We Got a New House (Again - Hopefully!)

Our house hunting expedition has been a rather long and interesting journey. We started looking for houses in January, and put in our first offer in April. Because of the housing economy at this point, it's actually a really good time to be buying a house in CA price-wise. But it's a very difficult time because 58% of the houses in the the tri-county area are short sales or foreclosures. So they're all long shots, and all take a really long time to do. Consequently, we often had more than one offer out at a time.

In July we were "accepted" on a house in Cameron Park. This one was a short sale. The buyer accepted, and then supposedly the bank accepted. We got the loan process going and were supposed to close August 8th. After two weeks with not a peep or a signed contract from the bank, we realized something was amiss.

In the meantime, a house in El Dorado Hills we really like and had previously put two separate offers on (and been rejected) came down in price. We decided to put a third offer on it. This one is a foreclosure, so we're dealing directly with the bank. And this time, after a tiny bit of haggling, we got accepted!!!

I have been waiting to post this since the first house didn't do so well after a fast post. But, we've got the signed contract from the bank. The inspection and appraisals are done and went well. We have the disclosures, and are good there. The loan documents are in processes. All we're waiting on at this point is the title company to do their stuff and the HOA documents - and then we're done with the contingencies. Our realtor felt comfortable enough that this will happen that we released the other offers out there. We close on August 26th (and please cross your fingers and pray that nothing goes wrong) !

We are thrilled with the house. It is 4 bed/3 1/2 bath with a separate office and a nice big bonus room. It has all the things we were looking for as well as most of the things we considered "great extras" like a sink in the laundry room, a pantry, a 4 car tandem garage, the guest "suite" downstairs, and a back yard that is already done. Stuff like that. :) We even have fruit trees (apple, grapefruit, orange, and lime).

Wish us luck and that everything goes smoothly until we have the keys in hand. Then we can breath easy that the house is ours!