Inside the Head of a TV Junkie

My opinion is this… Anyone who strips a home of every light fixture, every appliance, bathroom mirrors, etc. when moving out of a foreclosure should be sued by the banks and/or thrown in jail!

I found this really cute house yesterday that was lender owned. The problem was that in order for it to be move in ready, I would have to spend around $8000. I know no house will be perfect and will need some TLC before move in but not to the tune of $8000. These damaged properties are making it hard for me to find something affordable (especially since the banks don’t think I can afford much of a loan – jerks).

The real estate saga continues. Still searching for short term housing. Ugh… what a wonderful time of the year to be doing all of this. Do I sound stressed? :)

First, let me say this… I love the business of real estate.  NOT!

Here’s the deal.  Some of this may be  recap for those of you who are regular readers.  I have had an offer in on a short sale home since June.  The banks are kind of just jerking us around and it really does suck.  I had a renter secured for my condo for September but ended up losing her because of this whole short sale fiasco.  So, three weeks ago the listing agent told my agent that the first mortgage holder would have a final written acceptance of my offer in two weeks.  Armed with this knowledge, I posted my condo on Craigslist hoping to find a renter.  After the first week past and I had no responses to my post, I was worried.  I stressed that I would not have a renter to take over my condo and that I would have a new house that I may not be able to afford.  Another week passes and I get a hit on my Craigslist post.  I meet with the perspective tenants and they end up wanting to rent my place.  They request a move in date of 1/1/10.  I figure that it will be all good since I’m basically days away from a written acceptance from the last lien holder.

Not so much.

Last week, my agent gets a call from the listing agent saying that the bank wants 2 to 3 more weeks to make a decision.  WHAT?!  No good!  That means that there is no way that I will be able to close on the house before 1/1/10.  Now, I have a renter that is most definitely coming in on 1/1/10 and I have no house to go to.  I just can’t win.

So, this is where we stand at the moment.  Now I need to figure out if I want to move back in with mom (not really liking that idea) or if I find some sort of temp housing to move into until I finally do close on the house.  Ahhh!

More updates to follow.

Okay, so here’s the house update.

The house I’ve had an offer on since June is still not mine.  The first mortgage holder told us back at the end of October that it would be 2 weeks and they would have the approval letter for us and we could start the closing process.  This week, my agent got a call from the listing agent saying that the bank told her it would be another 2 to 3 weeks before we got an answer.  I guess the person that was working on the account has gone on vacation?  Who knows what the deal is.  But here’s the kicker, I have a renter that is moving in to my condo on 1/1/10.  WTF!  I now have 7 weeks to close on a house and move in… yeah right.

So what’s going to happen?  I’m not sure.  If I can’t get into this house before the first of January, I’ll have to find some other place to live.  That may mean I have to move back home with my mom for a few weeks.  That’s not horrible but at the same time, it’s not ideal.  I’ll have to move all my furniture twice.  Once to storage and then again to the new house.  Ugh.

My grand plan of upgrading from my 1000 sqft condo into an actual single family house has taken some interesting turns recently.  I found a place that is farther West from where I am currently located but is still in South Phoenix.  The house is 3 years old and is 1800 sqft and is in pretty good condition.  There are cosmetic things that need to be fixed but that’s understandable.  I put in an offer and since it is a short sale, expected it to take a few months to go through the entire process.  The first mortgage holder is now playing hard ball and wants more $$ for the house.  This request prompted me to go out last weekend and look at some other places.

As you would imagine, I found  a place I like more than the one I have an offer in with right now.  I decided to put an offer in on this new place as well just to cover my bases.  As it looks now, I probably won’t be officially putting an offer in on this second house as there are multiple offers and I think the price has gone over and above what the price should be for a house like that in this market.

Anyway, there is a negotiator assigned for WaMu on the second mortgage and hopefully that means that the process is almost complete.  Now let’s just hope that the renter I have lined up for my condo actually follows through and rents.  Fingers crossed!

P.S. I’ve been really bad at Blogging recently as you might have noticed.  I’m going to try to make more of an effort to update this site on a regular basis but I can make no promises.  What I need to do is take advantage of the WordPress iPhone App and blog from work during my down time (which is practically never these days!).

I was adjusting the curtains in my room and looked out the window and realized that I’ve never really looked out of my bedroom windows and checked out the view to the north of my house.  I have lived here for almost 3 years and never really appreciated what I can see.  Of course, this view isn’t directly out my window, you kind of have to be looking from the side, but it’s still there.  That’s probably why I’ve never really noticed it before.  I took a picture and you can see it below.  In the distance, above the roof tops of the other homes in my neighborhood, you can see the control tower at Sky Harbor and Camelback Mountain.  It was a pretty clear evening so the view was excellent.  I don’t know about the rest of you but I am a sucker for a good view.