimate as I knew there were some minor problems with the roof.
In the meantime, I informed my lender that I had made an offer and it had been accepted. My
lender, by the way, is Sunny Shannon at Eustis Mortgage, and she was great! She asked me for a whole lot of documentation on my financial status, including bank statements, stock information, credit card statements, paycheck stubs, 401K information, car loan statements, estimates on my property value, etc. She plugged in all that info, pulled my credit report, and then watched for the best interest rate she could lock in. She called me one morning and said "Rates are low, let's get this locked in" and boom, we were ready.
Also during this period, I was calling different folks about home owner's insurance. After checking around, I finally decided to go with State Farm. They were able to offer me significant coverage, and they are the company my family has always used. The people there were very helpful, and we got the policy application together in plenty of time.
Finally, the title company, Crescent title, was on top of this transaction from the get-go. Jean-Paul gave them all of the appropriate information and they were off and running. They sent me a sample closing document a couple of days ago to let me know what kind of money I would need at closing, and that brings us to here.
So now I am just waiting to do the final walk-through at 9, then go sign the paperwork at 10 and get the keys to my new house. Wish me luck.
Am I ready to buy?
I guess the first step was actually deciding whether or not I was ready or even if I really wanted to buy a home. There were a lot of factors that affected that decision, like income, debt, real-estate prices in an area where I might like to live, do I want to be responsible for my own yard, building upkeep, etc. Fortunately, there are a bunch of "calculators" on the Internet that helped me get some perspective on this. Just Google "rent or buy" and you'll see what I am talking about. I think one of the biggest factors in this decision was that I started to get frustrated with the fact that paying rent is really just like buying a house for someone else that I get to live in for a short while. I've been in New Orleans almost 10 years, with an average rent of maybe $650 a month. That's $7800 a year, $78000 total dollars that all went to paying for someone else's property. And improving the places where I lived just didn't make much sense if I didn't own them, although I thought of any number of constructive projects.
What's it going to cost (and how much can I afford)?
Knowing that I wanted to buy didn't really get me all the way there. I started surfing real estate websites like some people surf, uh, sports websites. Having tried quite a few, I ended up deciding that the Latter and Blum search engine is a little better than the rest. I was able to narrow down my search pretty well using their search form, and I found a number of houses that, according to the "loan calculator," seemed well within my price range. So I called a mortgage company to find out how much money, based on my income, debt, and credit history, that I could borrow. Along with letting me know a total amount that I could borrow, he lender was also able to help me estimate what my monthly payments might be on a given amount, and that was a real eye-opener. Finding out just how much property taxes and insurance add to the monthly note made me back off for a while, but finally, armed with the knowledge of how much I could realistically spend, I charged boldly forward with my house-hunting.
I quickly discovered that New Orleans property is expensive. In fact, it seemed for a long time as though the only properties I could afford were either in need of complete renovation or located in pretty bad areas (and by bad I don't mean "too far from the grocery store"). A friend of mine who has purchased a couple of homes in the area mentioned that he got started by purchasing a duplex and renting out one side while he lived in the other. As I started to do the math (House Note - Rent paid by my tenant=more affordable) I began to realize that this was really going to be the best way for me to obtain the kind of property I wanted. My search began to focus more and more on "doubles."
I found a house I really like! Now what?
Well, since I had been searching online for my own house I thought I might not need a real-estate agent. I thought I might be able to finagle a lower price by cutting out the middle man, as it were. Fortunately I was quickly disabused of that naive notion. My real estate agent, Jean-Paul Villere, ended up being crucial to the process. He was introduced to me by my girlfriend, and I would recommend him to anyone. He and his wife have purchased and renovated a number of homes, and his experience was so helpful I am pretty sure I would not have gotten to this point without him. I also know I would never even think about cutting out this particular middle man (a real estate agent) again.
So, once I found some houses that interested me, I emailed him to find out if he had any additional information on the properties. In some cases, he had seen or shown the property before and could give me a frank evaluation. In others, he gave an opinion of the asking price based on square footage and location. Using this information, we finally got down to a list of properties in my price range that I wanted to actually see. At that point, I also wanted the expertise of a couple of people very familiar with home buying to help me out, so on a day when my parents were visiting, we scheduled 4 home viewings.
Most of the homes were, in our opinion, overpriced for the amount of work they required to become livable/rentable. One of the homes was in excellent condition, but unfortunately the location was a little scary. The neighborhood, while improving, still had some pretty obvious criminal elements that ended up scaring me away.
We tried this once or twice more, but none of the houses we saw made me want to make the giant commitment of home ownership (which was sad, really, given that I really, really wanted to buy a house). It got to where I knew almost all of the homes that were available and why they weren't really right for me, so Jean-Paul was emailing me new listings that met my criteria as they came on the market. That turned out to be the ticket, as the house I ended up making an offer on came on the market right at the end of a visit from Mom. She and Becky drove by and told me it was worth a look, so we scheduled with Jean-Paul to see it that afternoon. While it needed some work, the price was pretty good for the location and I really liked the layout. It was obvious that this home was going to work if I could get it for the right price. Now it was time to make an offer.
Making the offer
I really had only the vaguest idea of what was to happen next. Again, thank goodness for my real estate agent. Becky and I met with him that evening and he explained the next few steps even as he prepared the paperwork. We used a state-issued contract to make the offer. Basically, the offer is a legal document that says "I will by this house at $xxx. If you agree, I will have ten days to have some experts look at it and tell me all the things that are wrong with it. At that point, I might ask for a lower price or for you to fix some things, to which you can agree, disagree, or offer some compromise. Depending on your response, I can accept it or call the whole thing off. If either one of us calls it off for no reason after that point, that person might get sued." If the owner agrees, and signs the offer, then I have to give them a deposit and the house is "under contract," basically, the accepted offer becomes a legally binding document and we both have to follow what it says. Again, it was great to have Jean-Paul there as he suggested adding things like "The washer and dryer come with the house, the Air Conditioners come with the house, etc." Also, he suggested not giving them too much time to think about it, so the offer expired the next day.
They accepted the offer! What now?
The seller and her agent had a couple of minor changes they wanted to make to the offer before they accepted. The price I had offered was OK, but they wanted to make sure we were both clear on how some things were going to work during the 10 days I had to have my expert inspectors look at the house. So they "counter-offered," basically taking the same document I had sent over, marking some changes on it, and signing it. Once I signed again to approve their changes, we had the beginnings of a deal! Now begins a really busy couple of weeks.
Now it was time to line up the inspectors. Jean-Paul again helped to guide me through this process. We had a plumber come to inspect the drains, an exterminator to look for evidence of termites, and a general home inspector who pretty much looked at everything else. The total cost of the inspectors was about $750, which is paid straight out of pocket (it's not involved with the loan financing or anything). I also lined up a roofer to give me an estimate as I knew there were some minor problems with the roof.
In the meantime, I informed my lender that I had made an offer and it had been accepted. My
lender, by the way, is Sunny Shannon at Eustis Mortgage, and she was great! She asked me for a whole lot of documentation on my financial status, including bank statements, stock information, credit card statements, paycheck stubs, 401K information, car loan statements, estimates on my property value, etc. She plugged in all that info, pulled my credit report, and then watched for the best interest rate she could lock in. She called me one morning and said "Rates are low, let's get this locked in" and boom, we were ready.
Also during this period, I was calling different folks about home owner's insurance. After checking around, I finally decided to go with State Farm. They were able to offer me significant coverage, and they are the company my family has always used. The people there were very helpful, and we got the policy application together in plenty of time.
Finally, the title company, Crescent title, was on top of this transaction from the get-go. Jean-Paul gave them all of the appropriate information and they were off and running. They sent me a sample closing document a couple of days ago to let me know what kind of money I would need at closing, and that brings us to here.
So now I am just waiting to do the final walk-through at 9, then go sign the paperwork at 10 and get the keys to my new house. Wish me luck.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Monday
Here we are on Monday the 28th of April, with my closing two days away. I got a call from Riverlake Properties (my current landlord) letting me know that my Craigslist campaign has been successful, and someone signed a lease for this apartment to begin on June the 1st. That is a great weight lifted, but it remains to be seen whether they will allow me to apply the "last month's rent" that I paid when I moved in. I hope that they will, I have been a pretty good tenant and I feel that my efforts to rent the apartment were pretty successful.
I will miss this place, but embarking upon the course of home ownership just seems to hold too many advantaged over renting for me to stay here. Plus, my new house is in the area and much bigger. Still, I will miss this location during Mardi Gras, grilling on the balcony to the sound of the parades less than a block away...
So, Zero Hour is approaching. I am mere days away from owning property, and the process of purchase has been a very informative one. Somehow, I had managed to get this far in life without really understanding a whole lot of what goes on during the purchase of a home. I expect that the process of putting the house in order is going to be even more enlightening, and I am looking forward to it with equal parts of anxiety and enthusiasm. In the meantime, I continue to ensure that things like insurance and taxes are all coming together the way that I expected they would. Here are a few higher resolution pictures of the house than the first batch.
I will miss this place, but embarking upon the course of home ownership just seems to hold too many advantaged over renting for me to stay here. Plus, my new house is in the area and much bigger. Still, I will miss this location during Mardi Gras, grilling on the balcony to the sound of the parades less than a block away...
So, Zero Hour is approaching. I am mere days away from owning property, and the process of purchase has been a very informative one. Somehow, I had managed to get this far in life without really understanding a whole lot of what goes on during the purchase of a home. I expect that the process of putting the house in order is going to be even more enlightening, and I am looking forward to it with equal parts of anxiety and enthusiasm. In the meantime, I continue to ensure that things like insurance and taxes are all coming together the way that I expected they would. Here are a few higher resolution pictures of the house than the first batch.
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