House of Cards

Jake referred to our current situation with us buying the new house, renting our existing house, refinancing the existing house, having a baby and moving, as a "house of cards" last night. I thought it was the perfect analogy.

As usual, whenever something "big" happens for us, about two to three other big things just to happen to be taking place at the same time. And for us, it hasn't been easy things like winning the lottery and watching our bank account overflow, while winning a new car and having all of our debt cleared by winning some random sweepstakes. It's more so a barrage of big events happening all at once because we've worked our faces off to make the events happen, and they just so happen to be occurring, finally, all at once.

Needless to say, we're busy as shit and our heads are spinning. I honestly haven't really had a clue as to what day it is in weeks. At work, I had a pretty big campaign launch yesterday and someone mentioned it to me and it caught me totally off guard. "Shit! That did launch today didn't it!?" Glad I had all my ducks in a row for that launch in advance, and that the only thing I dropped the ball on was actually remembering that it was live.

So, the latest in our house of cards has been making our refinance on the Hartford house happen, and finding renters. Let's start with the refinance. Thankfully, we're working with Wells Fargo, and our mortgage guy is the same guy we worked with to buy the Hartford house 7 years ago, and, is someone I worked with about 8 years ago. So, he's "cool" and is someone I can be very frank with. Let's just say a few of our conversations have included some "hurry up" messages from me (poor guy). What needs to happen is this:  we need to complete the refi on the Hartford house before we complete the financing on the new house. That way, we won't have to bring anything to closing on the new house, since our current mortgage payment on what will eventually be referred to as our "income property" will go down. We haven't been given a firm date on when that refinance needs to be complete, thankfully. It's only been said that it needs to happen "asap". Uh, okay. So, once that happens, we'll finalize the financing on the new home, and from there, the seller has asked that she be given 60 days until we formally close. She has renters in the house and wants to give them ample time to vacate. So, as far as the refinance goes, we're in "hurry up and wait" mode now, and are at the mercy of the lovely processing folks at Wells.

Next, let's talk about finding renters. As many of you know, we've posted our rental ad on Craigslist. We have raised the rent by about $300 since the last time we went through this process and at first I thought that may have weeded out the "riff raff" in terms of the responders we were getting. I suppose, in a way, it has, but what we're seeing now is a good number of people who can afford to pay what we're asking (which, by the way, is likely more than it would be if someone just bought the home and paid the monthly mortgage, but apparently that's impossible for most these days) but these people have also botched their credit in some way, shape, or form. Foreclosures due to the market, loss of biz due to the market, etc. Really, not something we're judging people for at this time. I can honestly see  how things like that can happen to people and believe that everyone deserves a 2nd chance. However, that doesn't mean the people who are coming forward as interested potential renters aren't CRAZY. We've had some doozies come through this door - let's just say that. I'll save the stories for in person conversations for fear that some of these said crazy people track down my blog and read it. I wouldn't be surprised if one morning I walk out of my house and find one of them standing there, staring at me and asking why I said the things I did about them on  my blog. Then, they'd proceed to get down on their knees and beg for this house (no joke, everyone is pretty much begging for us to "pick them"). Very bizarre, to say the least. The good news is I think we'll be able to lock in renters before the 11th hour. The bad news is, that we are continuing to show and show and show the house, in an effort to find what seems like the most trustworthy, non-crazy, person.

The last time I asked for prayers, good juju, and positive energy on facebook, it worked. That same afternoon we received word that the seller of the home we had an offer in on, accepted our counter offer. So, I'm asking for more of the same - this time that our refinance goes through quickly, and that we find some truly honest, trustworthy, renters.

The next time I ask for your help will be when it's time to have the baby, then close on the house, then move.

Oh house of cards - please stay standing.