Where We Are At

I keep hoping that I can post this when all the jumping through of hoops is done with. I think we might get there today. This house sale is pretty much guaranteed to go through, but it has been a major headache. The inspection happened fairly quickly because the buyers agent had to go out of town for a week. They initially asked for:

1. roof replacement

2. GFI circuits to be repaired/replaced

3. dry rot in front door jamb replaced

4. window in front replaced

5. handrail on interior stairs

6. attic discoloration tested

7. install two CO2 detectors

8. find out why furnace had low airflow and repair

Negotiating on these repairs took a good 10 days. We ended up giving them everything except a new roof. I hate this buyers market. For the roof, we got a 3-5 year certification to satisfy lending. Most of the repairs were fairly easy. The furnace was pretty dang frustrating though. A friend in our ward hypothesized that something was blocking the airflow in the return duct. I poked my head in to look and found two blocks of wood pretty much completely blocking the flow. Some idiot had left those two spacers in there when they built the house! I just always assumed we had a crappy furnace. It kept the house warm enough, but imagine how much cheaper our electric bill could have been all these years. J had to tear off the dry wall, open up the duct, knock out the spacers and then put up a new sheet of dry wall.

Once all the negotiating on the repairs was done we had to get the appraisal. Because this is a VA loan they had to order it through the VA. It took 5 days to get the appraiser out and then we had to wait another 5 days for the report. The VA appraiser has the power to require repairs if he thinks something isn't safe, etc. I think this has turned out to be the most frustrating requirement. Our deck is built at a height that code does NOT require a handrail. Apparently the lender can still require one if they deem it unsafe. We can't even fight that if we want this sale to go through. The appraiser did tell us the rail doesn't have to be to code though, just some posts and a couple boards across. Funny and ironic, huh? Today, we are hoping to get the buyers to agree to pay for half of it. Once they do, we hit the homestretch of just waiting for the bank to get the closing papers drawn up. I cannot wait for this process to be over. I have had to do so much work, make a million phone calls and just sit here on tenterhooks waiting for things to be resolved.

We hope to start moving into the rental house beginning of next week. We'll probably move all the big stuff on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Our official closing date is the 28th, although it could be pushed back a couple days depending on what happens today.