Life as homeowners

We closed yesterday in Charlotte. (On a side note, if I had to make that drive every day I would kill myself).

The attorney's office started late, the agent forgot/didn't bring the earnest deposit and Brad accidentally walked out with our signed packet. That meant we got on I-77 at Harris Boulevard and immediately got stuck in traffic, then had to crawl to exit 23 just to turn around and return the packet.

The idea of painting yesterday was completely shot.

I made it to the home improvement store at 8 p.m. to buy all the paints. The power and water was supposed to be turned on yesterday, but it appears only the power has. I called my dad just to be sure the water wasn't a pipe issue, since I'm a rookie in all this.

Be on the lookout! I plan to take 360-degree "before" photos of the entire house before we paint and flooring goes down.

Another surprise

We hoped for Friday. Our backup plan was Monday. Our actual plan is Tuesday.

We have about eight hours to paint the entire house so the flooring people can do their work. We've chosen our paint colors and figured out how much we'll need of each.

Brad recruited help from his family to help us get it done, and a few coworkers offered to help.

Here is our gameplan:

TUESDAY
- Close in Charlotte
- Home improvement store for paint, supplies, odor-blocking primer, new door locks, cement cleaner and a new garage door opener (I don't see why we have to buy a new garage opener just because the previous owner didn't leave the remotes. What a waste of a perfectly functioning device. They should design them to be reprogrammed rather than replaced).
- Paint upstairs, then apply primer to subfloors (to get rid of pet odors).
- Paint downstairs and clean cement (our home is on a cement slab, so we plan to clean the garage and living room floor to get rid of, yet again, the pet odors).

WEDNESDAY
- Change out door locks and garage opener.
- Flooring installed.

THURSDAY
- Rent moving truck.
- Load and unload (it's amazing how three little words seem so small, yet will be our bane. Brad is convinced we will break our washer and dryer trying to get them down the steps from our second-floor apartment. I say we can strap it to an appliance dolly and be fine).
- Brad watches the NBA Draft (only if the heavy lifting is done and the cable guys get out there in time to hook it up).

Closing day runneth

All the agents involved in the closing process probably want to take out restraining orders to keep me from harrassing them. The title search and insurance were due to the mortgage agent yesterday. They are late.

I can't do anything about the title search, but I can harrass our local insurance agent. She said she never received the appraisal information from the mortgage company. I immediately light a fire under the mortgage company.

Each side in this process insists they are staying on top of things, but why am I the middleman among them all?

Friday is now almost impossible for a closing date. I lost that precious weekend time and now I'm looking at eating into my vacation hours just to get the house up to speed. It could possibly get so close that our lease ends and we can't get into the house.

I'm trying not to stress out, but for a person that thrives on plans this situation reeks.

Closing day postponed?

Noon came and went with no real fanfare. The lenders still need the title policy and insurance details in order to send our mortgage to the final approval and underwriting. Then they can send the "packet" to the sellers. It looks like that will happen tomorrow.

It wasn't a cakewalk today, either. The mortgage people say they haven't heard from the insurance people. Both sides claim they've left messages for the other. Somehow I become the middleman relaying information just to get these two parties to get together. Even with insurance settled, the title is floating around somewhere. It may be "due" today, but no one knows where it really is.

Our agent says if they can just get the "packet" to HUD as soon as possible then they may be flexible. 24 hours flexible? Maybe not. We'll see.

Right now I've scratched painting off my list of things to do this weekend since it looks like we just lost my only weekend before the lease ends.

Closing day cometh

Apparently our agent has been working HUD as hard as I've been working the lender. After repeated phone calls to the Charlotte HUD office, he finally got an answer to our closing day question. If our mortgage company can send the "packet" to HUD by noon on Monday, June 18, then we can schedule our closing appointment for 1 p.m. on Friday, June 22.

What is a packet? I'm assuming the full tree's worth of paper I've heard in legends and campfire tales. The agent said the mortgage person would know what it meant. I e-mail our mortgage rep. They expect to have the appraisal on Friday, June 15, and the title search by Monday, June 18. There is a 24 hour turnaround on those two, so the earliest the mortgage company would be done with the mysterious "packet" would be Tuesday.

It looks like we may miss our mark. I've put in another email today to see whether, by some miracle, the title and/or appraisal were done early.

Until then, I think it's safe to assume we won't be closing on our target date. Instead we will probably close that following Monday, completely eliminating the only weekend available between now and our apartment lease end.

Rather than having the flooring installed on Monday or Tuesday, we may have to push it back a day or two to give me time to get the walls done. I really want to get the walls done first for two reasons: to prevent any 'oops' on our new flooring, and so we can get a layer of odor-killing primer on the subfloor to prevent the previous dog tenant from an unwelcome return.

Calling the city

I've never understood how people are supposed to take care of business when the normal world works business hours. Someone is going to have to adjust to get things done! I, for instance, had to call the city offices at work.

I call the number listed on the city Web site's "newcomers guide." It has an odd ring and I question whether I dialed the right number. I finally get a person who asks if I can hold. Two minutes. It rings a few times, then silence. Two minutes. It rings! Silence for another 2 minutes. They must be busy at 10:45 a.m. on a Tuesday, I tell myself. Another two minute silence.

Finally! A person! She never gives me her name (I love to know the name of the people I am talking business with).

I tell Anonymous that we are buying a house in Statesville and need to get connected. She asks for the address, then if I currently have an account with the city. Nope.

Here's the lowdown. We will have to come to the city offices in person with proof of ownership and a deposit. Great, yet another reason to miss work.

The deposit
To calculate the deposit, she takes the two highest months of utility bills for that address and averages them together. She says the highest power bills topped $200 in the winter months, and the water/sewer topped out at almost $70. In order to have our utilities connected, we will either have to fork over $500.30 in a deposit (which would be applied to our bills after 12 months of on-time payments), find a co-signer who currently lives in Statesville (co-workers for us, but honestly who would ask their coworker to co-sign?) or get a letter of credit from our current utility provider (but you have to show that you paid on time for 12 months).

My next question: How soon can they connect? Anonymous says one business day after we come in. Excellent, but we want to close on a Friday and paint that weekend. The next business day would be a Monday. That's where the proof of ownership comes in. Anonymous says they accept a purchase agreement, as long as it has our name and the house address on it.

Sold!

Now I have to talk to our utility company about a letter of credit...

Getting connected

Have you ever made a list of all the people and businesses that have your address? Beyond the idea that The Man is keeping tabs on you and sending you those ridiculous coupon books to waste space in your mailbox, I realize after being a serial mover that I have to keep track of all the people who need our new address.

So as I get mail this month, I organize it by whether I want them to keep track of me. The "yes" pile has our magazine subscriptions, utility bills, bank statements, and various charitable organizations. For each piece of mail we receive there are probably at least five online statements/bills. Being a good steward of the Earth, I sign up for any online billing I can to save paper (and the transportation costs of delivery). And so the list grew.

I looked at my list this weekend and felt satisfied I had covered everything. I was far from correct.

Of course I had a list for our apartment address, but we're about to buy a house. I need to get in touch with all the people that will make it run.

I am having a hard time finding anything I need on the Web. The sites refer me to phone numbers to call, but wouldn't it be much more convenient to just post the information online? I guess not.

My first call was to the city offices. Statesville handles its own water, sewer, trash and power, so I assumed this would be the place to start.

Bye bye escrow

The house is in need of carpet, and our agent recommended a flooring company he's worked with on investments. So on Thursday we met the agent and the flooring guy at our house to look at samples and take real measurements.

Our agent gave us a rough estimate of what the flooring guy thought it would cost to do both the needed carpet and wanted laminate. The repair escrow was set at $2,400 and the estimate put carpet at $1,200. We might as well do the laminate flooring before we move in and use the rest of the escrow money to cover at least part of the cost. The flooring guy said the laminate would add $1,600 to the cost. Brad and I talked it over and decided we could swing the additional $400.

We look through the samples and choose a light berber carpet for the entire house (well, except bathrooms and the laminate area). We also chose a laminate option that closely matched the current kitchen cabinets.

The flooring guy takes measurements and looks disturbed. When our agent gave him rough measurements, he says, the agent didn't tell him the living room area. That would take the cost of carpet from $1,200 to $1,900. (Brad said the omission was too "convenient" and wondered if it was a scam on the part of the agent and the flooring guy).

Lucky for us, I planned to add $1,000 to our repair escrow to pay for the laminate, so the new flooring quote was very close to what I thought it would cost in the first place. We OKd the flooring guy to order our carpet and laminate, then went on our merry way.

+++

I got a call from our agent the next day with bad news. He had never handled a foreclosure with a repair escrow, and he was mistaken. The repair escrow isn't just free cash attached to the house, it is the amount HUD says they will add to the purchase price to cover the needed repairs if you choose to get an FHA-insured loan with a special program designed for renovations.

Bottom line: there is no money for carpet and laminate.

The agent said we had two options. The first would be to go to the mortgage company and ask them about our FHA loan options, which would then tack on the repair escrow amount to our loan. I have been on the mortgage company to get this house to closing ASAP, and this is just the thing that will ruin our plans, I told the agent.

That's when he made a generous offer. Since the mistake was on his part, he offered to eat the cost of the repair escrow from his commission. He didn't know how "legal" that was, and he said he would talk to the closing lawyers. Such a donation to our cause would cut his commission in half.

Something just doesn't seem kosher about the donation. Part of me says since I threw such a hissy fit over the earnest deposit fiasco that he feels he has to prove his loyalty to us. The other part says this agent is in business to make money, not give it away, and this is just a ploy to keep us on board until closing when he can stick us with his buddy's flooring bill.

Success = Strategy

Being of limited funds and spending most of those limited funds buying our first home, the only way we can make this work is with proper planning and execution.

We met with the flooring man today to go through samples and find out exactly what it would cost us. The home comes with a repair escrow to cover the cost of replacing the carpet. This flooring guy is a business friend of our agent, who moonlights as a real estate investor.

The carpet alone would still leave about $800 in the escrow account, which would go toward our principal payment. But if we put up a little money we could get all the floors redone, which means new laminate flooring in the dining room and kitchen. What better time to replace the floors than before you move all your stuff in the space? We decided it was a worthwhile expense and gave the go-ahead to the floor man.

With an even tighter budget following that commitment, I sat down and created a plan for how to tackle the other improvements, then prioritized them as follows:

BEFORE MOVE-IN NEEDS

• carpet
• primer and paint
• moving truck
• new door locks and garage opener (The current keys can be used in any HUD foreclosure, so they aren't very secure).
• air filters for HVAC intakes
• utility connections

BEFORE MOVE-IN WANTS

• laminate floors

AFTER MOVE-IN NEEDS

• garage entry door casing (the prior dog tenant had trouble getting in so he tried to chew his way through the door jamb)
• bedroom door (one has a small hole in it)
• batteries for smoke detectors
• caulking for plumbing fixtures (the master bath tub needs sealing at floor)
• cement cleaner (for said previous dog tenant)

AFTER MOVE-IN WANTS

• garage organization
• living room furniture (couch and loveseat)
• grass seed/sprinkler/hose
• lawn mower
• new refrigerator and electric range
• new countertops
• tile for bathroom floors
• patio furniture
• grill
• pergola on patio
• beadboard and new vanities for bathrooms
• and as much more as imaginable

Knowing what we want and need, we can knock them out in increments. Obviously all the before-move needs will be budgeted for the next month. After that, we will take it in manageable chunks of time and money. For major purchases, we'll hold off a while until we can afford the investment.

I expect this list will last us about 18 months.

The mortgage process

Apparently there are three stages to a mortgage approval.

1. The application process. For us, this was handled by the woman who said we could close within 14-21 days. She was also very helpful and answered all my questions. She checked our credit history and entered our financial information (pay stubs, bank statements, etc.). After sending us an approval letter she passed us along to step 2.
2. The processing process. It's a confusing and hectic time where everyone is waiting on the person before them to get moving. In this step, our mortgage processor said they would need at least 21 days, successfully freaking me out. In this step they add the purchase agreement to the mix and order an appraisal of the property. We were then passed along to step 3.
3. The underwriting and closing process. I mentioned when we wanted to close to this guy and he didn't even shudder. I don't know what to think of that yet. He verified our information and asked for a copy of our earnest deposit check and the contact information for our homeowner's insurance agent. He promised to contact me on Monday with our progress. I think I like this guy...

Hopefully, this guy will be as successful as he sounds and we will close on June 22. According to our agent, it will depend primarily on how much motivation the HUD lawyers have. If I poke my people and he pokes those people, maybe we can poke our way to closing faster.

The second snag

In order to close before July, I check in with the loan processor every other day to see where we stand. Today I find out she never received the final purchase agreement, meaning she can't move the loan along. I faxed it two days ago! I even sent her an email saying I sent it on the same day!

I asked her how long she would need until we could close and she said at least 21 days from the day she gets the purchase agreement. Hold the phone! 21 days!?! When we applied for the loan we were told we could close in 14-21 days. Their response? They had no idea why the mortgage banker told us that.

Great.

I'm sick of dealing with a fax machine. I opted instead to scan all the documents and send them as email attachments. Better quality and instant verification of receipt. Why fax machines are still alive is beyond me.

I chose the mortgage company because of their offer and because of their attention to customer service. When I told the loan processor about the urgency of closing before July, she said if it were possible to close sooner she would make it happen.

I guess now we'll just wait and see. The clock is ticking and it's eating into our carpet and painting time.

HOPEFUL CLOSING DATE: June 22
CARPET, PAINT and MOVE DAYS AVAILABLE: 7 days

CURRENT EARLIEST POSSIBLE CLOSING DATE: June 27
CARPET, PAINT and MOVE DAYS AVAILABLE: 2 days

Photos from Measuring Day

Here are "before" photos: before we put in flooring, before we paint and before we move in our stuff.

ABOVE: The living room has a small foyer before the stairs. The living room is separated from the dining room only by an arch and a 1-foot jut in the wall on each side.

BELOW: The kitchen is in great shape! The cabinets already have moulding on the top (something I had planned on adding for extra zing). The microhood and range were still nearly new. The refrigerator, however, is a different story. The agent said the prior owner probably took the newer fridge and replaced it with this older one when they were kicked out. On my list of to-do projects is to remove the floating wood piece in the center of some of the doors and replace them with glass, then paint the cabinets white.

BELOW: The dining room has a great light fixture and great sunlight. There is also a French door leading out to the back yard. I'm not a fan of the vinyl flooring in the kitchen and dining room, so we are looking into using our allotted repair escrow for needed carpet AND wanted laminate flooring.

A second look

Since our agent recommended we get a termite inspection instead of a full home inspection, I looked up a few pest services on the Internet. Some of the more well-known national companies offer free pest inspections, then discounts if there is a problem. That sounds about like what we need: an inspection for no money.

I met the agent at our soon-to-be home equipped with a notebook and a measuring tape. I might as well take room and window measurements while I'm there. An hour and a half later, our inspector was still missing.

On foreclosures there is a sign-in sheet for everyone who goes in and out. The agent explained that the home inspector comes out once a month to be sure nothing has happened to the property while it is still without a new owner. There were also a few signatures from cleaners and agents showing the house. Then we saw that there had already been a termite treatment less than a month ago.

The agent and I were satisfied that we no longer needed the truant termite inspector, so we left. Nearly an hour later I received a call from the inspector. He had a legitimate excuse, and I didn't make a big fuss. I also didn't tell him we wouldn't need his services any longer. Hopefully he is busy enough that he won't notice.

As for the house itself, it was a lot bigger than I remembered on our first visit. After measuring each room, I made a mental floorplan of where each piece of furniture would go.

I also made a physical list of things to consider doing once we close the sale. The agent was very helpful as we walked through the house, pointing out things we could buy or do ourselves to make the place really shine.

My biggest concern is the evidence of a prior dog tenant. It chewed up the door to the garage, and the garage itself reeks of a dog that wasn't taken outside enough. There are also stains to the subfloor that are either from the dog or from a messy person. The agent suggested we get remnant paint from a home improvement store and paint the floor before carpet and laminate are installed. The paint, he said, will "seal in" the stains, keeping them from seeping up if something is spilled on the new carpet in the future.

A growing to-do list

Our mortgage broker told us we could close within 14-21 days. Our lease ends on June 30. The house needs new flooring, which is covered by a repair escrow built into the home purchase.

I'm mapping out June and realize we have to close, install flooring, paint AND move in before the end of the month. If everything goes smoothly, we would close on June 22, paint that weekend, bring in flooring early that next week and move in before our lease ends with time for a post-moveout inspection of our apartment.

If we can't close until the end of the month, I don't know what we'll do. I think we could move all our stuff into the garage, then try to get the work done in stages. It won't be comfortable, but we may have to do it.

The agent says he asked HUD about moving up the closing date, but hasn't received a reply. I asked our mortgage broker, who also hasn't responded yet.

We're supposed to receive our signed sales contract from HUD soon, and the agent said he'd send it to the mortgage broker.

Until then, HUD suggests we get a home inspector for our own protection. The agent suggested that the house was in such good shape and was so new that we probably could save our money and just get a pest inspection. HUD performed an in-depth property analysis, which was posted on the Internet, which is very similar to an inspection. Since HUD homes are sold 'as is,' an inspection won't help price negotiations.

Taking the agent's advice, I called a local pest service and scheduled an appointment for Monday morning. I plan to bring a tape measure and graphing paper to take measurements while he works.

I hope there are no surprises with the pest inspection. The agent said since the home is on a concrete slab, there shouldn't be a termite problem. I guess we'll know after tomorrow.