Humina, humina, humina! Obviously, I haven't had much time to write of late, so here's my feeble attempt to bring things up to date. You will soon see why time has been a precious commodity.

The House Buying and Selling Thing. Had all the inspections and they came back with a long list of stuff I had to fix on my house. The biggest concerns were the stove, which was putting out 3 times the allowable carbon monoxide, the water heater, which was in fine working order, but getting old, and the roof, which had a couple of cracks, the surface was getting thin and the tin portion of the roof, which FHA just plain wanted nothing to do with. So, although I had agreed to do $1,500 worth of repairs, the buyers wanted me to take care of everything, regardless of costs. At first I was very reluctant, but finally agreed to fix everything on the home inspection report. This will probably cost $1000 extra.
There was also a big controversy involving the roof. Dad had his favorite roofers come down and do an estimate- $1200. They told us that they couldn't do the roof for 3 months, but that it would be allowed by FHA. So I signed the contract. When I tell the realtors this, they go ballistic, saying that is not true, and that the roof must be fixed and certified before closing. Well, the realtor tries to get me another estimate, but that is no good no matter how cheap, because there is a clause in the roofing contract that if I back out, I have to pay half the estimate anyway! So my father pleas with the roofing company and they finally agree to do it next Monday and promise the certification by Wednesday. We close a week from Friday, April 30.
Needless to say, this whole episode made me a bit uneasy. I was upset for several reasons. First, I was starting to feel like the buyers were milking me for everything I had! Obviously this isn't the case. They just want to not have to fix things on their own. Also, I felt that Dad had pressured me into accepting his roofer....Well, this is my life story. I'm 43 and Dad still makes a lot of MY decisions. I know he is trying to help, but sometimes he helps TOO much. I need to work on this.
Also, having all these problems and expenses at once was just making me feel, well, pressured. I don't handle pressure well. On the flip side, my buying of the other house has been going VERY smoothly. The owners are wonderfully friendly people and there are no problems. As for their home inspection, only a few minor repairs were needed on the roof. This got me thinking. I want my buyers to be as happy with their buying experience as I am with mine. I didn't want them to think I was being a jerk, and maybe I was. So I just decided to go with the flow, repair what was needed, and get on with selling the house. Much of this was due to the counseling of my spiritual angel Sonya, who helped me look at the situation from the perspective of God principle.
FHA still makes me a bit nervous, because they can be picky, but apparently, all we need is that roof cert and we are good.
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