There's No Place Like Home

After a few weeks of horrible uncertainty, we are finally homeowners!  Just to give you a little background on the situation:  We have a mortgage guy we have worked with in the past that helped us refinance our condo that we own a few times.  He made it really easy and really cheap.  So, when we found the perfect house, of course we were planning on using him.  So, it was in January we found it.  Brady went and met with the mortgage guy and he said "Everything looks great, just get me..." and it was either information about my job, Brady's or tax information.  We got everything together and then we met with him a 2 weeks before closing to get the final paperwork finished.

Then Brady receives a phone call - "The IRS says you don't have your 2011 tax forms on file."


"What?"

So, after Brady spent an hour on the phone with the IRS here is what we find out:  Basically when we filed in 2011 and sent in our tax forms AND our check, they lost the tax forms--but cashed our check.  Apparently, they were supposed to send us a letter to say the forms were lost/never received, but they also neglected to do that.  So, had we not been buying a home--we would have NEVER KNOWN that  the IRS did not have our 2011 tax forms.

I bet that helps all of you sleep at night.

So we spent a Saturday morning going through our storage unit trying to find the office box that contained all our old copies of our taxes.  After moving about half the unit out, we finally find the box.  Angie helps us get everything together and Brady and our Real Estate Agent, Steve, go wait in line at the IRS office to get the forms stamped "Received" by the agent at the desk so that we can get our loan.

We get the stamp, hand it over to the loan guy, and he takes the document to the underwriters.  They won't accept it.  Apparently, it had to be on the records of the IRS and just because they stamped it--doesn't mean it's officially on file yet.  Even though we DID file it and paid our taxes in 2011, because they lost our forms and didn't have them on their archived files yet because we had just barely handed them in...AGAIN...the underwriters wouldn't accept it.

So, even though everything else was fine--we had our down-payment ready to go, credit all approved--everything--they still wouldn't get us our loan until they could verify the forms were archived.

Steve asked the bank for an extension.  Luckily, the bank extended for a month, but the selling agent was furious.  She thought (well, and we thought this as well) that if those forms were going to be a deal breaker for the underwriters that he should have requested the forms months ago--like back in November when we were meeting with him and this problem would have been addressed and solved already.

While we had an extension, we had to figure something out.  Did I mention this is April?  Yeah, the midst of tax season and we are waiting for the IRS to file our 2011 forms again so the underwriters could pull them?  Yeah, there is no WAY that was going to happen in a month.

We didn't have a choice--we had to find another lender and one that would work quick.

Steve called around to several banks trying to find anyone who would overlook the 2011 tax issue.  We got SO LUCKY.  1st - we found an amazing bank who was doing directly. This meant it wasn't through a mortgage company that was packaging the loan and selling it--like the guy we were working with originally.  2nd - Interest rates dropped again.  3rd - the cost of the mortgage insurance was lower with them.  4th - we were able to put less money down and keep more for updating the home.  HOORAY!

So, even though we spent a week sick to our stomachs that we were going to lose this house, a week later things were even better then our original plan.  I attribute all our good fortune on Steve, our real estate agent.  He worked he tail off trying to get this deal sealed and even waited with Brady at the IRS office to get the stamps on our tax forms.

With all those shenanigans out of the way, we could finally close on our home.  We were approved for our home loan within 24 hours of turning in all our paperwork.  We scheduled to sign the closing papers on a Friday, which meant the home was officially ours on Monday.

While it was our home on Monday, given that this was a Short Sale there was one other small snag.  The owners requested that they be allowed to have a weekend to move out.  So, while the home was ours on Monday, we weren't able to pick up the keys until Saturday night.  This made us nervous--of course, all kinds of worries of them destroying the home or taking things that they shouldn't.  But, they told their agent that they wanted to clean some things up before they left and fix some sprinkler heads as well.

Fingers crossed.

Saturday night finally rolls around and we get to the house with our agent, Steve and his wife.

Family Photo right before entering the house.

Our agent, Steve joins us!

The Office (this is to the left when you enter the house)

Yes, they painted silver strips on the wall. 

The stairway you see when you enter

The Living Room, off to the right of entryway.  And some handsome gentleman loitering.

The picture window in the Living Room

The kitchen and *my favorite* the ISLAND!!!

View from kitchen--dining area/family room

Built-ins!   Holds DVDs, cable bos and all players.  Hooray!

Did I mention that I love my kitchen island????

4 car garage (no, we do not own 4 cars)

View of entryway from top of stairs

Master Bedroom (with bay window!)

Grand Master Bathroom--shower has double shower heads and the walk-in closet is AMAZING!    (I didn't take a picture of it, and I regret it now)

Kid's Room #1

Kid's Room #2

Laundry Room....finally a place big enough!

Bonus Room!  This is at the end of the hall.  Fun little playroom for Grace and all her friends and cousins!

So, as you can see, our good samaritan deed of letting them stay 5 extra days after we officially bought the house DID pay off.  The house was very clean and they left nothing behind.  Not very typical of a Short Sale.  It was definitely a relief as we walked room-to-room.

We are SO EXCITED to get started on moving!  We have to look at getting carpets clean/replaced and the walls painted, getting cleaning ladies in to wash windows and baseboards and walls, get a handyman in to fix all these little projects, AND THEN we can move in.  

I will post some after pictures of the rooms once we are done.  But, the journey has begun!  We are a soon to be family of 4 with a brand new home!  (Baby #2 is a boy and coming in September!)