Appraising the Situation

House Update

So it has been a week since I last updated. A week since any post at all, I simply do not seem to have the energy to post "fluff" posts here on the blog, though if you have Facebook, you can follow the fan page there and see lovely photos and images that inspire me daily. Now back to the house update; so much has happened, yet very little has. Confused? Me too at times.... and add in stressed, a touch of frustration  a lot of frustration, mix in loads of worry over what could or could not happen and you have my whole last week!

It is enough to drive a person batty! 

When last I updated you and filled you in on where we were at, we had gotten into the garage, which turned out to be far less scary than we thought, and though not dry walled we found out that only the fire wall has to be, and most of that wall is and will only need one piece of dry wall. We know the newer hot water heater will have to be raised off the floor and strapped... that is California state law. The bad news in walking around again that day was the fact that we realized the old casement windows all will need to be replaced to pass FHA appraisal as many do not open, or are missing cranks and locks.... this was something that in all the excitement of finding a home we liked, in a neighborhood we also liked, (though in a town unfamiliar to us) we sort of missed. I say "sort of " because we did notice them, but no one knew if they would be flagged,  that is until we spoke to a friend who does appraisals for FHA told us indeed they would. THIS is a huge one! There are only 8 windows in the whole house, BUT after pricing new windows and figuring out an approximation cost for install ( though we have a friend who has done windows, I would rather have them done professionally... don't want anything that could possibly not pass FHA), we are looking at 3000.00! Now if you recall, we signed a contract that states "as is" , originally that was not a problem, now replacement of the windows and the price tag that comes with it may just be the reason we have to move on... this is all still a mystery however and may not even be the only one to come. Escrow is due to close just a little over 3 weeks away and we still do not have an appraisal.  After a long weekend of what ifs rolling in my head, expecting a date that an appraisal would happen yesterday, there was no word all day.... it was a very tense day.

When my hubby came home it was with the news that there was a stack of papers we had to RE-sign, and he had the email with the papers attached on them, but no actual papers. We had to re-sign the loan documents that had the address on it of the home we are trying to buy, as well as the documents to order the appraisal ... by the way found out the appraisal is different than an inspection, which we are waving because a FHA appraisal is probably more detail oriented , so going past the ten days is alright, or so I am told. ALSO, apparently when our mortgage broker told our agent that he had to wait for funding to order the appraisal and then has to wait 24-48 hours after the funding to order it, he failed to mention he was waiting on us to get him that funding. We knew we had to pay for it, but, but not that we had to do it before it was ordered. So here it is 8:30 at night and no papers to sign and credit card information not given to the broker, so no appraisal ordered yet. I was very upset. It was not the delay that upset me as much as the ball being dropped. My daughter who is buying the home with us stated to me to calm down, it was not like we were the only clients, and there had been a weekend in the middle of all this, but where our agent had been told the appraisal would be ordered yesterday, and no calls and no emails were returned to her and no calls made to us till late in the day, well that, is what upset me! Hubby drove to Staples and got the papers printed out, our daughter came over to sign them... then another hiccup ... some of the papers were missing. So now at 9:30 at night a trip across town to print out the rest of the papers, this time at Kinkos as they are open 24 hours and then a drive back home and at just past 10 p.m. last night all the papers were signed and hopefully today our mortgage broker will stop by my husbands job and pick the papers up as well as the funding for the appraisal..... now it is time to wait.. AGAIN! More days where I sit for hours at a time, stuck in the four walls of the apartment ( since it is too hot and the air is filled with smoke from three local fires; no walks for me) , and I await word for when the appraisal will happen. I pray it happens before the end of the week, but fully expect it sometime early next week. 

We all know what to expect when the appraisal finally happens.... or we hope we do. The more time I sit quietly in the apartment with only the cat and my own thoughts for company, I worry.  Now it is also about the roof being in good enough condition, the a.c. unit ( that is on the roof of the house so we could not see it) not passing, and when all if any of these things on top of the grocery list of little things needing to be done and with the windows needing to be replaced that once all those things come to light the owner who said "as is" meant it and will not work with us and will end the deal. I also worry that even if he will concede that he will go back on that, that the appraisal will not come back as we need it. If it comes in lower than the asking, we are good as we can possibly re-work the deal, include a 203k which will pay for all the work needing to be done , if it comes in right at asking, that is not a good thing as FHA will not pay the difference between what we offered and what the asking price is.  Appraising at the "adjusted loan amount" , meaning what the loan is really for after our down payment, would be perfect... in fact appraising a bit over is better for us, less money out of pocket... but it hopefully will not appraise for over what we offered. These are the thoughts , the thoughts of all the variables that are dancing in my head. I feel as if I am walking on the edge and could fall over at any moment, but that moment is taking its own sweet time to happen. All I can do is hang on for dear life and wait until the appraiser comes and appraises the situation at hand.

Till next week.....