More Down Time

 Sometimes a girl just needs serious healing time... and a couple of female cats to heal with. My girls got spayed a couple of days ago; one is hyper affectionate while the other just wants to be left alone. So every time I get up, I have one following me while I check up on the other. I’m feeling pretty run down but that will pass in a day or two.

Dad was in stress mode over the updates on the new house. The lender was having trouble securing an appraisal so my sister looked up a few numbers and Dad gave those numbers to the lender. Lo and behold, appraisal date will be September 28th. There are two more major steps, post-appraisal, so I figured it’s a good time to run a checklist of the process.

1. Get pre-approved for a loan. Before you do anything, and I’ll assume you’re not dropping cash, you’ll need to do this prior to anything else. Now, you CAN do the next two steps prior to this, but it will put a halt in the process until you secure a lender. You might want to know what your loan limit is with your credit or you’ll have a hard time locking in an offer. Once you’ve done this, then they can later provide an estimate for what your loan will cover once you make an offer.
2. Get a realtor. During our process, this actually came WITH securing our first tour of a house we were interested in, but most will advise you do this next. Most realtors are only licensed in one state, so if you’re looking in multiple states, you might end up needing to work with a few. Each house comes with the seller’s realtor, but you’ll need a sort of ‘buyer’s’ realtor to help you with your own best interests.
3. Go house hunting. My family learned early on; physically go look at the outside of the houses you might be interested in or the neighborhood first. We secured a tour first when we started out but when we got there, we realized that the outside of the house needed work, the yard was smaller than we thought and it wasn’t quite as private as we’d hoped. Pictures can omit a lot of important information before you even set foot in the house, so make sure you like the outside first, THEN schedule a tour for inside.
4. Make an offer! When you find one you like, put in an offer! You’ll usually do best with two figures; an initial offer, then the maximum you’ll allow the realtor to put in on your behalf. You may not need the second figure at all. If the house has been on the market for a while with no competing offers or you think they’re asking for too much and they agree, you may not need a secondary offer. However, it will save you some time. It can take a week to be accepted, especially in a bidding war.
5. Inspection: optional. If you’re unsure about the asking price or condition of the home and your offer has been accepted, and you’ve paid earnest money to secure the offer, this is a step which will provide an acceptable contingency to proceed or back out. If there is anything you would like to see done before agreeing on a final offer, repairs, etc., after the inspection is the best place to either negotiate or back out, if it seems too troublesome. This step will require you to pay out of pocket, but if you’re really unsure your offer will hold up to scrutiny, this is a good step to take.
6. Appraisal. Your lender is responsible for securing this step. They will schedule an appointment for the appraiser as well as the buyer’s and seller’s realtors to be present. What you’ll hope for here is a level or high appraisal. If the appraisal price cones in lower than your offer, the bank will only pay the appraisal cost and you will have to pay the difference in full, along with closing costs and your down payment. A low appraisal can be a huge dealbreaker for most people.
7. Underwriting. Provided your appraisal was favorable, this is likely the most secure step in the process. When you first put in an offer, your lender will have already given an estimate for what is finalized here. This is where you’ll get the actual monthly payment cost, as well as insurance, down payment and closing costs. This is the last opportunity to back out (but if it’s just cold feet, you may not get earnest money back). This one is approximated to take one to four weeks.
8. Closing! This is it! Prepare for hours of paperwork, paying all finalized costs... leave with the key to your new home. It was a pain in the ass, but it’s finally done. If you haven’t done so already, get packing and moving. Look forward to a strenuous haul before you finally get to settle in!

Crossing my fingers the appraisal goes as planned and we can hop on over to the underwriting step. It’s very nerve-wracking, trying to tamper down the excitement just in case something falls through. All the same, I’m keeping my hopes present at least, just hoping I get to celebrate a new home on October 5th!