The Big Move: The long and the short (sale) of it

I have decided that it is finally time to sit down and write all about our recent move. It's been a long and emotionally draining process and I hate thinking about it, but I figure it's time to document this time in our lives. As many of you may recall we started our house hunt in the early spring of this year, so we have been looking at houses for awhile and even made a few offers which were never accepted. After our last offer was denied back in May I thought that we were going to take a break from looking for awhile and revisit the idea of moving in another year....well as you can guess, that didn't exactly happen.

About 2 weeks after Preston was born Spencer saw a house on-line that looked intriguing. He called his mom and she scheduled a tour for us immediately.  The owners of the home were loosing their home and decided to short sale the property as recommended by the bank. Spencer's mom informed us that the owners didn't really want a lot of people coming over to see the place and that they would prefer that a family buy their house so we were the only ones allowed to go inside for a tour.

 

When we first pulled up to the house it looked promising. It's in a beautiful neighborhood in a very desirable area. The outside of the house looked very nice and had a lot of curb appeal. Once we got inside the house it was apparent to me why the owners didn't want a lot of people coming inside and why there weren't any pictures of the inside of the house posted on-line. The house was a complete mess and the I would consider the people hoarders!! There was literally stuff EVERYWHERE!! I couldn't get over the piles of stuff packed floor to ceiling inside that place!! I seriously couldn't even see what the counter tops looked like since every inch of them was covered in stuff. And not only were the people hoarders they were extremely messy/dirty as well. The carpets were disgusting (from what I could see), the walls were covered in dirt, and the stove-top looked like it had NEVER been cleaned....just to name a few things. In my mind I was already saying, "there is no way I would EVER live in this house...it should probably be condemned...good luck to the crazy people who actually do buy this place!!" Then we went outside into the backyard..... such a stark contrast to what was on the inside!! The backyard was pretty much our dream backyard and in practically perfect condition. There was a sparkling swimming pool and spa with a rock water fall, a built in BBQ/kitchen, a gas fire pit, a small grass area, and even a playhouse for the kids! The place was beautifully landscaped too. But even with the beautiful backyard I was convinced that the inside was beyond repair (for our minimal budget) and that there was no way that we would even consider buying that place.

 

Well fast forward a couple of days and my husband was making an offer on the place!! I seriously felt sick about having to move into that disgusting home, but Spencer assured me that we could clean it/fix it up and make it everything we could ever want. He did point out that the house was in a great neighborhood in a top-rated school district, and we were right next to a big park and close to lots of shopping, restaurants, and places to take the kids. And the backyard is something we could probably never afford to do ourselves. The price of the home was unbelievable for the area and Spencer was sure we would never find something better. So to say the least, he convinced me. We started watching A LOT of Property Brothers episodes for inspiration (and probably reassurance for me that gross places can be fixed up) and making plans for what we wanted to do with the place. To be completely honest with you in the back of my mind I kept thinking that the house was a short sale and there was a pretty good chance we wouldn't get the house anyway and if we did it could take 6-9 months before we could close escrow. I honestly didn't think we would really move into that house.

We went ahead and made a really low offer and to our surprise the bank accepted our offer within a couple of weeks....I couldn't believe it!! We started to get anxious about buying the new home since it was still expensive even at the lower price we got it for. We knew that there would be no way we could afford it if we didn't sell our home. We decided to list our home ourselves on-line for one weekend just to see if we got any interest. Within 1 day of listing our home we had 4 different groups come see it and within 2 days we had 3 full price offers. We went ahead and accepted one of the offers....that was it, our home had sold. Once again I had doubts in the back of my mind that our house would fall through and that we weren't actually going to have to move. Well despite my best efforts of trying to convince myself that our house wouldn't really sell, our home never did fall out of escrow and the buyers never did change their minds. It was a done deal....I was REALLY going to have to move.
While all this was going on with our home we were being told that we were going to be able to close on our new home fairly quick. We were under the impression that we would close on the new house a couple of weeks before we had to move out of our house so we could have time to do some improvements to make the house livable for our family. Well things didn't exactly play out how we wanted. Although we were under contract with Bank of America for the short sale of the home, they decided to foreclose on the property instead!! What this meant was unless we had $400,000 cash just laying around there was no way we were going to be able to still purchase the home. We learned of the foreclosure just 2 weeks before we had to be out of our house. Spencer and I were devastated to say the least. We tried to get out of selling our home, but the buyers wouldn't budge, so unless we wanted a lawsuit on our hands we had to be out of our house with nowhere to live.
Those last 2 weeks were incredibly stressful. I don't consider myself a person who cries a lot, but I shed A LOT of tears. I was overwhelmed by so many different emotions. Fear of never finding somewhere to live, angry that we sold our home which we love, sadness of having to leave a great life behind, and a lot of denial that we were actually moving and that we were going to be homeless. We ended up consulting with a lawyer who specializes in wrongful foreclosures and he advised us to write a detailed letter to Bank of America explaining our situation and the breech of contract on their behalf. We wrote the letter and threatened a lawsuit if they decided to go ahead with the foreclosure instead of the short sale.
We had to be completely moved out of our house on Friday September 21st. When I woke up Thursday morning, the day before, I had no idea what our plan was. My parents had agreed to let us stay at their house until we could find somewhere to live, but we had no potential living arrangements. I was going about my morning, trying to make the most of our last day in Moreno Valley, when Spencer called and told me that the bank decided to honor our original contract for the short sale....I guess the threatening letter worked!! I can't describe the overwhelming feelings of relief that rushed through my body when I heard those words, all I could do was break down into tears. (More crying. Really?) At least now we didn't have to worry about being stuck at my parent's house for who knows how long!! I couldn't believe how happy I was to hear that we would, in fact, be moving into the house that I thought should be condemned!
We have been staying with my parents for almost a week now and just got word today that we will close on the new home on Tuesday. We have been occupying some time picking out carpet and paint and discussing the changes that need to be made to the house. Spencer toured the house a few days ago and although the people have moved out, they left pretty much ALL of their crap belongings behind, so we need to make sure that everything is removed before we take occupancy. The house needs a lot of work and a family to love it, so that's what we are going to do. Wish us luck as we begin the renovation and if you happen to see me in the next several weeks I just might need a hug and some words of encouragement. We are looking to the future and are ready to start laying down some roots here and making new memories in our new home.
Can't wait to have our first party in our new home....it might just be awhile!!