Closing a Chapter

Sorry I haven't gotten to write on the blog since I got back from my trip.  I'm super swamped with work, so hopefully I can get a few recaps in here over the weekend.  In the meantime, I wanted to share a quick update that happened while I was out of town.

On Wednesday we closed the sale of the house in Maryland.  It didn't really have as much impact as I thought it would have, but maybe that was because I was not at home and busy at the conference.

Today I am sending off the payment to our realtor (at least the little we owe).

It is really done.

No more HOA payments or frustrating emails to my ex about taking care of things.  No more dealing with the bank.

Completely done and a chapter officially closed.

There are a few last things between my ex and I that we are dealing with.  His portion of the payment to the realtor and whatever happened to my portion of the tax return from the house.  But that will wrap up pretty quickly.

It really does feel like a huge weight is off my shoulders... and I no longer have to deal with that extra stress.

Now, let the countdown begin until I can purchase a house again - two years.

596 Days

596 Days.

1 year, 7 months and 18 days.

This is the amount of time since my ex and I split up.  596 days of dealing with the split and the house we own jointly.  It has been trying and exhausting process and a huge emotional weight on my shoulders.

I posted on June 8th that the bank finally accepted the offer we had on the house.  After being on the market since October.  I knew that the short sale process would be lengthy... and this certainly was.  Dealing with the bank was frustrating and having to coordinate signing document after document after document with my ex took forever.  Having to continue to communicate with my ex when I really didn't want to made it difficult to move on for a long time.

Yesterday I received the settlement papers from the title attorney to sign and FedEx back to them.  My attorney said that because the offer is a cash offer, we will close on the house within 48 hours after they receive the signed documents from my ex and I.

48 hours.

Later this morning I will be dropping off this lovely package in the FedEx box with the signed deed to my house.

By this time next week, I could be officially closed on my house.  The amount of weight lifted off my shoulders is tremendous.  I can't even describe it.

The clouds parted...

...and the sun shined down on me today.

You guys...

The bank accepted the offer on my house!!

THE. BANK. ACCEPTED. THE. OFFER. ON. MY. HOUSE!!!!!!

I'm a little bit in shock that this actually happened. I wanted to cry from relief in my office.

This has been a really long process - since October - with its own shares of ups and downs.

There are still details to work out and the actually closing date, but this is the biggest news that I've been waiting to hear.

Happy Friday indeed.

House Update

It's been a long time since I've written an update about the house.  Why?  Because there has been barely any progress. 

I'm going to update in bullet points to try to give you the best understanding of what this process has been like.

1. October - put house on the market
2. November - send offer to bank
3. Bank declined offer, said they wanted $14K more
4. We appeal the appraisal price and provide comps from the neighborhood that are well below the offer price
5. Bank asks for more comps
6. Send additional comps
7. Bank rejects our request and stands at their $14K increase
8. Go back to buyer with bank's decision
9. Buyer says "no way, not worth more than the offer", sends MORE comps to the bank
10. Bank rejects their request - stands at $14K more
11. My title attorney says he hasn't heard from the bank in over a week - also happening with 3 other clients he's dealing with.
12. Title attorney is now trying to see if the bank would accept their $14K more price WITH $5K in credit to the buyer.  If they accept, my realtor will go back to the buyers with that.

So that's where we are today.  Waiting to see what the bank will say.  Apparently, my title attorney said that several of his clients working with my same bank are in the same situation.  The houses were over appraised and the bank is not bending on any of their prices.

This is not good.  It means we will most likely have to go back on the market at the banks price.  And NO ONE is going to buy my house at that price right now. 

So I'm stuck right now.  If the bank refuses and the buyer backs out, then we are back to square one.  That's going to mean some difficult decisions.  I can't continue to manage the house unattended from halfway across the country.  It's going to mean we either walk away from the house and foreclose, or I suck it up and rent it out with my ex.  Neither of which are good options and the renting (for me, at least) is even worse.

Impatiently waiting

This month is turning out to be one of the longest months of my life.  I feel like I am just waiting for things to happen... waiting for some sort of resolution with the house.

I don't exactly pride myself on being the most patient of people, but I have been trying my hardest.  It's just so difficult to sit and wait when there are so many things up in the air for me right now.

Hopefully I won't have to wait much longer and I'll get some sort of update soon.  Last week, we found out the bank approved us for the short sale but they wanted $14K more than the offer was for.  The attorney is now appealing the appraisal in hopes of getting to a number that we can actually sell this house for.

I think I may get an update this week.

I'm still praying that things will work themselves out with this, because the thought of having to start all of is just unbearable.

House Update - Sort of

Well, it's officially 5 weeks out from the proposed closing date for the offer on the house.  And still, we haven't heard anything.  While I was waiting at the airport for my flight out to San Diego, I received an email from the attorney saying that the bank still needed two documents to complete our review and approval.  THEN, if they approve our request, they will review the offer.

The two documents that were missing were updated materials from the ex (come on) and a letter explaining some business that is tied to the address.  A company we do not know about, know who started, know who to contact about, and know how to dispute.  So hopefully, the letter that the ex wrote explaining that is good enough for the bank.

I checked with the attorney yesterday and he received the documents he needed but he hadn't heard anything back from the bank.

So, yeah.... 5 weeks.  Fingers and toes crossed that I hear something soon.  Something GOOD soon.

A return surprise

I know I mentioned previously that I have most of my belongings safely stored in a POD storage unit in my parking lot.  It was holding up just fine there, but I knew I would have to move it eventually.  I guess I was just waiting to hear about the house before I had to move it.

Apparently, a neighbor of mine had a different idea.

I received a call from my realtor while I was driving home yesterday.  He said a neighbor called him (since his number is the only sale sign out from) to tell me that I was "fined" for my storage unit.  Thankful enough that my house wasn't broken into (which was my first concern), I was just angry.  I knew that my HOA does not make enough visits that they would've seen it.  So it HAD to have been a neighbor calling to complain.

Of course, when I finally got home, the POD had one of those "orange" violation stickers on it that they put on abandoned cars.  One with a notice that I have to move it within 48 hrs.  Honestly?

So thankfully, POD was able to come and pick it up on Wednesday (within the 48 hour window) and Jennifer and Rich were able to come and help me finish putting the last few things in the container.  Now, there are three rooms that are completely empty, one room that is mostly empty, and almost nothing in the kitchen as far as dishes and utensils go.  I'll be living like a college student until I hear what's going on with the house.  :)

Bring on the plastic silverware and take out!

House Update part.... um,

I know you are waiting for a recap of the trip to Hawaii, but it's going to take some time.  Work was crazy busy today and I still have a few other things to talk about.

Speaking of which... one of those is the house...

As I mentioned, we were working hard to get the house on the market before I left for Hawaii.  Well, we were successful.  I received an email from my realtor the first Friday I was in Hawaii saying that the house was online.  The pictures made it look great!

Almost immediately I was getting emails/texts/phone calls requesting showings.  Most of them coming at 3:30am Hawaiian time.  Awesome.  Thankfully, I didn't mind getting up early to enjoy the scenery.

By the time my family was enjoying the last full day in Hawaii, there had been 12 showings and three offers.  THREE OFFERS.  One of them was a really amazing offer, in cash.

After some back and forth with the ex and the realtor, we finally agreed on the perfect cash offer.  There were a few more showings over the weekend and this evening, and even a couple more offers, but we are pretty much set.

Today, I sent a signed copy of the offer contract to my ex to get his signature so we can move on.  Then it goes to the bank to review and our fate is in the hands of our title attorney.

If everything works out, we would have an answer by Christmas.

Sounds like a great Christmas gift, right?  Keep your fingers crossed!!!

I love attorneys

Did I really just say that?

I guess so.  The meeting with the attorney and my realtor was great.  Bottom line, while it may cost us some money up front, the attorney has a good relationship and a standing contact with someone at our mortgage bank.  This will help expedite our process.

He had a lot of valuable and helpful information to share and we will have the house on the market before I leave for Hawaii next week.

It's definitely not an easy road the rest of the way since short sales are notoriously difficult, but the attorney was confident that we could get this done relatively quickly.

So here's hoping someone puts an offer on our house and I get the heck out of here.  I can't wait to move on with my life.

*I forgot the best news - We don't have to worry about replacing the carpet in the basement.  In actuality, it would hurt us in the appraisal process.  One less thing on my list!!!!

A House Update - Finally

So things are really progressing.  For real this time.

Yesterday afternoon I left work early to meet with the realtor to discuss putting it on the market.  My ex has submitted our application for a short sale, so he is in charge of staying on top of that process.  In the meantime, I am on realtor duty.

Of course, things aren't always so easy.  I was rear-ended while I was waiting to turn into the parking lot of the realtor's office.  Not really any damage, but several people still think I should file a claim and get my car checked.  Just another thing on my laundry list of activities in the next couple of weeks.

The visit with the realtor was eye opening.  Houses in our direct neighborhood have recently been selling for about half of what we paid for ours.  No joke.  I'll let that sink if a moment....

So yeah.  There's that.  Thankfully, he says that we can get this on the market as soon as we are ready.  He also has a title lawyer that he works closely with that helps with these short sale processes.  Of course, there is some money involved up front ($$$) but it would be worth it.  Also, to get it on the market ASAP, I need to get on top of getting that hole in the bathroom fixed ($$$).  I also need to get the basement taken care of.  We are definitely going to need to put carpet back down ($$$).  And the realtor suggested that I declutter what I can.... of course.  So I ordered a POD system to come next weekend so I can start moving some stuff out of the house ($$$).

Are you getting the picture here?  I suddenly feel like I am hemorrhaging money.

In addition to the house and car, I also now have a 36 hour-three city-trip planned for work.  It's a really long story, so I try to sum it up.  There was a hotel issue in one of our cities we contracted (for 2016), so my boss panicked and wants to send my coworker and I down to do a site visit (again).  Then he figured, while we are down there, why don't we swing by the 2013 city so we can view that site (again) as well.  And it needs to be done now.

So next week, I am  making an unscheduled trip for 36 hours.  The good news.  Since I am forced to make this trip, I added a few extra hours so that we could visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Yes, I am a 29 year old woman and I'm really freaking excited about it.

The Leak - Identified

So, after a $120 to the contractor to identify the problem leak and $175 to the plumber today, the leak is officially fixed. Woo hoo!

The plumber's origin assessment was that it was because of the crappy installation of the shower in the bathroom.  I use "crappy" as my own interpretation because I know he was just trying to be nice.  Finally, we stopped down to the other bathroom so I could show him the soften spot in the wall.  He gave me the option to open the wall now or wait until I repaired the shower upstairs.  Um, ok.... I gambled.  He opened the wall and TADA... leak.

Lesson for all future home owners:

ALWAYS CHECK YOUR BATHROOM WALLS FOR PIPES BEFORE HANGING SHELVES OR PICTURES.

Apparently, a common mistake.  Either that or the plumber was just making me feel better.

So he repaired the leak, tested it, and gave me follow up instructions.

Now I need to get the contractor to repair the drywall and decide what to do with the basement.  I'm purposely not posting pictures of the basement because it is terrible.  Terrible isn't even the right word.  It's horrendous.

Score one for a bit of good luck, right?

The craziest of crazy weeks

On top of being stressed last week, I just had a lot of stuff going on.

A lot happened house wise last week that sort of blew up in my face.  After what I will now call the "emailing fiasco of September 2011", I had a pretty frank conversation with my ex on the phone.  It's the first time I've spoken to him on the phone since I first asked back in January if Melissa and Justin could live in the house.  It was tremendous progress on my part that I remained composed for the whole conversation.  The end result was that we were moving forward with getting our short sale application to the bank.  To make a long story short, the conversation I had with the bank was totally contradictory to what we had both heard previous about how the short sale process should work.  So while he is in charge of submitting our financial information, I am moving forward with putting the house on the market.  I am working now on setting up a meeting with a realtor to get the ball rolling.

Then, while this was going on, Justin and I finally got around to tearing up the carpet in the basement.  You remember the leak, right?  Well, it turns out it was WAY worse than I originally thought.  So I added "contacting the home insurance" to my list of things to do the next day.  Here's how that played out:

1. Call said home insurance.
2. Insurance tells me I'm calling the wrong company.  Gives me new company and contact information.
3. Cal second insurance company.  They tell me it's the wrong company.  Gives me new company and contact information.
4. Call third insurance company.  They tell me that only property managers (from the HOA) can make claims.
5. Track down property manager.  Finally reach them, schedule a visit with a contractor to find out the source of the leak.  Also find out that my home insurance deductible is $5,000.  WHAT?  Yeah, five-fricking-thousand dollars.

So I flew out of work in time to get home and walk Samson before 4pm so I would be home to meet the contractor.  6:30 rolls around and the contractor FINALLY shows up.  Turns out it's my neighbor.  After an hour, we find out that the leak is coming from my shower, six floors above the basement.

Now I have an appointment with a plumber tomorrow afternoon.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the fix will be fairly easy and hopefully not too expensive.  I think I know about where the leak is happening, so we'll see.

So, yeah... busy.  I have the house stuff, the leak stuff, the work stuff (because remember, I'm down a staff member) and now I feel like I am formally managing the process of this housing dilemma.  And it's exhausting. 

Friday Ramblings

I have a handful of things this morning, so I'm just going to make a bulleted list.  Ever so popular on blogs when you have too many things to say and they don't see the go together.  So here we go...

• After my post about my new boots, I got an IM from Amanda informing me that we were "boot twins".  She went on to say that she uses just about any excuse (slight chance of rain) to wear them.  Taking her lead (and thank you Melissa for putting this thought in my head last weekend), I wore my new boots today.  It was 40 when I was walking Samson this morning, with a high of 65.  I figured no better time than now, right?

• My mom is coming here on Sunday night to drive back to Chicago with Melissa and Kayla.  I'm excited to see my mom (even if it will only be for a few hours), but sad that this officially means that the end is near.  My roommates will be officially moved out by next weekend.  I have mixed feelings about this.  I am happy that they are finally on their way out of the "land of limbo" and moving on with their next steps.  I am sad because I will miss seeing them daily and having that company.  I will also miss getting to see Kayla every day.  It was so much fun to watch her develop while she lived with me.  From the time she was two months old until now, almost 8 months old.  She may not ever remember this time in her life when she lived at Aunt Megan's house, but I certainly will.
• It appears, after as much avoidance as possible on my part, that I officially have a problem in my basement.  Long story short, there is some sort of leak and it has made the carpet in front of the washer and dryer wet - for extended periods of time.  I didn't really notice the full extent of the damage until the Hales moved their dresser out last weekend.  As you can see, I have mold.  So with Justin's help, I will be pulling up that carpet this weekend.  Health issues are no joke.  Ironically enough, when we first moved into the house, I pushed to remove the carpet in the first place.  It is DISGUSTING and I thought it would be better to just paint the concrete and get a rug for down there.  Somewhere, in a not so far off place, I want to rub his face in it.  Because I was right.

It seriously looks even grosser in this picture - especially enlarged!

• Speaking of which, no news is bad news.  It's been over a month since the last time I heard from him and just as long since I heard back from his parents.  I think the issue with the carpet in the basement pushed my parents over the edge, as they are now involved.  I have mixed feelings on this.  I, of course, am relieved to feel like I do not have to continue this uphill battle myself.  Not that they were not completely supportive the entire time.  But I had asked them to not get involved, so it was just me, making all the pleas and demands.  I am frustrated that it had to come to this.  Mostly because I feel like I am almost 30 and I should be able to take care of my problems myself.  We'll see if this course of action does anything different (I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't).  I feel regardless of their course of action, the end is near....  maybe not the best end, but an end.  And I feel a tiny weight off my shoulders already.

House Update

Finally, right? :)

So the latest update on the house is that we have agreed we just need to sell it.  Of course, it's not as simple and just finding a realtor and putting it on the market.  With the current housing market, we would not be able to sell it to even break even, which means we would have to bring money to the table at closing to cover the difference with our loan.  Those of you who know me, know that there is zero chance of that happening.

So if we sell, we will have to do a short sale.  If you don't know what a short sale is, read the link.  :)  Basically, it means, we have an agreement with the bank upfront that we know we will be selling the house for less than our loan.  We would put it on the market for 120 days at the appraisal price and hope someone puts in an offer by then.  It is a lengthy process, especially for the sellers, so it's not the most desirable option.  However, the impact on our credit for a short sale is much less than a foreclosure, which will be our option if we don't sell it in the allotted time.

It's not really the best situation, but it's really the only one.  One way or another we need to be rid of the place.  And I need to be able to move on.  I'm not going to even discuss all the things I would have to deal with once the house is sold... we'll deal with that when it happens (and please God, I hope it happens sooner rather than later).

So that's where we are right now.  I've been bugging him to tell me what our next step is so we can start submitting the paperwork we need to and get the ball rolling.  He hasn't been the most responsive unless its an emergency, so it's going to take some prodding this summer.  I'll keep you updated as always. :)

On an unrelated side note, I'm wearing my new favorite summer shoes today.  I am VERY picky about my espadrilles, so this purchase was very thought out.  They are from Nordstroms and I love them.  The pattern and the bow make them feel very retro (which you know I am a HUGE fan of).

Sorry for the weird foot photos, but it's the best I could do. :)

hobbies

I'm feeling restless right now.  My brain is constantly running.... most of the time on a very ADD wavelength.  Of course, I don't think the cold weather helps.  That or the fact that I'm constantly tired from not sleeping well.

I need a hobby.   And trust me I know how funny that sounds.  My little side company is good, but I'm not doing enough right now.  The only thing with that I can be doing right now is drafting out some ideas for note cards, and I'm not feeling very inspired.

What I would really like to do is get into photography.  I love photography and it would be really fun to learn a new skill.  Of course, this hobby has a financial input; a DSR camera and ideally, a class.

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately about home design and DIY (do it yourself) for decorating.  I have tons of ideas for where ever I end up next.  It makes me really excited to start to move on....

(I just realized that I am randomly skipping around thoughts... welcome to my brain.)  :)

I'm really anxious to make a decision on the house so that I can start making other decisions I need to make.  Maybe then I would feel less restless.

      ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::  Unrelated update :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Had some stressful conversations today about the house.  I have some homework to do to get as much info as I can.  I am pushing to make a decision soon.  It's becoming increasingly stressful to be stuck here right now.  It's like living in limbo... constantly having to face the past.  OUR house, OUR things... I tried to remove as much as possible, especially wedding related, but that only helps to a certain point.  Also, the expense of living here is hard to justify now that I am alone (even though we are still sharing the cost).  AND I have to drive an hour to work and an hour to see my sister and Justin.  Seriously???  I'm starting to feel like a hermit.

I'm ready for baby H to make his/her debut and my mom and dad to visit.  I can't wait to be an aunt and selfishly, I am not good at being "on call". :)

Also, I'm going to happy hour with Melissa and Miranda tomorrow (given the baby doesn't decide to come). I'm really going to enjoy the outing.  It was really nice when Jennifer came over for dinner on Monday so I know this will be fun!!

The house

After dealing with cancelling all activities regarding the wedding, the next thing on my list is to deal with the house.

We bought the house in March 2009 and the deed is under both of our names.  We have put a lot of work into the house since it was a bank owned property.  And we spent quite a bit of money just making the place look nicer.

He and his parents think we should rent it.  I don't want to be tied into the house for that long... prolonging my relationship with him.  I want to cut my losses and move on.  He, of course, doesn't think that's a good idea.  This is going to become a tough fight between us, because neither one of us seems to want to bend.

My discussions with a real estate agent have not made either option a very good one.  We will lose money to sell it.  If we rent, we could potentially lose some money.  We would have to find some management company to take care of it and we would have to pay the first time home buyer tax credit back.

So I'm giving him the option to turn over my ownership to him and his parents.  They can do whatever they want with the house and I will have no rights to it.  I don't want anything from the house.

I see a not-so-fun conversation in the future.

Thankfully, my cousin and his boss who are attornies have offered to sit down and talk with me about my options and what is realistically involved with all of this.  I'm so thankful for the people in my life!