It's been awhile since I had a chance to post something or even visit, but with the Holiday's and getting ready to purchase a new house there's never really been any downtime!

Even the 360 and Wii aren't getting the attention and love they deserve.

I'll be out of the office tomorrow dealing with the house, but I definitely wanted to get this up. What I want to rant about today is a few things we are going through with this house we are getting ready to purchase.

First of all, our closing is supposed to happen on Monday January 7th. I received a phone call yesterday from the lender that the sellers and their agents are behind on getting documents to them and getting other items sorted out, so basically the chances of us closing on the 7th are close to nill.

What really makes it upsetting is that the lenders and buying agents are always hounding us to get them papers, sign things, meet with them, fax and email items back and forth, and be ready at a moments notice when they need something. So while we're busting our butts to do this for them all while we're at work, the other side (the sellers) are slacking off and not getting things done.

So basically you're doing everything you can to meet deadlines and settle on time but the sellers and their agents don't seem to be doing a damn thing. You would think that the lenders and agents would be hounding them as much as they were us.

And to add to it, we found a good contractor that is willing to rip up all of the old carpet and install new flooring throughout the house for a decent price, but the only problem is they need to start right after closing cause they are going on vacation for a month starting next weekend. So if our closing gets pushed back by even a few days we will have to go with other contractors that are more expensive or even Home depot.

So that's the story so far, it's just non stop on the phone, meeting with people, or signing papers

Hope everyone had a great New Years and an awesome holiday!

Welcome to both the greatest joy and possibly the greatest PITA there is: Home ownership

Quote: Originally Posted by Wordbiker Welcome to both the greatest joy and possibly the greatest PITA there is: Home ownership

I thought it was Home Moan-ership, ya know, 'cause all us home owners are always moaning and complaining about the time/money/BS it takes to won a home.

That said, it is still a wonderful thing, and the best investment you can possibly make. Good luck!

Hope you have better luck than a guy I know... He bought a house and it looked great. Nice flooring and roof, great neighborhood. After a few weeks in the house he went to bed one night and noticed that things started rolling towards one end of the room when you set them down. He went down into the basement and looked at the foundations and founds that they had started sinking years ago and the house was folding in on itself. The seller had said nothing about this, and it was before buyers insurance. He spent the next three years jacking the foundations on that house up and rebuilding them, only to have to sell the house soon afterwards. Hope you have better luck

Quote: Originally Posted by boogityboo04 Hope you have better luck than a guy I know... He bought a house and it looked great. Nice flooring and roof, great neighborhood. After a few weeks in the house he went to bed one night and noticed that things started rolling towards one end of the room when you set them down. He went down into the basement and looked at the foundations and founds that they had started sinking years ago and the house was folding in on itself. The seller had said nothing about this, and it was before buyers insurance. He spent the next three years jacking the foundations on that house up and rebuilding them, only to have to sell the house soon afterwards. Hope you have better luck

That is why you have a house inspected by a professional Home Inspector. In NY you can not buy a house without the inspection. If the inspector failed to notice something like that, your friend could sue him since it is something that he should have seen.

Hell, I'm quit-claiming my place in North Dakota to my parents. I don't want to go through the paperwork to condemn the freakin' place... about the only reason I kept it was to store my car (I have a 1970 Impala, 2 door custom in my garage out there). The taxes were cheaper than storage... The foundation is crumbling (I know how to repair just about every other part of a house except that) and the roof is not looking too good (adding to the foundation problems).

I live in a apartment/loft in Helena, MT and I'm temporary here (planning on moving in two years and counting due to an event I'm waiting for)... home ownership doesn't work that well for a nomad.

Still, I miss being able to repair stuff and add improvements (I usually pull cat5 into every room and paint the place). Home ownership doesn't always mean you're stuck in an area, but trying to unload a place can be time-consuming, especially when the housing market is horrible in a given area...

As for the floor, it's not too hard to rip up carpet (it's dirty work don't get me wrong, but if you cut it up into reasonable sections, it's not too hard to pull up or get rid of). In which case, you could throw down a couple rugs until you could get someone out there. I've been lucky enough to find hardwood floors in a lot of the places I've lived in (more beautiful than carpetting) and I decided to just stay with that. If you decide you still need carpet, move in and not move your furniture in until your contractor is back. Still, hopefully everything comes together for you. I know it's not fun to have to deal with buying a place. Selling can be just as much a PITA, especially if it's a buyer's market!

Pulling up carpet is easy. Just get one of those carpet knifes from the hardware store and hack at it. I know here on Long Island the regular trash collectors will take it if the pieces are rolled up and no wider than 4ft. Check the area you are moving to for the proper method of disposal.

I have also put down laminate floors (Pergo-style) and it isn't hard to do, you just need to take your time to get it done right. Of course, contractors can do it much faster since they know what they are doing. I have ripped all the carpet from my house to put in Pergo (except for the stairs, still working on those). It is much easier to maintain, does not trap allergans and dust, and you can alway put rugs on top of it.

The only drawback is if you have any type of water leak and the water gets under the flooring, it will pucker at the seams. This is generally only a potential issue if you use it in a kitchen (or laundry room), and why you won't find laminate flooring in bathrooms.

It's a total of 1300 square feet that we need for the carpet to be ripped up and flooring to be put down lol. So I just don't have the time to do all of that. The Pergo is nice, and I think that's what we're going to go with. Plus it's easy to install so the guy said once the carpet is up the floors should be down in a day and a half to two days.

Plus we have to paint all the rooms too, so we'll be doing that while he's working on the flooring.

Had another day back and forth between the agent and lender and they still aren't having any luck with receiving documents from the seller or the sellers agent.

Shoot me now lol.

Well we're supposed to close today at 3pm...so lets keep our fingers crossed!!

Quote: Originally Posted by IronSerif Well we're supposed to close today at 3pm...so lets keep our fingers crossed!!

Warm up your hand before you go in... you will never sign and initial as many papers in one sitting as you are about to.

Congrats!