Anxious in April

Everything looked good for us to be able to move in on May 1. 

However, every day in April that passed it seemed that Todd and I learned more about the actual state of the property. I'm not talking about little things, like there's a crack in the driveway, I'm mean BIG, important things like, the mortgage hadn't been paid for two months.

We just decided that it made sense to have a real estate contract attorney review our lease.  Then the seller decided hers should review it also. As the attorneys were hashing out the fine points--one of the note holders filed for foreclosure.

The jerk also sent some renegade to the house who drilled all the locks, broke a door and padlocked the fences.  Nevermind, the house was still listed in MLS, was up for sale, had a pending lease AND was only 60 days past due.

Either the agent or the seller called the loan holder and told him to call off his dogs and lift the illegal foreclosure and get their locks off the gates. 

They didn't do so, but someone bolt cut off the padlocks and we are having to replace all the doorknobs and locks.

Unfortunately it doesn't matter if the loan holder filed the foreclosure illegally since once it's recorded it takes legal action to get it removed (does this make sense to anyone?)

As all of this information is being revealed to us, we started to feel anxious and wonder if this was the right move for us.  However, so many things had lined up serendipitiously to this point, we felt that it was meant to be and forged ahead.

History of the House

I started referring to Silver Spur Estate as "our rescue house" (like a resuce dog) after I heard it's story.

It all started in 1988 when construction started on the 100% custom home.  The Spanish-Mediterranean home was completed in 1990. 

The gold fixtures and aqua carpet in a few of the bedrooms definitely date the home to the late eighties/early nineties. (Yes, I'll be switching those fixtures and the carpet out very soon.)

I don't know much about the first set of owners, but they sold the house in March of 2004 to a bull fighter and his girlfriend.

This lively couple upgraded the home by putting in the gorgeous pool \, hot tub and landscaping in 2005.  Sometime in 2008, they both quit working and decided to move to Arizona. 

They put the house up for sale and I'm not clear how long it was on the market before a couple from Northern California put in an offer that was accepted. Based on other pieces of information, I'm estimating that occured early 2009.  Just before escrow the woman of the couple who were to buy the home became sick and they decided to stay in Northern CA putting the home back on the market at the bottom of the housing slump.

Another couple came in and made a short sale offer that the bull fighter and his girlfriend accepted because they had already bought a foreclosure in Arizona.  While the loan holders considered the proposal, they moved ahead with their plans to move to Arizona in January 2010.

In the meantime, a very sad event took place.  The bullfighter died unexpectedly in March, leaving his now wife with the burden of two homes. 

Shortly thereafter, the loan holder announced that the short sale was not approved.

With no prospective buyers and huge mortgage and maintenance costs, the home was about to become another fatality of the down housing market when we came along and rescued it.

In many ways we feel that we were destined to have this home.

NOTE: All of this story came from third parties so if any of it is factually incorrect I wrote it not knowing so.  I also left out names to protect confidentiality.

The Second Visit

We met Ronald Brookshire, the seller's agent and friend, at the property.  It was more beautiful than I had remembered it.  Many of the flowers on the property were in bloom and he had gone through the house and knocked down most of the cobwebs. 

Shortly after we arrived, another couple and their agent arrived.  The man started cleaning the pool and spraying the weeds on the driveway.  The woman approached and asked me, "Why are you at my house?"

Confused, I looked at Ron, who explained, "This couple has an offer in on the house, but it's a short sale and the loan holder won't approve it."

They stayed for a little while and had some conversation with the seller's agent, then left.  It was an awkward situation, but we deducted from the discussion that their offer would short one loan holder almost completely.  Ron suggested that they make a counter offer which would pay all loan holder's off completely.  (We found out the next week that they weren't prepared to pay that amount and walked away from the deal.)

We left the home feeling confident that it was meant to be ours.

One Phone Call

After a weekend of looking at potential homes to rent that had been lived in hard--think stained carpet, banged up walls, worn-looking--our resolve to get into our own place was renewed. But we had no idea what to do next.

Thankfully, Todd made a phone call.

He had noticed that the Silver Spur Estate was still coming up in the MLS listing and that the price had been dropped by $50K, so he picked up the phone and asked the agent if the owner might consider renting the property.  He said she might and agreed to meet us out at the property to discuss the possibility.

That phone call that changed everything.