Finally Have a Deal!

We finally have a deal! The sellers are going to sell us the house for our offered price. They have decided to close on May 18, but I have class on May 18, so I guess we won't be there! Not really sure how that will work. I'm guessing our realtor will have to collect the keys for us and we'll pick them up when we visit later in the month.

So, we now get to embark on our own Craftsman fixer house adventure! Yeah! I hope we like scraping woodwork (or at least don't hate it too much).

Almost Over

We received our bid for foundation and pest repair work on the Multnomah house today. It totaled $13,160; combine that with the roof repair and we're talking close to $15,000. In an earlier addendum, we asked the sellers to reduce the price $15K and they informally came back with $5K. Today, based on the bid, we decided to instead ask for $10K off the price.

We figure we have good grounds, as the quote is from their own realtor's recommendation. We are tired of this house-buying process and it's just not worth digging in our heels and losing this house over a few thousand dollars.

It's up to the sellers now. If they accept, we're supposed to close on May 13. Unfortunately, I didn't have my school schedule with me when we picked the original close date (nor did we really expect to get this far) and we won't be going to Oregon for close. If this deal closes, I don't think we'll be heading up until I'm done with finals on May 26.

Final Extension

Last night we received another extension form from the sellers of Multnomah extending our inspection deadline until Wednesday. Since they granted the extension, on Monday our realtor will be meeting a builder at the property to get a "real" quote for the necessary repairs. Since the builder was suggested by their realtor, our hope is we'll be able to come up with a mutually-agreeable price for this purchase.

So, more than likely, nothing further will happen on this until late-Monday. This is surely the last extension and we should know by Wednesday if we're buying this house.

Another Extension

We have been back and forth with the sellers and it seems somewhat likely this house purchase is going to fall through. Today is the current deadline for Jeff and I to back out without losing our deposit, or to extend the inspection deadline. We're trying to extend the inspection deadline so we have time to adequately respond to their counter we received last night at 8:30PM.

Last week we asked the sellers to reduce the price another $15K. We had a eco-cool builder out there and he gave us a no-doubt high guesstimate of $60K for the needed repairs on the house. He couldn't see what was in the finished areas and so surely allowed for some unseen damage repair. He was also accounting for the fact that we wanted real, structural repairs, not cosmetic touchups.

This week, the sellers had their person out and he said he could make all the requested repairs for $6K! Really??! They can't be serious. Based on the shoddy roof installation, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

So, today we are trying to find another builder satisfactory to all parties who can go out and give a "real" estimate to repair the foundation damage and the pest damage. But if the sellers won't extend the deadline for us to do this, then we'll just sign a document backing out of the purchase tonight.

This is very disappointing for us. We've been seeing a light at the end of a tunnel, but it turns out it was a train (again).

You would think it would be easier to buy a house... I guess my expectations are just too high. Unfortunately, I have an affinity for historic fixers because then I'm not paying for the previous owners remodeling, but then I expect the price to reflect the unimproved condition. We're not finding that to be the case.

Update at 8PM:

The sellers extended this transaction until Wednesday. So, this transaction marches on. Our realtor is going to go out on Monday to meet their realtor's recommended contractor to hopefully get a firm estimate for what the foundation and pest repair would cost. We don't trust the seller's guy.

Still Waiting

We're still waiting to hear from the sellers about whether they'll accept our revised price. If they don't get back to us by tomorrow afternoon we'll have to terminate the transaction or risk losing our $5,000 deposit. Clint, our realtor, has high hopes we'll hear this evening, as he says the sellers met this afternoon. I'll post later tonight if we hear either way.

This week, I've been working on the tough tasks on my list this week; those tasks I've been putting off for too long. I've been collecting estimates to redo the plumbing in this house here in Redwood City. And I've scheduled a bunch of Kaiser appointments. I figure we'd better take advantage of our medical insurance while we still have it. I've also started pricing storage spaces in Oregon. It will be time soon enough to rent one and start shuttling stuff up there. There's just so many things to do before we move.

I did spend a few hours cruising around on the Portland MLS again in anticipation of the sellers rejecting our offer. I used to like cruising around the MLS more than I do now. I'm getting a little tired. And this time I cruised around the Salem MLS as well. There are a few promising prospects down there, but nothing I love. But the house prices are about $100K less, so it might be tempting. (Just for kicks, I also cruised around the MLS in Wisconsin; boy am I jealous of their house prices. There were some pretty nice houses for less than $100K!)

Maybe we'll just rent.... Really not a feature as I'm very sick of moving, but it may work out in the long run, especially if we find jobs in places outside Portland. But finding a rental with no jobs and two pets is gonna be a hassle.

Or maybe we'll just buy a very inexpensive house (less than $200K, which is cheap in Portland) and live in it until we find jobs and then buy another nicer house once we find jobs. Then we can keep the first small house as a rental property. It would be nice to have some passive income that isn't subject to Federal Reserve manipulation.

Update at 11PM:

So, the buyers want to extend our offer to Thursday. In other words, they don't know yet. I'm not sure what we'll do tomorrow. I have to talk to Clint about what their extension means for our deposit. I thought we already had until Thursday to figure this out.

Changing Schools Again

I have been working on a paralegal certificate for a couple years now. I started at DeAnza College in Cupertino then stopped going when we planned to travel for a year. Then when we moved to Redwood City, I transferred to Cañada College. I was hoping to finish my paralegal certificate at Cañada College this spring, but I think I may be just a bit short on units (3 units of a Word class). So, I have a choice. I can try and keep working on my certificate here in California during the summer or I can just transfer to Portland Community College. PCC requires more total units for the Paralegal certificate than the program here, but they also have a much better selection of classes.

I was impressed about how many classes PCC was offering, until I realized tuition there is about three times more expensive than I've been paying at community colleges here in California. (No wonder the California schools are going broke.)

I spent my morning first applying to go to PCC, and also plotting out my schedule to finish there. It looks like I could finish with six more classes, assuming some very conservative transfer estimates. If they transfer more of the California classes, then I would just need four or five classes in Portland. Of course, I may have to take more if they require a certain percentage of your paralegal classes be taken at PCC. Though, I couldn't find such a requirement anywhere at the website.

Summer quarter starts on June 21. I'm trying to figure out if I can get my act together and get up to Portland by that date. I'm currently considering 12 units in the summer quarter (4 classes). That would only leave a couple more in fall quarter.

Good Productive Day!

This morning Shasta and I went for a 3+ mile walk with our walking buddy, Heather. It was a beautiful day, though rather too warm for me already. If today was an indication, this summer will be hot. ☀ So much for walking; I'll have to figure out how to exercise inside our air conditioned house. I'll probably have to resort to exercise videos, or maybe—gasp—cleaning and sifting! ☺

After the walk, I went off to the San Mateo Law Library to finish up the research for a recent assignment in Advanced Legal Research & Writing. I found a really fabulous article that was exactly what I needed. It made it almost too easy to research cases and write up my assignment tonight. I'd feel guilty if I hadn't already spent nearly seven hours at the library researching this assignment. I'm hoping now that I'm done with this project, I'm done with the class work. I'm hoping anyway...

I scored one piece of great information today: Google Scholar includes decisions from at least some Federal cases! Woo hoo! That meant I didn't have to pay 15¢ a page to make copies at the law library! In fact, since I could access the cases online, I didn't even bother to print them out. I just opened them up on my computer and read them on-screen.