So it seems I last left off on my story stating that yes, the bank (BoA) liked my offer, but Escrow had mis-read my offer and wrote up the info wrong to the bank & therefore we had to resubmit my actual offer to the Seller's Bank. (See my post on May 6th for more details.) Bummer, huh?
Fortunately, I didn't have THAT long to wait for a response. On May 7th (5:43p) I posted to Twitter the following Update:
"Has Great News! Bank has approved my *Actual* Offer to purchase the Condo! Finally! :) Deposit $ to Escrow will have to wait till Monday... "
(considering it was after 5pm when I found out that we were actually approved by the Seller's bank, etc., there was no time to get $ to Escrow that day in order to actually START the Escrow process).
First thing Monday Morning, my Deposit $ went over to Escrow and Escrow got their Escrow Instructions to me (via email) so I could start printing off pages and signing them. Fortunately, I could sign & scan the pages in order to email them back to Escrow.
An interesting twist is that the Seller REALLY wanted to close by THAT FRIDAY (5/14). Wow! That would mean a 5 Day Escrow!! Um, ok, but let us get our Home Inspection in etc. So I quickly scheduled that for Wednesday (5/12) but then discovered that Utilities were off and the Seller had no intention of turning them on for a Home Inspection when they were trying to close in just a couple of days/by end of the week. So *I* had to call to schedule Electricity (SCE), Gas (SoCalGas), & Water (Irvine Ranch Water District - IRWD) to be turned on by Wednesday (if possible) so that my scheduled home inspection was actually worth doing. (Kinda pointless to have a home inspection when the guy can't check anything).
Got ahold of SCE & IRWD first and got those scheduled. They said "no problem" for getting things turned on as of next day (Tuesday, 5/11). SoCalGas, however, was another story. They need at least 2 days lead time so earliest spot they had was on THURSDAY (5/13). Doh!! However, after explaining my situation, that I needed it on for a home inspection and just found out that utilities weren't on, etc, the gal I was speaking with was able to get approval to have the time rescheduled to Wednesday (tacked on after the existing jobs in the area were done). Yay! But wait! Problem - they need someone home or access to the inside. Uh, oh! I don't have keys yet and the unit isn't on a combo lokbox....that's gonna be a problem.
So some scrambling around and a few phone calls later, one of my work's vendors who's already helping me out with stuff related to my move and said he'd look over the unit & give me his opinion on it/what might potentially need fixing (free of charge for the looking over of the unit) said he had a spare combination lokbox and would loan it to me/put it on the unit. Whew! Plus the Seller & the Seller's Broker decided to meet with me (and my folks) on Tuesday and give us keys to front door (not all keys) even though the deals not final - that way we can come over whenever to look it over or have workers in to give us estimates. Yay! So by end of day Tuesday, I was able to call back the gas company and tell them that Yes, the unit has a Combo Lokbox and give them the combo (so they could get inside and test/turn on the gas).
Wednesday, May 13th - Home Inspection Day (rescheduled for 1:30pm from earlier in order to hopefully give time for SoCalGas to get over there & turn on the gas before we get there :). In the morning I get a call from the Termite Inspector, who was also scheduled to do his inspection that day. His first call was 'cause he didn't have the right combo (turns out his secretary transposed a number or two in the combo) and then later to give a verbal report/update saying that Things Look Pretty Good to him. (Whew!) I'll get a physical copy of the report later. (Now bank at this point said they didn't need a Certified copy, so I was just planning on getting a plain ol report from them). Also, while he was on the phone he mentioned that the gas company was there at the same time he was. (Yay! They made it in time! :) However, the only thing that was of concern to me was that the Termite Guy said the water wasn't on. What?!? It should be on by now.
So I call IRWD and confirm with them that Yes, according to their records, the water is on and was turned on as of Tuesday. Um, ok. Weird. I'll check it when I'm over there fore the Home Inspection then.
1pm I'm picked up at my work to carpool down with my mom to the place for the Home Inspection. (We stop briefly at my dad's work, which is nearby the place in question, to pick him up as well.) We get over there and another vendor friend of mine (through work) is there to walk through with us (yes, another favor :). Only had to wait a minute or two before the actual Home Inspector showed up and we all got started. First thing, however, was to figure out why the lights weren't coming on. Home Inspector found the main breaker down by the street/side of building (not the inside the unit breakers) and turned them - problem solved. However, Water STILL wasn't turning on. We looked all over and couldn't figure out why. I ended up calling the property management company just to make sure there wasn't another valve or something that was related to HOA/property management that we were missing that needed turning on. There wasn't. (They don't touch any utilities related stuff that deals with the individual units.) So then I called IRWD and had them on the phone while they directed me to the street side water valve/meter. Looking at the meter, it appeared it was on for our side - the handle/lever was turned into the on position whereby its parallel with the pipes - but there was no water flow. And obviously the Meter had been Reset cause it was at 00000, so the water guy had been there. This is getting really strange now! As I still had IRWD on the phone, they put in a request to have a technician come out as soon as possible to figure things out. Of course, by the time the technician GOT there, we had already left (by a 1/2 hr).
Technician calls me on my cell phone and says there's an oddity - he's looking at the street side meter that's marked for my unit (19C) but the meter number doesn't match his records. He'll have to investigate further & call me back. An hour or so later (however long it actually was) I got another call explaining that at some point the meter was replaced but IRWD's records were never updated with the new meter number. How weird is that? So end result of this call - THIS guy turned on the water at the meter. Ok. Finally! (Weird that in the IRWD's records it shows as being turned on, when it obviously wasn't, but now this guy turns it on. Right?)
Of course I want to test this claim that the water is actually on - so my folks go by the unit on Thursday and test out the water. Yes, it IS on (yay) but it turns out that there's a leak under a sink in the bathroom (a valve is corroded), so the water is turned back off (our side of the valve at the street side meter) until we get the valve replaced/fixed. At least we know about this problem now.
And since the Seller's Broker has been on our case all week about getting $ & all signed docs over to Escrow ASAP so they can close Friday (something about being Seller being assessed $1700 in additional fees...by Fannie Mae...if it doesn't close on Friday - none of which we can find in writing anywhere, nor does BoA know anything about these supposed fees that will be charged if it doesn't close 'on time') on Thursday morning (first thing) since we've had our inspection and better know what we're getting into with this deal (and yes, still want the place) we get a cashiers check over to Escrow with various original signature (my signature) documents so that things are 'done' on my end. At that point, we could only Wait while Escrow did its thing.
Theoretically, it could still close on Friday, but Friday came and went with no word other than a note saying that BoA signed off and forwarded the package to Fannie Mae and we were left waiting to hear back from them on their approval of funding/financing (or whatever).
Hmm...
So, that's pretty much where I'm at right now. Waiting for it to close. Fingers crossed this comes through soon cause it would be really nice if it does close today (or just this week) and then I can start scheduling contractors for various small repairs and improvements I want done BEFORE I move in. (There's no *major* work that needs to be done fortunately. Whew!) If all goes well, then I can use my scheduled move date of THIS SATURDAY (5/22) to move my appliances (Fridge & Clothes Washer/Dryer) and furniture (bed, tables, bookcases, etc - I have no couch right now as my roommate is the owner of most of the living room furniture right now ;-) straight over instead of going into storage. Then I can temp live at my folks (spare bedroom) while the work is being done and move the rest of my stuff over after the work's done.
That's the ideal plan at least. We'll see what happens.
Oh, and this past Saturday I was there to meet with a couple more vendors so they could get me quotes (like from our Window Shades guy and from a Painter we use - heck, with vaulted ceilings, I'm not painting this place myself!). So if you saw a picture of my niece that I uploaded (to facebook) when she and my sis came to visit (they were bringing me boxes for packing), yes, I was still at the unit from meeting with the vendors earlier that morning - which meant I was able to show off the place to my sis. :).
Well, that's the update. We *might* close today on this place. We'll see what happens...and of course, you guys know me. I'll keep ya in the loop. :)
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