Thursday, July 13, 2006

Our first meeting with escrow

Where to start? The past week or so has been an amazing chain of events. The Lord has been with us, and we are amazed at His blessings!! Either today or tomorrow, we will open escrow on our first home!!! It is really tiny...less than 600 square feet. But we don't care!!! It met all of my main qualifications:
1. Level entry (a rare and precious comodity here in the mountains)
2. Flat land/yard space (an even more rare and precious comodity)
3. Two bedrooms

There are so many stories along the way of how God has worked...I will try to pick a few. First of all, we found a property that we really liked, and so we had one of the guys here at camp do an inspection on it for us (he's a general contractor). He said, "No way, don't buy it." It had structural problems, among others, which is not uncommon here in the mountains. Most of the houses we looked at are very old, some smell funny, and almost all of them have lots of stairs less than two feet wide which are really steep and just not super kid friendly.
Finally, our realtor took us to see this little house...it had just been listed, and wasn't even on the computer's MLS yet. Right away, we loved it. But we had learned from the first property we really liked that there might be problems we couldn't see. This house was older as well, but had been completely redone, including the roof, the drywall, etc. There was a perfect little spot meant for a stackable washer/dryer, so that was a plus but there were no hookups. Also, we have no money for closing costs, so we made an offer on the house and asked the seller to pay our closing costs. He made a counter offer, and we decided to agree to his counter offer with the condition that he put in the hook-ups for the washer/dryer (in addition to paying our closing costs). He agreed!!!
Now, time for the home inspection. Our friend went over and did a two hour inspection and we received the report in the morning. There were no major problems, but a few things such as the water heater, bathroom window, and a breaker needing to be fixed. The seller agreed to fix all these things...he didn't even contest any of it!!! Next, the lender called and told us what our payment would be. It was about $25-30 higher than what I had budgeted, so I gave him my amount and asked if he could get it there. He got it within three dollars, so we were so excited.
So, it is with great excitement (and some trepidation for our first time paying a MORTGAGE) that we have our first meeting with escrow. It should begin today or tomorrow, and we will close and move around August 12th!! Yeah!! Just in time to get ready to have our baby....

6 comments:

lnstryker said...

WOW! Congatulations. How close is it to camp? Is there space to add on later?

lnstryker said...
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hestermom said...

It's about 5 minutes or so from camp...There is definitely room to add on, there's some good yard space, and we know where we'd add on and everything if we're there long enough. Also, there's an unfinished loft that we'll use for storage right now, but could definitely be a play area or something if we put in the stairs. (there's just a ladder right now to get up there.)

Rebecca said...

Oh my gosh, you're buying a house? Where did that come from? I thought you didn't want to stay that long? But I'm so excited for you and just a tiny bit jealous! How fun! Do you think you'll feel more settled now?

hestermom said...

Uh, I am actually not sure what happened...but we know we'll be here at least two years, so we thought we should be wise and at least make an investment...They'll give anyone money if you have good credit. So, we will have our own teeny tiny little house...we are feeling more settled. It's just crazy to go from no debt to a really overwhelming amount of it. And I'm thinking, "we're going to make that payment...how???"

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