Time Ticks Away...

Everything seemed to be falling into place, with a tentative closing date of Thursday, Dec. 17. We'd hired a sewer lateral company (And I recommend them highly, Terra Nova Engineering), they were scheduled to come in and get the sewer done on Tuesday, Dec. 15.

Then it all fell apart again. A rainstorm moved in, causing the sewer lateral work to get postponed to Dec. 17 - a closing still possible, if we can get the completion paperwork from them early enough in the day. But then a bigger hoop appears - F. gets notice from the underwriter on Wednesday that they would like all the Section 1 work called out in the termite inspection completed (more on that in a minute) and since the inspection mentioned missing window cranks on some of the casement windows, they would like all those replaced. Oh, and after all this work is done, could we please have an inspector look at it again? Are you serious? We're not going to get our loan if the windows are missing cranks??? Thursday closing out the window, I go home and alternate between blubbering and cursing like a sailor, and drink lots of wine. The powerlessness of this process is what drives me out of my tree. The Husband and the dogs give me wide berth.

The termite inspection does not just deal with termites, of course, it also includes water damage - and ours showed some dry rot in two or three places in the eves (near the wooden gutter), at the base of posts on the front porch, and in the door jamb of a side door. Not a lot of work, but finding someone to do it, and quickly, is the challenge - our loan rate has an expiration date. F. scrambles to find a handyman, ends up calling the selling agent, henceforth known as Champ. (We've learned that the seller owns a great deal of property in Richmond, Albany, and Berkeley - and Carmel. And Champ manages a great deal of it.) Champ tells us he can get the work done in the next 2-3 days. We love Champ. F. loves Champ. We start planning the gift basket we can give Champ at the end of this long nightmare.

So if the work can get done over the weekend, then perhaps F. can get an inspector in Monday or Tuesday, and we can get funded and recorded while we are home in Missouri for a few days - and we will be handed keys when we get back.

Sorry for the Long Absence...

...but despair did indeed set in. Our second appraiser hailed from Discovery Bay, had never been to Richmond before; the day of the appraisal she complained to our agent F. that she had to appraise our place, a house in Oakland, and one in Walnut Creek, all in the same day, and had never worked in any of those three places. Not reassuring. F. did her best, sent many comps, more comps of comparable neighborhoods. The results came in on Dec. 1.: she appraised the house at $235K. $235K!!!! Pardon me, but if you show me a nice house in a nice neighborhood in the Bay Area that I can buy for $235K, I will buy it. I have never seen such a rare and wondrous beast

I mean, honestly, $235K? You should have seen the properties she used as comps in her appraisal - horrible! So now we have two supposedly equally qualified appraisers (both certified at the highest level); one who knows the area and appraised the property at $365K, and another from elsewhere who appraised it at $235K. I want to call the HUD office and scream, "Who is right???!" And isn't a $130K difference just a bit ridiculous? Have they made the system more flawed by insisting on random selection of appraisers?

We get on the phone with our mortgage broker and F. Can we go back to the first loan of $300K? And can we tell the selling agent the second appraisal, and tell him $300K is all we can offer? F. gets on the phone immediately - and the selling agent is once again a champ. He tells her he will do his best to get this deal done. Calls back several hours later, and says they will accept $300K, but we have to cover closing costs, and no new roof. It will mean more money upfront from us, but we'll save overall. Here goes again.