Housing Hiccups

Well, this post has been a long time coming. Last time I wrote about our housing situation, we were just about to close on our beautiful 1885 Victorian. So much has changed since then that I'll just have to start from there.

So if you remember,  we had put an offer on this beautiful abode: 

We had ordered the home inspection and from there, decided to go through with the house. The major concerns that were raised was with the heating system, an old, unknown furnace that looked as if it had never been serviced. Everything else (the slightly sloping floors, some of the dry rot on the exterior, the electric system, etc) could be dealt with at a later date, said the inspector. 

When it came time do doing the appraisal though, it was an entirely different story. What he found painted a rather grim picture. I have found this Home Condition Rating Scale to depict a little better what I am talking about. 

C1	The improvements have been very recently constructed and have not previously been occupied. The entire structure and all components are new.
C2	The improvements feature no deferred maintenance, little or no physical depreciation, and require no repairs. Virtually all building components are new or have been recently repaired, refinished or rehabilitated. All outdated components and finishes have been updated and/or replaced with components that meet current standards. Dwellings in this category either are almost new or have been recently renovated and are similar in condition to new construction.
C3	The improvements are well maintained and feature limited physical depreciation due to normal wear and tear. Some components, but not every major building component, may be updated or recently rehabilitated. The structure has been well maintained.
C4	The improvements feature some minor deferred maintenance and physical deterioration due to normal wear and tear. The dwelling has been adequately maintained and requires only minimal repairs to building components/mechanical systems and cosmetic repairs. All major building components have been adequately maintained and are functionally adequate.
C5	The improvements feature obvious deferred maintenance and are in need of some significant repairs. Some building components need repairs, rehabilitation or updating. The functional utility and overall livability is somewhat diminished due to condition, but the dwelling remains usable and functional as a residence.
C6	The improvements have substantial damage or deferred maintenance with deficiencies or defects that are severe enough to affect the safety, soundness or structural integrity of the improvements. The improvements are in need of substantial repairs and rehabilitation, including many or most major components.

With a USDA loan, a home is required to at least meet a  C3 or above, and our dream home came in between a C4 and C5 rating. Also with a USDA loan, the house must be a single family dwelling and because of the illegal basement rental, we no longer would qualify for the Rural Housing Loan. At this point, we were a little crushed, but we had come to expect this. The weekend prior to finding out the results of the appraisal, my dad had come down to help me pack and move some things as well as take a look at the house. While we were there, he basically told me to run, not walk away from the house. Without even entering the home, he had some MAJOR red flags. I took a picture of one thing we found while doing the walk around:

To give this picture some context, I'll tell you what exactly happened. My dad and I had just finished our second full walk around of the house, and we saw some grass growing out of the side of the house, like in the middle of a board. So I pulled on the grass. This is what happened. That is rot, and there were bugs. This is the weathered side of the house. Disaster. 

So needless to say, we weren't all that bummed when the house fell through. Seeing this, I knew this house was beyond our abilities and out of our budget. I only wish we had figured this out sooner so we wouldn't be out about $1000.00 for the home inspection and appraisal. Live and learn right?

During this learning process, our landlord had been told that we were looking into buying a home (bad Ryan). His reaction was to put our house on the rental market right away without us having given our last month's notice. Nice, huh? So at this point, we were given a deadline of moving out of our house by August 1st, with no prospects in sight. We started hounding the MLS website again, finding four new properties to check out. We also increased the amount of money we were willing to spend from $160,000 to $200,000. We both just recently got raises (!!!) and we wanted to see what we could find at a higher price point. 

So we set out about two Saturdays ago with open minds and big ideas. The first three homes were subpar, then we hit the jackpot. Literally we walked in the door of this house and just knew. This was the home for us. 

She's so lush and gorgeous and quirky and charming. We knew we had to have her. Everything about her just kept saying yes. From the little Hobbit doors:

To the fabulous door ornaments: 

And the amazing hardwoods throughout: 

We were giddy with the prospect of this house. It has beautiful bay views, wonderful upgrades and so much potential for expansion (unfinished basement). Also, we did the walk through with the owner since he was in between real estate agents at the time, so we got all of the insight and history about the house. The man who had previously owned it was married to a woman who loved anything and everything Disney, so the house was modeled after something that would be out of an old Disney movie (I think it was Sleeping Beauty- my favorite!). There was so much love for Disney that on the bathroom floor on the main level, there is a Mickey head etched into one of the black tiles! So amazing. 

Since we did the walk around with the owner, he had a chance to pull our real estate agent aside and communicate to her that he really like us and was flexible on the price. This was awesome to hear since this house was at the very top of our budget. So Ryan and I went home and thought about it over night and we just couldn't stop thinking about all of the possibilities, the feel of the space and how lovely it was. We knew we had to put in an offer. 

We decided to start low (since the guy paid 130k for it just one year ago) and put in an offer of $180,000, with seller paying all closing costs. This did not go over well friends. I think the fellow might need to look up the definition of "flexible" because his counter offer to us was that we pay the full asking price of $199,000 and he would pay closing costs. Whomp. Since we really wanted this house, we weren't going to just let it drop after one failed bargaining attempt. We're pretty persistent. We decided to offer $190,000 with him paying all closing costs. He countered with the same offer as before then stated that he wanted to wait two weeks on our offer of $190,000 to market it more with a new real estate agent before he accepted our offer, basically he's saying he would only accept a full price offer. 

WHAT THE F*CK!!!

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, Ryan and I were mild to severely offended. After some serious heart searching (getting our egos in check, checking our motives, checking our values) and talking to friends and family, we decided to drop the offer for now. Ryan's stepfather Dan said to me, "Erin, what house do you know of in this economy, in that town that has appreciated $60,000 in value in one years' time?" None is the answer. That's unheard of anywhere, let alone Astoria, OR. I'm still pissed the way everything shook out, I feel as if the guy tried to bait and switch us, say he was flexible to make us fall in love, then only accept full price (which we did seriously consider offering for about a two hour block of time). I can only speak for myself but it's left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. But something I've learned through the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is that everything happens for a reason. 

So for those of you who are still reading up to this point, you'll see that we're about a week away from being homeless with nothing on the horizon. Panic has set in at this point. I had a couple of sleepless nights. One of those nights I happened to be up at about 3:30 AM browsing around Craigslist. That's when I saw IT. By "it" I mean an 800 sq. ft. bungalow with one bedroom, office, wood floors, washer, dryer, dishwasher, two car parking and bay views. Done. Sold. Give it to me. I almost woke Ryan up to show him the place at that ungodly time of night. I waited though, and told him first thing in the morning. 

We had an appointment to look at it less than two hours later, and within two days, we had a key. It was such a whirlwind experience that I've had a hard time communicating to anyone about it. Today is the first time I've been able to take a deep breath (but not a full once since we still have a lot of cleaning left to do at the old rental). We moved everything in one day, my body feels like that of a 104 year old woman. It was such a surreal experience sleeping in a brand new place last night, I definitely haven't had time to process it all. 

I'm not sure what I can say this experience has taught me, but it was an interesting one none the less. Thankfully the place we have moved to has a month to month lease, still giving us the option to look at buying if we want to. We've talked about seeing if the Hobbit house sits on the market for a while, resubmitting an offer to see if cooler heads have prevailed, but who knows at this point. We're just thankful to have our kitties in one place with a roof over our head. 

And don't worry, pictures of the new place are coming soon!!!