News from a new Homeowner

So, closing happened, and now I'm a homeowner. It was great, I showed up at the lawyer's like I was told at 11am, and they turned me away saying it was scheduled for noon. I drove all the way back home, when I got a call from my agent telling me to come back. After getting back, I waited around for another 15 minutes, making it almost noon . . . Then I signed a bunch of paperwork, and went about my day.
Over the weekend I spent over $1,000 on a couple pieces of furniture and blinds for ALL the windows. I bought a new refrigerator for about $1,500 and a new bed for around $2,000. All of this is on credit . . . Gonna keep my expenses as low as I can so I can pay off that debt as quickly as possible. The bed is to be delivered today, the fridge tomorrow. Luckily, most of that was financed with zero interest if paid in by the deadline. I think I might start putting in some extra overtime once I'm done moving to get that debt paid down faster.
I'm going to be moving slowly over the next couple weeks, a carload at a time. We'll be spending a lot of time there over the weekends doing some general work on the place (installed a mailbox yesterday, need to clean the roof and gutters, install the blinds, etc).

Tomorrow is the day!

Yesterday I got the final number and got a cashier's check cut for the amount. I know where to go, and when to be there. I just need to remember a few things to bring with me when I go to the house for the first time. I need to bring a pen  and some paper (duh) and a tap measure. What else? I don't know. I need to figure out how big the master bedroom is and how much space I have for a fridge. I'm going to bring a few other things with me, stuff my mother is holding for me.

2 days to go

Two days until closing. I still have not been told where I'm supposed to go, I have emailed my realtor about that. I also have not received information about how much the check is supposed to be for, but I was told to expect it tomorrow.
What I do know is I have the entire day off work on Friday. I am supposed to be somewhere at 11am to start the closing process. I need to bring a cashiers check for an unknown amount of money.
I'm anxious, but in a good way, can't wait to get this over with and begin the next big thing. I'm nervous, but only a little at this point, I'm confident things will go well. And I'm calm, because I know this is almost done and at this point I have done everything I can, so there is nothing more for me to do.

3 Days Remain

Only three days till closing. I need to make sure to bring a tape measure with me because I plan on going straight to the house afterwards. I need to get a measurement for the fridge as well as determine what size bed I can use. I think I'll wait till after that to pack my first load of stuff to bring over.

Four days and counting

So there's only 4 days until closing. I think I'm going to use today to make a couple lists, what I need and what I want.

Need:
New Locks
Refrigerator
Bed
Dresser for The Boy
Desk for The Boy
Desk for me


Want:
New Dishes
Washer and Dryer
Freezer
Mini Fridge
Roomba

That's all I can think of, but I'm sure I'll grow this list over time.

Home Improvements anyone?

Haven't even closed on the house and already thinking about home improvement. What I want to do is build a paver patio behind the sun porch. I've been doing some research and found that it takes a lot of sand to do what I want. I think the project would be a lot of work, but I also think it could be a great addition to the house. As it stands now, there really isn't a good place for my grill.
It looks like I'd need to put a base of at least 4 inches of compacted sand below the pavers, and then fill in the cracks between the pavers with polymeric gelling sand. It would cost a couple hundred dollars to do, I could possibly even substitute gravel for the sand if it were cheaper.

Friday Update

Everything is moving along with the closing, so far I've dealt with everything I need.
I got utilities scheduled to be in my name the day after closing (as is required).
Finally have all the insurance stuff dealt with, which is a relief.
Other than that, there's not a whole lot to update on. I'm excited and nervous about closing.
There will be a lot of stuff I have to do after closing, I still need to contact an exterminator which I think I'll do today.

An update of sorts

Just thought I'd drop in and give an update on some stuff since it's been a while since I've posted. First, things seem to be going along swimmingly. The closing is scheduled to happen at 11am on the 30th. Insurance is dealt with, which is a relief.
The bank that's doing the mortgage has this thing they're doing which requires me to have a checking, savings, and credit card. What's cool is the credit card is a rewards card, where the rewards points go toward the principal on my mortgage. I don't have all the details, like how much each point gets me or whatever. But each dollar I spend earns me a point, unless it is on home improvement stuff (I'd assume that means purchases at Lowe's or Home Depot) I get two points.
Just got off the phone with the water company, scheduled switchover date to the day after closing.
Setup gas service online as well for the same day.
And now power is setup too. I hope that is all.

Stupid State Farm!

So, I'm back on the insurance issue again. Days after telling the agent I wanted to get insurance, they finally got back to me telling me they can't help me because I don't know the age of the roof and other systems! I gave them a second chance after having bad experience with them once before, but they've totally screwed me. I've contacted Nationwide now, and at the very least they'll be able to hook me with the FAIR plan.
The agent I spoke to seems to be confident that I'll be able to get a nationwide plan though, which means less money out of my pocket. I just wish the agent had said something sooner. I'm pretty sure that I even said something about the other insurers to State Farm, but oh well, screw them!
Update: After looking back, it took the State Farm agent 4 working days to even get back to me when I first requested we write the policy. I know for a fact that the age of the house was discussed, but also pretty sure that it was stated up front that I had no idea how old the major systems in the house are.
Needless to say, I wrote a scathing review of the agent on their google places page; quoted below:

I was severely disappointed with the service I got from this agent. I am purchasing a new house and this was the only insurer that I contacted that knew the age of the house and gave me a quote knowing I didn't have any information on the age of the systems within it. After agreeing to the quote I was told (after hearing nothing for 4 days) that they needed to know the age of the internal systems, and without that information they wouldn't be able to write me a policy. It blows me away that they knowingly wrote me a quote for insurance that they knew they wouldn't be able to write.

Friday Update

The closing date has been moved to the 30th, which gives me more time to move, so it's a good thing
The appraisal is in and all is good there.
I'm not going to focus so much on my credit scores now, just gonna post if they change.
All the overtime I worked for this paycheck has put me well over the amount estimated for closing, so I might actually have a little cash to buy some of the needed stuff when we move.
I still didn't do a monthly overview of my spending, but I think I'm going to just not do that for the next month or two as I've been focusing on not spending money, so I think I don't have to worry too much.

Late Update

So, it's Saturday, but the week isn't over so let's see where I stand!
Got a copy of the fully signed contract, so we're officially set to close on May 4th.
Mortgage is in process and I've gotten everything I need submitted.
Home inspection went swimmingly (is that the phrase?). Everything is good to go on that front.
My Credit Sesame still hasn't updated from 762.
Same goes with my Credit Karma score at 766.
Final estimated money to be paid by me at closing is $3,483.04 and I have $2,127.60 in savings for that, plus an extra $850 I can pull from other, less important things. Add on top of that the $400 for the loan application fee, and that leaves me with just over $100 I need to gather from here till then, which I think I might already have sitting in my checking account.

Order of Events

A few people have voiced their concern about the order in which things have been done in the process of buying this house. Specifically related to the home inspection and signing the contract. For the most part, they said I should have had the home inspected before I signed the contract to buy the house.
It makes sense that you don't want to commit to buying a house without knowing the house isn't in really bad shape and need a ton of repairs. It's good to know that you'll be buying a quality home.
The thing is, the contract itself stipulated that I had 10 days from the date it was signed that I could cancel it for any reason. That gave me the ability to lock in the home, keeping another from buying it before me, and the time I needed to get the home inspected, making sure that the house was something I actually wanted to buy.
I'm fairly sure this is a common thing, possibly even a state requirement, when buying a house. Everyone I've asked about it at least followed the same procedure as I did, putting in an offer, then having the home inspected after. With the 10 day window at the beginning of the contract to cancel for any reason, I felt confident in signing the contract before having the home professionally inspected.
Now, this is also the reason I was stressing so hard earlier. I only had a 10 day window to figure out everything. I had to know that there wouldn't be any major hurdles to buying the house, and if there were, I'd need to know right away. So I made sure I got all my paperwork into the lender right away, made sure I got the inspection done, made sure I could get insurance. Any one of those things going wrong could have meant I wouldn't be able to close on the house and if it happened after that 10 day window, bad things would happen.
At this point, I'm sure there's going to be more to stress over, there will be more things that pop up that I'll need to deal with. But right now, I've done everything I can do to make sure it all goes as smoothly as possible, and I'll have to deal with anything else as it comes along.

Inspection? CHECK!

Alright, the inspection is complete! The house got a clean bill of health, with some very minor repairs that will need to be done soonish, but nothing pressing and absolutely nothing that be a deal-breaker.
Basically, there's some siding around the chimney that will need to be replaced, just one piece. In the sun room/patio, the windows need to be sealed, the roof needs a good cleaning and so do the gutters. The free-standing carport has a hole in the roof, it's not a big deal, can be patched over temporarily, and shouldn't be too hard to make a permanent fix.
The roof is nearing its lifespan, so I'll have to set aside some money to make sure that can be replaced when the time comes. The inspector didn't find anything wrong with the roof, it's full wood and not plywood, so that's good. He walked around up there and checked it from underneath and found no damage.
The water heater is a bit old, so that will be another cost, luckily replacing that will allow me to upgrade to a decently energy efficient model. Currently it's gas, and I may consider going with something electric, but I'm not ready to research that quite yet.
The heating and air system is a bit older as well, but it tested ok. I have to say I was really impressed with how well the air conditioning unit worked. Even with a door open to the outside, it was able cool the room enough to give me a chill.
There are also a few minor repairs that will need to be done, some sanding of doors and frames, lots of work outside in the yard, fixing lights (most likely just need some new bulbs), and of course the tiling around the floor in the master bath.
One thing to note, as part of the closing on the house, the seller has agreed to pay for 1 year of a home warranty. With the age of the house and some of the main systems, this will give me some peace of mind.

So very stressed

So, yesterday I started dealing with the mortgage paperwork. I read through all the documents on Sunday after I finally got them. Then as I was going back over them while I signed them, something seemed off. Looking at the numbers given by the bank, the money due up front from me was insanely huge. Like double the max money I had available to spend. So I tried to get a better idea from the lender about it, and turns out she completely flubbed the numbers. Left off $1,000 of the earnest money and put in the wrong information for a number of other areas. Now, the number is in a more appropriate place where I can handle it.
Even so, those wrong numbers caused me an enormous amount of undue stress. This whole thing is really throwing me for a loop. Luckily I've only got about a month of all this, then it'll become a different kind of stress.
I'm really worried about screwing something up, or something going totally wrong and me being out all the money I've put in and owing even more cause of something that could have been avoided.
On top of that, today is the inspection of the home. I'm going to try to put together a video of the home, like a walkthrough and introduction to the premises. Also, because I'm so worried about money and being ready to put money down on the house, I'm going to be working all weekend for overtime. I might actually just end up working everyday this month if I can. It's gonna suck, but in the end I think it will be worth it. Luckily I have 3 paychecks till the closing date, so I'll be able to sock away some money.
I'm just going to have to live off credit cards for the next month and spend as little actual money as I possibly can. I'll probably have to raid my Dragoncon savings for this year to make sure I have enough money at the end.

Weekly Standing

Another Friday means another weekly look back at what's transpired
Contract has been submitted to the seller, and I'm fairly certain it has been signed.
Mortgage documentation has been submitted to the lender.
Quote for homeowners has been received (but not in writing yet)
Appointment for a home inspection is setup for Tuesday
My Credit Sesame score is still 762.
My Credit Karma score is also still 766.

Mortgage win

Alright, after spending the last day collecting what was asked for, I was finally able to get it all to the lender. 38 pages in total, and that was short a page or two because I still haven't gotten the written quote for insurance yet. Luckily, the lender seemed to be ok with that, just knowing the insurer was enough to get the ball rolling.
Next step is she will be sending me back the mortgage packet, paperwork I need to look over, so I can read it over the weekend. I'm seriously stressing over all of this, but at the same time I think that's helping keep me on the ball. I'm usually a really big procrastinator, but if I put things off too much it'll end up costing me, so instead I'm getting everything done as quickly as I can to make sure there's wiggle room in case something bad happens.

Homeowner's Insurance Update

Ok, so I just got off the phone with State Farm and they saved my bacon! They quoted me at just over $1,000 for a year which is about in line with what I was expecting. Of course, if I get an alarm system installed and move my car insurance to them, my rate would go down, but for the time being I have my quote, which was the last piece of the puzzle for the mortgage.
I was really fearing I would have to go into the Georgia FAIR Plan, because that didn't sound like it would be a good thing. The FAIR Plan is insurance for people who need insurance but can't get it for one reason or another. Basically, the highest risk group gets to pay twice as much for less coverage.
Obviously, if that was my only option, I'd have to go with it, but luckily I can avoid that, at least for now. I'm sure I'll have to see about updating some parts of the house in the next few years, but those are expenses I can prepare for ahead of time. As those updates are done, my premiums will hopefully go down too, saving me more money in the long run.

Homeowner's Insurance

So, I got an e-mail with a list of all the stuff that the lender wanted as part of the mortgage process. It didn't take me long to get it all together, it's been less than 24 hours and I have everything, except one. Quote for homeowner's insurance, and it's a dog.
The Road so far:
I contacted Progressive, I have my car insurance through them. They were unable to help me, because the age of the house, I needed to know how long ago the major systems (heating, roof, electrical) were replaced, and I don't know. They sent me to one affiliate, but they couldn't insure me because the value of the house didn't match the market rate or something like that.
I also tried contacting Allstate, but they won't quote me homeowner's insurance without also quoting me for auto. I decided to put that off, because I don't want them to possibly ding my credit by running it more than it needs to be.
My next call is to a State Farm agent. I've been somewhat reticent to call them because of a bad experience with them in the past, but if they're able to give me what I need, history won't be enough to stop me from using them.
The real problem is homeowner's insurance isn't something you can get a quick and easy quote on the internet and I have to talk to a real live person to get a good quote fast. And it's still a little early and a lot of the nearby offices aren't even open yet.
I'll continue calling around and will update you on any new developments as they occur.

Now what?

Contract is sign, so what's next? Well, I have to talk to my lender, get the mortgage going. I need to get the home inspected. One article even says I should contact the municipality to find out more about the home. So, today during lunch I will need to call my bank and talk to the mortgage guy. I sent him an e-mail last night, but have not yet gotten a response, so I need to find out the next steps there.
I also need to do some research about home inspections. Find out what I should do to make sure I have gotten a proper and thorough inspection, and questions to ask ahead of time to know the inspector will do what needs to be done. Then after work contact some people to get it scheduled.
Then maybe tomorrow I should see about contacting Lilburn (I'm guessing that would be the "municipality" I need to contact) about the property. Of course, I'm going off the suggestions of a blog I found from a couple years ago.
I also need to contact my insurance company and get homeowner's insurance. Luckily, I can do that anytime of day. I plan on continuing to use Progressive, since they do my car insurance already and should have reasonable costs.
I have e-mailed my agent to find out more about scheduling with her about getting the inspection done, can't get in without help.
I will also need to worry about utilities, but I have time before that has to be done. Luckily I don't plan on moving in immediately, but I do need the house to be somewhat livable right away. This is going to be an ordeal, that's for sure.
A couple more links that might be helpful:
Finishing Details
Post-contract Pitfalls
After the Contract is Signed

Good news getting better!

Heard from the agent today and it's on. I have to run by the bank to get another cashier's check, and then deliver it to the agent, sign some papers, and then do all the rest of the stuff that comes with being under contract. Technically, I'm not yet in escrow, but tomorrow I think I will be!
I'm pretty sure the next steps are going to be to deal with the mortgage paperwork and schedule a home inspection. Hope to get that done by the end of the week, but gotta figure out what's involved and all that.
Other than that, I think everything is going according to plan. I'm still kind of nervous about this whole thing, but I know it's the right thing for me. I honestly can't wait to get on with the moving process, because that is going to take a while.