I can't believe I'm buying a house!

Talk about starting a new chapter in my life. It's been almost four years since I went through the horrible experience of selling my Saint Paul condo in a short sale. At the time, I really didn't think I would ever own another home. I had this crazy thought in my head that "at my age, I really shouldn't be getting into a 30-year-mortgage." I honestly had written off the prospect. 

Last summer, I heard the news that new market-rate apartments were being built in Albert Lea bordering the Wedgewood Cove Golf Course. The rent would be $1150 a month for a two-bedroom townhome, but it would have such luxuries as a dishwasher, a washer and dryer in the unit and an attached garage that wouldn't require me to measure the size of my car to see if it would fit. 
Sadly, those were things I cared about. 

When I ran into a local realtor in August, she asked why I wasn't considering buying a house instead of continuing to rent. I gave her all my rationale and she gave me the name of a banker who she said could make it happen. And he did. (Big shout-out to Brad at MBT Bank in Lake Mills, Iowa)

Then the search began. I obsessively looked at all the local listing (having downloaded every real estate app in existance) and tried to find a house that would match my "have-to-have" list: three bedroom minimum, attached garage, located on the north side of town and in my price range. 

When Lynn, my realtor, told me she had a house getting ready to go on the market that she felt was a perfect home for me, I was excited. Then told me the location was the opposite side of town that wanted to be on. I thought what the heck, give a look. Before we walked into the house for the first viewing, Lynn mentioned she thinks the owner watches a lot of HGTV. Talk about getting my attention. 

I couldn't believe my luck. Three bedroom rambler with an attached garage, recently refinished hardwood floors throughout the house, new roof, new furnace, central air, and new granite countertops in the kitchen. And in my price range. Suddenly, being on the north side of town was quickly crossed off my "have-to-have" list. 

Within a week and another walk-through, and before the house was even listed, I made an offer and the sellers accepted. Holy crap! I'm gonna be a home owner again. And even more so, I'll be moving in December/January. In Minnesota. 

Since this is going to be an adventure, I thought it was a great time to restart the blog. You can come along with me as try to create my model HGTV home. It could be especially interesting because, as an adult, I haven't ever lived in a real house. With driveways to be shoveled. And lawns to be mowed. I don't even own a snow shovel. 

Home Ownership - NOT!

As of this afternoon, I am no longer a home owner. It was a long and, at times, ridiculous path to sell the condo with more and more hoop jumping requested by the bank.

I've talked about my problems with the bank - classic one hand not knowing what the other hand is doing. And that continued until the very bitter end. 

When I had a viable offer and the bank had finished processing their paperwork (which only took from August to November!!), their lawyers notified me that the bank had ended the foreclosure proceedings and, if the pending sale did fall through, I would be able to do deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure. Deed-in-lieu is basically just giving them the keys.

Speaking of keys and one hand not knowing blah, blah, blah ... <outstanding transition, eh?>, I got quite the surprise earlier this month. The buyers were going to do a final walk-through with their contractor on November 11th. Brian (my agent) called to ask me if I knew what happened to the lock-box with the keys. It wasn't hanging on the garage door. Ironically, I had discovered it was missing just the day before, but assumed that he had taken the lock-box down because of the sale approval.

I told him not to worry, that I was going to St. Paul the very next day to do a final cleaning of the place (lots of odds and ends left in the condo as well as more than a few condiments in the fridge). I would get a new lock-box, put a set of my keys in it, and would leave it hanging on the garage.

The next day I looked around the complex to see if someone just put the lock-box on someone else's garage by mistake. Nope. So I headed into the building and up the stairs to my condo.

Just looking at the condo door, I immediately knew something was different. The dead bolt and door knob looked far too shiny. Well, my bank and/or their legal minions had cut off the lock-box and changed the locks on the condo door. They would later explain that they were worried about the place since no one was living there.

When I returned to Rochester, I gathered all the remaining keys - building key, garage door key and mail box keys - and sent them to Brian and he contacted the bank to get the new keys. It only took the bank two weeks to figure out which minion had the keys. Brian received them just this morning - the morning of the closing!

I know that I'll miss some parts of being a home owner - going to Home Depot to pick out paint and hanging pictures using whatever method I want - but I'm not going to miss the stress of mortgage payments and condo association dues and having financial decisions that impact me decided by a vote of association members. I'm not going to miss the neighbor who had memorized the association rules and would tattle if you broke any.

I'm done with being a home owner for awhile. Anyone need a room painted?

Jealous, a bit

It's been almost a year since I started my job here at Mayo Clinic and moved to the Rochester area. Shortly after moving, I put my condo on the market, knowing that I will have to do a short sale since the condo market had tanked.

www.nataliedee.com

I was thrilled in May when I finally had an offer and the Realtor (Brian) sent stacks and stacks of paperwork to the bank for processing the sale.  Brian told me that it usually takes about six to eight weeks before we would hear back from the bank with the answer. However, Brian had worked with this bank a lot and they had been getting the paperwork through at a much faster pace. Great news!

At the same time, two of my co-workers here at Mayo were also in the process of selling their homes. Since I knew the stress of waiting, I wasn't even sure I should mention my news. Jessie' townhome had been on the market since January or so and wasn't getting much activity while Alicia had just put her home on the market. Soon after my offer, Alicia got one and we were keeping our fingers crossed for Jessie.

A big surprise came at the end of July when I learned that the bank had lost all my paperwork and NOTHING on the sale of the house had been processed. Then we had to stress that the buyer might not be willing to wait to do the process ALL over again. The frosting on the cake: I received notice of pending foreclosure! (Bank: Short sale? What short sale?)

For two weeks, Brian struggled to get things straighten out with the bank. Even faxes were getting misplaced. Most of the month of August has been spent trying to get everything back on track and moving forward.

Good news arrived for Jessie in the month of August. She got an offer on her house and the buyers wanted to take possession within 2 weeks! Today, she's out of the office, at the closing. Alicia's closing is tomorrow.  I will admit that I'm a bit jealous.

Okay, a lot jealous.

I knew what I was getting into when I started this journey, especially considering the economy and the housing market. I am also completely aware that there are so many short sales and foreclosures going on that the people at the bank processing those stacks and stacks of paperwork are over-whelmed. I just wish it wasn't my paperwork that they had to misplace.

You might be surprised to hear me say that the people that I've talked with at the bank have been awesome, polite and understanding. Vice versa, I've decided that there's no reason for me to treat them poorly; as individuals, it's not their fault.

You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned the bank. I could use social media lambaste them, but why bother? They've treated me like a nameless faceless person. I think I'll do the same back to them.