We finally found a house...I think

We finally found a house. It’s in Altamonte Springs off Montgomery near 434. The traffic isn’t the greatest in that area, but the house is very nice. 4 bedroom 2 bath, 1871 sqft. Built in 1974. It’s on a ¼ acre lot, new kitchen, and appliances, great schools. We can’t wait to get in. Closing is on the 18^th of February, but they said that they’ll through in the refrigerator if we let them stay until the 26^th. That works because we didn’t want to have to buy a refrigerator if we didn’t have to. We have limited funds to furnish the place. So hopefully nothing will go wrong with this place like it did on the other two.

Xupiter

This is a great article on Xupiter. You will laugh your ass off.
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57467,00.html

In case anyone out there dosen't know what Xupiter is go to: www.xupiter.com Get ready for a wild ride!!

Still no luck

Tracy and I looked at a house in Lake Mary this weekend. They wanted 200,000 for it which is a good price. Pretty nice house, 1900 sqft, 3 bedroom 2 bath, extra room for an office. So we decide that we’re going to make and offer. Our Realtor says that this is going to be a big bidding war, guess everyone else liked it too. We go to his office to start the paper work to make our offer. When we get there, the Mortgage Broker tells us that we need to read the disclosure for the house before making the offer. She says we need to see section 17 specifically. Backyard floods just about every time it rains, and they had over 2 feet of water in the house one time. Needless to say, we didn’t make an offer. That really sucks, but can you imagine buying the place without knowing about that. That would be a nightmare. So we’re looking again. Our Realtor, John, sent me a couple of listings this morning that he’s going to check out for us. Hope something comes up soon.

fun fun fun!!

Lice

Went to the Oviedo Mall last night so the kids to do that Power Jump thing they have set up in the food court area. It’s pretty cool. They attach bungee cords to the kids, strap them into a harness that keeps them from flipping, and let them jump on a Trampoline that allows them to jump about 30 feet into the air.

We get home from the Mall around 9:00pm, and our oldest says that her head is itchy. A closer inspection reveals head Lice…both of my kids have it. So this means that the entire house needs to be treated with Rid, along with everyone in the house. It would have been a lot better to find them a bit earlier in the evening. Keep in mind that we are staying with someone until we find a house. It’s pretty embarrassing to say the least. At one point we had two screaming children pissed off that they had to keep the chemical shampoo in their hair, and have someone pick through it with a fine tooth comb. I blame it on those sea monkeys that they brought home last week. I opted to shave my head instead of doing the treatment. That’s a lot easier.

There’s not a whole lot new with the house hunting situation. Not a lot of new properties yet this week…hope that changes soon. I really don’t mind staying where we’re at, but I’m sure they would like their privacy back.

Buying a house? Better read this first:

For some reason I feel the need to document this. I guess that I’m hoping that one day we will read this and laugh.

November 12th
So, we started looking, but didn’t sell our house yet.

November 22nd
We found a house in Tuscuwilla made an offer, and got it. Then the seller decided he didn’t want to sell the house because he was pissed off that his wife was divorcing him or something.

December 13th
Our house sells for way more than we thought it would!! Great news. We really couldn’t wait to get out of that place, and now we have money to put down on the next house. Buyer says that they will rent the place back to us. That’s awesome, now we don’t have to move twice!

December 16th
Found a nice house in Longwood in a great little subdivision.

December 17th
Made an off of 217,000. They’re asked 218,900, but they accepted it.

Later that week
Buyer says that she needs to be in our house on the 23rd of December. We did not have anything in the contract that said that she had to rent the place back from her. So now we’re packing up and moving out just two days before Christmas, but this is not too bad because we’re staying with the in-laws, and we save some money by not having to rent our house back.

December 23rd
We get the news that the in-laws are not getting along, and are splitting up. We decide to stay for Christmas and leave on the 26th to go stay with Michele (my niece) and her husband, and one of my best friends John.

December 26th
Moved in with John and Michele and their three boys ranging in ages from 2 – 11. Including my kids that’s 9 of us under one roof. It’s all good though. Oh, and two dogs that didn’t get along at first, but they’re friends now.

Later that week
The house in Longwood did not appraise. But, since this is a conventional loan, the bank doesn’t care as long as you’re putting money down. We liked the house, and the area. This ends up being a mistake later, but it works out ok.

Week of January 10th (pretty much Monday through Friday)
The Title Company calls and says that we need an additional $3,600 at closing because this is the difference between what the loan is for and what the house appraised for. No one saw this coming…we didn’t want to come up with the money because the though the seller should go down on the price since the house didn’t appraise. We tell them that we wont buy the house unless they lower the price, and explained why. Maybe they’ll understand that it’s not us, it’s the bank. We went back and forth a few times, and the seller finally decided to lower the price. On Friday, the seller calls the realtor, and says that the want the house appraisal re-done because they felt the house is worth the extra $4,000. We started think that we were willing to pay this 217,000 for the house even though it didn’t appraise, we just didn’t do it because of the extra money they wanted at closing. Maybe we should see if someone will appraise it higher, then the bank will finance the entire price minus the money we’re putting down. After a few hours of discussions at my desk with co-workers and with Tracy and the Realtor, we decided to call it quits, and cancel the contract.

Today
Looking for another house.

So, that’s the story, I’m sure no one will read this, and that’s okay because most of it doesn’t make sense. Actually looking at houses is very fun, it's just the buying part that's a pain in the ass. We are very optimistic, and we will find something soon. I’m sure.

Lunch and stuff

Went to Uno's with Tracy, Jen and James. That place is awesome. There’s not much on the menu that doesn’t look good. We all had various Chicken Gorgonzola buffalo baked quesadilla sandwiches and such.

I learned the international sign for: “please wait, I have food in my mouth” Take whichever hand you have available, and point all fingers towards your face. Open and close them like you’re simulating something sucking on your face, like a space alien. People will always know what you mean when you do this with food in your mouth. Trust me. Thanks to Jen!!

We’re getting closer to the closing of the house in Longwood, 1-21-05. Can’t wait to get this over with, just knowing all the stuff we have to do bothers me, especially moving the stuff from storage to the new place. That’s gonna suck, then unpacking, trying to find time to paint and whatever…but I’ll be glad to get it over with. Having my own place again makes all that stuff worth while :)