h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For those to whom I've not yet been able to communicate this, I'm just leaving a quick post to say that so far, the new job seems to be working out for me. One of the other two contractors quit Friday, so it's pretty much a given that the other girl and I will be offered full-time positions; we just need to ride out the contract in its entirety.

In other "news", K and I put in an offer for a house yesterday. I won't get into lots of details just yet- we need to see if the offer is even accepted (I have a feeling this is a multiple-offer situation, and some of these offers may well have been cash), then the house would need to pass inspection, and the lender would obviously need to approve the loan. Given the conditions in the pre-approval letter, I don't think that would be an issue, but who knows.

Yay!

Well, here's the latest.

Seller accepted said offer (we made contingencies) Weds, but with their own contingencies, not all of which we're sure we can meet.

I'll post back with an update tomorrow, because if we're going to kill the deal, it'll be tomorrow.

It's a really cute house, but a foreclosure, and as such, subject to a lot of stringent contingencies a straight sale wouldn't be. C'est la vie.

I'll just sit here and wait for news.

If you don't take this place, surely there will be something else equally interesting along soon...

Yes, the realtor sent us a contract, and we can't agree to some of the terms therein. The seller is asking for a bit more of a down payment than we'd set in the purchase agreement, wants us to waive our right to conduct an inspection for lead-based paint, and made a contingency with regard to financing that we just can't meet. K is going to call her today and ask her to have the attorney kill the deal. On the plus side, they'd only accept certified funds and what we wrote was a personal check, so I'll call the bank today and have them stop payment on my check so it doesn't wind up mysteriously cashed, and if they don't have their funds within 5 days they're going to void the contract at their end anyway. We're just not going to sign it.

probably a good thing

"not test for lead based paint" means there probably IS lead based paint

I am sure something better is just around the corner for you

I'm with Helly on the lead-based paint thing. There's no justification for sidestepping a safety issue...

There may or may not be lead-based paint- it's possible, in any house built prior to 1928 when they stopped using lead paint- that there might be some. But there's a contractual clause in most real estate deals where the seller only has to acknowledge that they don't know of the presence of any paint (but can't be liable if there is).

Actually I was more concerned about buying a home as-is with no recourse to lower the purchase price or have the seller fix anything, if there were structural issues, or some of the things we noticed when we made the offer that we sort of assumed they'd fix. When my dad sold his house in Orlando, he had to fix all sorts of things for the buyer before the contract was binding. I guess they don't do that with foreclosures, so maybe we just shouldn't look at foreclosed homes?

Well, it was a really cute house, and maybe we should have had it inspected first, but knowing already that they weren't going to fix a couple things (someone had cut a piece out of a windowpane to open the window, had come in, and vandalized the walls in one bedroom. Nothing horrific- just kids, probably just wanted a place to drink or smoke dope) that we wouldn't have expected to have to pay for.

It's not that we can't afford some minor repairs, etc. But with me not yet having been offered full time work, the lender won't even consider me for the mortgage note, and K has to apply on his own. With both of us applying, income doubles (even after my 40% reduction in pay) and my credit score is slightly better.

So we asked the realtor last night to have the attorney kill the deal, and we're going to wait a few months till I'm officially full-time and maybe we'll find something equally nice.

On a completely unrelated topic, but news-y just the same... one of our friends with authority to do such things is coming over this afternoon to sign off on our marriage license.

Interesting last line, PC. I shall do my best to acknowledge it in an equally laconic manner.



Now, back to real estate - in this jurisdiction, the seller is required to obtain a full inspection report on the property and to make this available to all interested parties before any offer is made. The report covers all structural issues, including possible susceptibility to pests and the possible presence of asbestos in pre-1986 constructions. Once that report is made available, it is accepted that the house is for sale on an 'as-is' basis. What a lot of dull things I know.

Over here, the buyer is responsible for the inspection, apparently, and not until *after* the offer is made (and, apparently, after the contract is signed). One has five business days after signing the contract to withdraw for any reason, including not passing inspection.

But it gives you a bad feeling about the whole thing when the seller faxes you the contract at 9:30pm on a weeknight and expects it back first thing in the morning. Doesn't leave much time for actually reading and discussing it before agreeing to the terms, does it?

Thanks for the and laconic acknowledgement. I wonder sometimes how likely it is that too many people will read any "news" in my journal anyway. It possibly deserves its own thread once K has had a chance to inform certain family members verbally (imagine the horror of his parents if they hear it from someone who read it on teh interwebs ).

The 9:30pm contract fax does sound a bit rude and devious, to be honest. My alarm bells would have gone off at that point.

Here, the seller arranges and pays for the full building inspection and gives a copy of the report to all prospective buyers. At settlement, the seller then sells the report to the buyer at cost. So I bought a house and a 90-page report in two separate but simultaneous transactions.

I do wonder who reads news items in my journal, but sometimes I get emails from lurkers who don't comment onsite. It's amusing when this happens.

Congrats, PC! Both on the certificate () and on avoiding what sounds like a real lemon...

Congrats, PC.

Congrats!

Thank you!

So even though I buried it deep into an old journal, a few folks still found my news.