House Buying // Part 7

Part 7: Moving Right Along

In my last update, I told you that our offer was accepted (out of multiple offers) and we would start our due diligence immediately. Now we are at the end of our due diligence and the financial side is falling into place. The appraisal and inspection have both been done and now we're getting down to the nitty-gritty.

Here's what happened:

• The day our due diligence started, I had to turn in our earnest money check to be held in an account by my Realtor.
• Then, I had to schedule an inspection of the home ASAP. Two days later, I met the inspector at the house and we walked through the exterior and interior and he pointed out anything that wasn't up to code or would be in need of replacement. He showed me areas where improper drainage could cause future damage, where an extra rail should be placed for safety, and he even discovered that the doorbell doesn't work! This was about 3 hours long, and my realtor showed up for the last part so we could all go over the items we would ask the sellers to fix before they go. This was honestly a really good learning experience and I'm really glad I went along to see everything he assessed. Overall, there wasn't much to report and the house was truly in amazing shape! The next day we received the inspection report that broke down every minor issue.. complete with pictures. There was a wiggly toilet and a couple small electrical issues that we ended up asking them to fix, and we'll have to wait and see if they'll take care of those or decide to leave them on us. 
• Next we met with our loan officer to get our loan to an underwriter. Basically we just had to provide a bunch of legal documents (paystubs, tax forms, etc...) and sign a stack of papers. She wrote up our loan based on the price we offered, but it would depend on the appraisal outcome. 
• The final piece was the appraisal. This was very stressful because we were CERTAIN it would appraise for $10,000 less than what we offered, based on the prices of the neighborhood. This would be bad, because your loan is based on the appraisal and they won't loan you more than what the house is actually worth. In the case that it appraised too low, we would have to negotiate with the sellers to bring the price closer to the appraisal, but if they didn't bring it down low enough, we would have to bring more cash to the table... which we probably wouldn't have been able to. Then, we'd lose the house and the costs of inspections, etc.. that we had already put into it. So the wait for the appraisal was very nerve-wracking. 
  While I was gone this last week on vacation, our loan officer called to let me know the results of the appraisal........ and it came back at the list price! This means that our offer was right on the money and our loan is being written up for the exact right amount. This couldn't have been more perfect! Praise the Lord!

Now, our due diligence is over and we are really, actually buying this house. It seems like a dream! Our close date is in June and until then, we basically just sit back, wait on our loan to be processed, and decide on paint colors ;) Thank you all for your prayers and continued support! Tom asked me what I'll write about once this is all over, and then quickly injected "House Decorating Journey?!" So maybe I'll have to try my hand at DIY again, afterall (even though I swore it off because I'm terrible at it). But again, until the keys are in hand, this house isn't ours! 

Those of you with homes, what did you do during this wait? Should I start packing?! I'm thinking it's time to purge some of our things or sell them online.