My last blog post on Tuesday left you guys wondering what was going to happen next with Main Street House, a house we were supposed to have closed on the Friday before. Were we going to hear from the realtor that day? Did we have to sign new paperwork? When could we change the locks on a house we’ve been paying taxes on since July 1? Why is HUD so goddamn slow?
Fast forward 6 days later and we finally got the okay to change the locks and we’re officially closed!
I have mixed feelings about the realtor we used. In my gut I think he was a two faced liar but I don’t have much evidence for this… and I’m really not looking to bash the guy, so I’ll leave it at this… He made himself out to be the good guy, the only one helping us by “trying” to push our paperwork through faster.
But in reality, we found out he couldn’t “push too hard” because he’s a new agent to HUD homes and didn’t want to lose the other nine listings he has with them. Oh and “the squeaky wheel may get the grease, but it can also fall off.” – His words exactly.
Once we threatened to walk on day 5, we magically closed on the house less than 24 hours later, on day 6 after our original closing date and time.
Here’s the timeline of how our 6 day closing went…
Friday
Closing was 2:00pm on Friday. As I mentioned in my last post, that did not go as planned, obviously, or you wouldn’t be reading this. There was a final inspection we were waiting for approval on but it didn’t come through. So we signed paperwork, handed over money but were told we’d have to wait until Tuesday morning to be “officially closed.”
Which sucked because we planned on using the long July 4th weekend to get a good head start on the house. But we couldn’t, because “that’s the government for you.”
Saturday & Sunday
The weekend was spent stewing about how disgusted we were with the entire process of buying the house mixed with a little canoeacking (we have a hybrid between a canoe and kayak, hence why we call it canoeacking.)
Monday
Monday was a holiday, so we lost that day.
Tuesday
Tuesday morning I had to contact the realtor to see what was going on with our closing… maybe I’m a little impatient, but when someone says it will be “first thing Tuesday AM” I expect to hear from you before 11:30am – come on, that’s borderline afternoon.
During this phone call he informed me that we owed another $113 because the government mis-read the trash bill and paid the entire year’s worth of trash instead of just the 6 months they owned it. They just realized this mistake on the paperwork after looking it over for a second time but it “shouldn’t be too much longer, all someone has to do is approve the trash bill again.”
He told me we’d have the confirmation of this within an hour and then he’d come and meet us at the house to change the locks (and for us to fork over another 113 bucks.) I didn’t hear from him again until 4:35pm that afternoon only to let me know he was still waiting on the final approval, so we still couldn’t change the locks or start work on OUR house.
Wednesday
Wednesday we didn’t hear anything from him at all. So at the end of the day we decided to call and raise hell. We even threatened to walk out on the deal (and we were serious, I actually started searching for other houses online) because it wasn’t worth the frustration – especially because we were paying the taxes on the house from July 1, but weren’t technically allowed to start renovations or even go in the house because “you don’t own it until the government says you own it.” So the hold up for three days was a simple approval on a trash bill.
The phone call ended with the realtor seriously believing we might walk on the deal.
Thursday
Thursday morning I get a text from the realtor that read “ You won’t believe it, but we’re finally closed.”
But here’s the best part (::sarcasm::). Thursday afternoon we met him at the house to change the locks…. I’m all ready to write a $113.00 check for trash and he tells me the contracts manager decided to close the deal so we don’t owe the money.
I’m imagining it went down something like this: the contractors manager probably said “Fuck it, this is taking too long, the buyers are going to walk if we don’t get this closed. We’ll pay the goddamn trash bill and close this house NOW.”
“Isn’t that great” he says “you get free trash for the rest of the year!” Yeah, except for the fact that 6 days of taxes on that house costs just as much as trash, so really it’s a wash. Go home realtor.
So we waited for 6 days for nothing. We didn’t sign new paperwork, we didn’t pay more money, we didn’t need to do anything.
And that right there, my friends, is why you shouldn’t purchase a HUD owned home.
