Escrow Is A Bitch

 

Chalice Ranch has been in its current location for 6 years now. A lot happens in 6 years. Mostly accumulating stuff and things happens in 6 years. Also animals. In our case, mostly horses. There's 9 of them now.

A couple of years ago, the owners of the property we've been renting let us know they would soon be looking to sell. At that time, we knew we were not in a position to buy. So we waited. This year, just last month, they let us know it was time for them to sell.

Now, between the time they first mentioned this and now, my mother passed away. The result is, I have some inheritance. Enough to make the difference between buying and renting. It certainly makes little sense for me to do anything other than put the majority of that money into purchasing a home. So I was already in a position where I was going to have to tell them, once my mother's home is sold, that I either had to buy the place we are, or we were going to have to start looking for property.

It's a happy coincidence that both things essentially happened at once.

Not so happy that I ended up managing 2 escrows at the same time, one sell side, the other buy side, but basically handling the sell side too. At least with my mother's house my sister and I are co-executors, so we both managed the details, and we had a real estate agent. For the purchase, it was basically me, except that I could bitch to Beth and Mike about the whole thing. There was no agent directly involved in the purchase, except for a dear friend who provided me with advise and referred me to the vendors I needed to pull this off.

When we were first informed of the plan to sell, there was still legal wrangling happening with Mom's house, and we weren't sure how long it would be until the sale was done. Can't very well commit to buying until I have the cash in hand, after all. I was really hoping I would be able to conclude the sale on Mom's house, then open escrow on the purchase.

Yeah, not so much.

The property owner texted me while I was at Virgin Outlaw, asking if we had a pre-approval letter. Uh, what? First I heard of this. Then I was informed there were "other offers" and they needed us to commit right away.

Okay, then. Fine. 

Got the pre-approval handled. And the owner wanted escrow to start right away.

Well, in for a penny in for a pound, I guess. Worst thing that happens is we fall out of escrow and have to move.

Or I just die of the stress. One or the other.

But, the fact that you're reading this means we did not fall out of escrow, and Chalice Ranch is here to stay. 

There was *a lot* of ridiculous nonsense involved in this transaction.

We opened escrow by essentially taking a leap into the unknown, going on my estimate of what I'd net from the sale of Mom's house to determine what I could put down, and what would have to be financed from there. That, happily, turned out to be a good estimate and never was a source of trouble.

No, the trouble all resulted from less than up-to-standard work.

Specifically, the several decks attached to the house were not up to code. They were so not up to code the appraiser would not sign off on them.

My mom referred to one of the decks as the "suicide deck." She wasn't wrong.

How it started

What followed was a bizarre back-and-forth between myself and the seller. The 16 foot by 14 foot deck attached to the front of the house being the major point of contention. 

All along, it struck me as extremely weird for the seller to insist this deck, not up to code, lacking guard rails and hand rails, suffering from dry rot and age, was somehow the primary selling point of the house. I'm still mystified as to why it's very existence was so important.

Especially since it no longer exists, and somehow the sale went through.

How it's going

But more on that in a future post.

For now, the purchase is complete. Not a single box needs to be packed, nor pen broken down, nor horse loaded to move. We are, at last, here.

Let the work begin.