Home buying update 7/01

So we found out this morning that most of the houses in the area that we like are with Suntrust.


There are two others that we are going to view on Friday.


One had a sell fall through but the agent kept the sell going with Suntrust so she's about 30 days in with the bank. This place and the house we have an offer with are identical.


Then there is another house that is the same subdivision. It's the same size but it doesn't have a formal dinning room, but it has a bigger kitchen. No information on this place yet, but it's listed in the MLS as a bank approved short sale with "QUICK CLOSING ANTICIPATED-"


These two houses are officially coined plan C.

House Buying update 6/30

So we found out today that Suntrust, the bank that has the first mortgage, hasn't even looked at our offer that we gave them a week ago. We also found out today that the orignal time frame of 60 days for an approval would be extended. They didn't even bother to give us a time frame this time, just that it would be longer than 60 days.

That just steams me. I really feel bad for the seller. Our offer is the only one that they've had in the 3 months that the house has been on the market. We are pretty sure that the offer would be excepted but we can't wait the extra time that it may take to get Suntrust to approve the sell. We have to be out of our apartment at the end of August and the First Time Home Owner credit expires at the end of November.

Oh and Suntrust took a nice 3 BILLION dollar bail out. So Daniel and I are paying their bills and they can't even look at our offer.

So far we've limited ourselves to Oakleaf Plantation because we love the area, it's also a nice half way point between my parents out in Fleming Island and Daniel's on the Westside. It has to be townhouse since my parents have trouble walking up stairs which limits them from visiting me now. It has to be in a USDA are for our loan type. We've been approved for more but mentally we don't want to get any higher than 105k

I'm just so tired with this whole buying a house thing. We've got 2 other properties that we like and we are going to try and view them this Friday.

Good Pillow Night

This is one of those....wow they are kind of said stories.....

Daniel and I have about 4 pillows on our bed. Only one of those pillows is good. It's a memory foam pillow that is just great. The rest are normal stuffing pillows. They are old and therefor flat as a pancake. They offer no support and have to be balled up to make them decent.

So each night we rotate who has the good pillow. That person sleeps well the other person gets to toss and turn. That person does not sleep well.

Tonight is Daniel's Good Pillow Night.

The longs about short sales.

Since Daniel and I currently have an offer on a townhouse that is a short sale I've been reading everything that I can about the subject. It's really kind of sad. A short sale is when the home owner is selling the house for less than the mortgage with the hopes that their lender will forgive the difference. In the last two weeks I've read almost every single website that has the word short sales on it. The people who are doing this are trying to avoid being foreclosed on. It's better credit wise for a short sale to happen then for a foreclosure . From the seller's end it's a great way IF they can get their bank to approve on it.

This is where the problems come in. Banks are reportedly dragging their feet on approving offers that buyers are putting in on the houses. The sellers agree to the price, forward that to their bank and then the bank does nothing. Most of the time they sit on the offer for anywhere from 2 weeks to months. There are horror stories about people waiting on a house for over a year. Waiting on the bank to say yes or no. I don't understand that. Why would you want to not just sell so you can get some money? Your not going to get a lot but it's better than doing nothing and foreclosing.

This is the nervous part for a buyer. We found a house in an area we love. We like the neighborhood, good schools, close to shopping with amenities. The same style townhouse would normally sell for 30k more than this one. We've pretty much love this house. Our agent and their agent feel pretty strongly that the bank with approve out offer but they can't guarantee anything.

So now we wait. It's so hard to just wait...I want to buy things. I want to decorate. I want to get the things to change it from a house to a home.

He's just not that into you....

I remember when this book came out. I was in love with Sex in the City. It's wonderful writing, it's realistic idea about how frank and honest women are in their friendships and about how women viewed relationships. I was having a string of bad relationships. Horrible relationships. Along came this book that had a buzz around it. It was simple, it was easy to understand and it was frank and honest just like the show. When I read it, it was like all the light bulbs in the house had all turned on at once. It made sense. All the dates that went no where, all the calls that never came and all the games that I've ever had to play. They weren't games they were just men's lazy and childish ways of dumping me. I thought back to all the guys who had ever said one thing while their actions said another.

I became ruthless. You didn't call? Thank you for playing, have a nice day. Have to cancel our date, okay well I'll be seeing you. I grew as a person. I hung out with friends and filled my days with things.

Along came my husband. We became friends, dated, had two speed bumps and finally Daniel told me he was into me.

I guess I said all that to say this:

1) Ladies if your single, read this book. I fully intend to hand this book to any daughters I have when they start to date.

2) God I love my husband. Sitting next to him reminded me even when we have problems I still love him more than word can express.

Ladies if he's a man worth his salt, he will let you know he's into you. Unless not HE'S just not into YOU. Nothing wrong with you or him, just you weren't meant to be.