Well folks, we (sort of) did it. We are officially under contract and moving right along towards owning our own home.
We've actually been under contract for a little over a month but with a lot of details and loose ends to tie up, we wanted to wait until we knew more and had more details worked out to let everyone know.
So to bring you up to speed as quickly as possible, here's the deal:
The Five Ws
Who: Well, Mike and me, I suppose
What: A 4 bed, 3 bath two story condo (more commonly known as a duplex down)
Where: The north edge of Andersonville, about 2 miles north of where we live now, a very family-oriented, Swedish and historical "burrow" here in Chicago
When: ASAP! We went under contract February 11th but closing could take anywhere from 3-9 months (it's a short sale)
Why: After a lot of disappointment and dissatisfaction with the houses we were seeing, we decided to pursue the condo market in the city. We found this place only the second time we were out hunting in the city and it was on the market for only 2 days when we snagged it up. FINALLY, we got to people the people we've hated time and time again when we lose a battle to go under contract!
We absolutely adore the place and have made it through several major hurdles of the process--we've gone through our attorney and inspection period (inspection was top notch with no major concerns from our inspector) and we've been approved for our mortgage (though we are waiting until we're a bit further along to actually go through the application process, as there are time limits on our acceptance and since we have no idea of a closing date, we don't want to apply and then have that mortgage expire).
For those of you who may not be familiar with short sales, here is the short to-do as I understand it...when an owner is no longer able to pay their mortgage, a property will go into short sale before the full foreclosure process begins (when a home has been foreclosed upon completely, the bank owns the property and becomes the party responsible for selling it). It's really the "limbo" stage. The owners are still considered the "sellers" but the bank must approve the selling price, as the selling price is often much less than what the owners owe on the house. For example, a person might buy a $500,000 property with 10% down, thus having a $450,000 mortgage. Let's say this person loses their job or has a catastrophic medical bill to pay and can no longer pay their mortgage (this is when I hear Suze Orman saying OVER AND OVER AND OVER again how important it is to have 6 months worth of rent/mortgage and bills in an emergency fund but I digress...). Let's say they've now got about $400,000 left of their mortgage. When in short sale, they can list and sell that property for much less than they owe (let's say $300,000) but the bank must approve that price. Since the bank would rather cut their losses early and make out with as much cash as they can (because the foreclosure price is almost always MUCH less than they can get during a short sale), short sales can be great investments, but they are notoriously slow and epically frustrating to work with.
So, right now, our offer has been submitted to the bank and we are waiting to hear back from them--and it pretty much boils down to waiting for a no, a counteroffer or an acceptance of our offer.
We would welcome and appreciate any prayers and good thoughts sent our way. We are so very, very hopeful that this will work out for us and have all our fingers and toes crossed!
♥H&M
We've actually been under contract for a little over a month but with a lot of details and loose ends to tie up, we wanted to wait until we knew more and had more details worked out to let everyone know.
So to bring you up to speed as quickly as possible, here's the deal:
The Five Ws
Who: Well, Mike and me, I suppose
What: A 4 bed, 3 bath two story condo (more commonly known as a duplex down)
Where: The north edge of Andersonville, about 2 miles north of where we live now, a very family-oriented, Swedish and historical "burrow" here in Chicago
When: ASAP! We went under contract February 11th but closing could take anywhere from 3-9 months (it's a short sale)
Why: After a lot of disappointment and dissatisfaction with the houses we were seeing, we decided to pursue the condo market in the city. We found this place only the second time we were out hunting in the city and it was on the market for only 2 days when we snagged it up. FINALLY, we got to people the people we've hated time and time again when we lose a battle to go under contract!
We absolutely adore the place and have made it through several major hurdles of the process--we've gone through our attorney and inspection period (inspection was top notch with no major concerns from our inspector) and we've been approved for our mortgage (though we are waiting until we're a bit further along to actually go through the application process, as there are time limits on our acceptance and since we have no idea of a closing date, we don't want to apply and then have that mortgage expire).
For those of you who may not be familiar with short sales, here is the short to-do as I understand it...when an owner is no longer able to pay their mortgage, a property will go into short sale before the full foreclosure process begins (when a home has been foreclosed upon completely, the bank owns the property and becomes the party responsible for selling it). It's really the "limbo" stage. The owners are still considered the "sellers" but the bank must approve the selling price, as the selling price is often much less than what the owners owe on the house. For example, a person might buy a $500,000 property with 10% down, thus having a $450,000 mortgage. Let's say this person loses their job or has a catastrophic medical bill to pay and can no longer pay their mortgage (this is when I hear Suze Orman saying OVER AND OVER AND OVER again how important it is to have 6 months worth of rent/mortgage and bills in an emergency fund but I digress...). Let's say they've now got about $400,000 left of their mortgage. When in short sale, they can list and sell that property for much less than they owe (let's say $300,000) but the bank must approve that price. Since the bank would rather cut their losses early and make out with as much cash as they can (because the foreclosure price is almost always MUCH less than they can get during a short sale), short sales can be great investments, but they are notoriously slow and epically frustrating to work with.
So, right now, our offer has been submitted to the bank and we are waiting to hear back from them--and it pretty much boils down to waiting for a no, a counteroffer or an acceptance of our offer.
We would welcome and appreciate any prayers and good thoughts sent our way. We are so very, very hopeful that this will work out for us and have all our fingers and toes crossed!
♥H&M
