We rented our previous home for five years. We spent most of that time convinced that there was NO WAY we could afford to buy a home on what Beorn made. And with the market as high as it was, home prices were out of control. But, I still regularly prayed that a way would be opened for us to buy a house.
The housing market crashed fall of 2008 and prices started to look much more reasonable, but the 25% pay cut we took that fall seemed to keep a house just as out of reach. Then in 2009, my mom came to me with a strange idea. She was tired of her grandchildren living in a rental and not being settled. She needed to take control of something in her life and decided that our housing situation was something she could do something about. She offered to cosign with us on a house, even supplement our mortgage payment. I wasn't really comfortable with her offer, but it got me looking. I started praying that we could find a home that would fit our needs.
I casually looked around the neighborhood, because we really wanted to stay in that area. Nothing seemed to work out. Then they announced the first time homebuyer money was $8,000 that year and it didn't have to be repaid. I started looking (online) at homes all over the county. We decided to be a little more proactive and got a realtor to help us. We looked at several homes and finally made an offer on one. It was not in our "target" neighborhood, but close by and after looking so long, we were finally willing to look at other areas. It was bank owned and needed a lot of work, but it was in our price range. That weekend seemed very long as we waited to hear back on our offer. And for some reason, my prayer that weekend was STILL that we would find a house that would fit our needs - NOT that we would get that house.
Monday was a holiday. I got on the computer and did another search, which I found strange since we were still waiting to hear back on our offer, and I saw a house that I had seen online before, but they had just dropped the price $25K so it was now in our price range. It was a block away from the house we had an offer on. I called the realtor and told her we wanted to go look at it the next day - just in case. We were the first ones to look at the house after the price was dropped. It had almost everything we were looking for: four bedrooms, a living room AND a family room, a separate laundry room, more dining area than the other house, a carport AND a garage (like our rental) and a big out building that could house Beorn's pottery. We walked out and said we wanted to put in an offer. In perfect timing, our offer on the other house had been rejected and so we just carried the earnest money over to the new offer. It was 9/9/09. But the new house was a Short Sale and little did we know just how LONG a process that would be. We were expecting a three month wait for bank approval, so we could close by the end of the year and get the $8K. Things didn't work out quite like that.
First, there was the delay getting our accepted offer signed by the owners. They were getting a divorce and "he" was hard for the realtors to reach, so the paperwork didn't get to the bank till the end of September.
A couple months later we heard that "she" was trying to get the bank to do a loan modification so she could keep the house. The bank didn't give it to her, but it stalled the short sale for weeks. Soon it became clear we wouldn't close by the end of the year. But just as we thought we would lose out on the federal $$.... they extended the close by date! Reprived!
Months went by. We began to lose hope. We wondered if we should just give up and look at other homes. One night I prayed very explicitly that IF the Lord wanted us to have that house, I needed something to happen. The next day our realtor called to tell us that the bank had agreed to pay part of the closing costs. No, the short sale wasn't approved, but it was a good sign, right? Meanwhile, that spring our town changed the zoning for their down payment assistance $$. Our short sale now qualified and we could get $10K toward our down!
The months continued to pass, but that too was a blessing since the mortgage interest rate began to FALL - a LOT. By the time we got our short sale approval in June, rates were at record lows. When we went in to apply for our loan we were amazed to discover that we qualified WITHOUT my mother! Even with our reduced (since 2008) income we could "afford" to buy a house! It must have been our amazing credit score, but I'm still amazed that they gave us a mortgage.
Then, just before we were to close (just in time to make the $8K deadline) "she" declared bankruptcy and everything fell apart. We were devistated! Couldn't she have waited a week until AFTER we'd bought the house? Now we'd have to wait three months for the bankruptcy to be discharged before we could buy the house and we'd lose the $8K. And since we'd done an inspection, we knew we needed that money to make the needed repairs. Plus, interest rates were expected to increase and we'd lose the great rate we'd locked in. We felt like throwing in the towel and walking away, but we'd invested money now, with the inspection and appraisal. So, we waited, unhappily. But again we were amazingly blessed. Instead of increasing, interest rates continued to fall, so we were able to get an even better rate. And Congress extended -once again- the $8K, so we still got that money.
Every delay and challenge we faced became a blessing and the way was opened for us to be homeowners. We were blessed with money to buy the house and to fix it up, as well as an incredible interest rate that gave us a the monthly payment we needed. I know that if we trust in the Lord he will direct all our paths and that things will work for our benefit.
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