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The Latest Ok - here we go - we are set to close on August 11th, our final hour. Our closing officer will be Ellen at Yukon Title (warning: bad website - watch it). Soon we will have the "Settlement Statement" which tells us how much we owe at closing and (down to the gnat's ass) how much our monthly payments will be. There was a hold up on the appraisal. It turns out that FHA wanted a separate appraisal for each building - the main house and the little cabin. The original appraisal simply had to be reformatted and two separate documents issued. Our home will retain the value set by the original appraisal, which satisfies the creditors. However if the appraiser were to appraise the two buildings separately, their combined value would likely be more than the selling price we settled on with the Seller. This would give us instant equity, which is, of course, a big bonus. Unfortunately, we do not know how much instant equity we have because we would likely have to reorder the appraisal in order to find out (which is something we do not want to do at this point.) We will know to do this in the future when/if we go to sell the house. I have secured an homeowner's insurance policy through State Farm Agent Vern Carlson. I've had Vern Carlson as my auto insurance agent for 11 years now and I really do think their office is very high calibur. Until we actually rent out the little cabin we will have just one policy. When we go to rent out the cabin we'll get a second "renting liability" policy (which covers us, not the tenant). We have not added flood or earthquake riders which is funny because in the last week we've been at flood warning levels here in Fairbanks and last night we had a small (but sharp and hard) earthquake. Good news: business insurance for Norma's kntting studio is really cheap: $13/year! Ow! I also need to get in touch with the utilities and have them switch the switch. We're scheduling the FINAL WALK THRU for this Sunday. Hot dog! With kind regards, Ian and Norma* August 7, 2003 We're just waiting for our loan package to go through. We signed an extension on our closing date yesterday. We now have through August 11th. July 31, 2003 The house was re-inspected by Terry Duzynski. The re-inspection went very well and everything on his list of things to fix were apporved. July 29, 2003 Our loan package has been submitted to HUD/FHA. The home re-inspection should be coducted today, too. July 28, 2003 We have the appraisal and our offer made appraisal. We were misinformed about the repairs: they are still in progress. With the appraisal in our banker is submitting our loan package to the underwriters. FHA requires a 5 day waiting period before loan approval. Looks like that will be August 1 at the earliest. At some point the title report is ordered, too. July 24, 2003 This just in: We've LOCKED: AHFC First-Time Homebuyer's FHA at 5.75%. Not bad. July 22, 2003 The appraisal is IN PROGRESS!!! We should have a report by today, tomorrow, or Monday. That's great news! We're getting closer to landing this bird! We visited with Robyn Harris at Alaska Cooperative Tax Service, Inc. We will pick Robyn up as our tax accountant. She told us in which ways we will be able to depreciate/deduct improvments/repairs to our house and our rental unit. We also learned about how the rental unit will impact our taxes in the future. Also: Alaska Cooperative can represent us in front of the IRS if we were to be audited! Woo hoo! (Not that we have anything to worry about - cough cough) Here is a potential timeline to our closing:
With kind regards, Ian and Norma* July 18, 2003 All is quiet as progress moves forward... Our most recent work has been towards finding a suitable home insurance policy. Here is what we've found so far: State Farm - Vern Carlson will insure the house at a reasonable rate. The policy includes all sorts of disasters, excluding flood and earthquake, total replacement cost, off-premises coverage, and liability. The policy looks good, but State Farm has to write two policies: one for the house and one for the rental cabin. Rural Alaska Insurance Agency (independent insurer) - Due to the age of the home, both of their underwriters required a certified engineer's report and a statement from the Seller regarding the life/repair of the roof; the home inspector's report was not enough. We're not going to hire an engineer to inspect the home so Rural Alaska will not be getting our business. We're likely to lock rates soon! I need to work the numbers more to convince myself of a 15-year mortgage over a 30-year. Also, due to current rates we may not go AHFC. This means no energy efficiency breaks on our interest rates. AHFC's rates right now are higher compared with a standard FHA loan. Meanwhile we are looking to hire an accountant. With a rental unit and Norma looking to operate a business out of the home, we are going to need someone on our side who knows the code. Things still look bright and I maintain that we have an 80% chance on landing this bird. Keep sending us good thoughts! With kind regards, Ian and Norma* July 11, 2003 The Realtor's Coldwell Banker "FOR SALE" sign is down! WOO HOO! - July 8, 2003 The Seller has made progress towards the Closing on the property. The deal is essentially out of our hands at this time. Electrical work as specified in the engineer's report has been completed (costing $700). We await final work from the plumber and a fix to the foam insulation issue. Meanwhile, the appraisal has been ordered - Anne Forkel has asked for a 'rush' order, but with things the way they are, I don't know how much faster the appraisal could go. The appraisal could happen at anytime. After work on the home inspector's list of citations is completed, the home inspector, Terry Duszynski, will make a re-inspection. Things are clicking right along on our way towards the magic closing date less than a month away! We'll be moving soon! Lee tells us that the lawn has been mowed. We haven't locked-in an interest rate yet. We will likely get to that soon. We are still awaiting a home insurance quote from State Farm. Later this week I will start soliciting other home insurance quotes. Click on the Archives link above to access archives of The Latest. We've added a Map of the Fairbanks area for our website visitors living Outside who are not familiar with the Fairbanks area. And don't forget our PhotoBook! With kind regards, Ian and Norma* July 7, 2003 Tuesday, June 17th we had the house inspected by Terry Duszynski (Duszynski & Associates, FHA - ICBO Certified). Mr. Duszynski did a fantastic inspection that revealed a few minor deficiencies with the home. Summarized, the deficiencies entail electrical issues, plumbing issues, stairwell guard rails (FHA regulation), and an issue with the polyurethane foam insulation. The foam insulation emits a deadly gas if caught on fire. A coating of a flame retardant material over the insulation suffices as a fix to this potentially dangerous problem. Mr. Duszynski also noted that, to him, the house appeared structurally sound, and that the home needs a lot of work to make it nice. We have received verbally an agreement from the Seller to fix everything listed in the inspector's report. Mary Mayberry (Coldwell Banker Great Land Realty) has guaranteed us that the Seller will fix everything listed in the inspector's report. This means the house will likely go FHA when inspected by the appraiser! Mary Mayberry has also guaranteed that the house will pass FHA regulations when inspected by the appraiser. We await the signed inspector's addendum from the Seller. With the go-ahead of our agent, Lee O'Hare (Century21 Gold Rush), and the guarantees by Mary Mayberry, we have asked our banker, Anne Forkel (AlaskaUSA Mortgage Company, AHFC approved lender), to order the appraisal. Norma and I made a routine drive-by of the house Sunday evening only to discover a great deal of earthwork had occurred on the property. It turns out that the plumbing was greatly damaged by the prior tenants. The plumber had to dig up the pipes outside the building in order to fix the problem (reportedly to the tune of $2,400!) The prior tenants were very vile people who gave very little care to other people's property (karma catches up with all). As such, the Seller has had to put a lot of work and money into making the house sellable. Note to self: Know thy tenants! I have asked State Farm (Vern Carlson, agent) to work up a home owner's insurance policy and premium quote. Although the house is 60-70 years old (that's old for Alaska!), it is modern and in sound shape. We are waiting on the quote from State Farm. With kind regards, Ian and Norma* June 24, 2003 |
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This page was last modified August 18, 2003 by fnino@uaf.edu.