Oh goodness….will this ever end?

To catch you up on the happenings….

May 29th is when we saw the house was on the market. May 30th is when we toured the house and at 9:30pm we decided we wanted to place an offer. I notified the listing agent, John.

May 31st is when we secured lending and placed our official offer.

July 19th is the date that the listing agent, John, FINALLY took the offer to the sellers for them to sign it.

(Side note….I find this “odd” because when I talked to him on May 29th he told me to get our offer in right away….yet according to the read receipt email from our agent, he didn’t even open the offer email until June 26th….and then doesn’t take it to the seller until July 19th?  Hmmm…..)

Sept 11th is when the first offer fell through and our offer was accepted.  Yippee! We signed our end of the acceptance and counter offer that same day.

For the remainder of September we were told that the seller is in the process of negotiating a judgement which should be resolved any day now.

October 3rd is when the word “bankruptcy” appeared and we were told that the seller is filing BK, that the house would not be included in the BK.  We were also told that the seller is settling their last judgement and proof of payoff would be taking place any day.  We’re still looking good.

November 9th is when we receive our much anticipated acceptance and approval letter from the seller’s bank (Bank of America)- yippee!  The catch?  A closing date of November 26th.  We are told once again by the seller’s agent that the last judgement will be removed next week.  We decide to move forward and get the inspection done now that we have the much anticipated approval letter.

Then we go back and forth and back and forth because the sellers have moved out and turned off the utilities and we need the utilities on for the inspection and the seller isn’t returning calls or responding…..

November 21st we are told that the seller’s BK is still pending and that puts us back on hold…..but in an effort to show that we are serious buyers we should still proceed as if the closing date is November 26th.  Utilities are finally back on so we can schedule an inspection. (More detail can be read here)

Yay!  It’s vacant and clean and looks pretty good!  Inspection goes well, appraisal goes well, yippee!

(Click here to see pictures of the exterior)

(Click here to see the pictures I took during the inspection.)

(Click here to see the video of the walk-through.)

December 6th is when we find out that the seller never DID file bankruptcy.  Grrrr.  Bank of America won’t sell the house until they receive word one way or the other that the seller IS or IS NOT filing bankruptcy.  Plan for a 90-day hold.

December 13th is when we get a call that says the seller has an appointment for her BK, and if she does everything in a timely manner expect closing to be around mid-March.  Doh!

New Year’s weekend- the seller’s agent heads out of the country for a long vacation.  Oddly, nobody in his office can take over the account or get any information.

January 31st, finally an update from the seller’s agent.  She still has not filed for bankruptcy. She’s also not responding to his calls or emails so he gives our agent her phone number.  Our agent can’t legally call her, but I can.  I just didn’t know what I’d say to her!?

Instead I took the approach of contacting Bank of America to see if I could make progress with them, somehow.  I gave them a write-up of the timeline that showed that we were receiving conflicting information from her agents, that she said she was filing BK but didn’t, said again that she was, but still didn’t, and included a copy of our agreement with BofA and asked if we could get this moving forward again since she’s apparently NOT filing BK.  I emailed them and also called them.  The gal that I talked to on the phone said she couldn’t tell me anything about the account since I’m not the accountholder (of course) and that if she were me, she’d call the seller and ask them what’s going on.  That, or wait until foreclosure and go pick it up at auction. (Um, no, I don’t want to do that!  I want to pay what we offered!)

Anyhow, Thursday I worked up the nerve to call the number.  OH man it took a while to get those guts, but I got ’em.  Called.  Went to voicemail.  Doh!  All that anxiety for nothin’.  The voicemail wasn’t hers, though, it was for “Angel”.  Must be her husband because he indicated he was with Broadway Cab (which I knew her husband was a driver for).   Later that evening I called again, no answer again.

Friday I got this sudden inkling to call- no workup needed, no nerves blazing, just dialed the number.  Angel answered.  I told him that I was calling for Alma and of course he asked why, so I told him that I grew up in the house that she just moved out of and that I wanted to buy it.  He told me to call the number on the sign in the yard, that I could talk to the Real Estate Agent.  So I told him that we already had, that we’re the family who has been trying to buy the house since August and that I really really want the house and wanted to know what we can do to help Alma.  I told him that I understood she was wanting to file Bankruptcy and we’d be willing to help her pay for that if she needs help.  He asked if I had her number, I told him this was the only number I had (but didn’t tell him how I got it!) and he told me he would call Alma and then call me right back.

Gah.  I almost threw up after that call.  My nerves were completely shot- I had to open a can of Coke, which I haven’t drank in weeks.  After about 10 minutes I felt better.

He did call back and told me that Alma wanted to talk to me, gave me her number and asked me to call her after 4:30, that she was at work and couldn’t talk at work.

Well that sounds a little promising!

So I waited until 5:15 to call her.  She answered, which sort of surprised me.  Long story short, she told me that she was advised to wait until after she files her taxes before filing the BK, and that she was planning to file her taxes next week (not sure I believe THAT, but anyway).  Besides, I’ve been told that the IRS isn’t looking at any filed taxes before March 1st because of some tax law changes that still need to be programmed into their systems.  Anyway….she took my name and number and told me she’d call me to keep me posted.  I’m not holding my breath on a call back.  I did pull the “Please please please help us move this sale forward so we can close, I grew up in this house, my parents were the first owners, I lived there for all of my childhood and I really really really want this house in our family again”.

Jim and our agent both see this as a positive thing, she’s willing to talk, she was willing to give us her number, etc.  I just don’t have any faith in what she says since we’ve heard “I’m filing BK next week” before!  And if she’s waiting until she receives her refund, well that could be late March….and with a BK taking 90 days approximately, that puts us at June closing.  (sigh)

I always believe things happen the way they do for a reason.  I just can’t help but wonder why this timeline is working out the way it is…..

OH, and if Alma and I end up on friendlier terms, I might also ask her about the paint.

Anyway, that’s the most recent update.  Don’t expect another one for a while….