Homeowners Today

After a lengthy, almost 1 1/2 hour closing, we are homeowners. Oddly enough, we are homeowners and landlords at the same time, as the former owners will not be out of the house until Tuesday. It's all fine and good. It's not like we were going to move in this weekend. Heck, we haven't even started packing.

The morning started off well. We got ready at home without fuss or delay from the kids (easier when daddy's home, too), and dropped them off at a friends house around 9:30. The real estate office was a mere mile or so from my friends house, so we got there fairly early. We walked down the hall and found the suite. The office was dark, and the door locked! Hmmm. Not the beginning that I had imagined. We walked to the front of the complex and waiting in the bright, sunny, and completely empty waiting area. Our agent showed up a little before 10:00, and said "Are you ready?" Uh, yeah, but the office is dark and door is locked. She looked very surprised. We waited a few more minutes, and decided to go check again, just in case someone came via a backdoor or something. Nope. Still empty. Still dark. So we waited some more. About 5 minutes later we heard hurried footsteps, which we assumed was the other agent. It was our financier. And still we waited. Five minutes later a man walked down the hall. We weren't waiting for him, but he was able to open up the office. A few minutes later the owner and other agent came in, and five minutes after that the closer came. Amazing! We were going to start around 10:00, but in reality started around 10:15! After sitting in a very tiny conference room with 6 other people for over an hour and a half, signing more papers than anyone really should, and needing to use the fax machine down the hall in another company's office (since the one in the real estate office wasn't working), we are finally homeowners! It's all rather anti-climactic, since the previous owner will still be there. But Tuesday, it's all ours, baby! Then the odor-removal service comes in for a few days (Stink, Inc. - great name, huh?), and then carpet is replaced on the 8th. Somewhere in there we need to fix wires, get a radon mitigation system, fix a window , fix a carbon-monoxide leak, and have the whole place cleaned! We are scheduled to move on the 12th. Brian comes home from a trip, sets up the TiVo, moves, and then leaves again for another trip! Such is the month of October for us.

The whole house thing has been odd. Most houses in the bay area sell for over asking price. Here, not so much. Houses almost always sell for under asking. We had a large choice of houses we could afford, which is a nice change. However, there are a lot of odd houses here. In a previous post I wrote about the plethora of bad houses we saw. Lots of bi-levels and tri-levels. Housing in California tends to be more generic, more tract. There is a crapload of housing here that must have been very architecturally cool in 1975, but not since then. Especially in Louisville! It is continually ranked as one of the best places to raise your family in the US. Good thing Architectural Digest doesn't rank it, or it would be near the end. There are normal houses there, but they're not as prevalent as the ugly ones. The preservation rate of '70's style housing is quite high here!

The closing was odd as well. We didn't have any issues getting a loan, and one with a good rate. Our credit scores are good, so all the stuff I read about how hard it is to get a loan didn't apply. I was stressing out for nothing! Of course, our loan is much less than anything we would have gotten in the bay area, so I can't compare. On the way out from the actual closing our agent told us it was the longest and most disorganized closing she'd ever been to. Everyone was late, and the closer was the last to arrive! It was all legal, and I thought everyone was nice, so it didn't bother me too much. Very very glad we didn't have the kids with us, though. What a mess that would have been!

So now we are homeowners. How odd. I think I might want to have a glass of wine tonight and celebrate. Oh wait.... that requires me to g0 to a liquor store with the kids in tow. Maybe I'll have a glass of iced tea. Woo hoo! We are living the good life now!