My recent experience with short sales has been quite a trip. I made an offer on a sweet little house in North Carolina for the full asking price of the short sale. The owners accepted, but it had to be approved by their bank. Short sale means the bank is supposedly willing to accept less than the seller owes them.
All seemed well and we were waiting for confirmation of our closing date. Waiting. Waiting. The bank kept asking the seller for more documentation on their end. Waiting. Then my realtor got a phone call from their realtor. The bank had "accidentally" let it slip into foreclosure. Real bummer for the sellers who now have a foreclosure on their credit record. Bummer for me, but not hopeless -- I could just keep looking.
I decided to wait until winter to look for the next little place to fix up and "flip." Meanwhile, my realtor, Bill Millwood, suggested that we follow up and try to buy the property at auction. He knew I was still interested -- after all I had already drawn up a budget and made the plan for the fix-up. I went out and bought 3 books on buying at auction and am now wading through them. They pretty much say the same thing -- I could have saved a couple of bucks by only buying one.
Meanwhile, back at the first house -- the one I plan to completely renovate and live in for a few years. I finally had to bow to the need for a new well. It was drilled yesterday -- 325 feet for 8 gallons/minute. Good well. All the pipes will be laid and other work accomplished by the end of the week.
At least when I go down there now, I won't have to lean over the well enclosure, trying to fit a little wire lever into a hole in the handle of a mop to get the well going. And then still being short on water with a shallow well. The only bad thing is that the new well is across the driveway and it's more costly to pipe the water to the house. Also, I hope I won't have future problems getting a permit for the cute little garden shed I have planned for that side yard. I think the well is far enough away from where I want the shed.
The other thing was the good news that I might be able to get city natural gas thanks to my good neighbors, the Clemmons. Because there are two houses involved, they might bring the gas line up our dead end road. More on that as it develops.
I did get the windmill painted red. I've also thinned out a lot of overgrowth and limbed the lower parts of several trees so the windmill can be clearly seen from the road. It looks like a piece of art.
