The Appraiser's Phone Call.

Things are still going pretty slow.  However, we did get a call from the bank appraiser this week.  It was an interesting conversation.  I can’t wait until we get the final report.  Our conversation went something like this.

Me: Hello

Appraiser: Hello, this is Mr. Appraiser with the appraisal company.  I just did the walk through on the property you are purchasing for the bank.

Me: Hi there Mr. Appraiser.  How are things?

Appraiser: Great.  And you.

Me: Couldn’t be better.  What can I help you with.

Appraiser: Well, I just did the walk through with your realtor, and asked him these questions, but would quite honestly feel better if I asked you directly if you don’t mind.

Me: Sure, not a problem.  Ask anything you like.

Appraiser: Ok...  Have you actually seen the house?

Me: Yes, we where there a couple of weeks ago.  Why?

Appraiser: Well, it looks… a little… not taken care of.

Me: Yes, I agree.  It’s a foreclosure.  We have to take it in as is condition.

Appraiser: So you have seen the paint on the walls.

Me: Yes.  It’s going to be some work to do fix and repairs.

Appraiser: And to verify, how much are you paying for the place.

Me: We are paying the bank the asking price to prevent a bidding battle.

Appraiser: I see.  Ok, thanks.  That is all I needed to know. 

Me: Not a problem.  Can I ask you something?

Appraiser: Sure.

Me: Why are you asking?  Is there something I need to know.

Appraiser: No, no.  I just wanted to verify directly with you the purchase price and that you know what your getting into.

Me: Yes we know, hopefully.  Is there anything Unofficial I need to know.

Appraiser: Well…. Yes, the wall paint colors are ugly.

Me: <laughing>  Am not going to disagree with you there.

Appraiser: <laughing>

Me: Maybe it looked really good with the previous owners furnature and we are just seeing it out of context.

Appraiser: <laughing harder>  Ok.  As long as you know.

Me: No worries there.  By the cay, can I get a copy of the report.

Appraiser: I have to send it to the bank, but see no reason why they wouldn’t give you a copy.

Me: Ok.  Thanks.  Will send my broker an e-mail right now.

Appraiser: Sounds good.  If I have any more questions will let you know.

Me: Ok.  Thanks again, have a great day.

???

The Mortgage Inspection

Now we are pretty much in the waiting process.  I think it’s the waiting that is so hard.  There is nothing we can do but wait.  It’s up to other people like the bank and title company to get all of the paperwork done.  This shouldn’t be too hard.  Everything is cut and dry.  It’s a foreclosure, so we are purchasing the home in as is condition for the set price.  The paperwork just needs to be filed with the appropriate authorities.  Shouldn’t be too hard right?  Right???

About mid week our Mortgage Company called and scheduled the inspection and appraisal.  Standard procedure to assure that there is a house where we say there is one and that it is worth what we are paying for.  We called our realtor to let him know as they will need an escort in accordance with the bank contract.

Our realtor was in the area the next day anyways and stopped by to look at the house.  The water had just been turned on by the water company and apparently, there is another pipe leaking water outside of the house.  Luckily they had just turned it on about 20 minutes beforehand so there was no water damage.  Our realtor turned off the water.  We got permission again to have the plumber go over to fix the pipe before the mortgage inspection as long as it was at our cost.

The plumber went over and apparently it was a previously damaged pipe from the freeze this past winter that all of us had missed.  With the addition of water pressure, it was just too much for the little thing and it burst.  $183 later it’s all fixed.

We are now over $200 into this house, and we don’t even own it yet.  I hope this is not a view of what is yet to come and the rest of the fix up will be smooth sailing.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed.  In the mean time it’s a wait and see.

The Drive Home.

The drive home was relative uneventful, although we did do some more sightseeing along the way.  Figured we might as well. Who knows if we would be able to do this at a later time and might as well take advantage of the time and location.

Along the way we got a phone call from our realtor.  He finally heard back from the seller’s agent.  We have received the official permission to either go on the property ourselves unaccompanied or allow a plumber to go on the property in order to fix the pipes for the Bank Inspection.  We also received permission to put the utilities in our name for the inspection. However, we can only do this as a onetime instance and any other entrance to the property until closing is prohibited without additional permission.

Everyone had a good laugh at this one since it was already done.  However, the seller’s agent was on vacation and didn’t get the message until it was too late.  Glad we didn’t wait on her since we are now out of the area and couldn’t fix it ourselves.  But now at least we have the official permission to do so and won’t get into too much trouble over it later on.  She has to know that we already did the work, so this might just be to cover her side as well.

We also received a call from out mortgage broker.  He needed some documents signed right away.  So we found a Staples near our location and had him send the documents through e-mail.  Once the Documents were on the smartphone, they where printed out, signed, had Staples fax them to the broker and then overnight the originals.  Who says you need to be at an office to get paperwork done.

The dogs got picked up from the kennel and are so happy.  It took ten minutes of them doing a happy dance of joy before they could be loaded into the car to head home.  Now the waiting begins.

Last Day Here

Our mortgage broker called and stated that he needed all of the utilities turned on before the bank inspection.  We are going forward, so we have to get the utilities in our name to get this to happen.  It’s a foreclosure and the bank has no obligation to do much of anything.  In the interest of time, we are going to do it ourselves.  The gas was no problem and will be turned on next week.

The water is no problem with the water company and will also be turned on next week.  But here is the problem.  The frozen pipes are still busted and when the water gets turned on, it will flood everything.  Our contract states that we are not allowed to do anything or have anything done to the property until closing.  However, if the water is not turned or is broken, the bank will not give us a mortgage.  Our realtor is trying to get in contact with the sellers agent to get permission to go in and fix the pipes at our expense before the inspection, but she seems to have gone on vacation.

It’s a dilemma.  So, we run off to the hardware store and get all the parts, go to the house and fix the pipes.  It is a risk and cost to use, but we would have to do it anyways before anyone can move in.  And there is no other way to get the home inspection done on time.

Our home inspector is great and promised to come back before the inspection and after the water is turned on to make sure there are no leaks inside.

Some of the frozen pipes

We got our home inspection report and there is nothing major wrong with the house.  There might be some issues in the future, but this is ten to twenty years from now in the future and can be calculated into maintenance costs.  He only charged us the 100$ to go back do the inspection twice.

Today is our last day at the house while it is in escrow and we have to head back home.  We drove by one more time and met a few more neighbors.  One family that lived up the road came by to tell us that we bought the house that they wanted, but we had snatched it up before they had a chance to get their paperwork in order.  There are no hard feelings and everyone seems really nice.

Now is the hard part, the wait.  We are starting our dive home knowing that everything else is out of our hands and we did everything we could do here.  It’s just the wait on others to get the paperwork in order to complete the deal.  Let’s cross our fingers and pray that all of this was not in vain. 

Our Official Home Inspection

The plumber called us and gave us his recommendations on what needed repair before anyone could move in.  It was mostly some frozen pipes that had cracked that would have an issue when the water came on. 

We met with the home inspector and had already done a background check on him with our smart phones.  He had all his credentials we had asked for and seems very knowledgeable.  Plus, he is willing to do the inspection with us asking a million questions along the way.

Tree Root Issue.

We did the outside walk through first.  Everything seemed in good repair on the structure.  There were some minor cosmetic cracks from tree roots, but the foundation looks good.  There are some strange wires that are live on the patio that needs to be either covered or removed.

The electrical bypass line had been removed and the back yard looked normal again except for some dirt that had been disturbed by the electrical company.  Grass would grow over it in no time.

Then we went inside.

We started to walk around the first floor.  Everything looked good.  We switched on the hall light and it started to flicker.  Thought this was odd since it wasn’t doing that the previous day. Figured maybe it just needs a new light bulb. 

Just then the seller’s real estate company’s maintenance person came in to do the weekly vacuuming, and grass cutting etc.  While he was setting up his vacuum cleaner, we turned on the dining room lights and they were very dim.  When the guy turned on the vacuum cleaner, the vacuum sputtered like it wasn’t getting enough electricity and the lights in the dining room got brighter.  When he turned off the vacuum, the lights got dimmer and started to flicker.  It looked like ghosts in a haunted house from an old TV movie.  The maintenance guy was completely freaked out, along with the rest of us.  He said the house was not doing this last week when he was here.  The Home Inspector said he never saw anything like it.  All of the lights downstairs randomly flickered when the power was switched on.  The vacuuming had to be done off a generator in the back of the maintenance truck.

My husband and the inspector went to look at the fuse box to see if they could find a cause of the haunted house lights.  I went into the kitchen and turned on the light switch.  The lights in the kitchen went on for about 2 seconds.  Then there was a loud pop and smoke started to come out from the microwave and the AC completely stopped working.  I switched off the light immediately as the house filled with smoke.

Before the Explosion

My husband and the home inspector had heard the pop from outside and ran back into the kitchen.  We shut off the power to the electric panel and opened all the windows and doors to evacuate the smoke.  At this point I am ready to walk on the place.  No way do I want to go through a whole house electrical replacement.  The realtor, home inspector, and my husband try to talk me out of walking.  Told them I would have think about it overnight.

On our way outside all three of us met our next door neighbor.  She was the one that had that electrical bypass to her house.  When we asked about the bypass, she gave us the rundown.

Apparently the cable company was redoing all of the underground wires to the homes in the neighborhood and had damaged the electrical line to their house.  There lights were flickering off and on.  Her TV and toaster oven and several outlets had burned up.  I nearly started to cry in relief in that we had an answer.

She gave us the contact information to the cable company and told us that they replaced and repaired all of her stuff yesterday.  It looks like they damaged our line while they were repairing hers. 

We contacted the cable company who put us in contact with the contractor.  He came out and looked at everything and promised to have it all repaired before the home inspection by the bank.  However, the appliances would have to wait until after the closing if that was ok with us.  We are good with that, as long as it gets done.

Our Home Inspection

We finally arrived after our road trip.  It took an extra day.  Mostly because we saw an opportunity for a little detour to see some cool caves in the area. 

First thing we did is go straight to the house.  We met our realtor there.  None of the utilities were turned on except the electricity, which was a disappointment, but everything else seemed to be ok.

Old AC

The electrical panel needs replacing.  Our realtor told us that it was the model that is prone to catch fire in that part of the country.  He has access to a licensed electrician that will come in, put in the new box, and label all the circuits.

The water heater appears to be fairly new and should work just fine.  The air conditioner looks really old, but it works and we won’t have to replace it.  Some of the glass window panes are cracked and these are an easy handyman repair.  There are some strange water pipes in the back yard sticking out of the ground that appear to be cracked from a freeze.  Our realtor will have his plumber look at them later this afternoon.

There is an electrical junction box for the neighborhood in the back yard.  Attached to it is an electrical line that goes over the fence and into the neighbor’s yard and into their meter.  It almost looks like the neighbor may be stealing electricity, but that can’t be right, so we will call the electrical company.  All in all, it really just needs some catch up on differed maintenance, cleaning, and painting.

The realtor will have his home inspector here tomorrow.  However, the plumbing and gas would not be able to be turned on unless we put the bills in our names and this would take a week to process.

We called the electrical company and they said no, the neighbors were not stealing electricity.  Apparently the neighbors had an electrical issue and needed to have what was called a bypass to operate off of until the repair was made.  The bypass repair was scheduled to happen that afternoon so everything should be good by the time the home inspector gets there.

A couple of times during the day we drove around the area to look for any signs of dismay and found none.  The neighborhood looks great.  The schools are very well maintained.  The kids are playing outside and show respect to the adults.  No boom boxes blaring loudly.  No excess of cars in front of homes.  We are very happy with the appearance.

Then we drove over to the Home Owners Association office to get a copy of the deed restrictions and to meet with the Association Manager.  She was very nice and gave us a clean copy to review.  Then she told us all about the neighborhood and the city in general.  Plus, we got some great sightseeing tips of the local area.