Fast Forward to CLOSED

OK, so I skipped a bunch of stuff... but we have closed on a home! Here's a "before" video. We've already gotten to work and I'll be posting progress videos as we go along.

I'm sure that those of you who have been through the house hunt, especially in a market as competitive as ours, can sympathize with the feeling that life is on hold until an offer comes through and you get to closing day. My whole family and I are so ready for this search to be done. We've been at it for about six months now! We are excited to be able to get on with our lives, our new lives, as homeowners.

Offer #8

I don't really want to get into the nitty-gritty, but it looks like our long-held offer #7 is falling through. Let's just say I am sick of banks. So we're back to making offers and we submitted #8 today.... for your consideration:

Bungalow with swing-worthy front porch
Built in 1907
Two stories
large lot
large dining room
large kitchen
two bathrooms
bonus room
FIVE bedrooms.

And it has one of these in the front yard:

which I think would be really awesome used for something like this:

Getting the rug pulled out...

We were feeling pretty confident and relaxed about our house situation. Of course, we knew that we were dealing with a short sale and that meant a chance that the bank would not approve the sale and that we'd be in for a long process. But, we had an accepted offer and we were ready to sit back and take a breather from the house hunt process. I was even decorating the place in my mind. Then, on Sunday as we were leaving the house, we noticed some Open House signs (the house is only a couple of blocks from our current digs). I ordered my husband to turn around and what do we behold but an Open House at "our" house!

Turns out that realtors do this a lot. They hold an open house at a home already under contract as a way to reel in more clients. But we also learned that if a higher offer comes in before the bank approves the sale then we'll be kicked to the curb.

So, we're back to looking again, because we'd hate to lose months and months of valuable hunting time, just to have this deal fall through on us. Nobody ever let on that this would be an easy process!

Escrow! (sort of...)

Offer #7 (lucky 7?) has been accepted! That means that we are, in effect, in escrow. Of course, Lucky 7 is a short sale. So that means that it could be 3-8 months before we even get to the inspections and what-not. And the bank could still say "no". But, it is better than nothing!

offer #7

A 2 bedroom, 1 bath Spanish style home with an enormous kitchen and a one-car garage in Highland Park. It is in excellent condition. The trade-off is that the lot is a bit smaller than our ideal, but this house could be an excellent investment.

offer #6

Looks like we'll be submitting offer #6 pretty soon! It is a 1899 craftsman, two stories, four bedrooms 1 3/4 baths wit a large lot and a 3 (!) car garage located in Highland Park very convenient to shopping, transportation, and a park. And it has lovely built-ins and a couple beautiful stained glass windows! It also comes with problems, of course, like a foundation in need of repair and termite issues and a bad roof on the garage, but we've decided we're willing to give it a go!

offer #5

While we still sit waiting for the bank that owns offer #3 to contact us (it has been more than a week already!) and wait and wonder whether the first offer on #4 fell through leaving us in first place, we went ahead and submitted offer #5. It is a 1950's cottage-y 3 bedroom with a two car garage, a large usable yard and a covered patio in northwest Pasadena. We would need to scrape the popcorn ceilings and redo the floors before moving in, and probably a handful of other things but it seems to be in generally good condition and is a cute place. One of these days one of these offers has to come through for us, right?!?

Slow as...

We are still waiting to hear from the bank about whether they have accepted our offer on the 1940s bungalow in Altadena. The waiting game is such a tough one!!!

On pins and needles

We're supposed to find out today whether the bank that owns the Altadena house has accepted our offer! I hope they make their decision today, or else we'll have to wait until Monday...

An interesting turn of events...

We were contacted by our buyers agent with some interesting news. Apparently our third offer, which we had written off as a no-go, is now asking if we are still interested!

The house is a cozy 2 bedroom 1940s bungalow in Altadena. It is a small house, but well maintained with lots of natural light from brand new windows and hardwood floors lurking under some run-down carpet. It is on a large lot with nice, mature landscaping (and a lemon tree) with a two car garage that has a utility sink and washer/dryer hook ups.

The next step is to have our offer approved by the bank that owns the house and we'll know by Friday if we're in! Then we'll start our inspection/escrow/closing process.

I have to admit I was feeling pretty discouraged about our search the past few days, and now this! It just goes to show, you have to keep the faith.

offer #4

Today we submitted our fourth offer on a home. It is a four bedroom (holy lots of living space, Batman!) 1.75 bath bungalow built in 1910. It's definitely a bit of a problem house, but it has an extra large living room, dining room and kitchen and the bedrooms are all big. The kitchen and bathrooms were all fairly recently remodeled. Unfortunately the last owner also decided to lay down ceramic tile in the living room, dining room and kitchen, so that would be one of the first things to go. As far as we can tell, all the issues this house has will be well worth it just to have all that space! Now all we can do is keep our fingers crossed.