dpk’s weblog

Today, I signed and initialed all of the paperwork necessary to take ownership of the house, and to secure the loans. It wasn’t nearly as painful as was suggested. I think I signed my name about a dozen times, and initialed about as many pages. In fact the entire process (other than actually getting an offer accepted by the seller (it’s a very competitive market)) has been quite painless. I attribute that to my Seattle area realtor.

Officially, I take possession tomorrow at 9PM. The previous owners are already moved out however, so I may be able to get the keys earlier than that. Time to pick up some color swatches and get out the screwdriver (for two separate activities).

Third time’s the charm. My offer was accepted on a nice split level in Des Moines. Assuming inspection goes well, I should be moving in on April 15-16th. I’m excited!

Well, it’s official. I didn’t get the house. I was relegated to a “backup offer” early on, and the buyers that reached mutual acceptance, finally, after over a week of negotiations, struck a deal with the sellers. I don’t think I’ll submit another backup offer — the whole thing turned out to be a complete waste of time, except for the education I ended up receiving — it’ll be first or none from now on.

Just made an offer on a cute little house in West Seattle. I’m excited, because the price is reasonable and it is approximately the same commute distance to/from downtown Seattle. It’s the best house we’ve looked at, and it doesn’t appear to have anything “wrong” with it — at least, without an inspection. That’s up next.

I guess some people will waive inspection just to buy a house. Seems insane to me. I would guess that home owners insurance and/or home warranty companies would have some trouble with that, too.

I’ll find out tomorrow if my offer was accepted, or if I’ll be hanging out at the fax machine, getting my initiallin’ hand ready.

So I’ve finally decided to buy a house. Well, I’ve decided to borrow enough money from the credit union to buy a house, in any case. If you’re looking, I’ve found Windermere’s PropertyPoint application very appealing. I can use it from work, even, because it isn’t Java or Flash. I probably won’t be using them as a realtor, since I get some big discount if I use someone else, but as far as I’m aware the MLS means they list everything? *shrug*

Been waiting a couple weeks to hear back from the CU about my loan (when their website says it would take hours or days). It’s like they’re allergic to making calls themselves — every time I call they ask me if I’ve sent some other paperwork in, as if I knew to do that. Ah well. Everyone says buying a home is stressful — with all this waiting I can see how. I just want them to either say yes or no, soon, so I can figure out what I’m going to do. If “no”, I’ll probably just move in to some cheap apartment closer to town and save up for a while, switch credit unions, and try again in a few years. (I never thought I’d be planning years ahead of time).

Update: Just got approved. Time to shop!