OMFG: Home Edition

Where. To. Begin.

So today was supposed to be our closing date. But that's not really where I should begin.

We've been looking for a condo. In this whole process, we've put in four different offers:

1. 2 bed, 1 bath condo. Owners were totally unrealistic re: price of that condo. While it was nice, it didn't have a parking spot, had only 1 bath, had tiny bedrooms and had a back patio off the master bedroom *grimace* In the end, it was one of the first condos we were really interested in, and it's a good thing we didn't get it.
2. 2 bed, 2 bath condo with gobs of counter space. This was a gorgeous unit with everything we could have ever hoped for (including a gigantic walk-in closet). In the end, the sellers wouldn't come down to our price (and it had high-ish assessments).
3. Short-sale (aka Dream Condo). Seller is a nightmare and hasn't even submitted all of his financials yet to the bank. Our offer had been sitting for one full month waiting for him so the bank could review our offer. We have since backed out of the deal.
4. 2 bed, 2 bath condo with parking spot and great assessments. This is our condo and the one we were supposed to close on today. At 3pm.

We knew on Friday that there was an issue with the appraisal. We had an approval with bank #1, but the underwriter wanted more comps for "like properties". Turns out, s/he wanted comps for new construction (even though our building was built in 2001 and, therefore, not "new" and even though there really isn't all that much new construction anywhere close to where we are buying, except for properties well above our price point). So, the broker submitted our application with another lender as a back-up (thank God).

Today at 1pm, we learned that we weren't going to be able to close today, at least with a loan and money changing hands. Some other important bits that go along with this news -- P's Mom is in town to help us coordinate all of this and is (was) leaving Wednesday evening, I took today and Tuesday off to close and work with the movers (who were scheduled to move us at 8am Tuesday morning), and P had to move mountains to get off work early to go to closing. At 2pm, I got a call from our agent who said that we were going to close (yay!), but that it would be a "dry" closing. That means that no money would change hands today, but we would get all the crappy paperwork out of the way so that closing (from our end) was over. The money would change hands tomorrow behind the scenes, and we would get the keys early enough so that moving day wasn't impacted. P's Mom and I picked P up downtown and made our way to the 'burbs to close only to learn that our loan docs weren't there. We waited around (with our lawyer, our agent, the seller's agent and the seller's lawyer) for over an hour only to learn that the loan docs weren't going to be there. Lender 2 approved our loan (conditionally) but is requiring our tax transcripts from the IRS. They won't get the transcripts until 4 or 5 hours into the business day tomorrow, after our lawyer will leave town for the day.

By this point, all of our heads were ready to explode. The end result is this:

1. I am now going to work on Tuesday (which is hard to wrap my mind around, having expected to be off).
2. I am taking Wednesday and Thursday off instead (which has caused me to have to clear my calendar completely at work).
3. Wednesday at 1pm is our new closing, which I will believe when I see it.
4. We had to reschedule our movers for Thursday afternoon.
5. We had to ask for a day's extension in our current apartment.
6. P's Mom had to reschedule her flight for the weekend, which cost her $200
7. Aaaaaaand I'm spent.

Buying a house, from this first-time home buyer's perspective, is exhausting and emotionally taxing. I'm sure that when this is all over, we'll be super happy and won't remember all of this crap. But right now it sucks. And I'm over it.