Selling a house — it’s a lot of paperwork

This is my first time selling a house and I’m just amazed at the number of steps involved in the process.

First, there was the decluttering and cleaning. Then we put the house on the market and waited for potential buyers to come look at it. We waited a long time, five months in fact, but then we had two parties who were both real interested. We hoped for a bidding war, of course, but that didn’t materialize. We were left with one poky buyer. After the negotiations were completed, we signed the purchase agreement. The next night we had to sign the disclosures; although we had signed them when we first put the house on the market we had to sign them again after the buyer signed them so that we all agreed that everything was still the same as it was in February.

My realtor told us things were still iffy until the home inspection, which we set up for a few days after we’d signed the purchase agreement. I let the inspector in and then had to leave the house for three hours; my fingers were crossed until we got the results of the inspection almost a full 24 hours later. (Yeah, he and the realtor were slow.) We had to resolve whatever issue there was within two days; luckily for us, there was a weekend in there. We had a big issue to resolve, but were able to resolve it without us, the sellers, having to put forth any more money.

I thought things would be done then until we showed up at the closing to sign the house over. I was wrong. There seems to be something new every day.

A week after the home inspection was the appraisal. A stranger came to the house and looked it over with a sharp eagle eye, making his assessment of what the home is worth. After walking quickly through the home — with me trying my best to sell the features and point out the upgrades we’d made — he sat in his car in the church parking lot across the street and made his determination. My realtor told me if it came in low, we’d have to renegotiate terms. I kept my fingers crossed again. The assessor had made a big deal about telling me that due to new federal regulations, he is no longer able to talk to loan officers about anything. Too many people had been abusing appraisals, apparently. Well, when the appraisal for our house came in, it just so happened to be at the exact figure the buyer was getting the home for. Hmmm... Sounds suspicious to me. I’m pretty sure there was some hanky-panky stuff going on between that appraiser and loan officer.

A man showed up in my yard a few days ago unannounced. I went out to see what he was doing there and he informed me he was from the title company. He was there to verify the property lines and make sure there were no encroachments. I showed him the two stakes standing in the back, and then the general whereabouts of the front two. He was there about a half-hour, leaving several flags behind. I guess I won’t need to worry about

I also got a few calls from the title company this week. Bonnie needed the account number and security number of my current mortgage with Wells Fargo. Uh-oh. Two weeks ago we packed up all our files into giant boxes and they were stuffed into a moving pod. I don’t even have a general number to call Wells Fargo. Without that account number there was apparently no way to make sure that the money coming from our buyer would pay off our mortgage. Uh-oh. It took a frustrating call to that big corporation to get my account number. And after that, Bonnie needed to verify what my name is now. Because I got married after building this house, I’m going to need to sign my name even more than usual on the documents, including as “formerly known as so and so” (just like Prince).

All of this has been on top of frantically searching for a new house, packing up the old and finding an apartment to rent in the interim. Whew. Did I mention I hate moving?

I am planning to call all our utility companies to stop service the day of closing, as well as my insurance agent to cancel homeowner’s insurance. And I need to drop into the post office to ask them to hold my mail until we find a permanant home.

Also, the day of closing I guess the buyer will do a walk-through of the house to make sure it’s still in good condition and he still wants it. The house needs to be completely emptied of our stuff before he comes, and we have to be gone by then. His realtor called mine yesterday to ask if they could do it the afternoon before. I said no. They’re a bit pushy. It’s not his until he signs for it, and that isn’t until Friday at 11 a.m.

I’m not sure what else is going to pop up in the final week before closing, but I guess I won’t be surprised at anything. There are a lot of steps involved in selling a home. Now I know.

To you potential home buyers, Part III

Don’t trust home inspectors. Now, I’m sure there are some good home inspectors out there, ones with construction background, but most of them merely took a class and started shop. They don’t really know what separates a good home from a bad.

Case in point: A home inspector went through my beautiful, mostly new house last week. This house passed all its inspections when it was built just five years ago. Now, as a homeowner, I could have chosen to do something crazy in those intervening five years, a storm could have damaged the outside, or I could have done something stupid to destroy something inside. And that’s why home inspections before a real estate transaction are necessary.

But this home inspector stated that the fascia was faulty. To be specific, he said that whoever did the fascia on this home needed to go back to school. He further stated that the entire thing needed to be redone.

Now, I happen to know the contractor who put the fascia on my home. I know him very, very well. It’s my father. My meticulous, perfection-isn’t-good-enough father who has been in the construction trade since he was old enough to swing a hammer beside his father. Siding — and with it soffit and fascia — are his specialty. In fact, you could say he’s an expert on it.

So the idea that he did it wrong was preposterous.

And the fact that the home inspector stated he needed to go back to school was, well, it was offensive. Even more, it was unprofessional.

The thing is, home inspectors don’t actually need to have any construction background before becoming a home inspector. There’s a test to pass, but the rest is, well, up to them. They apply their own opinions to their inspections, and if they have no real-world experience, those opinions are often faulty. In my family of construction workers, the term “home inspector” is a curse word. In most cases, these home inspectors don’t really know much. But the problem is they have a lot of power. If a home inspector says there’s a problem, he will likely scare a buyer off. If the buyer sticks around, the “issue” is going to cost the seller time and money to get it fixed.

There are certainly some issues with homes that need to be fixed, and there are certainly good home inspectors out there. The lesson here: Hire home inspectors with construction experience, preferably contractor experience. Use one that had a good reputation as a contractor and one that has a good reputation now as a home inspector. My realtor advises her buyers to bring their friends with to look at homes, the ones that are actively working as electricians, plumbers and sheetrockers. Get opinions from folks you can trust.

I’m just lucky we were able to convince our buyer that my contractor knew more about fascia than his home inspector. It was touch and go for a few days — and that’s a horrible situation to be in as a seller.

To you potential home buyers, Part II

I just can’t help but think that every evil in our society would be remedied if we remember the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have done to yourself. It seems very fitting when it comes to real estate transactions.

For example: Say you are “Mark” and you’re in the market for a house. You’re moving into the area from Canada because you’ve accepted a new job here. It’s July and you start work on September 1. You visit my house on July 2, and then see it again a few weeks later. Then your realtor calls up mine and tells me you’re going to submit an offer by Friday, July 23. Well, that Friday comes and goes, as does the next and then the next. As home owners, we’ve given up on you. Then suddenly you make a low offer. It’s not low enough to piss us off, but it’s lower than we wanted. So, we begin to negotiate.

This is not a good time for you to take off to Mexico for a week.

Especially considering you want to close on the house by mid-September.

When it takes one and a half weeks to respond to a figure from the seller, well, that’s considered bad form. You’re supposed to respond within 2 days. Did your realtor forget to tell you that?

Of course, your bad form is a little more understandable when your realtor then takes off for 5 days in the middle of the negotation process. So now, what should have been wrapped up in July takes until the fourth week of August.

You the buyer have now given us just 3 weeks to find a house and avoid being homeless.

I wish you would have considered our timeline as well as your own. I wish you would have realized that when you get a house, someone else is losing one. I wish you would have applied the Golden Rule and considered how your actions would affect another.

Yep, we’d all be better off if we considered the Golden Rule more often.

To you home buyers

For all you potential home buyers out there, I’d like to make a small request.

Please consider the people who own the houses you’re looking at.

Consider the time and effort they have to put into making their house shine for you. It’s not easy when you have kids, especially, to leave a house spotless for a showing. Every thing I put away, my daughter pulls back out. It takes 3-4 times to get it away for good. Then she needs a snack, and the crumbs cover the entire kitchen floor. We are usually at home, so leaving for a showing is a big deal and typically interupts nap time. It’s not fun to wake a toddler up in the middle of the nap because someone is coming to look at the house.

But I’m happy to do it if the house sells.

What isn’t great is if I go to all that work — and then the potential buyer never even shows up. According to my realtor, it happens a lot. Folks just don’t show up. They might not even call their realtor to let them know they won’t be coming. In case you didn’t realize it, when you do that, you’ve not only wasted the time of the home owner, but also the staff of 2 real estate offices who spent time making calls and setting up those appointments.

So, please, next time you’re scoping out houses, remember the Golden Rule. Do unto others...

Cloth diapers

I love cloth diapers. I don't understand why everyone doesn't use them. They're better for the environment. They're easy to use. And they're oh so cute!

If you're going the cloth diaper route, here are a few things to consider:

Get a diaper sprayer. It's a must have! We bought the one from Bum Genius, but I think a few others make good ones too. My husband first tried to make his own sprayer, figuring it would be cheaper. After spending about the same on supplies as specific diaper sprayer costs, he hooked it up, we tried it and noticed a puddle on the floor that didn't go away. So, it was off to shop online and we ended up with the Bum Genius one. It was easy to install and has worked great. It's so easy to spray out the gunk with one of those. I don't know how people do it without a brush. I have a plastic garbage can with a lid next to the toilet. I spray out the diaper and into the bin it goes. I wash diapers about every 2/3 days.

I've used a bunch of different brands in my quest to find the best cloth diaper for my chunky-legged monkey. I wasn't thrilled with the Bum Genius diapers.They were hard to clean. I used the all in ones and the insert didn't come out. It got stained pretty quick. They also take a long time to dry because of the insert -- they're so thick.

The diapers I REALLY love are the Thirsties. They come in the cutest, brightest colors, fit well, and wash really easy. But these days my favorites are the basic white Motherease. We add an insert and they work great overnight. Others may be cuter, but these ones just work well.

Stay away from Kushies from Walmart - they NEVER come clean, and don't keep stuff IN very well either. I've got lots of Kissaluvs - they come so soft and adorable, but quickly get worn out and lose the softness.

Instead of using wet wipes I bought a bunch of baby wash clothes (20 or so) and a wipe warmer. Keep the washclothes wet in the wipe warmer (add water every day). They're warm. It's Josey's favorite thing about diaper changes! She's never been a baby who disliked the diaper change and I think that's because she loves that warmness on her butt!

A MUST is Biokleen Bac Out. I love that stuff. After I spray the diaper clean with water, I spray it with the Bac Out. It smells like lime and helps keep the wet diaper bin from smelling up the bathroom. It works so well. You can buy it at any Coop. After I decided I liked it, I bought 4 gallons off Amazon to save $ and avoid running out. I was using a bottle every other week, but the four gallons have lasted me a year.

The easiest way to whiten a diaper is just to dry it in the sun. Hard to do in the winter. I'm waiting for that sunlight to come back to get mine back to beautiful. I was AMAZED at how fast and easily that worked. A few hours and presto. White.

If you notice your diapers start to smell, most likely you're using too much soap when you wash them. Use only about a teaspoon of soap. The soap builds up easily and stops the diapers from doing their work; they can't absorb anymore. And yeah, there's the smell issue. I usually wash with a second rinse. Every few weeks I wash them 1/2 more times in just water to keep the soap from building up. That's actually been the most troublesome part of the cloth diapering system for me. I've been searching for a good laundry soap too, but haven't found one I'd recommend yet.

A great resource for mothering stuff is kellymom.com. She does alot on breastfeeding, but also cloth diapers and other issues.

Babies love bowling — who would have thought?

When you take a baby out in public, you never know what will happen. Will she enjoy the excursion? Will she cling to you? Will she run off? WIll she scream and throw her body down on the floor to let you know this isn’t something she feels like doing today?

I wasn’t sure how my Josey would take to bowling. It seemed like something a 17-month-old might not enjoy but I thought I’d give it a try. After all, it was free thanks to my friend’s GroupOn, so I wouldn’t be out anything if we ended up at a park instead.

She loved it. I couldn’t believe how easy bowling is for kids now. We went to Park Tavern in St. Louis Park. Their stuff is mechanized, so when you input names you can add that its a kid and then everytime that child is up to bowl, the bumpers automatically go up. We also used a ramp — which was perfect for the two 17-month-old toddlers. My daughter loves balls, and thought pushing the ball and then watching it roll down the lane was great fun. The first time she clapped for herself — and then dashed away before the pins were even hit. The fun is in the ball — not the pins, apparently.

Of course, we had our crazy moments. Josey climbed up on the thing that the bowling balls shoot back up into, and little Judah wanted to run down the lane. After about 1/2 hour, both of the toddlers had decided they’d had enough. Josey wanted to run around and visit all the folks bowling and check out every hiding place in the bowling alley. Judah wanted to be held — and it’s hard to bowl yourself when you’re holding a baby.

So we left after completing one game, and headed to the park across the street to enjoy the lunches we’d packed. My verdict on bowling with babies? Tons of fun.

Not just a wave pool anymore

When I was a teenager, it was cool to go to the Bunker Park wave pool. However, that was awhile ago and I hadn't been there in years. When a GroupOn deal popped up for the place, I checked out the web site and discovered there was more there than just a wave pool. There was a lazy river, a splash pad and waterslides. So, we went.

It was tons of fun. My 8-year-old nephew, my mom and I loved the waterslides. There were just enough (2 with tubes and 4 body) to keep us occupied for the afternoon. My daughter enjoyed the stuff for smaller kids. However, I do think the water level was too deep for a 16-month-old. She looked like she was drowning most of the time.They do have some weird rules that will keep us from going there frequently (can't bring in your own food or beverage, have to use a double tube on the lazy river even when you're holding your little girl -- which leaves you lopsided in the water about to fall off the tube!) and you also have to buy a park sticker to get into the facility, but it's a fun place to visit every so often.

http://www.bunkerbeach.com/

Bunker Beach is open daily, from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m., from June 5, 2010 through Labor Day.

Regular Admission:
Guest over 48" - $14 per day
Guest under 48" or Senior Citizen (age 62 and over) - $11 per day
Under 1 year of age - free

Twilight Admission (After 4:00 p.m.):
Guest over 48" - $10 per day
Guest under 48" or Senior Citizen (age 62 and over) - $8 per day

Season Pass:
Guest over 48" tall - $80.00
Guest under 48" tall or Senior Citizen - $55.00

Vehicle entrance pass: $5/daily