House Update

Oh how naive I was going into this house buying experience! I really thought that you looked at houses, picked the one you liked, made an offer, the seller accepts, and you move in! Not so much, but this has been an incredible learning experience. I mean, where else would I learn about the terms "PMI" or "Seasoning" or "FHA loan" or "Comps". A month ago that wouldn't have meant anything to me.

Here's where we're at... (I feel bad that all of my blogs are only about the house right now)

Basically the owner did not do his own 2nd appraisal. Our loan guy has been working with the owner and they went back to the appraisal company (most reputable appraisal company in AZ supposedly) to have them do a more in-depth and extensive look at the house. Our realtor said that we're now getting the most accurate appraisal of any of his clients. I guess in the first appraisal some comps were missing which brought that price down pretty low. It's really hard to get an accurate amount since some are selling as short sales and foreclosures.

Jake and I decided to do one last offer with the seller paying the closing costs since we have to put down 10% for our conventional loan (couldn't get an FHA).

The seller came back with a counter. He bought a house across the street that was in foreclosure that he wants to flip and wants another good comp in the neighborhood, so he's asking for $3K more than the appraisal but he's offering us a $3500 incentive to go towards things like a new fridge and paying for a year's worth of HOA fees and stuff. This is probably pretty good for us because if he sells that other house for about the same or more, the value of our house goes up. We had to find out if this was even legal, as he's trying to up the value of the house and give us a kick back. What our realtor is doing is drawing up a page for the house where the seller agrees to buy us certain things for the house or pay for certain fees that we would have to pay that all end up totaling $3500, which makes it legal. So we've been looking at fridges online and stuff.

With all of that house mumbo jumbo said. We're taking the offer and signing an addendum today. We're hoping to close by Sept. 17th.

I can't believe we could actually own this house! It's amazing! I love it love it love it. And it's so much better to put money toward equity (like a savings account for the future) than to throw it away on rent for someone else's mortgage. We're hoping that one day we can sell it so that we can be back in SoCal with our kids (woops, did I say kids?). :) But if we end up "stuck in AZ", at least we're in our dream house there. We wouldn't mind being stuck there at all. And... you would love visiting - I promise. It's really a charming community.

Anyway, that's it I guess. Thank you so much family and friends for your love and support.