whoops.

so yeah. we were supposed to sign the final paperwork on the pinehurst house friday, so we could close and move end of april.

funny thing. I got laid off wednesday. "laid off" probably isn't the right word... "fired" was more like it. details are sketchy, but it sounds like has to do with a personality conflict with a "woman" I worked with, who I am pretty sure is the antichrist. since she's threatened 2.3 lawsuits per year for the past 35+ years (seriously), they decided to just get rid of me rather than call her bluff.

I was pretty upset at first. but I applied for unemployment right away, found out I'll qualify for about 85% of what I was taking home anyway, and immediately started networking. I've had several kind words and offers of reference come in, and even had an interview 9am thursday. the interview went well, last over an hour with the manager who has known me since I was six years old. he said he thought he could find something for me if I could give him a few weeks, which in this economy is all I could ask for. the company is better than my former employer (my dad used to work there for twenty years), offering a smaller, more family-oriented environment. plus, the branch is within walking distance of our apartment.

in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy my time off, rake in some unemployment for a few weeks, and hope to be back to work in may. we definitely lost out on the pinehurst house, but I'm planning to still buy later in the summer. I want to get back into the saddle for a couple months, make sure everything is stable, and then see what is available on the market.

the real irony is, the original house we wanted on 199th may be through the foreclosure process by then and back on the market as a bank-owned, which means it'd be even cheaper than what we offered...

funny how quickly things change...

couple things happened recently.

we found out we weren't going to get the house on 199th, which put us back to square one. and the US treasury pumped three hundred billion dollars into the banking system to buy up mortgages and free up money for lending. this drove the interest rates down considerably. like as much as half a percent.

so for the same monthly payment, we realised we could afford a lot more. still would have been nice to have gotten 199th, since the lower interest rate would have meant saving a few hundred a month, but we knew we weren't going to find anything in that old price bracket. so we started looking at the up to $400k range. amazingly, we started finding nice houses we liked a lot.

we found three the first day out that were nice. first was a huge (2100 sf) split level, but very bland and boring. it reminded me of houses my friends grew up in back in the 80s... I just don't know if I'm ready to settle down for that yet. second was essentially a townhouse without shared walls. a small development of several cookie cutter houses squished onto a couple lots. not much yard of privacy, but amazing space and amenities indoors. if not for the busy street it was on, we would have gone for it.

we ended up choosing a bit smaller house that was also a bit less expensive, ONLY a paltry $383k. it's 70 years old, and has the accompanying issues with older houses, namely a small kitchen and tiny bathrooms. but it was immaculately maintained and had gorgeous detail work, as well as a large yard and a 1.5 car garage. we put in an offer that night.

miyuki would have preferred to see more houses in that price range, but I was worried about losing out on this house. it just went on the market, and an open house was planned for this weekend. we offered thursday night, and agreed to a counter the next day. amazingly, we paid full list price, but received a $5k closing cost concession. we did pay $10k less than the assessed value, so while we probably did leave a bit on the table by acting to quickly, we didn't get screwed or anything.

the inspection is tuesday. if all goes well then, we'll proceed with the financing and close april 24. we'll be completely moved in that following weekend.

the house doesn't need much work. we'll want to replace the washer and dryer soon, as they're pretty old. we'll want to pull the wallpaper out of the main bedroom and paint. mostly, we'll want to work on the yard. I want to rip up some of the grass and lay down gravel for extra parking, and tear up the back yard grass to put a vegetable garden in.

we went to the open house today, just to get a second look and make sure we didn't miss anything. while we were there, we met the neighbours from two doors down, and they seemed nice. a couple a bit older than us (late 30s, maybe?) with a son who looked about seven. they told us a bit about the 'hood. only a couple of the houses are rentals, it's a quiet dead end street, and there are a few kids around, as well as a shoreline sheriff and seattle PD officer who live nearby.

as we were leaving the open house, we figured we should introduce ourselves to the neighbours directly behind the house (there's a shared driveway on "our" lot, so it's probably good to make sure we get along), and that was an odd conversation. the guy barely opened his door, maybe four inches, and shook my hand but not miyuki's (I think he may have been muslim? african guy with a big beard that said he didn't shake women's hands). he said they'd raised kids there and been there about twenty years. I imagine we won't see them much. he seemed nice enough, it was just odd that he didn't really open the door.

we've been watching a lot of HGTV and getting ideas for what we want to do. I've also put calls in to a couple local movers to get quotes. I helped a friend move saturday and threw out my back. I'm just getting old, and would rather pay movers a few hundred dollars to do the heavy lifting for us...

so all in all, good news. we'll be out of this shitty apartment and into our first "home" by the end of april!

so much for that...

we were just dealt some seriously bad news.

the new bank that took over the mortgage on the house we're trying to buy has decided to be grade A douchebags, for reasons we don't understand. they've told us they will not give us a written approval so we can proceed with the inspections et al, and that they will not forgive the deficiency judgment. which basically means we're fucked.

the whole nature of a short sale is the bank agreeing to accept less than is currently owed on the house (forgiving the deficiency) to avoid taking a larger loss in foreclosure.

we offered $315k. we don't know how much is actually owed on the house. all we know is it was purchased in 1998 for $176k and somehow the current owners owe more than $315k. you'd think after ten years of payments it wouldn't be possible for them to owe twice what they originally borrowed, but they did have an audi and two jeeps parked out front last time we tried to look at the house. they obviously weren't smart with their money or equity.

that's neither here nor there... houses that go through the foreclosure process and end up sold at auction typically go for $80k less than they'd get in a normal or short sale situation. assuming $350k is owed on the house, they're going to screw us and end up losing $80k instead of $40k. this, ladies and gentlemen, is the industry that required an $800 BILLION bailout. do you see why? give the option of losing $40k or losing $80k, they're opting for the latter.

there are three possible explanations. 1.) the "loss mitigator" we were assigned is a complete asswipe. 2.) said loss mitigator is an idiot who doesn't know what he's doing. 3.) he doesn't have the authority to make that call.

we're really hoping it.s #3. that's the ONLY shot we have at still getting this house. if that's the case, we escalate the process over his head until we get someone who CAN override the decision. the pisser is, the original bank had already signed off on all of this. we don't know why the new bank didn't do the same.

our only other recourse is possibly trying to pay the difference, but we don't know how much the bank needs to forgive. if it's more than $20k, we're screwed. we just can't afford to go more than that and still make the mortgage payment each month.

things are looking bleak, we don't have any other backup houses out there we like. I'm about ready to just go sign a lease on one of the new luxury apartments in ballard and say fuck it... at least we'd have a nice place. and for $1000 less a month than we'd pay for a mortgage.

the world cannot end soon enough.

today marks the four week anniversary of our house offer being transferred to the new bank. tomorrow marks the eight week anniversary of receiving the approved paperwork back from the seller. we still have no idea what's going on.

some backstory: we found a house two months ago that we liked. it's farther north than we had planned, but it's a good location two blocks from a transit hub, has a nice yard and two car garage. the kitchen is a bit small, but otherwise it's a three bedroom, 1.5 bath house with a second bonus room, a "secret" office in the two car garage, and we really liked it. it was originally listed for $388k, dropped to $348k, and we ultimately offered $315k. we found out it was a short sale, but decided to run with it... it was by far the best house we'd seen, and was within our budget.

two months later, we're no closer to having it than we were when we offered. we actually got an acceptance from the bank, but with a note that they sold the note to a new company. we waited two weeks for the new bank to take the file, hoping they would rubber stamp the previous approval and we'd be set. that hasn't happened.

we were warned going in not to get too attached to a short sale, that we should make an offer and if it didn't work, be willing to walk away and move on. the problem is, we haven't found anything else. we've looked at over eighty houses now, and there have been exactly three we'd considered. two of them (both of our backups) are off the market already, with offers of over $340k each. we've stuck with this one offer because we've been told over and over we have a good shot at it, and even that's it's "meant to be", but mostly because of the bargain. there's just nothing in the seattle area that we want that's under $350k. in this economy, you're only seeing the dregs and the people that HAVE to sell listing their property. it's mostly garbage. the areas we like all start in the $400k range, and we just can't afford that.

the past several weeks have been extremely frustrating. I haven't been sleeping well. I've had near chronic heartburn and recurring headaches. I've been surly and depressed. it's so frustrating knowing that I've worked incredibly hard to repair my credit from past mistakes (ie, first marriage), saved money for a downayment, and despite doing everything right, we can't get the house we want.

I've been tempted to just walk away from the whole idea, and blow the tens of thousands of dollars we have pegged for this house on the track instead. I really do wonder if we'd be better off just moving to a better apartment and renting. the idea of taking on $300k worth of debt terrifies me, but I was willing to do it. I just can't convince anyone to take that $300k worth of debt in exchange for something I'd be happy with.

I've had four vanilla white russians (aka "the honky") tonight, plus my token st paddy's day drink, the "baby guinness" (see below, bailey's floated on kahlua)... combine that with not sleeping well recently, and I'm bloody sleepy. I'll likely go to bed early tonight, and with any luck, a comet will hit the earth and wipe out humanity before I wake up tomorrow.