Back To Square One

I feel like life has been on chaos mode nonstop now since around Christmas time. Here is an update for those who are following along. For those who haven’t, read my two previous posts market madness and third time is a charm.

Now that you are all caught up with what’s going on…

So we finally were under contract with the third house we put an offer on, yay. This past week we had the inspection for the new house. We were very surprised at how many things came up, big things. With an FHA loan, you cannot be approved with certain “pre-existing conditions”. The seller had previously used this house as a rental property. Knowing what I do about landlords (from experience), I just knew it wasn’t likely that all of these repairs would be made on his dime. We sent the addendum for repairs anyway, to give him a chance. Initially, we heard back that he wasn’t going to do everything. We knew we didn’t want, nor have the amount of money to get the house where it needed to be. More than that, we knew we couldn’t get the loan even if we wanted to make the repairs ourselves.

By this point, Chris and I had begun talking a lot about the house. Were we settling? In all honesty, I felt like all the houses we looked at would be settling for me. Mainly for the fact that I really wanted a 4 bedroom house, that way if we do decide to have another child, we wouldn’t have to uproot our family again. We just knew what we wanted wasn’t in our current price range. Of course, they were just out of reach!

We decided to back out of the contract for the house. Once we signed the papers, the seller immediately responded with “I will make all the repairs!” We just felt like it was too late.

We talked to our lender about our plan to pay off a substantial amount of debt with our profit from our house. He instructed us that we would get the budget that we needed once that is paid off. The problem then lies that we would have to temporarily live elsewhere, after closing, for the credit report to update (which takes about 2 weeks). Fortunately for us, we have very gracious and giving family. Chris’ parents offered to let us live with them for a few weeks while everything is getting sorted out. We are incredibly grateful for them!

Once we had the go ahead, the search continued. Yesterday (Sunday) we spent the majority of the day looking at houses. Many had potential, but they just didn’t fit what we wanted. Then there was one that we both fell in love with. At the time that we saw the house, there had been no offers on it. We knew if we wanted it, we didn’t have time to waste. We wound up going back to see this house with our realtor because we value her opinion on details. We finally decided yes, we want to make an offer.

I was excited that no other offers were in. I figured that would give us a greater chance. The difference with this house, at least for me, is I actually will be upset if we don’t get it. The other houses, I easily let go of. I know that’s because in my heart they weren’t exactly what I wanted. At least, not for a house that would allow us room to grow our family more. I kept hoping I wouldn’t have to settle for less than what I wanted.

We got our offer submitted. It didn’t take long before we heard we were now not the only ones and more were coming. We are still currently waiting, but we think we have a very strong offer. If we don’t get the house, I am really feeling like giving up and possibly moving to a rental until we decide what to do next (maybe build). This process has been so exhausting. I know we will be happy once we finally get where we are going, but the getting there almost feels never ending. One thing after another, up and down like a roller coaster. My brain is just constantly spinning.

With that going on, we also have our normal life going on. On top of, the repairs being made to our house, people constantly coming in and out. Constantly keeping the house in the most pristine condition, with kids, can be tiresome. I’m just ready for it to be over. I know the stress hinders my weight loss progress, too. Everything is just bizirk right now. Hopefully, there is an end to this madness. Hopefully we get good news today.

Fingers crossed,

Jenn