From offer to close, what's your story?

[Tooliebell]

I haven't seen one of these posts in a while and since I am in this position now, I would like to know your closing story. 

From signed offer to close and possession, how long? 

[Anonymous]

A simple story:  Total Hell! lol

[Anonymous]

3 months... which sounds quick but it felt like decades. Every weekend felt like a year passed by.

I really give credit to people who have or would do this more than once because I surely wouldn't.

[mamahearts]

We had a great loan officer, she was on top of it all! Our realtor was pretty laid back and let us decide.  He showed us the houses we asked to see and some that weren't on our list.  He made sure though that we didn't settle on just what was decent but actually found something that met our needs/criteria and that we could afford.  So then when we found the one, we all agreed that we should pounce on it.   The seller counter offered and we accepted, then we fussed over the inspection repairs which he ultimately agreed to. It took us three weeks to close.   There was one slight clerical error and we got called in to re-sign some documents on Friday.  Good luck!!!

[Anonymous]

Ive been trying to buy a home since May!  Its been one HELL of a ride.  I will never move or buy a home again, I swear.  Its not fun like they make it on House Hunters.

We've been in contract since Oct. 24th.  Our closing date was set for Nov. 15th which I know is not going to happen.  Our inspection came up with a bad roof & realtor is asking the sellers about it now (taking her sweet ass time).  My LO is moving FAST and hes ready to send our loan through underwriting.  My realtor and sellers, however, have been slow as hell. 

We need to be out of our place of rent by the 30th so we sure as hell better close before then.  Im totally freaking out about being homeless.

[Anonymous]

We were doing the hem and haw thing for over a year.  We knew that we wanted to buy but weren't sure if the market would drop again or how his new job would pan out. I spent that entire year tirelessly researching home loans and down payment options, qualifications and our local housing market. I drove around neighborhoods and examed houses for sale in what I thought to be our price range ( $100,000-160,000). After waiting a year and coming back to the discussion multiple times we finally decided to go ahead and talk to a pro about our options.  That first meeting was spent informally running our number, I requested a usda guarenteed loan if possible. We came back as pre-approved for 160+ ( I believe it was capped at 200) Of course, having crunched numbers for a year I knew what we could do comfortably and we set our top margin for 150000 and hunted as far below as we could for a newer (20 or less) stick built home. Our city was not eligilble but just about every other city around us was. We researched schools ( future kids, none yet) and communities and round trip gas costs to our jobs etc and decided on a few we thought were nice. We ended up touring I believe 5 houses over the course of a week and a half and our 6th which I found while cruising zillow had litterally JUST been listed. I was in love with the outside and the pictures, we called our realtor and jumped on a walk through the next day.

[Anonymous]

That door swung open and I knew I wanted the house. It is only 10  years old.  Tray ceilings, crown moulding, simple and well maintrained,...just beautiful. The yard is immaculate and has gorgeous flowers and trimmed shrubs and the house itself is in excellent shape. We noticed all their stuff crammed into the garage and took that as a cue to offer. They asked 139900, we offered 137 and asked for 5000 closing. They countered 2000 closing and 139000, move by the end of the next month ( giving us about 35 days to close) we would have to break our lease.  2 more offers, 2 more counters and one week long vacation by the sellers and we offered 141 500 and they pay 5000 closinging, contending we would have to break a lease (1000) to be able to accomedate the swiftness of their request. They accepted. After our offer was in place we had the inspection and found the home to be in excellent shape save a few things like circut interupters and the hvac needing servicing, gutters needing to be cleaned, tear in screen door, easy things like that. I called for qoutes and the total fixes would be about 3500, They agree to fix EVERYTHING and did.  We closed on time and had our keys within 35 days of our initial offer. The sellers had to bring cash to closing ( underwater) I don't know the amount for sure but judgeing by whathey bought the home for and how long they lived here it was atleast $15000. It was AWESOME getting the home of our dreams, completely ready and in great shape but it was well earned. Those 35 days I could have pulled my hair out I was so stressed out over the process, driving paperwork, faxing documents, writing letters of explanation, counters and offers, the closing date creeping up and our lease ending. PURE MAYHEM. I am just glad we made it through and L-O-V-E our home. Best decision we've made together yet, besides to be together of course. :smileywink: House was 141500, extra usda fees brought it to 146500, I paid $1300 at closing and $325 for inspection, sellers paid $5000 plus about 3000 for house fixes on the high end.  Our rate is 3.875 and our mortgage with principla, interest, taxes, and  insurance is about $860 and less than our previous rent. Our utilities are rediculously low, and paying gas, water, garbage and electricity compared to electricity only (as in apartment) we only pay about 40 more a month, if that.

[creditisbetter2]

My husband and I saw a model home one day, he fell in love with it and we had an offer in the next day. That was the easy part, everything else was a nightmare. We offered in September and we closed a week ago. From the beginning the sales person lied about a lot of features that we were eligible for and she tried not to give to us. She wasn't truthful about the timeframe when the house would be done, etc. We had to call often to get an answer about anything. The lender was even worse than the builder. They would not return my phone calls and they tried to over charge us for everything until we threatened to go with another lender. The interest rate lowered during our process and they never told us so I had to call and say hey the interest rates are lower, can you lower my rate? Then they did it. It's like I had to constantly stay on them in order to get any information. Then the home had quite a few small issues and I had to stay on top of them to make sure they did what they were supposed to do. Closing was by far the best part, we were in and out in an hour and we closed on the day we were supposed to close on so that was the best part. Overall, I would never want to do that again but I know I will. What I absolutely want to stress is get a GREAT REAL ESTATE AGENT. Mine was essential in getting this deal done. When I got frustrated with everyone, she stepped in and took care of business.

[incognitony]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Ive been trying to buy a home since May!  Its been one HELL of a ride.  I will never move or buy a home again, I swear.  Its not fun like they make it on House Hunters.

We've been in contract since Oct. 24th.  Our closing date was set for Nov. 15th which I know is not going to happen.  Our inspection came up with a bad roof & realtor is asking the sellers about it now (taking her sweet ass time).  My LO is moving FAST and hes ready to send our loan through underwriting.  My realtor and sellers, however, have been slow as hell. 

We need to be out of our place of rent by the 30th so we sure as hell better close before then.  Im totally freaking out about being homeless.

---

Been in it since June with a 6 week or so break to shuffle some paymens for DTI. My story for house 1 has its own thread on here and I agree NEVER AGAIN. House Hunters is mostly staged with people who already have their houses closed so they don't really capture the before and during of the process.

House 2 had been going great up until last Friday.  Was hoping to close this week but now next week could be possible if we get a couple things straightened out by tomorrow. Still could fall apart and at that point I think an institutional stay might be in order. Luckily our LL thinks we might buy the house we live in (sadly could end up happening) so no pressure to leave and no new lease when ours ran out.

Not a story to close...yet.

[luvsandyshores]

June 21 - looked at the house.

June 30 - second look at the house.  (Couldn't stop thinking about it!)  Went back to the realtor's and put in an offer.

July 1 - counter offer, I agreed, and put down earnest money.  Called mortgage broker and had him send pre-approval letter to my realtor, which he sent in with my offer.

July 5 - mortgage application and most related documentation turned in.

July 12 - pest inspection

July 15 - home inspection & received copy of appraisal

July 16 - started shopping for homeonwer's insurance

July 18 - requested seller to make a couple small repairs based on inspection report

July 19 - dropped off 2 outstanding documents at the LO's office, received underwriting approval

July 25 - seller completed repairs

July 28 - insurance policy info sent to LO

Aug 11 - closing - signed a bunch of scary documents, received keys.  Realtor had a moving van I could use for free!  Even received $250 back at closing.

I now pay $7 a month more than I was paying in rent, and that includes my taxes, insurance, hoa dues!  Plus thanks to the appraisal, I already have almost 20k in equity!