House Updates
What a journey the buying and selling process was! The whole story from start to finish is literally a book. It's almost comical how much of a mess it was. I have to preface this post by saying that our realtor, Tristin Bothun, was phenomenal! She did not give up and kept pushing to get us to closing.
On May 21 we received an offer on our home. After negotiating, we accepted an offer a couple days later. By June 4, we had received a Cancellation of the Purchase Agreement from the buyers realtor. We did not sign it. Long story short, for whatever the reason, the buyers realtor had convinced them the house would not appraise for the price we agreed on. Because their realtor had convinced them of this, they did not want to pay for the appraisal and wanted out of the Purchase Agreement. After speaking with attorneys, we decided to pursue this and have us, as sellers, pay for the buyers appraisal.
So, we sent our payment information over to the buyers loan officer. As of June 5, the buyers realtor had made comments to our realtor about the price we paid for the house being lower than what we were selling for. Comments like "It sold for X amount in 2015, so there's no way it's worth XX amount now." Our realtor reminded them that they had no reason to say that because they had no way of knowing why the house was purchased a few years ago for that price. They did not believe we had put in that much money in renovations. How unprofessional is that to try to convince your buyers to back out after the purchase agreement is signed?
So, we type up a list of renovations and dollars spent to give to our realtor. The price we paid for the home plus the amount of work we put in was right on the money for our listing price. Obviously we know about depreciation and the value not being dollar for dollar, but we trusted our realtor in helping us set the price. In the mean time, we scheduled and paid for an appraiser to come out because at this point, the buyer wants out. We wanted to know if we were totally off base with our desired price.
Our realtor in turn shared the list of renovations with the buyers realtor and all of sudden they are interested in moving forward with the appraisal (still with us paying it). Anyone who has seen our house knows we put a TON of work in to. From waterproofing the basement, adding multiple closets, counter tops, additional kitchen cabinets, new kitchen appliances, complete renovation of one bathroom and many other renovations, we spent quite a bit of time and money improving the home.
The middle of June an appraiser came out, thinking we were paying for it. While we were in Hawaii, he had to come out again a second time because the buyers lender said something was "missing" from the appraisal, and that it had to be ordered by their lender, not by us. That makes sense, so we had to connect with the appraiser to have him tear up our check and wait for their lender to pay him directly (after we turned in a payment authorization form to the lender). What a mess!
After we got back from Hawaii we were filled in on what went down when we were gone. Although we do not know what the appraisal came out to be, we do know it must have been above their purchase price. We assumed we would get a copy of the appraisal since we thought we paid for it; however, the appraiser could not give it to us. He said it has to come from their lender. We were told the buyers realtor called the appraiser and "chewed him out" and told him he must have gone to the wrong house because the price had to be incorrect. It's crazy how someone you thought you knew can be a completely different person in their professional setting?! I am sure this realtor could be great, but they were not great in our situation.
At this point, we were led to believe the buyers agent had been turned in to the association of realtors by another realtor and the appraiser for her unprofessionalism. However, we were back on track to close.
On July 10 we received a message that their lender had sent all paperwork to underwriting and that it should be good to go in 3-5 days. We were still on schedule to close on July 27.
July 17: Communication is once again terrible. We are ten days out of closing and we still didn't have a specific location or time of closing. The title work has also not been ordered.
July 21: Someone in underwriting got sick and had to take a leave of absence. So, closing got pushed out two weeks to August 10. It sounded like that would be the latest we'd close, but hopefully it would be sooner. We sign an extension of the purchase agreement to extend the closing date.
July 31: Underwriting is still reviewing papers. Note-on July 10 they said it'd be 3-5 days and here we are 21 days later. Their loan officer is not sure they will be approved. No reason why. No explanation. All we know is they needed to submit additional paperwork.
August 2: Message from their realtor said the additional paperwork has been submitted and it was their "last hurrah" and nobody thinks it is going to be enough. The message says they should know within 48 hours.
August 7: We check in with our realtor and there is still no update. We all start questioning what is really going on here.
August 10: The extension to our purchase agreement expires today and we do not receive another extension. We are wondering if this is the buyers realtors way of getting them to back out because there isn't an active agreement on the home. Today we also call the seller of the home we are purchasing and ask if we can rent the home starting the 20th. She agrees and we contact the attorney to get that written up.
August 16: We are told the buyers realtor is getting the extension today and will send it over. We don't receive it until August 22. We are also told the seller of the home we are purchasing no longer wants us to rent it. The attorney said the buyer says we could rent as long as we purchased the home (regardless of if ours sold or not) by Nov. 1. We simply cannot gamble on that and decided not to rent. Mind you the weekend we were supposed to close the first time, we moved everything out of our house in Madison and into the garage of the home in Milan. We moved in with my parents on July 27.
August 21: Buyers addition paperwork is submitted and everyone is hoping to hear within 24 hours.
August 22: We hear the buyers are still eager to purchase the home (which is great because we were wondering if they were trying to back out). Buyers inform us (through another party), that they are frustrated with their realtor and wish their realtor would actually tell them what paperwork they need to submit and where to find that paperwork.
August 23: I see our realtors name pop up on an incoming call and I said out loud, "Here we go. We aren't selling our house anymore." I can't count the times since we listed out house I saw her name pop up and got an instant pit in my stomach. By some miracle, everything worked out and they were approved! We hear the buyers realtor contacted ours over the last few days/weeks with messages like "Just list the home again so when they don't get approved it's on the market". We assume it will be a few days now before we can close.
August 28: Our realtor let us know the title work has been ordered and closing looks like it will be next week.
September 4: Buyers realtor connects with the attorney to set a day and time to close.
September 7: We talk to the buyers at the county fair and compare stories. We have both been told different stories. It was comforting to hear they were frustrated as well. Not that it's a good thing, but at least we weren't the only ones frustrated. While at the county fair, we also see their realtor, but they avoid us and my parents...it was so obvious! To each their own, but I would have loved to get their side of the story and see if there was anything we could be doing to speed the process up.
We don't hear anything until September 14. We receive notification that they have been cleared in underwriting and that is has been sent to the state to approve.
September 20: No updates other than "it looks like it will be next week now again for closing".
September 25: FINALLY! All of the paperwork is finalized and they are clear to close! Attorneys office needs numbers from the lender for at least 5 days (she has not received them yet). Later that day, we find out they are scheduled to close a few days later. Yay!
September 28: SOLD...130 days...4 months and 7 days to close, but it's finally done! To date, we had been living with my parents for two months. (We officially moved out on October 31, after doing some remodeling in our new home).
October 2: We close on the purchase of our home in Milan.
There is so much more I could write about, but by that point I might as well just publish a book. Looking back now, I am sure God was teaching us some sort of lesson on patience. Although I don't understand it, I do know that everything happens in His time.
We cannot thank Tristin Bothun enough for her help with this sale! She kept at it and kept encouraging us and directing us towards what the next steps should be. We would recommend Peterson Team Realty for all of your buying/selling needs. Thanks again!
Disclaimer...we are aware there are always multiple sides to every story. We obviously cannot speak for the other realtor involved, but we are sure they have a different angle on things. Everything we know is by what we were led to believe based off of conversations and messages between the two realtors. We only know what we know and were told. I'm sure someday we will get the full story from all parties involved.
On May 21 we received an offer on our home. After negotiating, we accepted an offer a couple days later. By June 4, we had received a Cancellation of the Purchase Agreement from the buyers realtor. We did not sign it. Long story short, for whatever the reason, the buyers realtor had convinced them the house would not appraise for the price we agreed on. Because their realtor had convinced them of this, they did not want to pay for the appraisal and wanted out of the Purchase Agreement. After speaking with attorneys, we decided to pursue this and have us, as sellers, pay for the buyers appraisal.
So, we sent our payment information over to the buyers loan officer. As of June 5, the buyers realtor had made comments to our realtor about the price we paid for the house being lower than what we were selling for. Comments like "It sold for X amount in 2015, so there's no way it's worth XX amount now." Our realtor reminded them that they had no reason to say that because they had no way of knowing why the house was purchased a few years ago for that price. They did not believe we had put in that much money in renovations. How unprofessional is that to try to convince your buyers to back out after the purchase agreement is signed?
So, we type up a list of renovations and dollars spent to give to our realtor. The price we paid for the home plus the amount of work we put in was right on the money for our listing price. Obviously we know about depreciation and the value not being dollar for dollar, but we trusted our realtor in helping us set the price. In the mean time, we scheduled and paid for an appraiser to come out because at this point, the buyer wants out. We wanted to know if we were totally off base with our desired price.
Our realtor in turn shared the list of renovations with the buyers realtor and all of sudden they are interested in moving forward with the appraisal (still with us paying it). Anyone who has seen our house knows we put a TON of work in to. From waterproofing the basement, adding multiple closets, counter tops, additional kitchen cabinets, new kitchen appliances, complete renovation of one bathroom and many other renovations, we spent quite a bit of time and money improving the home.
The middle of June an appraiser came out, thinking we were paying for it. While we were in Hawaii, he had to come out again a second time because the buyers lender said something was "missing" from the appraisal, and that it had to be ordered by their lender, not by us. That makes sense, so we had to connect with the appraiser to have him tear up our check and wait for their lender to pay him directly (after we turned in a payment authorization form to the lender). What a mess!
After we got back from Hawaii we were filled in on what went down when we were gone. Although we do not know what the appraisal came out to be, we do know it must have been above their purchase price. We assumed we would get a copy of the appraisal since we thought we paid for it; however, the appraiser could not give it to us. He said it has to come from their lender. We were told the buyers realtor called the appraiser and "chewed him out" and told him he must have gone to the wrong house because the price had to be incorrect. It's crazy how someone you thought you knew can be a completely different person in their professional setting?! I am sure this realtor could be great, but they were not great in our situation.
At this point, we were led to believe the buyers agent had been turned in to the association of realtors by another realtor and the appraiser for her unprofessionalism. However, we were back on track to close.
On July 10 we received a message that their lender had sent all paperwork to underwriting and that it should be good to go in 3-5 days. We were still on schedule to close on July 27.
July 17: Communication is once again terrible. We are ten days out of closing and we still didn't have a specific location or time of closing. The title work has also not been ordered.
July 21: Someone in underwriting got sick and had to take a leave of absence. So, closing got pushed out two weeks to August 10. It sounded like that would be the latest we'd close, but hopefully it would be sooner. We sign an extension of the purchase agreement to extend the closing date.
July 31: Underwriting is still reviewing papers. Note-on July 10 they said it'd be 3-5 days and here we are 21 days later. Their loan officer is not sure they will be approved. No reason why. No explanation. All we know is they needed to submit additional paperwork.
August 2: Message from their realtor said the additional paperwork has been submitted and it was their "last hurrah" and nobody thinks it is going to be enough. The message says they should know within 48 hours.
August 7: We check in with our realtor and there is still no update. We all start questioning what is really going on here.
August 10: The extension to our purchase agreement expires today and we do not receive another extension. We are wondering if this is the buyers realtors way of getting them to back out because there isn't an active agreement on the home. Today we also call the seller of the home we are purchasing and ask if we can rent the home starting the 20th. She agrees and we contact the attorney to get that written up.
August 16: We are told the buyers realtor is getting the extension today and will send it over. We don't receive it until August 22. We are also told the seller of the home we are purchasing no longer wants us to rent it. The attorney said the buyer says we could rent as long as we purchased the home (regardless of if ours sold or not) by Nov. 1. We simply cannot gamble on that and decided not to rent. Mind you the weekend we were supposed to close the first time, we moved everything out of our house in Madison and into the garage of the home in Milan. We moved in with my parents on July 27.
August 21: Buyers addition paperwork is submitted and everyone is hoping to hear within 24 hours.
August 22: We hear the buyers are still eager to purchase the home (which is great because we were wondering if they were trying to back out). Buyers inform us (through another party), that they are frustrated with their realtor and wish their realtor would actually tell them what paperwork they need to submit and where to find that paperwork.
August 23: I see our realtors name pop up on an incoming call and I said out loud, "Here we go. We aren't selling our house anymore." I can't count the times since we listed out house I saw her name pop up and got an instant pit in my stomach. By some miracle, everything worked out and they were approved! We hear the buyers realtor contacted ours over the last few days/weeks with messages like "Just list the home again so when they don't get approved it's on the market". We assume it will be a few days now before we can close.
August 28: Our realtor let us know the title work has been ordered and closing looks like it will be next week.
September 4: Buyers realtor connects with the attorney to set a day and time to close.
September 7: We talk to the buyers at the county fair and compare stories. We have both been told different stories. It was comforting to hear they were frustrated as well. Not that it's a good thing, but at least we weren't the only ones frustrated. While at the county fair, we also see their realtor, but they avoid us and my parents...it was so obvious! To each their own, but I would have loved to get their side of the story and see if there was anything we could be doing to speed the process up.
We don't hear anything until September 14. We receive notification that they have been cleared in underwriting and that is has been sent to the state to approve.
September 20: No updates other than "it looks like it will be next week now again for closing".
September 25: FINALLY! All of the paperwork is finalized and they are clear to close! Attorneys office needs numbers from the lender for at least 5 days (she has not received them yet). Later that day, we find out they are scheduled to close a few days later. Yay!
September 28: SOLD...130 days...4 months and 7 days to close, but it's finally done! To date, we had been living with my parents for two months. (We officially moved out on October 31, after doing some remodeling in our new home).
October 2: We close on the purchase of our home in Milan.
There is so much more I could write about, but by that point I might as well just publish a book. Looking back now, I am sure God was teaching us some sort of lesson on patience. Although I don't understand it, I do know that everything happens in His time.
We cannot thank Tristin Bothun enough for her help with this sale! She kept at it and kept encouraging us and directing us towards what the next steps should be. We would recommend Peterson Team Realty for all of your buying/selling needs. Thanks again!
Disclaimer...we are aware there are always multiple sides to every story. We obviously cannot speak for the other realtor involved, but we are sure they have a different angle on things. Everything we know is by what we were led to believe based off of conversations and messages between the two realtors. We only know what we know and were told. I'm sure someday we will get the full story from all parties involved.
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