The Story of our House, Part 4
(Previously on The Story of our House, we were waiting to find out whether our mortgage would close on time.)
(You can read part one of the story here, part two of the story here, and part three of the story here.)
And so there was more waiting. We waited out the week (last week) while our mortgage broker worked hard and swiftly to get us that loan approval that we needed.
On Thursday evening, we got an email from our lender with the subject: "Congratulations, your loan is now approved!"
M and I got to thinking... if we could rent the property any time after we had our bank approval, why not start renting sooner rather than later? If we waited until August 30, then we would have to move everything in one day to be out of our apartment by September 1. And we would probably have to move everything ourselves, since the 31st is a weekday and most of our helpful friends would be working that day.
So, when we got in touch with our realtor to get the rental process started, we timidly asked if we could get in any earlier to the house... say, next weekend?
She said she would call the seller's agent and find out. It was Sunday morning (last Sunday).
Monday morning, my phone rang. It was our realtor. She said, "The seller is happy to have you rent the property at a weekly rate of $XX. I'll contact your attorney and get a rental contract drafted. The seller's agent will meet you on Saturday, you'll give her a rental check, and then you'll get your keys!"
That's this Saturday, the 25th.
After six months of searching, waiting, and worrying, we finally had our answer... just four days before we wanted to move, and just a week before we needed to be out of our apartment.
The Lord answered our prayers (at the last minute!!) more wonderfully than we could have hoped. The rental rate that they are giving us is more than reasonable-- next to nothing, really. We won't have to spend money on storage. We won't have to disrupt out girls by living somewhere else for a few weeks. We can move into our house in just a few short days.
The relief I felt after that phone call is hard to describe. That night, for the first night in weeks, I had no trouble falling asleep... and I slept soundly for 10 straight hours (C helped me by sleeping through the night as well! Perhaps she sensed my relief.)
Stay tuned, readers, wish us luck, and I'll see you on the flip side of home ownership!
Read the Epilogue here.
(You can read part one of the story here, part two of the story here, and part three of the story here.)
Not knowing when we were going to close was a source of great worry for me and M during those three or so weeks. What would we do if we hadn't closed on the house by the time we needed to move out of the apartment? We weighed the options of putting stuff in storage, moving in with people, splitting up our family... none of these seemed like good options. Even though it would probably only be for a week or two, we really didn't want to live anywhere else, and we certainly didn't want to move our stuff more than once. We had already put the girls through a lot of stress and transition, and we were ready to just have it over and done. Not to mention the fact that September is a very busy time work-wise for both me and M-- not the best time to be living out of a suitcase.
I was on the phone with our mortgage broker one Saturday morning, asking what we could do to help hurry the process along. (He, by the way, has worked tirelessly to close this mortgage on time for us-- he knew about our time crunch from the beginning and has been SO helpful and supportive. If anyone needs a mortgage broker I definitely have one to recommend.)
He said to me: "I talked with the seller's agent the other day, and she was asking why we had put such a tight closing date on the offer. I explained to her that you guys were on a time schedule. She suggested that you rent the property until your mortgage closes-- that way you can move in when you need to, and if we miss the closing date it's not the end of the world."
We had no idea that renting was even an option. Maybe we could move into this house on time after all! That would be just... well... perfect!!
We got in touch with the seller's agent, and she said the seller was happy to rent to us, but we had to have a bank commitment first (which basically means we have moved from the "pre-approval" to the "approval" stage of the mortgage process). That made sense-- they wanted to be sure that we would be approved for our financing, and we would eventually close the mortgage and own the home.
And so there was more waiting. We waited out the week (last week) while our mortgage broker worked hard and swiftly to get us that loan approval that we needed.
On Thursday evening, we got an email from our lender with the subject: "Congratulations, your loan is now approved!"
M and I got to thinking... if we could rent the property any time after we had our bank approval, why not start renting sooner rather than later? If we waited until August 30, then we would have to move everything in one day to be out of our apartment by September 1. And we would probably have to move everything ourselves, since the 31st is a weekday and most of our helpful friends would be working that day.
So, when we got in touch with our realtor to get the rental process started, we timidly asked if we could get in any earlier to the house... say, next weekend?
She said she would call the seller's agent and find out. It was Sunday morning (last Sunday).
Monday morning, my phone rang. It was our realtor. She said, "The seller is happy to have you rent the property at a weekly rate of $XX. I'll contact your attorney and get a rental contract drafted. The seller's agent will meet you on Saturday, you'll give her a rental check, and then you'll get your keys!"
That's this Saturday, the 25th.
After six months of searching, waiting, and worrying, we finally had our answer... just four days before we wanted to move, and just a week before we needed to be out of our apartment.
The Lord answered our prayers (at the last minute!!) more wonderfully than we could have hoped. The rental rate that they are giving us is more than reasonable-- next to nothing, really. We won't have to spend money on storage. We won't have to disrupt out girls by living somewhere else for a few weeks. We can move into our house in just a few short days.
The relief I felt after that phone call is hard to describe. That night, for the first night in weeks, I had no trouble falling asleep... and I slept soundly for 10 straight hours (C helped me by sleeping through the night as well! Perhaps she sensed my relief.)
So what does that mean?
WE'RE MOVING IN TWO DAYS!!! EEK!!
WE'RE MOVING IN TWO DAYS!!! EEK!!
(Don't worry... we're pretty much packed. But I really need to get off the computer and start packing the last few boxes now.)
That's the end of our story. We'll be getting in our UHaul on Saturday, just like Baby Bear and his family, and we'll be on our way to our new house. I'll probably be out of internet access for a while, but I'll try to take some pictures of moving day to post later. I'd also like to post some final reflections on the home-buying process, a sort of "epilogue" to the Story of our House, but that may not happen for a while.
Stay tuned, readers, wish us luck, and I'll see you on the flip side of home ownership!
Read the Epilogue here.
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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