The House Saga Continues...

I just can't wait any longer.

Andy and I found this great house up on top of Flat Top Mountain in Soddy Daisy, TN 6 weeks ago. Since then, we have been in financing limbo/purgatory/hell -- whatever.

The first hurdle we ran into was the mortgage guy our realtor suggested wasn't really what we were looking for. He did not want to even consider my income because it is commission based and I have been there for less than a year. Then, he was really pushing for us to get a co-signer. Andy and I made the decision if we couldn't get a house on our own, we didn't want to get one until we could. Ergo no co-signer. He also wouldn't consider any other types of loans besides a FHA.

Then we spoke with Dale Whaley here in Chattanooga. He is great. He looked at all of our finances and said the same thing about my income. Total bummer. But then he said that since the house we found was "outside the city limits" we could apply for a federal loan. Specifically, a USDA Rural Development loan (United State Department of Agriculture) not the Department of Drugs and Alcohol ;-)

Dale mentioned, with only Andy's income we would have a really great shot at getting this type of loan. Long story short, when you deal with the government, you get a lot of red tape. Lots of hoops to jump through and longer deadlines.

At this point we are set to close on May 15th. We have extended the close date 3 times previously (First it was April 30th, then May 1st, then May 4th.) If this doesn't happen on the 15th. I think Andy and I are going to be back to square one. Grrrrr. Although, Dale is really really confident we are going to get the loan and we will be able to close on the 15th, Andy and I are a little apprehensive. Below is a link to the rural development loan we are going to be looking at...

http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/

I spoke to our current landlord and she said we could stay until May 18th. Whew. We thought we were going to have to move into a hotel/motel until we got into our new house. Not fun with dogs and a "tight" budget.

We are keeping our fingers crossed and our chins up. On the whole, we are trying to stay positive and are thinking this is all going to go through in a timely fashion.

Stress. Stress. Stress. Now onto the fun part...the house.

It is being sold by a Prudential realtor. The MLS listing is 1124781. It is a 2 bedroom 2.5 bath home on 2.4 acres on Jones Gap Road in Soddy Daisy, TN. The Cumberland Trail goes through our back yard and the bike riding routes are amazing! There currently is a fence out back for the dogs, but that will need to be updated in the next couple of months. There is also a HUGE deck for entertaining. The 2 bedroom thing was a concern of mine, but once we got into the house to look around, we realized it won't be a problem at all. The large family room on the east side of the house has a bathroom and a door. When guests stay, they can stay there until we remodel.

We already had our inspection and appraisal. Things are moving right along...we hope.

So there it is. We have been waiting to post something until we had the security of it actually going through, but I just can't wait any longer. I have been getting a lot of interested and concerned family and friend e-mails and phone calls. I didn't want to blow any of you off, but I have been worried I would jinx it if I spoke about it. But oh well, there it is. It is out there. I posted it. It is almost like it is written in stone, right ;-) Just kidding.

Take care and we will post something more "concrete" as soon as we know.

Heather