Ok, it’s silly not to type with caps. But I like subjects without caps. So I had this 30-ft tall dead tree in my backyard ever since I’ve lived in the house. I didn’t really realize it was dead until after I had made plans to buy this house as-is. The tree could’ve easily fallen on to the neighbor’s house, or mine, and insurance doesn’t cover damage from fallen dead trees that you knew were dead. So I decided that, after a whole year of home ownership, my first major improvement would be to get rid of the tree.

I didn’t shop around too much. I got one ridiculously high quote. I got one quote from a service recommended on a local list-serv. I went with that one. On the phone with the service’s owner this morning, I was intrigued to hear that they could probably clear away the wasteland that has been my backyard for what I thought was a very reasonable rate. The owner went into a bunch of details of what could be done, but I couldn’t understand him through a cell phone connection and his thick accent. I got myself home to talk to him in person. It appeared they had already commenced the yard clean-up. But it was looking really good. I told him to go ahead with it. I couldn’t stick around, but I trusted they’d do a good job.

Well, they did a good job of uprooting every living thing within the perimeter of my backyard with the exception of a few trees that dot my property line. I basically have a field of dirt in the backyard. It’s quite impressive. The problem is, I really thought we had been on the same page that it was the area beyond the lousy chicken-wire fence (about three-fifths of the backyard) that I wanted “cleaned up”, and I assumed “cleaned up” meant that piles of leaves and debris would be cleaned up and a walking area created between the rear of my house and the back alley. No, “cleaned up” meant obliterating everything.

I’ve been told this might be for the best. Now I can landscape however I’d like. But I have no money for landscaping. I had no money for this backyard gutting. So I think I’ll be stuck with a dirt/mud pit for awhile. The guy did take a couple hundred dollars off the bill due to the misunderstanding. I would actually recommend him, but I’ll just share his name privately with anyone who’s interested.

I’ll need to show some before-and-after (and, ideally, someday, after-after) pics.

Ah, the magical HUD settlement statement is here.

Hmm…what’s this? The seller is paying $2K towards my closing costs, so some closing costs are itemized to add up to $2K, including the origination fee for the lender. But why is the origination fee listed in my column and the seller’s column? The lender’s going to get an extra bonus origination fee…

And then why is the contract sales price $500 more than the contract says?

I’ve presented these questions to my attorney, her assistant, and my broker. I was only able to reach my broker, who is looking into these matters. I really do believe these are all honest mistakes. I was a bit harsh on my broker in my previous post on this matter. I almost get the feeling that either he or an associate of his reads this blog, as he insisted to me yesterday that he had no reason to believe my original construction loan wouldn’t go through, and that the American mortgage industry has changed drastically in the last six weeks. If you are reading this, I do believe you; you could, however, afford to be a little more sensitive to your clients. Actually, I realize that you CAN afford not to be sensitive to your clients…

There’s one slight other concern, and that’s that my home insurance agent sent me an email yesterday that says, “Can you give me a call when you get a second? We’ll get you sorted out”. Get me sorted out? I left an unreturned voicemail yesterday and another one today. What exactly needs to be sorted out, I have no idea, and I don’t appreciate at all the worrisome language followed by a lack of a return call.

I have a new closing date–September 4–but I wouldn’t stake my life on it. It’s been two weeks since I last commented on my home purchase predicament. I didn’t see much of a point in writing any further about the frustration of the limbo that has been the processing of buying my house. Even if everything is supposedly on track according to my mortgage broker, there isn’t a whole lot of trust left here. It has been suggested to me that my broker may have known all along that my construction loan had a significant chance of falling through, and that my broker led me down that path anyway, because I’d be left in a seemingly impossible situation where I’d have to take a mortgage through him barring any truly outrageous terms.

In reality, had I moved quickly to get another lender’s opinion two weeks ago, I might be going with a different lender. As things stand, I got that second opinion just today, and the $300 or so I’d save on interest over the next twelve months is not worth the headaches involved in switching lenders. I’m fortunate that the seller is accommodating of a later closing date; I’m not going to push this out another three or four weeks.

So the summer I spent frustrated over the process of getting estimates for numerous home projects has been a waste. Sure, I’m somewhat educated about the process of getting estimates now; I’d rather have spent my time in other ways.

I will likely own my house a week from now, but I will be unable to vastly improve the condition of this house in the next six or twelve months, if ever. It’s a fixer-upper that I’ll have to personally do the fixing-up in most cases, and I doubt I’ll have the energy to dive into it. I never aspired to be one of those people whose weekends are completely booked by home improvement projects. I was going to use that construction loan to pay other people to fix up my house.

This should be an occasion worth celebrating; I have no inkling to celebrate. I’m worn out by this process, which began unexpectedly two-and-a-half months ago when my neighbor abruptly expressed interested in taking a look at this house.

So I’m about to be a Walltown homeowner. I’m sorry I’ve made such a big deal of this. No congratulations are necessary.