Odd as it may seem to OPEN talking about CLOSING, in this case, it works. My boyfriend of 4 years and I got engaged while I was traveling in Europe (it is hard to beat Valentine's Day in Paris as a time and place to get engaged!) and pretty quickly established some of the basics for the wedding: we knew who we wanted in the wedding party, we knew we wanted to get married in my parents' backyard, and we wanted my uncle to officiate. We made these details official, told the family and friends and then spent our time enjoying being young, in love and in Europe for a week :)
J returned home after a week, but I still had another 1.5 months traveling (I know, tough break, right?) ... which complicated the fact that we wanted to buy a house and qualify for the $8,000 tax refund for first time home buyers. We started looking at listings online while we were still in Europe and J agreed to look at the houses while I was traveling and we could finalize everything when I got home ... instead he fell in love with a gorgeous lofted condo in Lake Ridge which was a short sale and I told him to jump on it. It is in the PERFECT location -- equally convenient (or inconvenient ...) for each of our commutes in opposite directions, was in our budget, in GREAT shape and just felt NICE. So, J jumped.
Ya know the problem with short sales? It's not just you and the person selling that you have to deal with ... noooo ... you ALSO have to deal with at least one of the sellers banks (depending on how many mortgages they have). Luckily there was only ONE third-bank, which made things easier. The seller wanted to renegotiate our offer and we reached an agreement ... and had a contract drawn up in time to qualify for the tax refund deadline. We were pre-approved for the mortgage ... all we had to do was wait for the bank. And wait. And wait.
While we were waiting (and waiting and hearing HORROR stories about people who tried to buy short sales ...) ... that pre-approved mortgage turned out to be NOT so pre-approved ... we scrambled to work something out with the lender who worked with my parents on their refi's ... and then we heard back that our offer had been approved. Fantastic ... we had the condo ... but, as of yet ... no mortgage. Super. We proceeded with setting a date for closing as the lender was confident that we would get financing ... so we set the closing date for Tues. May 25. Then our lender asked us to move it up to Wed, May 19 as she would be out of town the other date. We get final approval on the mortgage on Monday, May 17 and everything is looking good! We wake up Wednesday morning for the final walkthough and closing and have an email telling us that the paperwork from that third party bank has not been received yet ... and without it we can't close. So we wait. And wait. And wait ... and find out that they don't like the placement of a few sentences (and that moving them doesn't change the meaning of the contract at ALL!) ... but that they won't sign until the changes are made ... which means a new contract ... which means no closing today ...
Closing was rescheduled for Friday afternoon ... and when J arrived to sign everything he was informed that the money from OUR lender had been wired back due to NOT closing on Wednesday ... so again ... no closing. We rescheduled for Monday with a back-up date for Tuesday just in case. J goes in Monday after work ... and just over an hour later ... WE ARE HOME OWNERS!!!!
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