Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Not-so Patiently Waiting


The real estate, mortgage lending and construction loan business are such a mystery to me. Every time we have gone to buy a house, it has seemed we are the first people ever to be buying a house with a mortgage- like we are inventing and testing the process which is changing as we go along and is excruciatingly painful.

We were supposed to close on our house today and it didn’t happen. It’s frustrating having absolutely no control. I believe our mortgage broker and realtor are doing everything they can to make it happen, but the forces are against them.

Lesson #1: We originally wrote our purchase agreement to close 4 weeks from the date of the offer. We wanted to start construction before the ground froze and the sellers agreed. In the process of finding the best loan for our situation, we quickly realized that we needed about 8 weeks. We had to agree to pay the sellers a per diem amount for every day beyond the original close day we suggested. Next time (although there won’t be a next time), we would just use the standard 8 weeks and then work to move it up if possible.

Lesson #2: The closing cost will always go up.



On a good note, the drawings were submitted to the city for permit review. There were a few calls and comments, but nothing too major yet. They were curious why the roof was structured for such a heavy load. I think they thought we were going to be hosting parties up there. It’s actually structured for an addition 29 lbs per square foot for the green roof.

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

We were lucky when we bought our house that the previous owners wanted OUT as they had moved out of state and we wanted IN, as our apartment lease ended 7 days after we closed.

What are you planting on your green roof? I've seen that idea before and it looks really interesting.

Kevin & Roxanne said...

Jennifer-
The existing owners have actually already moved out (about a month ago). The hold up is that we are using a construction loan to purchase the property and finance the construction (one loan,one time close). It adds complication to the whole process, thus it's taking way longer than we thought. Friday is the day now (we hope!)

Green roof- We are looking at a couple of different systems, but the actual plants are usually grasses and sedums. We will post more information on the green roof as we get further along and know more about the actual system we are using. We just hope we can fit this item in our budget!
Roxanne