Transitioning

It started like this.


Saturday it was this.


It currently looks like this.


I should have a closet (probably unpainted) by this weekend and can start moving in soon.

It's Official!!!

I am now in debt forever! I own a condo.


My kitchen and my first lunch (chips and salsa) and first beer in my condo.

Gift Basket

My realtor, Christie, showed up to the closing about 30 minutes late. We knew that was happening and it was no big deal. When she did show up we were all but done. We had financing and I had already "signed" my name a billion several dozen times. Christie had brought me a gift basket with some champagne, coffee, chocolate and some other little food items. When she gave it to me I looked at it, then at my backpack. I looked back to the basked and then my backpack again.

Christie watched me do this and asked, "Did you ride you bicycle to the closing?"

Now the lawyers and closing agent were interested. "Yes," I answered.

After the closing I rode straight to the condo and Christie drove up and delivered the basket.

I Can't Sign My Name

At my closing yesterday all the document had my name as First name, Middle Init, Last Name. My lawyer told me I had to sign all the documents that way. Now, since about my first year in college I've signed my name with just my first and middle initial and my last name. And when I actually write something on paper I print. I don't write in cursive. Ever! It became a bit of a running laugh during the closing as I literally struggle to write "Eric" in cursive. I guarantee ever single signature is very different and most of them are completely undecipherable.

Things That Seem Ridiculously Too Easy

Me: (to teller) I need a cashier's check. You'll have to look up my account number. (hand over withdraw slip and DL)
Teller: Please sign the slip, sir.
Me: Oops. (signs slip)
(Cashier looks up acct number and scribbles on slip)
Me: Made out to me please.
Teller: In this amount, sir? ($25K+)
Me: Yes.
(< two minutes later)
Teller: Here you go, sir.

No Homeland Security guy with latex gloves or anything.

Other notes:

• I bought a couch for the new place this weekend. Delivery expected around Labor Day.
• My brother found a contractor to repair the floor. Assuming all goes well tomorrow I'll be making a trip to Home Depot to get material. His labor rate is very reasonable, we're negotiating a gasoline stipend.
• I'm in the market for a decent, but not too expensive grill.

The money pit has started before the signing. I don't know if I will post anything tomorrow or not as I expect to have sever writer's cramp.

Closing 1 Week From Today

My Soon-to-be Ex Landlord

More evidence that the woman is 100% certifiably bat-shit crazy.

I had a 9 minute conversation with her this morning (12 minutes longer than I like) about the Apartment People coming into the apartment. She had hired them to show our apartment since my roommate and I are moving out at the end of August. She apologized for the Apartment People entering the apartment without giving us notice. I would say she lied through her teeth too, but I don't want to subscribe conscious thought to her lying. She told me she told them to call us. I call bullshit.

She said she was going to call the Apartment People and yell at them and have one guy fired. This guy called and apologized to me yesterday, but said that the people he had shown it to were going to rent the place and they wouldn't be back. My land lord went on and on. Blah, blah, blah. I ask her to have the maintenance man come in and look at the A/C fan, the stove (she said she needs a new stove), and the leak in the bathtub.

Then, out of the blue, she asks me what I'm doing for the weekend and what we drink. She asked if she could buy us a bottle of vodka. I was completely nonplussed. I said something about Sam Adams beer.

When I got back from lunch I had a voice mail. It was land lord. She said she had put an ad in the paper for our unit and had two calls from people interested in renting the place starting the 1st of August. She wanted to know if we would be out of the unit by then.

I can't get out of there fast enough.

Laundry Day

One consequence of buying the condo (closing in 18 days!) is that doing my laundry is going to dramatically change. Because I currently have to take it down to the basement and share a washer and dryer with the other tenants I just set aside a time and do it all at once. Usually late morning on a Saturday or Sunday.

When I first met with Christie (the realtor) my only requirement was that I have a washer and dryer in the unit. I wanted to be able to do my laundry more piece meal without competing with anyone.

Until I close I still have to do that but one thing has already changed. I'm not hording quarters anymore!!!

End of Negotiations, Next Steps

We stopped pushing virtual pieces of paper across the virtual desk yesterday. The sellers of the condo and I settled on a final contract. I feel I got as much out of them as I could. My purchase price is only $5,000 above what they bought it for 3 years ago and I'm getting $2,000 in credits at closing for various inspection items.

In the morning I was thinking of walking away from it. The association has low reserves, the sellers, their attorney, or the association were not willing to turn over the association meeting minutes, and the exterior of the building definitely needed some work. Why were they not turning over the minutes? What were they hiding?

The problem for me is that I am pushing up against my deadline to do something. I have to be out of my apartment at the end of August. To find another place and got through the whole loan process. It could get hairy.

Then a couple hours later they sent the minutes and raised the credit from $1,600 (it was $1,100 before my inspection) to $2,000. I read the minutes and it was a whole lot of "nothing to see here." I was already aware I was pushing the sellers pretty low. I had a time constraint and I was under the impression they did not.

Offer accepted!

After I accepted the offer I felt the need to see the place. I don't know why but I hopped on the bike and rode up there. Even when I was riding I was having the conversation with myself:

Self 1: Why are going up there? You can't get inside and look at it again.
Self 2: I don't know. I just feel I need to.
Self 1: That makes no sense.
Self 2: I have to do it.

Repeat over and over.



This morning I printed off the mortgage application and started signing. 17 signatures and 1 (only 1?) initialing. And the signatures are just getting started. I've got to have my mortgage commitment by the 2nd. No worries.

Inspection and Lawyer

I had the Condo Inspected on Wednesday. I used a guy my real estate agent recommended. She told me his report would scare the hell out of me. It did. He found dozens of things. Most of them minor but some bigger issues. He did an excellent job and I've stopped losing sleep over it.

The report, all 20 pages, was sent to the lawyer yesterday. She finished her letter out lining changes to the contract. I liked everything she had. She's sent it to the seller's lawyer and they are reviewing it. It was unfortunate, but it took my lawyers demand for all the condo association documents to get the financial disclosures.

I've been told this before and, even though I never doubted it, I'm beginning to see the importance of employing a top notch inspector and lawyer when purchasing a home. The $800 to $1000 I'll spend on them is worth every damn penny!

Mistakes Were Made

I scheduled my closing for July 15th. The day of the MLB All-Star game. D'Oh! Well, hopefully it will be done early enough to watch.

Grrrr

%&*@&%(#&%$%

I've got to supply a copy of my Drivers License and the state I was born in so that my earnest money for the condo can be put in an interest paying account. I'm told I have to do this because of the Patriot Act.

$^%$^!%&*#@!^$!

Done and Done

They accepted my last offer. Lawyers, inspections, radon inspections, mortgages are the main points of my life for the next 45 days.

More Counters

They came back with another number and a credit for a needed repair. I accepted the price but asked for a bigger credit. Probably my final offer. Christie thinks they "would be crazy" to not accept it.

My stomach just did a flip flop. That's a lot of damn money!

Pushing Papers Across a Desk

Sunday, Christie and I wrote up an offer on a condo. She submitted (faxed?) it to the selling real estate agent yesterday morning. She gave it to her clients yesterday and they came back with a counter offer. I listened to it and countered again.

On grander scale, but this feels so much like buying a car. Write down an offer on a sheet of paper and slide it across the desk. The salesman takes it to sales manager who writes down another number. Back and forth. Back and forth.

Thinking about my offer and the reasonable counter the sellers came back with this is going to happen. I know where my new home is going to be. Now it's just a matter of pushing a few more pieces of paper across the desk and filling out a shit load of paper work.

Let The Haggling Begin

The offer was written up this afternoon. Christie (my realtor) is delivering it this evening.

The Search, Day 6

On the previous 5 trips I'd seen somewhere north of 50 places. There was one I was pretty comfortable with and wanted to make an offer on but someone beat me to it. After that one there was one unit that was probably too expensive and two other units that were both compromises. The expensive unit was just that. The owner couldn't come down to my price point without taking a loss.

I was about ready to flip a coin between the other two units. One had most everything I wanted but wasn't in as nice a location. The second didn't have central air and was a first floor unit. Unit one was heads. Unit two was tails.

But there was one more unit Christie had been trying to get me in to see. We scheduled it for yesterday afternoon. Maybe it would hold an answer. The selling realtor canceled for the 3rd time. However, there was another unit in the same building.

It was top floor. 2BR, 1BA. Central air. Deck. 2 decks really. Great location. And a few thousand less than the other two units.

I've found my new home. Now what?

Not My New Home

Let's just stipulate that I will not be buying a unit at 600 W Belden.

The Search, Day 5

Well.... SHIT!

The property that I was more or less set to put an offer on has a pending contract on it now. Some sneaky bastard put an offer in on Monday.



Disappointed? Yes. But there are other fish in the sea. Wait, that analogy is supposed to apply to the lost girl. Any way...

Looked at maybe ten more properties last night. I found quite a few more that I like. Christie says that is likely because we are looking at new listings. The first time or two we went out we looked at a large number of places that have been on the market for a while and hence less desirable.

I found one I really liked yesterday despite being one block on the wrong side of Irving Park Road. 2BR, 2BA. It has a master suite that had a walk through closet to a bathroom. It had a good layout and smallish but usable deck. Unfortunately, it is quite a bit higher than I want to spend. I might try to low ball it and see if I can get it through.

Three other new properties were nice. One actually in Lincoln Park! The taxes were high and it's location can either be seen as perfect or abysmal. Right in the heart of one of the busiest bar corridors in the area and the unit is right on the street and not set back in the courtyard. Another was nice, 3 blocks from Wrigley. Parking would be challenging. The other I really did like but it didn't have central air. They may be trying to get out quickly (baby, moving to suburbs), so that one has a low ball option as well.

I returned to one I saw last time out. More or less everything. 2BR, Cent A/C, exposed brick, nicely maintained old wood work, an updated kitchen. It's just missing a private deck space although it does have a decent roof top deck with grills. Since it's the top floor unit it isn't outrageous to go up there. I think this one is my favorite barring the real expensive one.

The Search, Day 4

Went looking again yesterday. Six new units and revisit to my presumptive favorite. Nothing nearly as exciting as finding a floater any where.

I liked almost all the units I saw yesterday but only one is making it into the competition. One unit we saw on the 500 W Block of Surf was pretty nice. It was huge, 2BR, 2BA. But no central air and it was a ground floor. It got the final kibosh when I realized how much noise the children in the unit next door were making while we were there. I wouldn't be happy with that and the family next door probably wouldn't be to thrilled with my late comings and goings either. Win-win by me not considering it.

I take it back, there was one interesting tidbit from yesterday. The third place we saw is occupied by a renter. The renter pleaded illness and didn't want to leave. The selling realtor paid her $20 to disappear for half an hour.

Anyway, back on track. We spent about 20 minutes or so at my presumptive favorite. The layout was slightly different than I remembered and the dimensions were a little off. The place needs a lot of work on the bathroom and kitchen. Both are serviceable but should be nicer for a non-rental unit. It took a little while to figure out the room usage. The presumptive living room is smaller than it looks and has a fireplace jutting out. Definitely need to get my brother in there to debate what can be done. Soon.

That was the second to last place we went into. The last place jumped right to the top of the list. It was on one of those weird blocks that feel very isolated from the rest of the surrounding area and didn't have a private deck. But still,it's on the top floor, had two big bedrooms, and well shaped and usable floor plan and all the appointments were very nice. Very little if any work would have to be done. And it is listed as $6,000 less than my presumptive favorite.

So, do I sacrifice the deck and great location for the money savings and the lack of rehab work? Considering I'm already set on paying a premium for Lincoln Park / Wrigleyville the question isn't as easy as one thinks.

Or it is...