| Our house finally closed in Lancaster. The original closing date was May 5th- a 45 day escrow. It ended up an 89 day escrow! At the very end ( a few days ago) the lender, knowing how desperate we are, added points to the buyers loan. The buyers refused to pay it and said they would walk away from the whole deal if they had to pay it. It was $6,000. So we paid the 6 grand. Money we really needed. The alternative was drop them. In our situation, that would cause more negative than than losing $6,000. So we now have enough to buy a new house with nothing left over to pay off anything else. So frustrating. We are lucky we walked with what we did. From what I was able to get out of the people involved and piece together -the buyers were asking the bank for 50 grand more than we were selling the house for. They told their lender it was for repairs. Our house was perfect. Anything more than touch up paint was unnecessary. The buyers appraiser also appraised the house for $500,000. We had it up for $450,000. Houses comparable to ours were selling for $430,000. And that was after 6 months or more on the market and price reductions. There is no way an honest appraiser would have put it at $500. So at the supposed close of escrow (May 5th) we started hearing "a couple more days". If I hear that phrase again, I swear I'll throw up! Towards the end of the 89 days, about the last 3 weeks, each day brought a new definition to the words should, today, probably, tomorrow and that's all we need. Each day 'they' needed another form to be faxed. Escrow was our only friend. Our file sat at the lenders office for weeks. It will forever be a mystery- who is married to who (with different last names of course), who is sleeping with who, who is paying who off..... It was a dishonest transaction from the beginning and we got sucked into it and snaked out of $6,000! Our Realtor, we found out a few weeks ago, is working under his conditional Realtor license. He's not even a real Realtor!!! So investigate your Realtor before you settle on one. Or better yet, don't sell or buy- RENT!!! ha ha We aren't sure if our Realtor is getting a cut of this extra money or not. I'm leaning towards not. I think it's because he's so new in the game that he didn't pick up on things right away. I think it's because he's a pompous ass who doesn't admit his mistakes that he didn't let us know things were dishonest on the other side- once he finally figured it out, that he didn't return our calls unless it benefited him, that he told so many lies to the first house we were buying they dropped us and kept our $1000 deposit, that he kept telling us what we wanted to hear so we kept telling our kids....... UGH! I finally stopped dealing with our Realtor and only talked with the people making things happen (or not happen). Our Realtor is Robert (Rob) Talbot from Coldwell Banker. Do not use him or Coldwell Banker in Lancaster. His broker, who was supposed to be overlooking his files the entire time since he's still conditional, had no clue what was going on and just stuck up for him. What a nightmare the whole transaction was! We are in escrow on a second home in a modular home park in Templeton. Templeton is between Paso Robles and Atascadero. It's right off of the freeway and 20 minutes closer than we are now to Chris' work. It's a great park- all the homes are custom modulars. Ours is 1800 sq feet and perfect. We're very excited. The only bummer is we can't keep Maggie. They only let you have dogs 20 pounds or less. Those of you who know Mags know she is the best dog. We're so upset about it. Ally burst into tears when she found out she wasn't going to be able to go with who we thought. She wants to make sure we will still get to see Maggie. We will always pay for her food, grooming, and other expenses. So if you are interested...... We just weighed everything out. Living in this home will allow us to have a smaller mortgage and not be so strapped. We can get settled in to our new life here. Templeton is very small- about 3,000 people and the elementary school is just down the street. It's going to be great. Chris is loving his new store. He's getting a lot of positive feedback already. He'll be promoted to director soon. The kids are good. Today is Ally's last day of school. She'll be going to her Mom's in a few days- 6 to be exact, and will be there for four weeks before coming home for a week, then she'll go back for four more, then soccer and school starts. Braden is loving his karate class. He's picked up quick and fits right in. He'll be playing soccer this season also. I'm coaching his and Ally's teams. Chirs gets home so early now so he'll be asst. coach. It's going to be fun. I can't wait. Ian is doing really well- growing fast. Not walking yet. Well he walk scoots. You know how monkeys will use one foot and one shin/knee to scoot? That's what he does. He is coming up with new language almost daily. We're understanding some of it. : ) We are grateful to be living where we have dreamed of getting to raise our kids. We're very lucky. I believe everything happens for a reason. Yes we did lose 6 grand, but I probably would have been sad not paying our credit card bill each month. So it just all works out fine.
Take care, We don't have our camera/computer hook ups so I won't be able to send pictures until we get moved in to our new house. And that is 'supposed' to close June 30th. ha ha ha |