Last week I vented my house shopping frustrations about not finding houses I liked. It seems venting worked, because on Monday the right house came along. Our Realtor Danyl took us to see 3 more houses, of course the first couple weren't a fit. However Danyl was smart and saved the best for last! Pulling up we could already see the yard needed some work. No one was taking care of it and it was growing wild. Still there was a fence for a dog, some fruit trees and several beautiful rose bushes so I could already see it coming together. The inside was what really sold us though. The entire home was freshly remodeled, and I couldn't have done it any better if I picked everything out myself! It was exactly what I envisioned. The best part was, Bob loved it even more than I did! Naturally there was already on offer on the table so we had to work fast. We went back to Danyl's office and drew up our own offer right then and there. Then it was welcome to the waiting game....
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| The best view of the outside of the house we can get with all the tree's in the way |
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| Some pretty flowers I found in the front yard |
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| Perfect view of all our roses, and trees |
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| The backyard, where most of the work needs to be done |
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| Beautiful view of kitchen counters and cabinets |
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| Another kitchen shot |
For what felt like the longest 24+ hours of my life we waited to hear back about our offer. Finally some news, they accepted our offer! We were told the loan officer would contact us soon with more info on our loan. Sure enough, Nicole Ivey called the next day. So far, she kind of sucks! I felt like the entire conversation she was annoyed with my lack of loan knowledge (funny considering this loan is for FIRST TIME home buyers...). She was condescending and rude. I wish we could have used Jason Quinney who did our pre-qualification but unfortunately Nicole is the only loan officer in the state of Utah qualified to do the "American Dream" loan we are using. To top it off, she told us we needed to pay a $395 application fee! This was the first time we were told about the fee, but she wanted now! Bob looked up loan application fees, and while most banks don't have them, the ones that do charge $20-$50, so we were a little annoyed. Luckily for us once we brought this up, Nicole dropped several other fees that would equal about the same amount. We are still unimpressed with her lack of communication skills.... We can only hope she gets better as we work with her more.
Next we accepted the sellers counter offer, signed the papers and gave them our earnest money. Now our due diligence clock officially started ticking. We made an appointment with an inspector for next Wednesday, but we wanted to take our parents to the house before hand to see what they thought. Both sets of parents were thorough, pointing out little fixes that we didn't notice during our first walk through. At the end of it all, Bob's parents loved the house. My dad said it was a good little starter home and he's willing to help us with the fixes we do need, but he is a little weary of me moving to Kearns. My mom seemed completely unimpressed with the house, the price, the neighborhood, everything! It breaks my heart that she doesn't like it. My mom went home and immediately started looking at other houses for us. The biggest problem is the cheaper houses need a lot more work, and the nicer homes cost a lot more money. We even looked at many of the homes she sent us, and didn't like them. Nonetheless my mom's disappointment in the house led me to start second guessing our decision. It didn't sway Bob though, and after a long hard talk he was able to remind me why I loved the house in the first place.
To take my mind off of my house worries Bob took me to South Jordan Days on Saturday night. We wandered around some of the booths and Bob bought me a beautiful new dress. Finally we got some delicious Polynesian chicken and watched the fireworks while sharing our goals once we are in the house and our excitement at being so close to being home owners!
This morning was gay pride. I haven't missed pride in the last 4 years, but with everything else going on with the house and our vacation next month, I couldn't spare the time or the money to go. I did however meet up with Sarah and Renee at our normal pre-pride brunch at Marketstreet Grill. It was nice to catch up with the girls and tell them all about the house and our plans once we are in it.
After brunch Bob and I went down to Sam and Tessa's house to give Sam the painting we made him for his birthday. While we were down there Sam was nice enough to spend some time going over all our loan documents. He walked us through everything so that we really understood what we were looking at and gave us some advice moving forward with the house. Most important for us, he seemed to approve of the deal we are getting with this loan. It was really important to us that he be impressed with the loan since this is what he does for a living, and we really trust his opinion!
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