Final Walk-Through & Closing

March 19, 2010

...was our official closing day! Hooray!!

But of course, a lot happened between January and March.

The last posting concerned Greg's home inspection, more than two months before the closing. The week that followed the inspection was a time of frenzied activity on my part, because I had the report in hand, knew that I was super in love with the house, but also realized the reality of the situation: the home was perfect for me and Ayize. I loved it. But buying it would be more of an emotional decision than a logical one, clearly, as it had major issues and was a bit of a "fixer-upper."

There was one solution, however: I wanted the necessary work done, but I wanted it done myself, with my own people, on my own unhurried time schedule, after the closing. I also wanted a price reduction on the final house sale price that would cover the work needed...yet I didn't want to gouge the owners. What to do, what to do, what to do??

I decided the answer lay in obtaining multiple estimates for the jobs required in each arena, from the most affordable companies to the higher-end folks I would prefer to use, if I had unlimited resources at my disposal. I would then take the average price on those estimates and compile them for my final price reduction request. If they were agreeable to a figure not too far from my request, I would consider the house much more favorably. If they were not, I would have to walk away.

I had gotten a small extension on the usual five-business-days allowed for decision-making, given the extent of the work the house required, but I didn't want to waste the whole two weeks working on a possible new price, I so I got right down to business. That week, January 12th to the 19th, was insanely busy for me, as I literally made dozens of phone calls, and exhaustively researched everything imaginable.

One afternoon, I spent over an hour with an awesome Evanston Water Works guy down at the Civic Center who answered my extensive list of questions about lead pipes, water supply, the size and make of the pipe running down my new block, the year it was put in, expected water pressure issues, where the city's responsibility ended and mine began in terms of my lot, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. This guy was fantastic! He not only answered all my concerns, he also provided me with a lot more handy information I never thought of, helped guide me in terms of what to look for in a workman, explained a little bit about my water heater and expected maintenance, told me what exactly on my list of home improvements was best handled by a plumber (I had no idea that replacing the old dryer vent came under that heading, for example), and even got me excited about the fact that my particular stretch of street has one of the newest, largest, copper-pipe water supplies in the city, a full 1/4" larger than the standard, and installed in the relatively-recent year of 1992. (Our current house, like most in Evanston -- just to give you a mental yardstick for comparison's sake -- sits on a block with small lead-piping dating back from the 1920's, and apparently even that is better than many others in Evanston.) Who knew a visit to the water department could be so exciting!

Anyhow, this was just in one arena. I also feverishly did my "homework" (bad pun intended, sorry!) on electrical, structural, masonry, and a host of other issues that had cropped up during the home inspection. Late on the night of January 18th, I sat up at my computer, surrounded by a virtual ocean of paperwork, estimates I had gotten from a bunch of companies, and scrawled notepad papers with all my various shorthand mental reminders. My parents were up eating a late dinner and they could not help but giggle at the sight of me sitting in my computer island, surrounded by floating, flying papers. I was frustrated and exhausted but also excited and above all else, very very nervous. I wanted to propose something that was reasonable for the current home owners, yet didn't short-change myself. A difficult line to walk.

Anyhow, I wrote up a proposal which was pretty short and succint, but also compactly contained much of my information. I basically line-itemed all the required work that Greg had found. For each item, I provided a couple estimates at different ends of the spectrum and from those, came up with a median or just-above-median request. I totaled that number.

Then I line-itemed those recommended repairs that I knew I would be doing almost immediately upon taking ownership, and did the same. I concluded by saying I was asking for a bit above the median for each of the required jobs because I knew I would ultimately use the higher-quality companies and the price reduction I was asking for would not fully cover that work, yet I was still not asking them to cover those higher amounts. In exchange, I would not ask for any money off the price of the house to cover the recommended work (which is not their obligation anyway, but many home sellers do usually offer something towards that type of work since any future prospective buyers will receive copies of my same home inspection and would probably request money off for them).

Ultimately, the amount I requested as a reduction to the final sale was still, despite my best efforts at bridging a gap, undeniably huge. This on top of the very low offer I had already made on the house, and to which they had agreed. I felt bad, but I also knew that I had to stand firm because I would be shelling out too much for work on the house without this price reduction. Anyhow, I decided this was to be the tipping point. If they understandably decided to decline, no problem. I would walk away heartsick but know that it wasn't meant to be.

I was all jitters and jangly nerves that night as I forwarded my final offer to my lawyer, John, and my realtor, Beth. But they both emailed me back cautioning me to relax. John called early the next morning as well, laughing as he told me in his booming voice, "The offer is on the table but don't think anything will be settled for days. You thought the haggling was hard before? Well that was nothing. Now the people feel like the price already set is 'money in their pocket' so to speak, and any price reduction they agree to at this point feels like money they are losing. So fasten your seatbelt and get ready for a lot of back and forth today!"

An hour later, he called me back, sounding shocked. "Just had a call from their attorney. They're fine with the price reduction."

"Fine?" I repeated in disbelief.

"Fine," he repeated, sounded as awed as I was. "And I must say, that was the easiest price reduction I've ever had to negotiate. They said to tell you that they are very appreciative of your explicit explanations for every reduction requested, and they can see you put a lot of hard work, thought and effort into your proposal. They trust your instincts and said it all looks fine. They'll take it."

Oh!

My!!!

Mary, Mother of!!!!!

God!!!!!!!

I was (almost) a homeowner!

Anyway, that day was January 19th, and we set a 60-day close because the people needed quite a bit of time to find a new house and get moved out (they had lived there for almost a quarter of a century). And of course, as any home buyer can tell you, until those papers are signed, you're not officially the owner of anything (except a pending bill from your lawyer!) so I spent two white-knuckled months hoping and praying that nothing would go wrong. Oh, and looking at my home inspection photos repeatedly LOL because just as Beth predicted, every time I saw a neat soap dish on sale, or a funky plastic plate I liked at Target, I would wonder if it "fit" the existing wall, floor and ceiling decor. Thank you, Beth! Good looking out!

Anyway, fast-forward two gut-wrenching months later, and...

Hurrah! The big day finally arrived! Friday, March 19th!

I woke up an hour before Ayize, butterflies in my stomach. I lay there thinking about a million things until across the room, he woke up. I went over and picked him up and said, "Good morning, gorgeous! Guess what, you and me are gonna go get ourselves a house today!" It sounded so silly, even to my own ears, that I started giggling, and he started giggling, and then we were both slap-happy and goofy.

Anyhow, at 9 o'clock sharp, we were standing outside the house, about to do our walk-through. It was a bit of an exercise in futility, because normally one does the walk-through to verify that the house is in tip-top shape, not severely damaged by movers, or in any way changed from the date of initial agreement, as a last step before heading off to sign papers at a final closing. Then the keys are handed over, the old owners drive off into the sunset, and welcome to your home sweet home.

But in our case, the people were having a bit of trouble getting moved. They had asked my lawyer via theirs if they could stay longer, with a promise to be out by the end of the month, two weeks after the close. I was eager to take ownership, like a kid on Christmas morning, but when my lawyer called to relay their request to me, I knew I couldn't kick them out. "So what do I say?" I asked him, disappointed.

"Let me just tell you this," he told me sternly. "This happens all the time, and it's not a good situation. They stay, you go buy the house this morning, now it belongs to you. If they burn it down tomorrow by accident, bang! there goes your house. You're S.O.L."

"So what are you saying??" I implored, playing stupid.

"I'm saying, Izumi, that this request is common. And 99.9% of the time, the new owners say, 'Sorry. Goodbye.' So, YOU, bleeding heart...what do YOU say?"

"I say, 'Stay!' But, um, I say, 'Be careful, please!' too," I replied, falteringly.

Silence.

Then a looooooong sigh.

And then he said, "How did I know that would be your answer?" in a world-weary voice, before breaking the connection to pass the news to the people. (What can I say, this guy has known me since I was a newborn!)

So the walk-through was a bit of a silly formality. I would do the "real" one on April 1, and then release some escrow money to them that would be held to cover any damages incurred between March 19th and the 31st. But it was a fun formality, too, as I got to see the owners again and they dispensed much hugs and thank yous for being allowed to stay beyond the closing date. And I also got to walk through "my" house again, two months later, and marvel at the changes that had taken place in the garden. It was also a bit of an eye-opener, because I saw that they really had not moved much yet, in fact, the house looked about the same as it had during the home inspection. Yowzas!

But anyway -- it only took me about 15 minutes to make a quick walk-through (really more, as I said, just for the sake of formality) and then they turned over some of the keys to me (they, of course, had to keep most of them for the time being), gave me a big file filled with all their house information, warranties on the water heater and furnace, etc. and then we hugged one last goodbye before I headed out the door for the official closing (they had already pre-signed the papers so they didn't have to attend).

After the walk-through, I went outside and put Ayize down on the front lawn. I told him this was our new home. Don't know how much of it he understood, but he got pretty excited and started running around in happy circles!

Onwards to Chicago Title, a building in Skokie near the Old Orchard interstate exit. The cars roared by on the highway. It was a gorgeous day for Chicago in the spring, hot, temps in the 70s. My sister was kind enough to keep an eye on Ayize during these proceedings, which reduced my stress level by about a million!

I arrived promptly at 10 and helped myself happily to the complimentary coffee. The office was very swanky and ostentatious. Beth was already there and we shared a surreptitious giggle when we saw the cover of this outdated magazine in the waiting room. I mean, it was March already! Halloween??

And then, Beth spotted the date -- and more importantly, the year -- upon closer inspection...and we were really almost off in gales of giggles. We had to comport ourselves quickly, because John arrived, and we were all ushered into an office.

The desk where it all happened. I totally took this photo out of boredom though, not necessarily for house-buying documentation purposes, but more because it was a goofy moment where almost everyone had wandered off on silly errands to kill time.

We were all there initially -- Gretchen, the previous owners' realtor had arrived on time, too -- and then we all just sat there, waiting for the sellers' lawyer. Time ticked by. We were having a nice time talking, and John regaled us with some fascinating stories from his days in the Air Force, but nevertheless, we were all growing impatient and angry.

John had warned us right at the outset that he knew their attorney, and the guy was notorious for always being late. And late he was...he waltzed in at 10:55 AND he was on the phone! And he stayed on the phone for much of the proceedings and sign-offs, often leaving the room to handle calls, delaying us all even further as we awaited his return several times. I was fuming. When the paperwork was done, he accepted yet another call, and walked out of the room, briefcase in hand, as he did. That was his good-bye. We were all a bit aghast at his behavior although none of us discussed it, but I mean, c'mon!

The funny part was, I ran into Rebecca and Colin that afternoon in the neighborhood, and started to tell her the story of this obnoxious attorney. She interrupted me and asked, "Was it _____ ?"

I was shocked! "How did you know??'"

"That guy was the attorney for the sellers on our house too!"

We both started laughing! Apparently, Mister Late Lawyer has the corner market on house sales along Cowper Avenue!

Anyway, I wasn't going to let a little thing like that ruin our special day!

We all -- Mom and Dad, Akari, me and Ayize -- went out for a super celebration brunch at the mouth-watering Walker Brothers. Okay, so it was an hour later than we had planned, thanks the inconsiderate nature of a certain attorney, but other than that, it was picture perfect!

Ayize went down for a well-deserved nap after brunch, and I set out for a sunny stroll to enjoy the weather. Ran into Rebecca as previously mentioned, and all-in-all, had an awesome afternoon.

When Little Man woke up, he wanted to head to a park with Weeman, so I busted out the old double Graco and away we Strollerbladed to Eggleston Park, over by the Ecology Center. Nyika, Kai and Kayla met us there, and so did Tamara and Brianna:

a bit later. The kids had the best time, running:

climbing:

and playing:

plus getting up to tricks with Weeman (they especially enjoyed feeding him goldfish crackers whenever my back was turned):

It was hard to leave, but we finally dragged ourselves away at dinner time.

A pleasant Strollerblade back home and Ayize's favorite pizza for dinner (Freschetta Ultra-Thin Crust is all the rage these days) capped the end of an exciting and awesome day!

HOORAY!