The Saga goes on...

We were finally getting bits and pieces of information. The insurance company's estimate was only about $13,000. That sounded low. We needed to get down there and see it for ourself. We flew down there at the end of June, before our July 11th closing date, to decide if we still wanted to close on the house. It was hard. I didn't even know if I wanted to see it. I was afraid I would just break into tears. Ben saw it first, then I went the next day. It wasn't as bad as I had imagined. The biggest thing was that there was no flooring, just a concrete slab. It wasn't pretty, but it wasn't horrible either. There were some holes in the drywall where ServPro had to insert their dehydrators. As I mentioned earlier, the walls of the laundry room were destroyed. But after careful inspection, we still decided it was cosmetic and definitely repairable. We had people come to give us estimates for flooring and repairs too. We wanted to know a ballpark figure of what it would actually cost to repair. It was, of course more than the insurance company's estimate. Plus, we needed these estimates for a worksheet for the 203k mortgage. We felt more prepared, more knowledgeable. We didn't want anyone trying to screw us over or feel like they could take advantage of us because we were all they way in Maryland. But it was all still a waiting game. The mitigators from our realty company were asking for $25,000 toward repair. Insurance adjustor only quoted $13,000. I would jokingly say we needed compensation for mental anguish too! haha Seriously though, Ben and I were both so frustrated, stressed, and physically ill over all this. I thought I was developing an ulcer.

Ben would search for other homes for sale in case this all didn't work out. One day in his search he saw our house....scheduled for auction....on August 13th!! Yep, unbelievable right? The bank had the time to set up the auction for the house but couldn't make a damn decision for us! Ben immediately called our realtor (who is an angel in disguise, I must add) and she had no knowledge of it, but assured us not to worry, that it only takes a phone call to remove it from the auction roster. Ok so get this. We FINALLY get word July 29th that they agreed to $23,000. Ben is excited, I am still skeptical (can you blame me at this point?) because we don't have it in writing yet. We don't get the "official" papers until August 1st. They also tell us that they want to close on August 12th. Ok, let's talk to our 203k mortgage girl and see if we can do it. Afterall, she had most of the application finished... Well, of course that's not enough time to finish the paperwork. Quick, ask if the bank will grant us an extension of 2 more weeks. Waiting.... Waiting.... Nope, no extension. We close on the 12th or no deal. I'm infuriated by this because we sat around and waited for sooo long for them to make a decision, and then they can't even grant us 2 more weeks? I was so pissed off! I felt like they would rather just go to auction because at this point they would probably make more $ from it at auction, even in the state it's in.

So now what? Can't get a conventional mortgage, can't get the 203k. What do we do? Well, we ended up getting approved for a private mortgage from the owner of our realty company. We were able to do it quickly, and the mortgage payments ended up being about the same...the same as the 203k and the same as we pay right now. Can you believe that? A bigger, newer house in Florida for about the same mortgage that we pay right now. Cool!