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While the first three months of the house selling process was trying my patience, the last three months were a roller coaster and I'm glad to finally be off that ride.
We had an open house the last Sunday in October, which was fairly well attended. A couple went back later in the week with their agent and we had an offer within a couple of days. They low-balled, we countered, they accepted. Easy negotiation.
They had their inspection, but then wanted to double check on the cracks in the basement. Please note that in my town, EVERY basement has cracks because the entire town is built on a swamp, but some are worse than others. They called in a structural engineer who didn't seem very concerned about them, but that time waiting for his findings gave me massive anxiety. There were a few other minor concerns they had so we quickly negotiated a small reduction in the sale price to cover it. Yay!
Not so fast.
Here's where it got fun. I'm not even sure I can remember all the details so it might not sound as anxiety producing as it actually was to live through it at the time, plus a lot of it is kind of boring legal stuff around federal flood funds, but I'll do my best.
That house is in a flood plain. This means that most mortgage corporations will only approve a mortgage there if the buyers obtain and escrow flood insurance. There's a whole federal flood system in place that subsidizes insurance to make it affordable. John Oliver did a whole segment this fall on Last Week Tonight all about the federal flood system, which firmed up my desire to get that house sold.
We also had received a mailing in September explaining that the subsidies were going to be ending and our insurance rates could go up 5-18% over the next five years. First of all, that's a ridiculously large range. And second, that's when I found out that the absurdly high rate we were paying was subsidized. Seriously, that was the subsidized rate?!?
See, we were totally clueless about what we were doing when we bought that house. We liked the house and sure we would get flood insurance, of course. And 14 1/2 years ago, the flood insurance was quite a bit cheaper. Even with the subsidies, the rates had been steeply increasing every year, exponentially the past couple of years. Again, a big reason for the move and for my refusal to even consider a house in the flood plain.
This mailing also included information on seeking out an elevation certificate to help reduce rates. I didn't understand what that meant when we first got it in the mail, but I figured we'd just sell the house and not worry about it anyway.
But the buyers helped me learn quite a bit about it. And also made me incredibly bitter that no one had told me about this 14 years earlier so I could have saved thousands of dollars on flood insurance.
Here's how it went down. We were all ready to move forward. They knew they needed flood insurance. The wife grew up in the neighborhood and they have friends who also live there, plus it was in our disclosure so no surprise there. But they were taken aback by how much it would cost. That escrow amount makes a big addition to a monthly mortgage payment and it was pricing them out.
To their credit, these people REALLY wanted the house. We were very much on the low end of pricing in that neighborhood and we'd just reduced the listing price a smidge. Having seen their preapproval letter, I doubt they could have afforded another house in the neighborhood. Plus they had already sold their previous house and were living with their kids and dog at one of their parents' house, which personally sounds like a nightmare to me.
So back to the elevation certificate. Let me explain what it is. You get a surveyor to come out and using the flood map, they figure out how high the first floor of the house is above the flood rise level. I might not be using the absolute correct lingo there. But basically, how high up was the house built, and is it high enough that flooding wouldn't impact the actual living space of the house? One clue is do you have to climb steps to get into the house. In our new house, no. In that house, yes.
The buyers had heard about the elevation certificate from friends who had been able to get their flood insurance waived. They asked for a two week extension on the original two week inspection period that was just about to run out. Their plan was to hire a surveyor and get an expedited elevation certificate approved. I was feeling a little annoyed because that would take the house off the market for a full month and if they decided to walk away, we'd be into December, which isn't a great time for selling a house. We agreed, but on the condition that we could keep the house listed, and they agreed on the condition that we couldn't sign any new contracts until after they did the survey. It was heading into Thanksgiving week so I knew it was unlikely anyone would go look at the house anyway, but I felt it was the principal.
So we headed up to the internet dead zone that is my in-laws in New Hampshire for Thanksgiving. We had cell access, but not great cell access. Told the realtor to text me rather than email that week. He let us know Tuesday that the surveyor was going to be there Wednesday and should be able to give them an informal answer at that point. Wednesday came and we heard nothing until very late Wednesday night when I got a text that the surveyor actually couldn't give an answer so hopefully they'd know Friday. Friday came and went and I gave up worrying about it at some point, figuring that a lot of people they needed to talk to might not even be in the office on the day after Thanksgiving. That was probably accurate.
Late Monday we heard that it wasn't elevated high enough to complete waive the flood insurance, but they were still trying to work something out. I don't know what they eventually decided on, though I'm sure the elevation still was enough to at least reduce it significantly. In the end, the only thing that matters to me is that they figured out whatever they needed to and the sale was moving forward!
Buying and selling houses in NY is about a two month long process. I had hoped to have it all said and done by the end of the year, but it was too late for that dream to come true. Good for taxes this year, I guess, to own two houses?
We were already tired of two lawns to mow, two yards to clean up leaves from (the old house was EXTREMELY leafy), and now two houses needing snow removal. And this year was the snowiest December and January we've had in years. Because of course it was. I kept joking that as soon as the house closed, the weather would clear up. Hahahahaha... Oh wait, that's exactly what happened.
One other thing to include. We were asked if they could have permission to get into the house to take measurements because they were planning to renovate the kitchen, which got us thinking about all the appliances we had replaced over the years and how very old the appliances are in the new house. Too bad they were included in the contract, but maybe we could buy them back? We inquired. They were open to an offer. I gave my realtor a possible number. He lowered it. They took his number and just asked that we get them out before closing. Yay!
And now time to move them by ourselves, all while my dad channeled his inner Lethal Weapon era Danny Glover to remind us how he's too old for this shit. I won't go into detail because this post is already too heavy on that, but suffice it to say that the process of removing the appliances, moving them, removing the old appliances, and then installing the ones from the old house was rather annoying, especially in the middle of a massive cold spell. I shouldn't complain because I didn't do most of the physical labor, but I wound up coordinating it all for the most part. It was well timed, though. The dishwasher was sitting in my dining room for a couple of days (so the hoses wouldn't freeze in the garage) when the current dishwasher decided to fall apart. We moved a little quicker on getting that one installed.
But yesterday the sale was closed. We took the kids over the weekend to say good-bye. My stoic Nora, who seemed to have made the transition easier, gave me hints that she was sadder about it than she let on. While my emotional Henry said his good-byes matter of factly. He's more upset that we left Beezley's ashes in that yard, though he agreed that's where he should be since he never lived at our new house. The day before closing, I went by myself to leave all the keys and just have some time to be there alone. I got a little misty.
I'm relieved to not have that extra burden anymore, but we did live a lot of life there. We had loved it at first sight. The new house solves all the problems we'd had with the old house, though we're quickly discovering that it has problems of its own, so of course no house is perfect. It got us through two graduate degrees, two kids, two dogs (and several other canine visitors), and a lot of other stressful/happy/dramatic moments and time periods, but it's definitely time to move forward.
We had an open house the last Sunday in October, which was fairly well attended. A couple went back later in the week with their agent and we had an offer within a couple of days. They low-balled, we countered, they accepted. Easy negotiation.
They had their inspection, but then wanted to double check on the cracks in the basement. Please note that in my town, EVERY basement has cracks because the entire town is built on a swamp, but some are worse than others. They called in a structural engineer who didn't seem very concerned about them, but that time waiting for his findings gave me massive anxiety. There were a few other minor concerns they had so we quickly negotiated a small reduction in the sale price to cover it. Yay!
Not so fast.
Here's where it got fun. I'm not even sure I can remember all the details so it might not sound as anxiety producing as it actually was to live through it at the time, plus a lot of it is kind of boring legal stuff around federal flood funds, but I'll do my best.
That house is in a flood plain. This means that most mortgage corporations will only approve a mortgage there if the buyers obtain and escrow flood insurance. There's a whole federal flood system in place that subsidizes insurance to make it affordable. John Oliver did a whole segment this fall on Last Week Tonight all about the federal flood system, which firmed up my desire to get that house sold.
We also had received a mailing in September explaining that the subsidies were going to be ending and our insurance rates could go up 5-18% over the next five years. First of all, that's a ridiculously large range. And second, that's when I found out that the absurdly high rate we were paying was subsidized. Seriously, that was the subsidized rate?!?
See, we were totally clueless about what we were doing when we bought that house. We liked the house and sure we would get flood insurance, of course. And 14 1/2 years ago, the flood insurance was quite a bit cheaper. Even with the subsidies, the rates had been steeply increasing every year, exponentially the past couple of years. Again, a big reason for the move and for my refusal to even consider a house in the flood plain.
This mailing also included information on seeking out an elevation certificate to help reduce rates. I didn't understand what that meant when we first got it in the mail, but I figured we'd just sell the house and not worry about it anyway.
But the buyers helped me learn quite a bit about it. And also made me incredibly bitter that no one had told me about this 14 years earlier so I could have saved thousands of dollars on flood insurance.
Here's how it went down. We were all ready to move forward. They knew they needed flood insurance. The wife grew up in the neighborhood and they have friends who also live there, plus it was in our disclosure so no surprise there. But they were taken aback by how much it would cost. That escrow amount makes a big addition to a monthly mortgage payment and it was pricing them out.
To their credit, these people REALLY wanted the house. We were very much on the low end of pricing in that neighborhood and we'd just reduced the listing price a smidge. Having seen their preapproval letter, I doubt they could have afforded another house in the neighborhood. Plus they had already sold their previous house and were living with their kids and dog at one of their parents' house, which personally sounds like a nightmare to me.
So back to the elevation certificate. Let me explain what it is. You get a surveyor to come out and using the flood map, they figure out how high the first floor of the house is above the flood rise level. I might not be using the absolute correct lingo there. But basically, how high up was the house built, and is it high enough that flooding wouldn't impact the actual living space of the house? One clue is do you have to climb steps to get into the house. In our new house, no. In that house, yes.
The buyers had heard about the elevation certificate from friends who had been able to get their flood insurance waived. They asked for a two week extension on the original two week inspection period that was just about to run out. Their plan was to hire a surveyor and get an expedited elevation certificate approved. I was feeling a little annoyed because that would take the house off the market for a full month and if they decided to walk away, we'd be into December, which isn't a great time for selling a house. We agreed, but on the condition that we could keep the house listed, and they agreed on the condition that we couldn't sign any new contracts until after they did the survey. It was heading into Thanksgiving week so I knew it was unlikely anyone would go look at the house anyway, but I felt it was the principal.
So we headed up to the internet dead zone that is my in-laws in New Hampshire for Thanksgiving. We had cell access, but not great cell access. Told the realtor to text me rather than email that week. He let us know Tuesday that the surveyor was going to be there Wednesday and should be able to give them an informal answer at that point. Wednesday came and we heard nothing until very late Wednesday night when I got a text that the surveyor actually couldn't give an answer so hopefully they'd know Friday. Friday came and went and I gave up worrying about it at some point, figuring that a lot of people they needed to talk to might not even be in the office on the day after Thanksgiving. That was probably accurate.
Late Monday we heard that it wasn't elevated high enough to complete waive the flood insurance, but they were still trying to work something out. I don't know what they eventually decided on, though I'm sure the elevation still was enough to at least reduce it significantly. In the end, the only thing that matters to me is that they figured out whatever they needed to and the sale was moving forward!
Buying and selling houses in NY is about a two month long process. I had hoped to have it all said and done by the end of the year, but it was too late for that dream to come true. Good for taxes this year, I guess, to own two houses?
We were already tired of two lawns to mow, two yards to clean up leaves from (the old house was EXTREMELY leafy), and now two houses needing snow removal. And this year was the snowiest December and January we've had in years. Because of course it was. I kept joking that as soon as the house closed, the weather would clear up. Hahahahaha... Oh wait, that's exactly what happened.
One other thing to include. We were asked if they could have permission to get into the house to take measurements because they were planning to renovate the kitchen, which got us thinking about all the appliances we had replaced over the years and how very old the appliances are in the new house. Too bad they were included in the contract, but maybe we could buy them back? We inquired. They were open to an offer. I gave my realtor a possible number. He lowered it. They took his number and just asked that we get them out before closing. Yay!
And now time to move them by ourselves, all while my dad channeled his inner Lethal Weapon era Danny Glover to remind us how he's too old for this shit. I won't go into detail because this post is already too heavy on that, but suffice it to say that the process of removing the appliances, moving them, removing the old appliances, and then installing the ones from the old house was rather annoying, especially in the middle of a massive cold spell. I shouldn't complain because I didn't do most of the physical labor, but I wound up coordinating it all for the most part. It was well timed, though. The dishwasher was sitting in my dining room for a couple of days (so the hoses wouldn't freeze in the garage) when the current dishwasher decided to fall apart. We moved a little quicker on getting that one installed.
But yesterday the sale was closed. We took the kids over the weekend to say good-bye. My stoic Nora, who seemed to have made the transition easier, gave me hints that she was sadder about it than she let on. While my emotional Henry said his good-byes matter of factly. He's more upset that we left Beezley's ashes in that yard, though he agreed that's where he should be since he never lived at our new house. The day before closing, I went by myself to leave all the keys and just have some time to be there alone. I got a little misty.
I'm relieved to not have that extra burden anymore, but we did live a lot of life there. We had loved it at first sight. The new house solves all the problems we'd had with the old house, though we're quickly discovering that it has problems of its own, so of course no house is perfect. It got us through two graduate degrees, two kids, two dogs (and several other canine visitors), and a lot of other stressful/happy/dramatic moments and time periods, but it's definitely time to move forward.
