Friday, April 30, 2010

Limbo

Since my last update, we have gone through some pretty dramatic changes! Our house in Raleigh sold! Hurray for that! Considering the current economic state of our country, selling a house in less than 2 months is worthy of celebration! We have found the perfect house for us in Roanoke Rapids! Hurray for that too! It was not an easy feat; we looked at EVERY house on the market, which is about 10 total, at least twice each, until we found out that this one was 'going to be' going on the market soon. We ended up checking it out before it ever hit the market and fell in love! Our grand plan was to close on both houses in one day, for a quick, painless, seamless move! However, that plan hasn't happened! We successfully closed on our house in Raleigh on Monday, April 26. Our stuff is stuffed like sardines into a 26' uhaul truck, parked in an undisclosed location until further notice. We are living like college students in Brian's sparsely furnished apartment with a suitcase that was only packed for three days, until further notice. The children are happy as clams spending some time at mamaw's and papaw's until . . . next weekend. We had wanted to have the house all set up and ready for them before we bring them 'home'. However, if something doesn't happen soon, we just can't wait any longer! I MISS MY KIDS!!!

The problem we are having is beyond our control, which makes it even harder to swallow. The aforementioned 'economic state of our country' has also cause lenders and mortgage insurance companies to do a complete 180 from the housing boom, where they would give a loan to anyone with a pulse, to being freakishly cautious with everyone, including well qualified buyers! Everything on our end is fine, great actually. However, since we're not putting 20% down, our loan will require mortgage insurance. Unfortunately, since the market has been sooooooooooooo slow in Roanoke Rapids and there have been very few sales to compare the house to, the PMI company 'doesn't like' the appraisal, which is actually right on target for the area. Part of our problem is that we went with a loan company that Brian found online that is based out of Chicago. They're not local, so they don't understand the market. They're not local, so we can't show up at the office and demand that our questions be answered. They're not local, so we're at the mercy of voicemail. And they apparently really want our business, because the broker has been stringing us along since Monday, saying that he's got 'one more thing' to try. We should have probably went ahead and gone with the local bank that we met with 'three more things' ago on Tuesday, but we thought if we just wait a little and let the original lender pull through, it would go faster. At this point if/when we end up using the local bank, it will be seven days from the time we sign before we can close. So if by some miracle, our original lender pulls through, we may be able to close/move in at the first of next week. If not, this will most likely push us two weeks from now. My patience is running very thin, but I believe God has a plan, not sure what it is, but I suppose I'm along for the ride!