all4money's financial journal

Help! Our list price is $274,000 with a 4.5% commission fee to the realtor. We bought the house at $285,000 so we are selling at a loss but we knew we would be and we were ok with that since we grabbed a great steal with our short sale house.

The offer is $260,000 with 1.5% (or $3,900) in closing costs. Everyone knows our house is a great steal at $274,000 but buyers want to get the best deal so it's understandable.

We are thinking of countering at $273,000 and $4,000 in closing costs.

What do you guys think?

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UPDATE 3/1/12
We countered at $269,000 and nothing in closing after talking with our realtor.
They countered back with their "best" offer at 265,500 + 1.5% closing ($3,982) which nets out to $261,518 which is an improvement of about $5,400.

Now, I know all of you are going to say "Accept it, already!", right?

Been so busy these past few weeks... biggest news is that we are expecting an offer today on our house that we have been trying to sell for like 3 years! The folks that saw the house on Sunday apparently fell in love with it - they didn't want another showing or anything. As I understand it, they went and got their financing in order and have asked for tons of documentation from our realtor regarding our house. So, we hear that they are prepared to put in an offer sometime today. PLEASE send positive energy our way as we would love to sell our house (finally!).

Well, week 2 ended up to be quite a disappointment. I was sick for most of it and I'm just going to use that as the excuse for not sticking to my plan. The only thing I did do was eat an egg (or 2) each day.

Recap for week 2 goals:
1. Continue with no soda (FAIL - drank 4 cans this week)
2. Up my water intake to 3 bottles of water a day (FAIL - see no. 1 above)
3. Continue with goal of 30 min of activity a day (FAIL - being sick means lots of couch time)
4. Eat the whites of one hard boiled egg for breakfast each morning. (SUCCESS - I actually enjoyed this one)

UGH. Being accountable is not fun. I am not weighing myself today either since I know that the number won't be wiggling around anywhere so why bother depressing myself. Ok -- enough pity party. Onward to week 3. I'm feeling much better today so hopefully, I can suck it up and really do something this next week.

Week 3 goals:
1) No soda
2) Drink 3 bottles of water/day
3) 30 minutes of activity/day
4) No "extra" food this week (I will be at a conference for work all of the next work week and I will be faced with lots of yummy food -- more than I would normally consume at meals since these will be catered, etc. So, my goal is to not cave into the available desserts, snacks, and everything else around me).

I think this is the earliest I've ever done our taxes before... I was a bity antsy as to how we would look since we had purchased the short sale house last Sept... I knew we'd get money back (I try to break even each year) so anyway, I did the paperwork and e-filed on Sat morning. Looks like we'll be getting back over $3200 between federal and state refunds this year. All that money will be put back into the short sale house so we definitely will be putting it to good use. On Sunday, we have officially started with the family room now. DH started the nasty job of scraping off the old popcorn ceiling. This is a big room so it will take another few days (a few hours each night after work) before all the scraping is done. I know I still owe you guys after pics of the bathroom but I think I have one more project up my sleeve for that area before the big reveal. Stay tuned.

I just got notice from my bank about LexisNexis... any of you heard of it before? I hadn't. Basically, everyone knows how we can request a free credit report annually, right? Well, apparently, with that same FACT Act legislation, we can also request a free report with regards to insurance claims and employment/resident histories about ourselves once a year as well. Who knew? Anyway, the company to go through is LexisNexis. You have to submit documentation as to your identity and they will send you a report providing a 7-year history of losses associated with personal property, auto losses, inquiry history, etc. that is on file associated with your identity. Apparently, insurance underwriters use this info in determining your risk and premium rates and stuff. Some employers or landlord companies use this info too. Anyway, just thought I would share the info in case anyone was interested in obtaining this free info.

https://personalreports.lexisnexis.com/access_your_personal_...

Ok, so it's the end of my first week of my own weight loss challenge to myself. The goal for week 1 was to cut out the soda, to drink at least 2 bottles of water each day, and to be active for about 30 min per day... all in the effort to lose 1-2 lbs. So, how did I do?

I had one can of Mt Dew all week. So, even though I didn't fully meet this goal, I still consider this a success.

I did drink at least 2 bottles of water each day. Success.

I did try to be more active but with me being sick the last 3 days, I wasn't really in the mood to be jumping around. All in all, I'd say I met this goal halfway with much room for improvement.

I weighed myself this morning and was at 119 lbs! (Well, in full disclosure, I was so excited to see that number that I thought I would grab my camera and jump back on the scale again and take a picture this time to show you guys... but when I got back on the scale, it said 120 lbs the second time even though I didn't change anything (wasn't holding the camera) and it was just literally a minute from the first weigh-in. So, just for my morale, I'm going with the first 119 number as the official weigh-in)

In summary, I will give myself 8 points out of 10 for the week. I'm pretty darn proud of myself actually. If I can keep this up, I am bound to see some progress over time.

Ok, so on to Week 2. My goals for Week 2 are as follows:

1. Continue with no soda
2. Up my water intake to 3 bottles of water a day
3. Continue with goal of 30 min of activity a day
4. Eat the whites of one hard boiled egg for breakfast each morning. Egg whites are mostly protein with zero-fat and nothing else (while the yolk isn't all bad since it has vitamins and amino acids, all the fat is in the yolk). Now, the thing to note here is that I usually eat a peanut butter granola bar or a pop tart for breakfast (neither is that great for you) so this will be a change for the better. To go along with my egg white, I'll have a piece of fruit and will drink some hot green or white tea (supposed to be great for you full of antioxidants and stuff) or just water. Sounds fun, doesn't it?



5. Continue aspiring to lose 1-2 lbs per week.

Last time, I left you with the before pictures of our army bathroom. Here are some progress pictures to hold you over until I post the final after pictures.









We ripped everything out down to the studs and the subfloor. I hired a plumber to come in and move the toilet "hole" over about 4 inches from the bathtub because I felt that it was just too close for comfort. Other than that, DH and I have done everything ourselves.

As we don't have boys, this bathroom had to go. It was great to demo the entire thing and feel like something CLEAN would take its place.

Final after pictures will be posted sometime next week.

It hasn't been too difficult to just drink water all day long. I've increased my activity level from a 0 to about a 10 (on a scale of 0-100)... so still a lot of work to do there, but in all fairness, I'm also not feeling well these past couple of days. Being sick just doesn't encourage one's motivation to "work out", you know? I have been weighing myself and the scale just isn't budging at all. I may not make my 1-2 lb goal unless I up the ante on the workouts!

I just weighed myself this morning for the first time in a long time. I wasn't happy with the number I saw --- time to get off my duff and do something about it. I am going to use this blog to help me track and be accountable for my actions. Here are the deets:

Current as of 1/26/12
Height 5'0
Weight 120 lbs
Size 2P-4P

Goal for one week 2/2/12
lose 2 lbs

Now, I don't really eat that much throughout the day but my choices aren't all that healthy AND I am a slug all day long... so baby steps first:

1) Drinking more water. Mt Dew is my weakness and I have a 12oz can each day... the bad thing is that's it as I don't drink much of anything else all day long. I've never been a thirsty person and usually don't drink anything with breakfast, just have the can of Mt. Dew with my lunch, and a sip of water with dinner. If I can just make myself drink more water and no more soda, then that would make a huge difference. So, for this next week, my goal is to drink 2 bottles of water each day and no soda.

2) Exercise each day. Yeah, this is the hardest part of any weight loss program. About 2-3 years ago, I got on the exercise kick and exercised about an hour each day for about 3 months and lost 15 lbs. I am going to start this up again with just 30 minutes each day for this next week.

So, let's see, if I cut out Mt. Dew, that's a savings of 170 calories per day x 7 days = 1,190 total calories for the week which equates to a third of a pound of body fat (one pound of body fat equals to about 3500 calories). Add in 30 min of exercise per day x 7 days = 3.5 hours of activity for the week. I should easily see a pound or two fall off at the end of the week. I'll check back in on 2/2/12 to let you know how successful I was (positive thinking).

Long time coming but here are some pictures of some BEFORE shots of the main upstairs bathroom in our short sale house... this is the first big reno we are working on in the house and I think you guys will just love seeing the after (for anticipation sake, I'm going to just leave you with the BEFORE pics for now though)... and I will give you a full budget breakdown with the after pics too so stayed tuned!








(Yes, those are just matchbox trucks screwed into the cabinet to be door pulls)

Icky, yucky, and cruddy = words to describe the before state of this bathroom. Before we moved in, I wanted a clean and "new" bathroom that was completely functional so this was the first room we attacked. I'll be back later with the during and after pics!

So, we are at the stage now where we want to re-carpet the entire short sale house. We went ahead and paid for the family room to be done first and the second and third floors, where all the bedrooms are to be done later.

Main family room cost = $1,966 (615 sq feet) -- We've already paid for this as we thought this was acceptable BUT then the rest of the house will cost a whopping $7,325! This is for the installation of another 1,995 sq feet of pad and carpet. I realize we are carpeting a huge amount of square footage but geez...

Do you guys think this is too expensive? The estimate is from Lowes which in all honesty is our cheapest alternative where we live. I guess I wasn't expecting nearly $9,300 for new carpet (and that is with us tearing out and hauling away the old carpet ourselves!). The carpet we chose is $2.58 per sq foot so it ain't the cheapest nor the most expensive option. UGH.

I have really tiny feet (size 5) and have never found any pumps that would fit... until recently! OMG, I can actually walk around work without my feet killing me and I love it. So, what do I do but go on a shopping binge. Eeek. I've bought 3 pairs and spent $255. They are not cheap shoes and I love them so I figure they are worth the investment but geez, my pocketbook is feeling the pinch!!! I got a black pair, a neutral beige pair, and then a leopard print pair. Quality shoes mean money, I suppose and these 3 pairs should last me a long while.

Our realtor just called to update us on the second showing we had last night. The couple really likes the house and are working out the numbers to see what kind of offer they want to put in!!!! So, we don't actually have an offer yet but this is the farthest we've gotten in the 3 years we have tried to sell the house!!! They said that they will try to get something together and submitted tomorrow --- wahoo!!!!!!!!

I think I did pretty well today at CVS. My sister's baby shower is next week and so I bought a ton of diapers for her since I had coupons expiring today. I also bought some Tide HE detergent that I needed to get for our new front loaders.

7 jumbo packs of Pampers @ $9.50 each
6 Tide liquid detergents @ $5.94 each
Total value = $102.14

Less manufacturer coupons = $18.00
Less CVS Extra Bucks I had = $2.00
Less $10 gift card wyb $30 promotion = $30.00
Less Greentag Extra Bucks I earned = $1.00
Less Free pack of diapers wyb 6 = $9.50
Total coupons/promotions = $60.50

Total without tax = $41.64

And, just because I'm a nerd, I calculated my per unit cost... my Pampers to Tide ratio is 65/35 so that means that each pack of Pampers was just $3.87 each and each Tide detergent was just $2.42.

I think that's a pretty darn good haul for stuff I needed anyway.

So, January 2010 was the last time I received a raise (for earning my MBA). I just finished a 3 year certificate program this past summer and today I got my raise for earning that... My personnel director (love him!) asked for 5% on my behalf which was great but.... After some careful consideration and research, I went back to the boss and asked for 12.5% instead. And, wahoo! I got the 12.5%! I am so overjoyed, you don't even know how much!!! In my profession, there are no automatic raises for performance or cost of living or anything... so I have to "earn" every penny of every raise I ask for. With completing this certification, I honestly don't know what else I can do to earn another raise (short of getting a PhD) so I wanted to make sure I asked for enough and not to settle for just anything. I was going to just ask for 10% but after talking with a confidant, she suggested 15% and so I took it right down the middle. I did present both the 10% and the 12.5% scenarios to the boss and he elected the 12.5% number. It really is a fair amount (I didn't ask for the moon in comparison to my co-workers' pay) so I am very grateful!!! This goes into effect Dec 1 so what a wonderful Christmas present this is for me.

On another good news front, we have a second showing scheduled for our house tomorrow. This one sounds very promising as the couple went to the bank to talk numbers after seeing our house the first time this past Sat. I am trying to stay optimistic and am crossing all my fingers and toes that they will put in an offer --- so we can focus all our attention on the short sale house we just bought. We've only had our house for sale for 3 years now!

Gosh, has it really been nearly a month since I last posted? I need to be a better blogger.

Things are going well with the short sale house. We've gutted the main bathroom down to the studs, hired a plumber to move some pipes around, and have dry walled everything back up. We still have a lot to do though:

-lay down tile
-buy vanities & toilet
-decorate (the fun stuff)

We did have to divert our attention from the bathroom for the past week though... to the laundry room. Our state was having its tax-free weekend on energy efficient appliances so we went ahead and scored a pretty nice deal on a stackable washer/dryer set. After all the discounts, we saved about $500 on the deal. So, in preparation for the delivery this week, we had to tackle the laundry room. Man, that was a chore as well with all the hole patching, replacement of the plumbing stuff, and painting... but all we have left now is to put up crown molding (there were issues where the walls met the ceiling).

Do you guys want pictures of any of the remodel as we go along? Or would it be more fun to get a full on before/after shots of the different projects?

Oh, and an update on the asbestos issue---- we sent off a sample and it came back NEGATIVE! This relieved my DH so much. Yay, for good news.

So, it's been a while since I've posted... we've had the house now for a little over a month -- the roof has been replaced and we've demo'd one of the bathrooms down to the studs. After which, of course, was when we started thinking about possible asbestos in the house. The house was built in 1981 so it was in those few years of transition where builders were using up the stock they had left when the laws changed. Chances are our house doesn't have asbestos in it but we'd like to know (even though we've probably sucked it all in by now with the bathroom demo). So, does anyone have a clue as to how we can send samples out for testing or who we send the samples to??

DH told me this morning that after some thought, he would rather us save the $8,500 that it would cost to hire professional painters to do the outside of the house and for us to try to do it ourselves. He thinks after some research, that we should be able to attempt this... and if all else fails, we may end up using the pro but at least we'll give it the ol' college try.

So, we closed on the short sale house a couple of weeks ago... we've got roofers almost done putting up the much needed new roof at a cost of $11,000! The house also is in much need of a good paint job--- that will cost $8,500 (not including the decks/porches)!! So, for $19,500, we'll have a great looking house from the street... just don't go on the front porch or back deck or in the door yet! Those were the big expenses we knew we had to get done ASAP so we'll slow down now and just do a little renovation at a time and try to slow down the money drain!

Just closed on the deal about an hour ago!!! We officially own the great short sale house now. I'm so excited. I walked through the house this morning with our realtor just to make sure it was still in the same condition and it was. So, after a very smooth closing, we now have the keys to make it our own.

I got some information at closing that I thought was interesting... there was an offer on the house prior to ours. It was for $240k and after a counter here and there, the buyers' last offer to the bank was $280k. The bank at that point just dropped it because they didn't want to play anymore with those buyers. A few weeks later, we appeared in the picture and put in our original offer of $300k. I truly believe our realtor was the reason for our ultimate success with the deal. He suggested we offer a number beginning with a 3 and not a 2 so that we could get the bank's attention... and it worked. We were glad to offer $300k and it made perfect sense not to offend the bank with an offer in the $200's. Months later, the house is now ours for just $305k. Yahoo!

OMG, how things are moving quickly since the contract was put into play!

A timeline for the curious:

June 14
We put in an offer of $300k on a short sale house that is listed at $395k (down from $550k)

June 24
The sellers accept but the bank says no and counters us at $375k

June 28
We offer a counter to their counter of $305k plus $1k in seller's closing costs

July 28
The bank says OK to our offer!!

August 25
Finally all the paperwork is signed and completed...officially in contract now

August 31
Inspection of house with contractor went very well -- just the obvious expense which is to replace the roof like yesterday

September 1
Met with the bank to finalize mortgage... ugh

September 8
Appraisal of house comes back at $360,000 so we are good there

September 15
CLOSING DATE!!!

We got our good faith estimate from the bank yesterday... yuck. With each of the 3 houses we've bought in the past, we always negotiated for the sellers to cover closing costs. So, it was a shocker to see how much we'll have to bring to the table with this short sale deal!! Yuck, is all I can say. Poo!

So, we had the contractor come out and do an inspection of our short sale house. We were cautiously optimistic as the house is 30 years old. We knew that it needed a new roof like yesterday but other than that, we thought it looked alright from our naive viewpoint. Since the house has been vacant for over 5 years, we wanted to make sure the structure and major systems were okay instead of the minor stuff that inspectors look at so we hired a contractor to come out to investigate rather than a typical home inspector.

He came yesterday and the news was great! He said that we definitely need a new roof but other than that he said the house was built very well. He said even the sub-flooring was built in a way that was top notch and not just with regular particle board stuff. We went through a small punch list of items to address but other than that, the contractor said that we were getting a solid house that just needed cosmetic updating. Whew!! This is what I wanted to hear.

So, now I am heading to the bank today to finalize our mortgage process. Looks like we are moving full steam ahead!

I've shared some pictures before but here are a couple more to tease you with:

Nice gas fireplace


French doors to the office


Some of the backyard (that stuff in the bottom right corner is a ton of MINT growing!)

We have finally received the signed agreement from the seller's bank approving the short sale. Looks like we have ourselves a contract, folks! Our realtor has scheduled a contractor to come out to look at the house next week... so sit down and buckle up. Here we go!

I helped my mom do a yard sale at her company's annual yard sale event this past Sat. Let me tell ya, my mother can sell anything to anyone!! Together we made $582! She gave me $382 and she kept $200. I put $100 in each of the kid's accounts and put the rest in our savings account. Love it when we make money like that.

In other news, we are still waiting for the fully executed contract on that short sale. The realtors on both side are very positive that things are going to go through just fine. We are just waiting for the seller's bank to sign off on everything and then we'll schedule the inspection, etc... DH and I can't wait to get our hands on that house!

Ok, let's back up and review...

June 14
We put in an offer of $300k on a short sale house that is listed at $395k (down from $550k)

June 24
The sellers accept but the bank says no and counters us at $375k

June 28
We offer a counter to their counter of $305k plus $1k in sellers closing costs

July 28
The bank says OK to our offer!!

OMG! I am happy but freaked out at the same time. Never in a million years did we (nor our realtor) think that the bank would actually agree to our lowball offer! So, we are officially in contract now and expect to close in 60 days. We can back out for any reason so we'll have to wait and see what will be found during the inspection process. Wish us luck!

Back in April, someone told me that I could propagate African Violets! Who would've thunk it!!

So, I cut one healthy leaf off of a plant that hubby had bought me a couple of years ago, stuck it in some dirt, and voila! Fast forward 4 months and look at what I have now...



That big leaf in the top left is the original one that I had cut off and look at all the babies that have sprouted... love! I hope that once it gets big enough that it will bloom beautiful flowers just like its momma plant does. I've now just done 2 more cuttings today so here's to hoping that these will be just as successful! I love free plants!

Ok, so we suggested going up to $305k on our counter to the bank's counter. Our realtor suggested that we do $305k and include offering to pay the seller's closing costs up to a max of $1,500. He said for some reason, this bank is hung up on not forcing the sellers to have to pay anything at closing. I think I'll tweak it to be just $1,000 and not $1,500 just because. Here we go with round 2!

We received a counter to our offer on that short sale house. The list price was $395k. We offered $300k due to the extremely poor condition of the house. The bank has countered at $375k. The bank's listing agent is so frustrated because she tried to get them to accept our offer since it was the best one that they had received in 5 years. At least they didn't shut us down completely like they did with the people who offered less than $300k before us. So, now what do we do? Our max that we would pay is $310k in all honesty and it doesn't look like the bank wants to go down that low at all. Guess we'll go back with $310k and just walk away if they don't take it, but I so want this house!! Ugh!

Just got this email from our realtor about the offer we put in on that short sale house.

"I met with the listing agent for the house this morning and she brought me up to date on her conversations with the lender. She's pretty confident that they aren't going to accept your offer (we already figured that) but she's trying to get them to come back with something reasonable. They evidently have two Broker Price Opinions saying the house is worth $100k more than what we offered. She is telling them that it isn't, and the fact that your offer is the highest one of the only two offers they've had in 5 years is proof. She's hoping to have a counter offer in the next week or so. One thing to keep in mind, whatever they come back with, they are going to want you to pay the seller's closing costs. She said they are hung up on not allowing the seller to pay them. Not uncommon with short sale deals."

It's amazing to me how a bank sitting halfway across the country would want to be stubborn about this. On paper, the house may be worth what they say, but in reality, it isn't because of the condition it is in. It's only going to be worth what someone is willing to pay for it and apparently, our offer is the highest of the two the agent has ever received over the course of the 5 years for this property.