My closing adventure...

I am now officially a home owner. Woo ho! Or something like that. I think I would be a lot more enthused about it if I was moving into the home instead of preparing for a renovating adventure…

Anyway, closing day was a bit more exciting than I suspect it is for most people. Here is what I mean – closing time was 3:00 p.m btw.

2:02 – I start to leave the office having just gotten off the phone with the lender. The person I was speaking to needed to go do some research to see why the HUD statement had the figures on it that it did.
2:06 – I leave the parking garage.
2:10 – someone from the lender calls me back and we discuss the HUD statement – it is a draft because it doesn’t show that I already paid the insurance. I also think it is wrong because it has me paying in around $5000 to the construction escrow agent towards the costs of the renovation. He explains that this is how it has to be since the cost of the house plus the budget is that much more than what they are lending me. (btw, I am not sure when the amount they were going to lend me was ever decided – the figure was mentioned at one point but I thought it was the ballpark figure)
2:14 – a new HUD statement is faxed to the lender. The insurance is off but a disbursal fee for the construction escrow agent is included now. He gives me the new total that I have to bring to the closing.
2:15 – I decide the lender rep isn’t going to figure anything out to change the HUD statement so we end the call with him doing some more investigation.
2:30 – I do a drive-by of the house and when looking into the garage I notice that the green chairs are missing.
2:40 – I arrive at the bank and get the cashiers check.
2:54 – I arrive at the title company and tell my agent about the missing chairs. We discuss it and I decide the seller needs to return them. My reasoning is that if he won’t take away the trash/car then he can’t have the good stuff. And I don’t like the SOB.
3:00 to 4:15 – the closing takes place. We call and talk to people at the lender again to see about the issue of me paying money in that will then get paid back out to the contractor/me. The only thing they say they can do is have the bid/budget re-worked to be less. That can’t be done until next week as it will take some time. I decide I would rather finish the close and will worry about this later. My agent reports that the seller says he took the chairs because he thought “they were worth something” but decided later they weren’t so he threw them away. He kindly provided the address of the dumpster he threw them into. (I am not kidding) I will point out at this time that the “closer” at the title company and my agent were wonderful – I am very happy with their performance.
4:15 – I leave the title company with the keys and a ton of paperwork and head to the dumpster location.
4:25 – I arrive at said dumpster and retrieve the chairs. One was not easy to get but with the help of a bungee cord I am able to fish it out.
4:40 – I arrive at my apartment, change and take Jack out for a walk. We go over to my new house. He pees in the yard.

I probably did not do a good job explaining the issue re: me paying money in so feel free to ask questions. After the walk I took a trip to Home Depot where I bought some items to use to secure the garage doors better. I then went back to the house to see about doing that. I ended up spending 30 or so minutes talking to the neighbors who are “Katrina refugees” that decided to not move back. Jennifer (the wife) has family in St. Louis. They are very nice. I explored the garage (the car is an Oldmobile Ciera, btw) and fiddled with securing the doors better. I basically decided that there isn’t anything in there that is easily portable that is worth anything so I punted on rigging anything up to better secure the doors tonight. Maybe later in the weekend…

So there it is. The photo above is the chairs safely stored in my apartment (although they need to be cleaned) and Maxine, the cat.