House Update

Actually, this is still part of the overview. Because our house (or rather, we want it to be ours) has been vacant since July, the city has to inspect it before anyone can buy it, in case it might be better just to bring in a bulldozer. As I said before, only the current owner (the unfeeling megabank) can order the inspection. And neither the seller nor the city are in a rush. The city told us the inspection would be in 4-6 weeks. Which was about correct. They inspected it at the end of January. So, now all we need to do is have our contractor address all the inspectors concerns, and we are good to close! Ah hem. The city found all sorts of things that they wanted fixed, that weren't in the initial rehab bid. Things like replacing lead junctures on the pipes, or putting tempered glass on windows that are too close to the floor. And while I know all of these things are good to have fixed, I'm guessing every other house in the neighborhood has these same issues, and there hasn't been mass mortality in this neighborhood. Maybe I'm just not an alarmist.
Here's the recent chain of events:

-The contractor-guy told me that he couldn't do the city recommended rehab while staying within the current budget. Can we increase the rehab loan?

-I talk to the mortgage-guy. While we could increase the rehab loan, we don't want to do that, because that will bump us into a new loan category which requires a HUD consultant, which involves another (sigh) inspection, and about $1,000 in fees. Is the contractor guy sure he can't stay within budget?

-I talk to the contrator-guy. Yes, he's sure. He's already doing a bunch of stuff for me at below-cost and/or free, and his children should eat something other than Ramen Noodles. We need more money.

-I talk to the realtor-guy. He blows a small gasket and says unkind things about city inspectors. He tells me that I might need to prepare myself for getting a HUD consultant.

-I have an idea - could we get the seller (the unfeeling megabank) to knock a few $1000 off the purchase price, which would leave our overall loan the same, but make more money for the rehab? I call the realtor guy - he thinks it's a good idea. (Why hadn't the realtor-guy proposed this?)

-I call the contractor-guy. He says that sounds like a good idea too - he'll get a bid for me by this weekend, and then we can start rearranging the deck furniture on the Titantic with the seller.

So, that's where we are right now. More updates to come. You'll recognize these updates by the hoop-jumping photos.