The Epic of Housamesh
Since I can't remember who I've told what to and it feels like I've explained everything about 50 times by now; here's a break down of the past few months in relation to my current living situation and me buying a house.
Back in Early April I received notice from a law firm to send my rent checks to his office and not my land lord. A few days later I received notice from the Orleans Sheriff's office. It appears I rented my place from some fly by night asshole from California trying to cash in off of people pretty much giving away their property after Katrina. The Sheriff said they were taking possession on June 24th. Meanwhile, the former owners are trying to sell off the property. So they were showing the property every now and then, but giving us notice.
This prompted me to go back into house hunting, which I tried back on the North Shore, but then I changed jobs and moved to New Orleans. I tried again a year or so later on the South Shore, but by then the lenders were being tight asses because of the credit crisis and Nagin killed a first time home buyer soft mortgage program.
Fast-forward to February, Natalie and Victoria went to see a Queen cover band at the House of Blues. They had two extra tickets and they gave it to a Realtor and his wife they met outside in line. The couple were on vacation or a conference or some crap and thus a friendship was born, he offered her any kind of house buying advice. Natalie and I have talking about buying a house a few times and she wanted to buy a house in Laplace not too long ago before this. Anyway they add each other on facebook and he said he'll find a good Realtor down here for us to use.
He gave us contact information for a lady with KW Realty named Carey. I got in touch with her at the end of March and didn't really press anything. A week or two later I received the notices about the house I was renting and decided to go meet with Carey.
Carey set me up with her partner Anna and before we did anything she sent me to their Mortgage broker Mark with NOLA lending and we lined up financing. Mark wanted to keep my note around $1000 a month ($120-140,000 depending on insurance and taxes). Since I didn't have a down payment I had to find a house in Jefferson parish since they had FHA bond money I could use for the down payment, also the owner would have to pay the closing. Finally I had to be "under contract" by April 30th to get the $8000 tax credit (which I'd use to pay off my car and credit cards).
A few days later Anna, Natalie and myself went house hunting. Saw a bunch of lame houses and found one I liked so I put an offer on it, the owner refused to pay the closing costs and didn't budge on her price. My second choice was under contract so we had to start all over again.
Anna found a few more places and we looked again. My favorite of this batch was 2014 Idaho Ave in Kenner a pretty old house, but it's been kept up and slightly remodeled and added on to over the years. I put an offer on it and the owners countered and we went under contract on April 29th.
Here'e the very basics of buying a house, each stage has some kind if deadline set. First you make an offer. Typically this is below the sticker price and then the owners can accept or counter, typically they counter. At that point people usually agree and they sign a contract stating that the buyer will buy the house upon inspections and appraisal, this take the house off the market, but allows the buy to walk away if the house fails inspections. The buyer usually pays for the inspections, in my case I've spent about $500 on them.
After the inspections the buyer will demand from the owner what they want fixed on the property, the owner can then accept it or again they can counter what they want to repair or pay you money. This stage is not so easy if you're using FHA money for the down payment, more on that later.
Next will be the appraisal. I have yet to get here but the buyer pays for it and if the appraisal is too low then I'll have to ask the owner to lower the price. Read the link for more information.
Once that is done then lawyers will check the titles and someone will process the closing paper work and we go to closing and the house is mine.
My initial offer was about $10,000 or so under the advertised price and them covering the closing costs. They countered with only $900 off the price but they'd cover the closing, so we took that because of the time left before the tax credit deadline. Next I got the house inspection done, but the plumbing inspection took two inspections and the owners replacing a portion of the drain line.
There was several things wrong with the house the lights dimming when the AC kicked on being one of them. However the owners called Entergy and they fixed a problem on the pole (they gave me a copy of the entergy work order for proof) I checked it out and the light stopped dimming. All that was left was the garbage disposal which would not drain half of the kitchen sink or the dishwasher. There was also a problems with a few other cosmetic things like a broken back window and a few potential problems on the roof. They agreed to fix the window, so we asked for $750 so I could fix the remaining problems on my own.
The problem with the $750 is the FHA bond money. The FHA will only offer the money if the house is in perfect working order, if there was to be a check issued to the buyer in the closing to fix problems with the house, the FHA would deny the bond money. So we initially asked for it outside of the closing, which while technically illegal but it's common-practice. The owners were not game, so I made up a list of the things I was going to fix with the $750 and asked them to fix it instead.
Right now I am waiting on the owner's reply, this takes a bit of time because there are 4 owners and they live all over the place. I had to sign an extension since the original May 28th deadline to close was not met, we bumped it up to June 30th, but we hope to get it done sooner then that.
Now back back to my current house in Lakeview. The June 24th repossession deadline is looming but after talking to the Realtor selling the place he said they are doing the appraisals next week and they will be closed on the house before that. At that point I informed the Realtor I was moving out by July 1st.
Rough plan for now, close on the house mid-June. Then clean the new place up. Move in, then clean out the old place. Have Natalie's birthday part and piggyback on my housewarming party with it. The only house-warming presents I want is cold hard cash FYI.
I have enough stuff right now, but I need to fix up the place a little more before I get married to Natalie, hopefully have a roommate or two for a while then get ready for that wedding stuff.
Back in Early April I received notice from a law firm to send my rent checks to his office and not my land lord. A few days later I received notice from the Orleans Sheriff's office. It appears I rented my place from some fly by night asshole from California trying to cash in off of people pretty much giving away their property after Katrina. The Sheriff said they were taking possession on June 24th. Meanwhile, the former owners are trying to sell off the property. So they were showing the property every now and then, but giving us notice.
This prompted me to go back into house hunting, which I tried back on the North Shore, but then I changed jobs and moved to New Orleans. I tried again a year or so later on the South Shore, but by then the lenders were being tight asses because of the credit crisis and Nagin killed a first time home buyer soft mortgage program.
Fast-forward to February, Natalie and Victoria went to see a Queen cover band at the House of Blues. They had two extra tickets and they gave it to a Realtor and his wife they met outside in line. The couple were on vacation or a conference or some crap and thus a friendship was born, he offered her any kind of house buying advice. Natalie and I have talking about buying a house a few times and she wanted to buy a house in Laplace not too long ago before this. Anyway they add each other on facebook and he said he'll find a good Realtor down here for us to use.
He gave us contact information for a lady with KW Realty named Carey. I got in touch with her at the end of March and didn't really press anything. A week or two later I received the notices about the house I was renting and decided to go meet with Carey.
Carey set me up with her partner Anna and before we did anything she sent me to their Mortgage broker Mark with NOLA lending and we lined up financing. Mark wanted to keep my note around $1000 a month ($120-140,000 depending on insurance and taxes). Since I didn't have a down payment I had to find a house in Jefferson parish since they had FHA bond money I could use for the down payment, also the owner would have to pay the closing. Finally I had to be "under contract" by April 30th to get the $8000 tax credit (which I'd use to pay off my car and credit cards).
A few days later Anna, Natalie and myself went house hunting. Saw a bunch of lame houses and found one I liked so I put an offer on it, the owner refused to pay the closing costs and didn't budge on her price. My second choice was under contract so we had to start all over again.
Anna found a few more places and we looked again. My favorite of this batch was 2014 Idaho Ave in Kenner a pretty old house, but it's been kept up and slightly remodeled and added on to over the years. I put an offer on it and the owners countered and we went under contract on April 29th.
Here'e the very basics of buying a house, each stage has some kind if deadline set. First you make an offer. Typically this is below the sticker price and then the owners can accept or counter, typically they counter. At that point people usually agree and they sign a contract stating that the buyer will buy the house upon inspections and appraisal, this take the house off the market, but allows the buy to walk away if the house fails inspections. The buyer usually pays for the inspections, in my case I've spent about $500 on them.
After the inspections the buyer will demand from the owner what they want fixed on the property, the owner can then accept it or again they can counter what they want to repair or pay you money. This stage is not so easy if you're using FHA money for the down payment, more on that later.
Next will be the appraisal. I have yet to get here but the buyer pays for it and if the appraisal is too low then I'll have to ask the owner to lower the price. Read the link for more information.
Once that is done then lawyers will check the titles and someone will process the closing paper work and we go to closing and the house is mine.
My initial offer was about $10,000 or so under the advertised price and them covering the closing costs. They countered with only $900 off the price but they'd cover the closing, so we took that because of the time left before the tax credit deadline. Next I got the house inspection done, but the plumbing inspection took two inspections and the owners replacing a portion of the drain line.
There was several things wrong with the house the lights dimming when the AC kicked on being one of them. However the owners called Entergy and they fixed a problem on the pole (they gave me a copy of the entergy work order for proof) I checked it out and the light stopped dimming. All that was left was the garbage disposal which would not drain half of the kitchen sink or the dishwasher. There was also a problems with a few other cosmetic things like a broken back window and a few potential problems on the roof. They agreed to fix the window, so we asked for $750 so I could fix the remaining problems on my own.
The problem with the $750 is the FHA bond money. The FHA will only offer the money if the house is in perfect working order, if there was to be a check issued to the buyer in the closing to fix problems with the house, the FHA would deny the bond money. So we initially asked for it outside of the closing, which while technically illegal but it's common-practice. The owners were not game, so I made up a list of the things I was going to fix with the $750 and asked them to fix it instead.
Right now I am waiting on the owner's reply, this takes a bit of time because there are 4 owners and they live all over the place. I had to sign an extension since the original May 28th deadline to close was not met, we bumped it up to June 30th, but we hope to get it done sooner then that.
Now back back to my current house in Lakeview. The June 24th repossession deadline is looming but after talking to the Realtor selling the place he said they are doing the appraisals next week and they will be closed on the house before that. At that point I informed the Realtor I was moving out by July 1st.
Rough plan for now, close on the house mid-June. Then clean the new place up. Move in, then clean out the old place. Have Natalie's birthday part and piggyback on my housewarming party with it. The only house-warming presents I want is cold hard cash FYI.
I have enough stuff right now, but I need to fix up the place a little more before I get married to Natalie, hopefully have a roommate or two for a while then get ready for that wedding stuff.