SHORT SALE!!!

I haven't posted anything about this because I have been afraid of jinxing us. Back in NOVEMBER we put an offer on a three bedroom one bath short sale home in Iona. It is exactly seven miles from my office, and where Katie will be catching the bus for ISU in the fall. It is about four to five miles from family and friends. It is on one acre of flood irrigated land (water rights), and is surrounded by fields on three sides. It is an older (main home in the early 1900's) home that has been updated. They have put a few additions on it, the most recent was in the mid 90's. They added on almost 300 square feet, put up vinal siding, metal roof, new upgraded romex wiring, updated all the plumbing, and probably flooring at that time. It is a cute little home in the country and perfact for us. It has been abused and will need a little TLC, but it is the kind of stuff we can do like paint, flooring, and a lot of clean up around the property.

Over the past two months I learned that there is nothing short about a short sale. We had pretty much given up hope on the home and were starting to look at other homes. Last Tuesday I told the realtor that we were done and that I wanted my earnest money back. The very next day Bank of America assigned a negociator. Then this Tuesday they accepted our offer minus 1000 dollars of closing and they would not cover the well and septic inspection we had requested. I still felt we were getting a pretty good deal.

Yesterday the home inspector went through and didn't find anything that was a deal breaker. A couple things we were not aware of that might cost a little, but all in all it is in pretty good shape structurally. We will need to replace the flooring (saturated with pet urin, let me know if you have any hint on getting it out of the sub floor) paint the walls, and replace some wall heaters that are recalled. We are looking for a used gas stove/fireplace because it is already piped for a corner unit. We are hoping the appriasil comes in quite a bit higher than our offer so we can borrow a little more for carpet and tile.

We are trying to get closed on the 23rd, but we will see how that turns out. We need to be closed no later than March 2nd for our deal with the bank. I am just hoping that everything from here on out goes smoothly, but I am prepared for it not to as things often times are more difficult than you plan.

I know I have spent well over 100 hours looking at home on the Internet, researching short sales, and learning about first time home buying. I really hope that it all pays off. I have a tendency to take everything on myself at times because I don't want to have two of us stressed out, but Katie has done so much to help out (I may be a little bit of a control freak???).

It is exciting and scary at the same time. It is quite a commitment as most of you know. We have had a lot of highs and lows during the process, but we both acknowledge the blessings we have received this past year. Our families and friends have been so supportive and helpful, and Heavenly Father has blessed us in so many ways. There is still a chance that things could fall through or the house could end up being a money pit of problems, but I know that we will get through the future trials we have ahead of ourselves.

On another note, Katie graduated from BYU-I with her Bachelors in December. She worked so hard and got almost all A's in her final four semesters. She has her application in to ISU for the Occupational Therapy Program that starts in the fall. She has completed all of the requirements so she should be a shoe in. We were worried about how the bus ride from Idaho Falls to Pocatello would be fore her everyday. Katie was able to talk to a gal that is finishing the program right now and she said that it should be no problem and would be a great time to get a lot of reading done. This gal had to take a year off because of an unexpected pregnancy. They were really good about working with her. It is a really small program and it sounds like the professors really care about the success of those that try. I know that it wont be easy, but I do know that Katie will do really well. Every OT that she has shadowed had given her great reviews and some have even said they would hire her out of grad school.

A few other updates, we were able to make it to the BYU win over utah in football, spent time with family over Christmas, Katie shot her first, second, and third goose (one right after the other, her last shot was 65 plus yards and dropped it out of the sky, I was so proud), we made it to a basket ball game where BYU killed CSU, and I was able to do some ice fishing last week and we caught over 20 fish.