underwhere

Yay! The entire settlement took about an hour. My husband signed a stack of papers at least 6 inches high. Things are good. We're going to be renovating for 2 months before moving in, so we had to get a special type of home insurance for that time period. We came away at closing getting a little over $1000 back. We spent a little more than that at Home Depot today. lol Thanks for the help here!

We are closing on our house this Friday, and then will begin renovations for a couple of months. We will be spending close to $15,000 of our savings. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good points/reward credit card to apply for after we close? Since we will be buying so much in supplies, it makes sense to me to charge as much as possible to take advantage and capitalize on rewards. We will pay off the balance as soon as it becomes due, of course. The issue is that the only credit card we currently have is a secured card for $200. That will fill up quick. We haven't utilized credit lately. Student loans paid off last year, and that is it. No negatives. Not sure what the mortgage will do to the scores, or how long it will take to report. Currently, reports are clean, with a 680-710 score, depending on the report pulled. State is Maryland.

Our loan officer let us know today that the reduction has been suspended. This really sucks, as we had changed our closing date to the 27th to take advantage.

My loan officer messaged us the other day and said that Trump has indicated that halting this change is one of the first things he will do. More than likely, it is not going to happen.

haha! After I read this, I went to my email to message my loan officer, and there was a message from her! She advises that we should reschedule for the 27th. This will save us $25 a month, so $9000 over the life of the loan. I think for one day, that's a pretty good amount. We have to have our realtor clear it with the sellers though, but since they originally wanted the 30th as a closing date, I am feeling good about it.

We are closing on the 26th. Crap.

The appraisal came back at $132,000 so we are all set. They did ask for some peeling paint on a couple of the outside window sills to be scraped and painted, but that is it.

I am still waiting for an appraisal to be done. I was told it would be completed by Tuesday, but now they are saying the earliest is Thursday. This entire process is anxiety-inducing!

We are buying a house, closing set at January 30 and we are paying for our appraisal next week.

I checked Redfin, and its estimate says $123,600. The last tax assessment on the property is for $128,900. This site told me that the median price per square foot for the area is $90, and our house is at $60. Gah!

So, we are finally at a point where the appraisal is going to happen on the house we are trying to buy. Probably next Wednesday or Thursday. I find myself becoming anxious about whether it will pass ok. There isn't a real basis for this fear, if I am understanding things correctly! We have agreed at $130,000 purchase price with $7000 coming back to us toward closing costs. On Zillow, the "Zestimate" on the house is $144,000. Houses in the area usually sell for $140-$150,000. I looked at the houses that Zillow suggests as comps, and they all look like they are smaller than our house (600 square feet less) and in some cases have only 1 bath or a bath and a half, whereas our place has 2. However, all of these comps are renovated and updated, and our house is not. We will be putting about $10,000-$15,000 in to it in the next couple of months after we close - we already know we are spending about $6000 on new appliances and $3500 on an egress window in the basement so we can officially go from 3 bedrooms to 4 bedrooms. (All of the comps are for 3 bedroom houses.) Just pulling back the carpets everywhere will give us beautiful hardwood floors. So, please tell me what else I need to look at, and if this should be ok for the appraiser when they come through. I am nervous!

So, we submitted an offer yesterday and we are now waiting to hear back from the seller. It's an estate property and apparently 3 elderly siblings have to convene to discuss everything, so we were told not to expect anything before Friday morning. I am not a patient person and I am stressed like crazy. Then I start thinking about everything that might go wrong with the home inspection. This is an "as-is" property, so we'll have to decide to fix stuff ourselves or walk away. I just had a discussion with my husband about radon testing. Is this necessary for FHA? We've decided we can mitigate ourselves if there is an issue, so it might be better to wait and test after we close. If it isnt required to be done for FHA, and then we do it and comes back high, could they then put a hold until it's fixed? My thought is if we are ok with worrying about it after close ourselves it's probably best not to kick the hornets nest just to see, if it isn't required. I am also worried about the appraisal process - this house has a finished basement that isn't technically an in-law suite because there is no egress window down there, only one set of stairs leading down. So the "bedroom" can't be marketed as such. There is an outdated kitchen, but no appliances. We were told that if the appraiser lists it as an inlaw suite, the type of loan we have won't allow it, and the sellers would have to cap off the pipes to the kitchen. So this hassle is stressing me out as well. Anyone wanna give me the odds of the appraiser calling it an inlaw suite or two units? We actually plan to put in an egress window after we close because the thought of only one exit from an entire floor freaks me out, and would probably rip out the kitchen down there anyway. I want the floor space for other things! Our closing date is January 30 and that seems so very far away, and I am freaking out about debt collectors putting trash on our reports and messing up the sale. Or the underwriters suddenly finding all sorts of issues. This is the most stressful experience, as I have zero control over any of it!

I didn't say I wouldn't accept it, just that we wouldn't need it. Though, it's only for a straight FHA loan. If we do the rehab, it isn't available.

The loan officer was awesome. She had no trouble preapproving us for way way more than we wanted to spend. Apparently we are eligible for down payment assistance too, though we will prolly not need it. She said his score was actually 697 so I don't know what happened with that because his utilization definitely went up to 25%.