Closing
2005.04.28
My inspection was this morning at 9:00 am. Took me 45 minutes in rush traffic to get there from my apartment. But, I had allowed an hour, so I arrived a little early. The inspector, Jeff, was already there and checking things out. Slade, my realtor, showed up a few minutes later so we could look at the inside as well. The inspection took about an hour or hour and a half. Didn’t seem like anything major, just a lot of cutting corners in a cheap remodel. In this market, I didn’t feel like I could press the sellers to fix a bunch of minor things, so I told Slade that nothing really jumped out at me. While the inspection was going on, I also took a few measurements.
2005.04.30
Jeff emailed me the written inspection report, and I looked over it this morning. There was more on the written report than what we had discussed on Thursday, and maybe it was just seeing things in print, but I started to worry about a few things, particularly plumbing issues in the bathroom. So I called Slade, and we agreed to meet at the house this evening to take a look. Basically he reassured me about how simple some of these things would be to fix, and said he knows a handyman guy that could take care of a couple issues for me for reasonably cheap. So I guess it’s all ok. You can’t expect everything to be perfect when you’re buying a house. One thing we did note for the first time today is that while there used to be electricity to the garage, there is no longer.
2005.05.04
Made a couple calls today about homeowner’s insurance. I called State Farm, since I’ve had auto insurance with them for years. Scott, my mortgage broker, had recommended Farmers, so I also called them. Looks like Farmers is going to be cheaper.
Also filled out the loan applications, which was basically an endurance test to see how many times I could sign my name, my initials, and the date before my wrist fell off. Apparently this is just the qualification round before the real tournament begins.
2005.05.05
Today I looked though some paperwork about title insurance, escrow, legal description of the property… all kinds of really really interesting stuff.
2005.05.13
The appraisal was completed yesterday, and I looked through it this evening. It’s kinda funny that they basically appraise the house for whatever you’re paying for it. Sort of makes me question the validity and necessity of an appraisal.
2005.05.24
This morning I went to the title company to sign paperwork for closing. Slade and Scott showed up to sit in. The guys didn’t seem to think the escrow officer was very professional, but I thought she was fine. Her laid-back approach made me forget that I was signing myself up for the biggest debt of my life so far. I had heard horror stories from people about hundreds of pages to sign, but it really didn’t seem that bad to me.
2005.05.25
The house officially closes today.
2005.05.26
I met Slade at the house this morning, and we waited for his handyman guy to show up to fix a couple things in the bathroom. There was a leak under the sink, which seemed to be a simple fix. The exhaust pipe for the bathroom vent fan was actually a piece of metal gutter… (???) so he replaced that with a proper vent pipe. Also, I had purchased a new vent unit that has the fan, a light, and a heater, since there is no heat source in the bathroom. He took out the old vent and installed that new one. However, it turns out that the heater needs its own separate 20-amp circuit, so we decided to leave that unconnected until I can get another circuit wired up. But at least it’s in there, and the fan and the light work.
I had also scheduled the Comcast guy to come out. The house had no cable jacks at all, and he had to bring the cable line across the street, overhead just like the power line, and then down and into a jack in the living room. I was hoping to have him install a jack in the basement as well, but the path going over the foundation wall, then down through the basement ceiling seemed to be more risk than he was allowed to take. So I guess I’m on my own for getting cable down to the basement, where my computer desk will be.
Slade gave me the front door key from the lockbox, so now the house is mine.