Life in the Cheese Drawer

i’m sorry HOUSEBLOG has overtaken my LJ. but HOUSEBLOG has overtaken my life right now, so it’s running over into my LJ.
i am so so so so so anxious about this. a milliion thoughts are running through my head: did someone else make an offer? was our offer too low? will my mortgage guy be pissed that we had to go somewhere else? what if the lowest they’ll go is $130,000? what if what if what if? ugh!! i can’t stop it!! i just want this to be done!

let me recount what has been one of the longest days of my life.

nate decided to take today off so we could go look at some houses, and at 10 a.m., we were ready to go at the realtor’s office. we took off and looked at four houses, two of which i had looked at yesterday. there was one in sartell that was gorgeous with a gorgeous view of the river, but the electrical was old, the floors sloped upstairs, and it just wouldn’t fly with the kind of financing we were planning on.

SO. disappointed, we gathered ourselves and went out for a second look at the bi-level in st. joe. the price on that house had come down $10,000, and now a price we could afford was in sight. gosh darn it, it was too good of a buy to pass up. so we decided to write up an offer. as delores says, you can write up offers however many times you want, so we did.

1.5 hours later, after signing our lives away, we were ready to submit an offer on this house, going rural development (which means no down payment and no mortgage insurance), for $120,000. delores calls up the realtor selling the place, and we need a stupid letter of approval from wells fargo mortgage, or they won’t even LOOK at it. are you serious?? meanwhile, we had been trying to get a hold of our mortgage dude to no avail. FIGURES.

delores called the lady who they wanted us to go to at wells fargo, and she was there until four. it was 2:30. so, we rushed home, got paystubs and bank account info, rushed to wells fargo (well rushed isn’t quite the term, i’d say meandered while i shook my angry fist with road rage at the rush-hour traffic), and got in a little after three.

45 minutes later, we had a letter of approval in our hands, and one faxed over to the realtor selling the house. HOLY COW i was SO TENSE from everything, i could feel my head starting to split open. not to mention the fact that i had been starving since 1:00, and i was about ready to pass out.

but hallelujah, we got it done. the purchase agreement is in the hands of the selling realtor, and i’m sure they’re going to wait over the weekend to see if they get any other offers, so we probably won’t hear back until the middle of next week. ****CROSSES FINGERS**** our offer is low, but we have the advantage that the closing date would be at the end of july (ONE MONTH!!! OMG!!!) and as far as i could tell, this is the first offer they’ve gotten.

after all that, nate and i went to chipotle, and it was probably the best-tasting meal i’d had in a long time. holy cow, i chowed down. then, i had to go to work 3 hours late, and here i sit.

funny, i came to work and about half an hour later, i could feel my whole body just start to relax. ahhhhhh……

ugh. so the one house we were both uber interested in and we were going to put on offer on wednesday night after my dad came to look at it, sold on tuesday. that blows!!! so the search continues.
2 houses so far that we’ve looked at we are kinda “eh” about and might consider putting offers on. one in st. joe and one in st. augusta. tomorrow morn i’ m going out with delores again. i figure i can weed out the bad stuff, and if something really interests me, nate can look at it later in the day. stupid work shifts being so different.
so…..i’m kind of disenchanted with house hunting right now. i feel icky that the house we liked got taken away. i guess it wasn’t the right house. onward!

this might be it.

bigger pics of the kitchen and living room. plus a pic of our realtor!

i was getting all these recommendations for realtors from everyone: people at work, people at nate’s work, the mortgage dude. however, my coworker from the newsleaders, sharon, used this lady to buy, sell, and buy her houses. she really liked her, and she told me that if i ever bought a house, i should go through her.
so, after listening to everyone’s recommendations, i called delores, sharon’s realtor, who owns her own agency. after i talked to delores and set up and appointment, i checked my messages on my cell phone, and there was a message from sharon! i took it as a sign.
today we went to see delores. she had asked me on the phone what our price range was, what i was looking for, etc. etc. we chatted for about 10 minutes in her office, then we went out and looked at some houses. the first bunch we went to see were all under $120,000 and all on the east side of st. cloud
that’s all i got

really like. and it’s on a corner lot.

house

nate and i went to the mortgage dude today and we got approved for $155,000!!!! that was way more than i thought! (and way more than i want to spend!!)
anyway, we have two programs to choose from, since we don’t have a down payment. one is a program where we would pay asking price for the house and the seller would pay the down payment and closing costs. the second one is if we choose to buy a house out of the st. cloud metro – like in avon or rice. no down payment and no mortgage insurance! but then, there’s the cost of commuting, so it’s a toss-up.
most of the houses we’ve looked at have been $120,000 or less, and most of those have been what i’m looking for. the lower the payment the better is my thought.
here’s our list of preferences so far:
nate
garage
dishwasher
me
trees in yard
window over kitchen sink
deck/patio would be nice
not on the 5 major thoroughfares in the area (33rd, 25th, 8th, 3rd, and 9th)
next step: the realtor.