The Deal

Now the fun began...and if I wasn't stressed enough trying to secure the house, now we actually had to get it, and I'd heard way too many horror stories about deals falling through at the last minute ~ in fact the house we bought was under contract and the deal fell through...at the last minute.

After talking it over with SuperTony we put our first offer in about $25k below the asking price [which was, incidentally at our threshold], and the back and forth began...we ended up with an "as is" price. Through this whole thing I've learned that "as is" is not necessarily the catchall that it is intended to be. We also managed to get a clause in there that gave us an out in the event that the bank appraisal is below the sale price.

So armed with an accepted offer and me out several hundred dollars, the inspector [Gary, from "Ac Closer Look Inspections"] and his father looked at every nook and cranny. I'd never seen a sawed off golf club get that much use. But he was thorough well beyond the call. Immediate problems: the boiler, the back porch is starting to rot, the gutters are clogged and there is very old wiring throughout the house. Some [current] evidence of mice and [past] evidence of powderpost beetles and termites. But still, for its age, in pretty good structural shape.

So "as is" turns out to mean "as is" but we want a discount to fix the boiler and the porch ~ boiler because it is necessary and porch because it is a selling point of the house. After some more back and forth, they agree and we get the price down several thousand more.

Now the real fun begins with the lawyers and the bank and the every little person on the planet needing a cut of the deal. Looking over the HUD afterward, I see that buying the house isn't nearly as demoralizing as selling it....EVERYONE gets a piece of the money you have coming in, and that massive windfall you hope for suddenly evaporates in a puff of regulations and greed. The Florida house is perfect example of THAT.

The bank waited until the last minute to tell me of certain needed paperwork we were missing so a few harrowing days before the closing we finally get the commitment letter from the bank and we meet at the Century 21 in Hanover for an hour or so of wristwork. On the whole it was smooth ~ both lawyers knew each other and they took their time condensing what was in the legalese (most of which I get anyway). And with a less than triumphant flourish and the sad removal of the deposit from my bank account, we owned the house.

SuperTony gave us a bottle of champagne. We were to move the NEXT day.