An Update

In the past few days, four people have asked how our house hunt is going. This leads me to believe every single person who reads this blog is dying to know whether or not we will still be homeless and dejected this winter. The masses deserve an update! Here we go:

Four weeks ago tomorrow Husband and I put in an offer on the house. It wasn't like our first offer a few months ago on the same house, which was so low that it was kind of an insult and we really hadn't expected anything to come of it. No, this was a real, honest-to-goodness, cold hard cash offer. And we were excited. We'd discussed our needs vs. wants at length and had finally spoken our true priorities out loud to one another. We had made a decision about our future and where we wanted that future to take place.

Unfortunately (but semi-fortunately), since putting in that offer, the house went into full foreclosure. In truth, our offer should be null and void because the expiration date has long since...well...expired. But in the convoluted system of communication that currently stands, we spoke with our realtor, who spoke with the loan officer (at the same bank that owns the house and pre-approved our loan), who spoke with the foreclosure department, and said "It's okay! The offer is still valid! Still take it into consideration!"

And then three weeks went by. The bank FINALLY told us that they were planning a current market value appraisal of the home, and this appraisal would be compared to our offer, and then we would have an answer!

Sure.

Our realtor called us after he found out the appraisal actually had more in common with a drive-by shooting (how you can appraise a house without actually entering the house is incomprehensible to me). The appraisor would come up with a magic number by comparing the house to other houses for sale in the area (as a fun sidenote, a house two blocks away has been for sale for months; not one single buyer has even looked at this house yet). And so, we waited. And waited. And waited some more. And we're still waiting. Our loan officer, the only person with the actual ability to communicate with the foreclosure department, has called and sent numerous e-mails, with no response. "The legalities take time," she keeps saying.

All I know is, the warm days filled with productive renovation potential are slipping by faster than a teenage boy into his girlfriend's panties. The longer the house sits without inhabitants, the more renovation it will need. I shudder to think if the house sits for the entire winter.

The economy sucks. The foreclosure department is overloaded. Maybe the bank itself will go under, who knows? All I know is that we have a hot pile of money we're just aching to hand over and no one wants it.

We'll make our weekly Friday phone call to the bank yet again tomorrow. Don't expect any news. We aren't.