Buying Our Second Home

This home buying process has been a crazy one.  We bought our first home from the builder so we had nothing happen to us like this.  

Over Thanksgiving break I saw a house in my mom's neighborhood that I knew I would like.  We called our realtor but she was out of town.  It took us a few days to finally get over there to see it.  It wasn't perfect by any means but we knew it could be so we were luckily the first ones to get in an offer and we started negotiations with Cindy Loo (names changed to protect the crazy).  Soon after she got a second offer that she would keep as her back up.

I use the word negotiate lightly.  We offered said amount with her paying closing and she offered the asking price with her paying closing.  So, we countered another price with her paying closing and she countered back the same thing.  Full asking price with her paying closing.  We originally said no way.  You're a jerk.  We don't like you.  Then, we had a change of heart (towards the house, not her) and accepted.  

All was good to go.  We set closing for the 30th of December with her moving out on the 5th of January.

She had us come over to the house because she wanted to "show" us some things.  Pretty much her talking to us like we were idiots and just being nosy in wanting to know who was moving into her house.  Our realtor warned us that she wanted to sell us the fridge.  We declined.  My husband make a comment about how much he liked the area and neighborhood and she responded, "see, I thought it was worth the full asking price."  I didn't hear her say this and it's lucky I didn't.  Jonathan told me when we got home and I was furious.  He knows me too well and made a good choice in not telling me until we got home.  Let's just say I'm not good at hiding my emotions when someone ticks me off.

Then, we learned there was an IRS tax lean on her house.  She was divorced and in the divorce decree she got the house BUT they never changed the title over.  So, when her husband decided he didn't need to pay taxes anymore it was all connected back to the house and Cindy Loo.

Originally we were told she sent the paper work into the IRS and we were waiting to hear back from them.  Well, she did hear back and it was something that had to be settled in person.  She scheduled a meeting for February the 6th.  

In the mean time she decided she wanted to give us a free lease.  She would move out and we could move in.  We took it just to get our hands on the place to stake a claim but would not be moving in since we had NO idea what the IRS would say.

It took her a week and a half past the 5th (her original move out date) to be totally out of the house.  Jonathan took the time of the free lease to start cleaning the yard.  The house is in such disrepair.  He took out two "water features" and a dead tree.  Cindy Loo found out when she snuck back into the house at some point and called her realtor to complain.  She now wanted a deposit and rent since we had taken out such expensive features.  (Mind you the water feature was a black container.  The water was so old that when it sloshed on Jonathan's leg it burned and left a rash!  The "expensive" tree was dead and already laying on the ground! GRR!)  Our realtor quickly nixed that ridiculous idea since the seller (Cindy Loo) and the buyer (us) could not get out of the contract.  We were both legally bound to sell and buy respectively.  Neither of us could get out of the contracts and it was now a waiting game.  Mind you, at this point we had also spent nearly 500 dollars cleaning her disgusting pool which was now nice and blue.  If anything, she owed us!

Cindy Loo did make sure she called my husband to complain about the tree and the water feature and then grilled him to find out what else we were planning on changing.  He promptly hung up on here and we promptly decided to change ALL locks on the house as soon as it was ours.  Which won't be so hard considering there is only ONE working exterior door at this point.  When she realized how poorly her doors were working she accused us of changing the locks on the house.  Why would we change the locks on a house that we do not own?!  The only reason we spent the money on the pool up front was because it was almost too far gone.  We had to act early or the entire thing would have had to be drained and I didn't want to pay to fill it back up.

We tried to have sympathy on her for the longest time.  We originally thought she was the one and only owner of the home and in her 80's.  Neither of those were true.  She's in her 60's (not that old) and had lived in the house 18 years.  So, yes she had a lot of memories in the house but that is no excuse to act the way she did.  I've driven by our old house.  The one we brought Georgia home to and it's not mine anymore.  The new owners have done things to the house that I wouldn't have done but you know what, it's not mine anymore so who cares.

But the way she talked down to us, took all but one of the mirrors out of the bathrooms (said her mirrors weren't selling with the house after the fact), didn't negotiate, wouldn't get out of the house by the correct date, wanting rent and a deposit for a "free" lease...I mean, I'm just done with her.

So, back to the IRS.  On Sunday February 9th our realtor says that the IRS has everything we need and should close in a week or two.  But here we are on the 24th of February and still NO word from the IRS.

But, on the 23rd our neighbor (who acts like we don't exist) tells us a sex offender has moved around the corner. (We live in my mom's house and the house we were buying was in the same neighborhood)  She tells us the address and we realize it's the house ACROSS THE STREET from the house we're trying to buy.  So, I look up his record.  He was convicted in 1996 of aggravated sexual assault to a 28 year old women.  I'm 28!  He was sentenced to 18 years but got out on parole in 2009 (we think).  We just can't.  The man moved in with his father and we don't know how long he'll be there but it just doesn't matter.  We can't live like that.

So, this three month wait for nothing.  I can't even describe how angry and let down I feel right now.  Please pray our BIG YES from God comes soon.  We need it so badly.  In May we'll have lived in limbo for an entire year.  A YEAR!