Homeless by Sunday

Well, I knew it was coming. We are officially homeless as of Sunday. The house deal is currently on the edge of disaster. We got news of the appraisal results at 6 a.m. this morning. $118,000, and that's just the house and one acre. The other four acres (which we want) are another $12,000. This is more than 50 percent higher than what our loan officer estimated it was worth. Not to mention it's still not done.

I was upset at first, not because we wouldn't get the house but because of how the seller jerked us around for the last year and a half. For example, he lied to Nate about when the appraiser was coming so he wouldn't be there when it was done.

I got a copy of the appraisal when I got to work this morning, and I've calmed down. There's one big red flag on it, and a few little ones. It was appraised as if we were adding it to an adjoining property. We don't own the farm buildings around it (Nate's dad does) which could reduce the property's value by about one third. That would put the appraisal right on the money with our loan officer's estimate.

There's also a few little things wrong with it. The house is listed as a three bedroom, but anyone who's been inside it knows the third room is not a bedroom. There's hardly enough room for a twin bed, and no closet. We planned to use it as an office for now, and a laundry room down the road when I tired of hauling clothes up and down the basement stairs. Another red flag is the septic system is very questionable. It didn't work when the last people lived there, and it sure as hell didn't fix itself.

Well, I'm taking the rest of the day off to get this thing straightened out. I'm hoping to meet with the loan officer this afternoon, and Nate wants to call the appraiser to say what gives. If all else fails, we'll be moving in with the in-laws I guess.