What a Rollercoaster Ride (and it wasn't the fun kind!)

I've been struggling with how to approach this post.  This whole process has been crazy. Lots of ups and downs, twists and turns, just like a roller coaster.  It's been about 15 and a half months since we started this journey, and today brought it to an end for this particular home.  Let me begin where it all started falling apart.

In my last post I told you that things were potentially on hold. It had been discovered by the Title Company that the seller was owing on her HOA (home owners association) fees. Originally we thought it was around 5-6 thousand dollars, the amount was actually closer to 10 thousand dollars.  Yes you read it right folks, 10 thousand.  That's 3 years of not playing her HOA fees.  So without that amount being paid off, the house cannot be sold. I compare it to the HOA putting a lien against the house and it has to be paid before it can be sold. You would think that the seller would like to be done with this sale, pay it (along with the other money she owes to the bank) and just be done with it.

Well, that's what you'd think. Not the case. Because this all came to light on the weekend and no one could get reach the seller, her listing agent or the attorney, we had to wait. Monday came, we were supposed to be on the road, but instead we sat around waiting to see if we could leave. The day came and went, the attorney and the title company, without anyone asking, reduced their fees to bring the sellers amount owing down to $3800. You would think that she would be happy and say thanks, I'll gladly pay up to get this over with. Nope.

By mid afternoon on Monday no one could get a response from the seller or her agent.  My husband had had enough and searched the Internet for her, hoping to find a cell phone number, email or social network site. Well, he's a good detective my husband and found her.  In a nutshell, she said it's not her fault, it's the banks, and that she has no money and she can't pay, so we have to or someone else will, but it won't be her.  She also felt the need to tell us that" she's not a mean person", we didn't say she was. At this point, knowing she's a real estate broker we think that she's not very smart, but we wouldn't say that to her.

We called our Realtor to tell him this piece of information. He was amazed she actually answered. We also know that on Monday, the attorney reached out to the HOA to see if they were willing to forgive any of the amount owing but we had not heard back.  We relayed to our Realtor that at this point if we don't have a conclusion to this issue by the end of day today, we were going to walk away from this house.  There were emails going around this morning and it appears that the seller did not even inform her attorney that she owed this enormous amount of money. He found out when we did.

So the day is done and we heard nothing back. This deal is also done, it's over and I'll take my deposit back now thanks.  BUT our journey doesn't end here, we've already got our eye on another property, details to follow.

P.S. it's not a short sale;)

Another Hiccup!

Saying another hiccup is probably too cute a   term to use for how annoyed I am right now.  This morning we were getting ready for the day. Me going to do my duty and work my weekend.  (incidentally I begged to have someone take Sunday and Monday for me so we could drive to Florida on Monday). My husband was getting ready to call the utilities for the house in Florida. What appears in our email but a note from our Realtor telling us that we have a potential problem. Of course we give him a call, who wouldn't he was telling us to not book anything yet! Too late, our hotel room at Disney is already paid for and we were gathering stuff to pack, arrgh! 

So here's the storey....late on Friday our Realtor was notified (by the Title company, I think) that the seller owes 5 or so thousand (yes I said thousand) to the HOA (home owner's association for those that don't know, like maintenance fees). By time our Realtor found out,no one was around to respond. Sigh, this is just nuts. Trying to get ready to be on vacation has given me no time to really think or stress about this latest development. Just when we thought it was finally coming together. This is frustrating. 

The feeling is that this is something that the attorney/negotiator should have known about as well as the banks.  But at this point who knows what will happen. We can't ignore the fact that we might leave for Florida on Monday, but who wants to put a lot of work into organising and packing when we might not go anywhere. What to do, what to do.....

So at this point, I have a lot of paperwork to complete from today and my husband has ordered triple mix and mulch that is being delivered tomorrow.  Since it is a possibility that we will NOT close on Wednesday and we may not be leaving here on Monday we might as well enjoy the nice weekend here and do some yard work.  Never a dull moment!

P. S.  I told our Realtor that if we don't end up going to Florida he had to tell the kids they have to go to school on Tuesday. I will keep you posted!

FRUSTRATED!

It's been a very long week of nothing. That's right folks nothing. The powers that be decided to not follow through with what we were told last week. 2-3 days for written approval has turned into a week +1 day. In other words we still have no answer, no closing day and no house.

I think that we've been patient up until this point. I was a little frustrated on Friday and sent our Realtor a somewhat snarky email.  I guess it was more frustrated than snarky but I was annoyed.  I was feeling like a nag by the end of the week as I was looking for the seller's attorney to make good on his report from last week.

At this point no one seems to know what's going on. Frustration at it's best. Hopefully this week will bring some kind of news, maybe even closure, but who know. I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I know with all the nice weather we've been having here in Southern Ontario that we are doing our best to enjoy it!

Bank Number 2 has Met my Expectations!

So it's May 1st. The weather is getting nicer and summer is getting closer. Around here we were hopeful that the second bank involved in our home purchase would be true to their word and have written approval to us by yesterday. I didn't believe it for a minute, I was hopeful but didn't believe it would happen.

As it turns out they met my expectations and did NOT deliver a written approval yesterday.  I told our Realtor that I should have taken bets on whether the would come through or not. I would have won! I have asked our Realtor to keep on them as we do not want to become his longest ever short sale. We haven't broken his record yet and I don't want to.

That is all I have to report/vent about right now. I am, as always hoping that we will have more to report soon. Happy Hump day!

I'll Believe it when I See it!

So today marked a new chapter in our pursuit of this Vacation Home dream of ours.  After A LOT of chasing after the second bank, the seller's attorney has spoken with a supervisor and supposedly he is approving the sale. Hallelujah! Now in my mind, this really means nothing.  After so many disappointments I am not doing anything else, until I see this acceptance in writing. 

The timing will be interesting.  There are so many things that I want to think about. What to do with the kids when we're there. What renos we'll do, where to shop, what to buy etc. etc. I can't let my mind do that though.  I need to focus on other things, like finishing my taxes. Yes, we are not that motivated to finish. We're almost done, but I just hate doing it!  I need to finish mine though because I always owe money being self-employed and the government doesn't like it when you're late paying them!

I'm hoping to have some more news over the next few days.  The written acceptance from the second bank is supposed to be in our hands within 2-3 days at the most. We will see! Enjoy the rest of your week!

I'm Speechless!

For anyone who knows me personally, speechless is not something I ever am!  This week there were A LOT of emails and phone calls flying around in central Florida.  Frustration is mounting for all parties in this transaction.

We understand the Short Sale process, as much as anybody can. But what I don't understand is why the banks sit on these offers so long. It makes no sense.  They aren't getting any money from the seller because they can't afford it and they're not making any money on the sale because they won't sign the darn paperwork approving it. Arrgh!  Since the seller is dealing with 2 banks it is more complicated but this is verging on ridiculous!

Our Realtor was on Fire this week, trying to get the attorney negotiating the sale to try and escalate things. As I understand it if this goes on much longer then more costs will be incurred and then one or both of the banks will need to make some adjustments. This could drag things on even longer.

Honestly other than stating the facts of what's going on I don't know what else to say.  I have no urgency to do anything else related to this purchase, other than wish it would come to a conclusion.  We are all in need of a vacation, and 30C in Kissimmee, is much more inviting than the 3C and snow we have here this morning.

Enjoy your weekend!

Still NOTHING!

Arrgh! This is like a bad dream you can't wake up from.  Update from earlier today is that the seller's lawyer is pressuring them to get an approval (the seller must be pulling her hair out, I mean she is the one who can't afford the property). The bank negotiator is saying "it is out of my hands now as I have made my recommendation for approval" She is also looking to her manager to get an answer.  Her work is done so I'm sure she wants to get rid of us bugging her for an answer!

I've been assured that the weather is bleak and gloomy with lots of rain right now. I keep reminding everyone that it's still cold here and I'd like some heat!  At this point who knows when we'll get an answer.  I think I'll focus on some other things for the time being. My laptop failed in a big way on the weekend and we're in the process of putting things back the way they were.  Our daughter has some testing coming up in figure skating and she's on the school basketball team which is keeping her occupied most of this month. 

Our youngest is a boy infatuated with all things Lego and is dreaming of Legoland. Hopefully we'll go soon.  In the meantime I've been recruited to organized his clone mini figures, the good guys, bad guys and all the guys in between!  Off I go into our own mini-legoland! (or should I say minefield, have you stepped on those things..ouch!)

You've Got to be Kidding Me!

Seriously, I often wonder what people are thinking when they say things.  As you know last week the lawyer for the seller told our agent that we have verbal approval from the investor on the house.  And that we should have written approval in 4-5 days. You'd think that this meant it's (almost) a done deal.  Evidently somebody was mistaken.

Our update on Friday was that the second bank has the file and they are working  with them to get approval.  I really had no words when I saw the e-mail, well maybe I did but I'm to polite to write them down.  I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that since we'd been told that we were waiting for the approval to be put in writing that they had done this already.

I called our Realtor and left a message for him to call me back. We established that I understand the process of how things should go. What I mean is the order in which things are done. So I was confused by why we would be told about the approval before the negotiation with the second bank has occurred.  Our Realtor was confused by this as well, he agreed to send a message to the lawyer to ask if this was going to be a problem.

We actually got a message back the same afternoon. Of course there is always a chance that the second bank could reject the whole thing but the lawyer seemed confident that we will have an answer next week. (We could only hope)  Whenever i see the word "soon" in an e-mail conversation i am hesitant to believe it.  Pessimism is my only defence right now. 

In the meantime, we are keeping busy completing the paperwork we need to rent the house. Next I am going to tackle some of the information I will include in our welcome package we send out to guests and in the welcome binder that will be in the house. What information would you like to have at your finger tips if you were staying in a vacation home? Leave me a comment, I'd appreciate the feedback!

What a Ride this has been!

Season's Greeting!  As everyone has been anticipating the holidays and all the fun that comes with it, we were sitting at home waiting to hear something about this crazy house.  Well ask and you shall receive is how the saying goes I think.  Thursday we got the news from  Our Realtor that the bank came back and stated that their previous counter offer was their final offer and that they were going to close the file.

Arrgh!  Not what we wanted to hear. We then had to have a discussion with our Realtor about what our options were and if there were any creative ways to bridge the gap between what the bank wants and what we want to pay.  Without going into to much detail, the short answer was NO.  So we launched into number crunching, budget making, pros and cons, you name it and it came up in discussion.  What shall we do. It was more than we wanted to pay but the market is getting stronger and there hasn't been a lot of inventory on the market. 

We finally made a decision. We are going to go for it. It wasn't an easy decision, but we did it. Papers are now in with new price. So it means Reno's on a budget! But we are handy and savvy so we'll get it done.  Fingers crossed the lawyer/negotiator said that the time until approval letter should be about a month. So I'm hoping that February is a nice month to visit Florida.  The house is already booked for the month of March so we're on a time line.

It's been a wild ride and hopefully this is it for the drama. Have a great Christmas Everyone, I hope Santa is good to you and that the New Year brings you all health and happiness!!!

Still Waiting!

As the month of December comes to a close (can you believe it!), we are still waiting on an answer to our never ending short sale. It will be 11 months on the 26th, that's right 11 months. It's crazy! I don't think that we could have anticipated that it would take this long. We knew it could be that long, but I don't think we ever thought it would actually take that long.

Now that I've established how LONG this has taken, time for an update!.....Well, we really don't have anything new to report. After that flurry of activity 2 weeks ago, it's been very quiet, to quiet.  I know that the feeling is that things are close to a decision, but I wish they'd hurry up and just do it. Put us out of our misery!  Our Realtor's assistant, who's been great, says that she's been seeing activity on the sellers side of things but nothing for us.  I'm hoping all that activity is in our favour. I know that she is trying to push the negotiator for an update or an approval this week, because with the holidays upon us I don't expect much to happen after this week.

We did sign another short sale extension this week. I asked for it early to get it done before it became a rush.  So that's done and we're back to waiting, more waiting.

Oh, but I do have some info on our foray into reality television.  Our first audition video (yes I said first), showcased how energetic and great our kids were, we on the other hand were a bit boring.  If you know my husband, he is anything but boring and I myself love to talk! So we were a little disappointed, but by the grace of Pietown productions we were given a second shot at the video. And I'm happy to report that we did much better the second time around, much more ourselves. Now we just need a closing date and we'd be in business (maybe, we've had no guarantees but since we don't actually have a house to go to it's a moot point).

Hopefully I'll have an update to share before the holidays but I'm not holding my breath! So I will wish everyone a Wonderful Holiday Season whatever you might be celebrating!

What a Busy Day!

I have been known to complain about paperwork. I do have a lot of it for my work and this house purchase has just added to it. Wow, Friday we had to scramble to put our counter offer in writing for the bank...again and today while out trying to get some more Christmas shopping done I got an e-mail from our Realtor.  We needed to get a new copy of the banks declaration for signed and returned within the hour. An hour, I don't know what this lawyer/negotiator thinks we do all day, just wait around for them to send instructions?  My husband was in a training course and it took a lot of phone calls and text messages to get him to answer and some creative thinking to get the form signed and sent back to them.  It took just over an hour but we got it done.

Our Realtor is hopeful that this flurry of activity is because we're getting close, but he doesn't want to get our hopes up!  To add to that unexpected form signing, I noticed last night that we were behind on one of our extensions. That came through today as well, but at least it wasn't required with the hour, just by tomorrow.  I do hope that we will get an answer soon, it would be a nice Christmas present.

After all this craziness today, it was fun to have to have a fun thing to do this evening.  We had our phone interview with House Hunters!  I submitted all the paperwork and pictures on Monday evening and yesterday they asked for a couple more.  They wanted one of the front of the house, which I thought I had sent and then one of our whole family. We set the interview time for 7pm our time which is 4pm her time in California.

The interview was actually fun. She asked us a bunch of questions about our preferences when looking for a house, things we agree on or disagree on. Why we picked the Orlando area, etc. etc. It was just another step in the process. Next we have to make an audition video, mostly with my husband and I but the kids get to make a cameo appearance and that has them excited.

I think that we had enough to do do today with this house today and we don't even own it yet!  I hope you had a great day!

Another Step Closer!

Well, Maybe! Today we got another update, if you want to call it that.  We have been asked by the bank to sign another addendum to the original purchase contract, stating the new price we countered with.  I was thinking that maybe this is a good sign, the bank isn't saying NO, so maybe they are going to accept it.

I got my husband to sign it at work and e-mail it back to me. I printed it, signed it and faxed it off to our agent.  Done right? Nope! i got another e-mail when I got home from work and picking the kids up that the seller's name was incorrect and we need to sign it again, arrgh! It's not due until Monday though, so don't rush. I always feel the need to rush, I want this done! So I sitting here patiently waiting for Hubby to sign it (again) and send it back to me (again) so I can fax it (again).  My big concern is getting the seller to sign it in a timely manor. She has not been known for promptness up until this point. So I would like it done today.

While all this was going on I thought I'd e-mail our agent and ask if this a step forward.  To put it bluntly the answer to that question was NO.  It's just paperwork and it doesn't mean anything except more paperwork.

What I don't get is if the bank isn't happy with our counter offer why wouldn't they just counter back verbally again? Since I haven't figured out the bank in the last 10 months I don't think that mulling it over again today is going to give me anymore answers.  I will hold onto the hope that it is a positive step forward and that it means we're another step closer to finishing this deal!

We had some light snow falling here in Mississauga today, it was cold, and with the wind even colder. I wouldn't mind a trip south to Florida this winter just for a quick warm up! But with our Long short sale, who knows. As I am writing this I just finished faxing the resigned copy of the new price addendum. Hopefully this gets up closer to a resolution.  I hope everyone has a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

Okay, This is Taking Too Long!

I can't believe that it was only yesterday that we put in our counter offer.  I am being very impatient.  I would like an answer, NOW. 

Forget about sharing this post on Facebook and Twitter. This is just a place for me to vent today.  In my head I know it is unrealistic to expect an answer today but after all this time the answer finally seems within arms reach.  Unfortunately, just because the answer is closer doesn't mean we'll get the answer we want. (insert sigh here).  What makes all of this worse is that I've been stuck at home with a cold that has robbed me of my voice, bad for me, good for those around me I think (LOL). So I have extra time to think about this instead of being busy with work, which would have kept me busy as I had another busy week planned. Oh well.

I know they say patience is a virtue, but I think I've used it all up.  Perhaps I will channel my energy into getting ready for Christmas.  It is one of my favourite times of the year.  We've already started clearing out "stuff" that's been cluttering up our living room and dining room , so we're almost ready for the tree. Lights were going to go up last weekend but since I wasn't feeling well that never happened. That's okay though the weather is supposed to be much warmer this weekend. 

On the shopping/gift side of things the kids are done and our package to send to my in-laws is almost packed and ready to go! I would like to get that stuff done so I can bake and just sit back and enjoy the holidays.  My husband has got time off when the kids are off school and I'll be working but luckily I can book things so I'm off most of the times. Oh, well that's enough venting today, I hope anyone reading this is having a great day and I hope if you are celebrating any up coming holidays that you are getting into the spirit and will have time to just enjoy them.

Have a great day!

A New Kind of Waiting

Well it's done. We've countered the bank's counter offer. 

It's a new kind of waiting now.  Our Realtor, who incidentally has been great over the last 10 months, spoke with the negotiator this morning. It seems the bank is not giving us only one shot at accepting their counter. So we went in with a counter offer that felt right to us and it gives us room to move one more time if need be.  One of the questions we had was "how long do we have to wait now?", the negotiator appears to think that we should hear back with in a week. Hopefully.  At this point I'll take a week, we've waited this long why not a little longer.

If we can get past this hurdle and the bank accepts our offer, there's only one thing that has to be resolved and it has nothing to do with us.  The Second Bank...although any negotiation with this bank will not affect our offer, it could certainly stop it from happening.  From what I understand the second mortgage holder is not going to let the seller get away without paying them back some money.  This may be the sticking point.  I understand from previous conversations that she-the seller, is willing to pay back something but how much, I don't know.

More waiting, that's what it all comes down to.  We should be used to it by now, but I'm not. So I will continue waiting, and waiting and hope that our answers come sooner rather than later.  Have a great day everyone!

Negotiation

We got news....FINALLY! Something new to actually tell you about.

For those of you who don't know I work in health care and do home visits and have been slowly increasing the number of people I see each week since both kids are now in school full days. Today was busy and just as I was getting ready to head out the door the phone rang. Long distance, which really isn't all that all unusual in our house so I picked it up. I noticed it was a 407 area code, but honestly I didn't think much of it as I was focusing on going to work!

It was, as I'm sure you've guessed, our Realtor.  He was calling to tell us that we've now moved onto the next phase of the short sale process.  NEGOTIATION. Eek, initially my mind was racing but it came to a halt pretty fast when I realised what we being told. So are you wondering what he told us? Well the bank has come back to us with a counter offer.  I won't bore you with numbers, but I will tell you this, we have to answer their counter on Monday.

What we need to do now,  is decide where to meet the bank. We move, don't move, meet them half way. Decisions, decisions.  Whatever we go back to them with is by no means a guarantee that the deal will go through.  The way it was explained to us is that this is the only negotiating we will do about the price. That is what the first bank has control over. The second bank still has the right to reject the offer. Why they would do this, is beyond me. I cannot imagine why they would do this but I'm not a bank.

We've already reviewed the properties around the house that we know have sold in the last year. What I don't know is which ones have sold in the last 6 months. Tomorrow our Realtor is going to send us the most recent ones so we can make an informed decision. I think we already know what we're going to do but it doesn't hurt to do some additional research.

When Monday comes our Realtor will speak with the negotiator and get a feel for what they think the bank will go for. Now we wait for Monday to come. It's a good thing we have a lot to keep us occupied this weekend. Thanks for dropping by and have a great weekend!

If I was in Orlando, I'd be crying in my Butterbeer!

Can you sense from the title of my post that I'm starting to get frustrated?  I mean come on, it's not like we've been sitting around waiting for this house sale to go through for months. Oh, wait a minute that's exactly what we've been doing.

It's funny how a seemingly innocent e-mail, meant to keep us informed has got me so irritated. This afternoon,  I happened to be thinking that we should get our usual update today or tomorrow. When I saw the ping of new e-mail on my phone I took a peak at the subject lines appearing at the top of the screen and saw the house address attached to an e-mail from our Realtor's assistant. Yippee! Not so it seems.  I started to read and actually put my phone down and decided I needed to read this on the computer so I could make sure I was reading the e-mail correctly.

I like to think we've been pretty patient up to this point. A lot patient for that matter. I think that's changing.  The e-mail was just to let us know that the bank requested information from the lawyer and listing agent on a Friday evening with the deadline for response being Sunday morning. How many lawyers do you know that work on the weekend?  Anyway, I assume the deadline was missed and the lawyer had to call the bank and ask them to extend the deadline as it had been unreasonable. The bank agreed and here we are waiting for the listing agent to update the house listing and then for the lawyer to upload it to this Equator system. All the while things are delayed once again.

I think that I should just forget about planning what I'd like to do with the kids when we go down, because every time I start thinking about it things seem to go awry.  So chances of us getting to see Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party, The Osbourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights or even Grinchmas at Islands of Adventure are pretty slim. Maybe I'll plan on seeing Transformers the ride! For those not in the know, it's Universal Orlando's new dark ride coming Summer 2013. Ha! for that matter why don't I just say we'll go down when the Harry Potter expansion is finished and that date hasn't even been announced!

Putting this all down on virtual paper actually makes me feel better.  Since I'm not a beer drinker I can't cry in any, and I'm not in Orlando so there's no Butterbeer here either. So that kind of moping is out. I'm thinking of a quote one of my favourite Princesses "A dream is a wish your heart makes", but even that's not helping my outlook today.  I think what we have to look forward to at this point is paperwork. Fingers crossed that once they upload the listing we'll be back on track...maybe...hopefully.....

I am a Little Obsessed!

To the outside observer I am going to look a little obsessed about this whole house thing. Well actually I'll look that way to everyone, I might as well admit it!

 I was casually surfing the Internet the other night, looking up things about the resort community where we are purchasing the house.  You know checking out reviews and any new pictures of the common areas.  Every once and a while I google the address of the house just to see if anything new pops up.  I know that this seems odd, but what can I say. I have to do something to keep myself occupied since I did most of my planning work back in February.  So this time I actually found something new....a link to YouTube

I followed the link and there was a video (if you can call it that) of the house. And below that was a link to another version of the video/slide show with an mls listing number.  I was a little irritated by this as our contract states that no back up offers can be accepted.  It was posted on October 29th, so definitely after we signed the contract, like 9 months ago!  Of course I fired off an e-mail to our Realtor to see why she (the seller's Realtor) would post this now. 

I mean we've waited this long, I don't expect to have a wrench thrown in the plans now.  I will patiently wait for a response about this and hopefully for some more news about the purchase. Some movement in the right direction I hope!

Have a great week everyone!

Pardon, You Want to Know What?

I almost fell over when I went to check our e-mail today.  There sitting innocently in the inbox was an e-mail from our Realtor with the subject: Bookings. Hello...we don't have the house, does this mean something, did you forget to tell us something. What is going on? Of course this was all being said in my head, unheard by anyone but me.  What did the e-mail say you ask? Well it was our Realtor passing on that the seller has someone interested in booking the entire month of February,  would we be interested? Uh, yay! Well, yes if we actually own the house. Shaun (our Realtor) did say everyone's hoping we do own it by then. 

Now hold on, we couldn't just say yes, sign us up. We have to consider a few things.  We aren't interested in keeping her property management company, so if the booking is through them then we're out! On the other hand if it is a private booking then sure we'd be interested.  Of course we would have to discuss how to deal with the fees and such upon closing but I don't think that this would be an issue. The final item that we need to clarify though is how much she was planning to charge for this booking. I mean she could book it for $200.00 and we'd make very little, not even enough to cover expenses. Details, details, I passed on our questions to our Realtor and now we just need to wait to hear what comes of it.

My husband tells me that I seemed just a little excited by this interesting news. Maybe I was, a little...I mean why wouldn't I be.  Could this mean that she's heard something that makes her think that things are moving along well. Who knows, I sure don't, although I wish I did.  Let's see what updates come our way next. Thanks for listening to my ramblings about this process.  I would love to just get on with this.  This crazy long process has to come to an end sometime....right?

281 days and counting...

So Why is your Short Sale taking so Long?

Today we had to send more information to our Realtor again. The bank is asking, again, for proof of funds on our part.  They like the information to be current, no more than 30 days old. What I'm hoping is that they are getting ready to pass the file on to the negotiator. Fat chance? Maybe? Who knows, is the most likely answer.  Since everyone (including us) is wondering why this Short Sale is taking so long, I thought I'd do some digging and try to explain, and in the process understand, what's happening behind the scene of this house purchase.

First off, what exactly is a short sale? In a nutshell, it's when the person selling the house owes more on their mortgage than the house is actually worth.  There are requirements that have to be met to be able to short sell your house but it's not important to understand why it's called a short sale or for the purpose of my explanation.  Truth be told, it would probably take too long to explain and I don't want to bore anyone (or drool on the keyboard when I fall asleep).

Our seller is dealing with 2 banks, the first is Bank of America who uses the equator system and the following steps:

• Document collection: getting information from all parties
• Lender Review: this is where we are now. I understand it as the bank reviewing the documents submitted and asking for corrections or updates as needed. We had to re-sign the original paperwork at the banks request as they wanted the sale in the seller's name and not her trust.
• Negotiation: This is where I want to be NOW. This is when the negotiator will make the decision about the sale.
• Closing: the ultimate goal is to be here, and will most likely happen quickly when and if it does happen.

Now this is the process for Bank of America. I have no idea what goes on with the other bank, which I believe is TD waterhouse. We know that they have the files, we just have to wait! I hope that explains what the process of a short sale is in a simple way! Now what I've read is that usually short sales take 3-6 months. We've exceeded that...by a lot. The Seller's new lawyer has been around since August and communication is soooo much better that I am optimistic that we will get an answer on this sale sooner rather than later. 
That's it for me today, I'm off to finish some spooky cupcakes and get ready to visit my ghouls at school for their big school dance performance! Happy Halloween!

This is Driving Me Crazy!

It's Thursday right, I'm not really expecting an update today. Just working my way through some work phone calls and messages and decide I should check our personal e-mail. There I find staring at me a time sensitive e-mail requesting us to re-sign some of the original documents.

Why re-sign them you ask? I sure called and asked, because it wasn't clear to me at first. This is at the banks request and they wanted the seller to have the contract in her name instead of in the name of the trust she has.  Since I'm not privy to her personal fiances/investments I'm not sure why they have asked her to do this. We're game, especially since things are moving much more efficiently this go round.

The e-mail requesting this came through around 9:30am but I didn't notice it until closer to 10:30am.  This gave me 1.5hrs to track down Toby at work get him to sign, scan and e-mail it back to me so I could sign and fax to the Realtor. Everything went smoothly until I had to fax. I can't figure out why our fax machine has trouble faxing to the realtor's office, maybe it's a sign (I hope not). I use it for work on a regular basis and no ones complained but what can I do, I faxed it until they got a good copy. This took me to 11:30am and everything had to be in by noon. Eek!

Everything got in though and we got back a full copy for our records.  We did have to make a few corrections to the contract though. The seller's agent failed to include a few things that were on the original copy (such as the pool fence, equipment and heater) and then they had check off that the seller could accept back up offers! Which was not in our original copy. That got rectified pretty quickly. We haven't waited all this time to have someone else come in with another off, no way!

What's driving me crazy is that I'm finally getting a little tired of waiting.  We are almost at the 9 month mark and it appears that my dreams of going to Disney this calendar year are fading.  Our Realtor assures me that we're not the only ones waiting like this but at least there is stuff going on with the file at the banks. I will take this as a positive.  A watched pot never boils and it seems that a short sale never sells. Oh well, we've waited this long. Nothing else that we've liked has come up and I don't think I'd jump to a different house that was also a short sale.  Another house like the one we're waiting for that is a regular listing has a price over fifty thousand more than our offer. Crazy, things seem to be picking up as the inventory shrinks.

For now I think I'll continue crossing my fingers and try to focus on some other things on my "to do" list.  Hmmm, maybe I should start my Christmas shopping!  Have a great day!