Selling the Family Home
When I accepted a transfer with my company and we moved from Calgary, Alberta to Mesa, Arizona in spring of 2000, we all understood that mom would be travelling every week for work. The boys were still very young and it would be a huge change for me not to be home during the week, let alone we were moving to another country. We agreed give this new life a try for a year, and if it was at all damaging to the kids or our marriage that I’d give it up and we’d do something else.
I was already travelling in the US for work and in March of that year I flew from West Virginia to Phoenix and met with a realtor. I had no clue where in the valley we were as I’d never been there before but we must have viewed 30 homes before I chose the home we eventually bought and stayed in the whole time we were living there. Jeff flew down the next day and without knowing which house was my #1 pick he ended up choosing the same one so that all worked out pretty well ☺
Well, don’t you know that one year turned into twenty until consulting just wasn’t any fun anymore. The pandemic struck and the new things I’d found to do for income were no more. Jeff still had a great job at the golf course but after we sorted through our pros and cons on our late night walks, we figured the logical thing to do at that time was to sell our home, cross the border and start anew, again. So that’s what we did.
For Sale by Owner or Realtor
So then came the next question: do we try to sell it on our own or hire a realtor?
For Sale by Owner
I think most people might not even ask that question however, we had a home in Calgary that we did sell on our own so we’d tried it once before. We were pretty firm about our asking price and thought it was reasonable. However, when our realtor at the time laughed at us, said we were out of our minds and suggested a much lower asking price, we told him to ‘kindly’ get his sign off our front lawn and to not come back (keeping in mind Jeff’s version of ‘kindly’ ☺). The next day he made up a huge sign that said, “For Sale by Owner” with our phone number and slapped it up on the front of the house. Well, don’t you know we sold that place three days later for exactly our asking price. Buyers and sellers were all happy so we thought we’d try it again.
We’d been doing our own market research for a while now, but were struggling to find comps in our area when figuring out an asking price. Home prices were on the rise like crazy. There was no need to be greedy however we weren’t going to just give it away because we’d decided to make a move, and knew we had the pandemic and upcoming winter to deal with too.
Our lot was the largest in Augusta Ranch and Jeff had done an amazing job landscaping with all the foliage, fruit and palm trees, pool, hot tub, fountain and nice, cool, grassy areas for the dogs. The house itself was large and open with 22ft ceilings, four bedrooms, three bathrooms and this lovely, big, open kitchen (with a gas stove that I totally miss!!). As it was for us, it would be a great family home for someone new. We carefully did our research, valued the home and we both took a bunch of pictures to choose from. We had a big sign professionally made that said, “For Sale by Owner”, took a deep breath and placed an ad on Zillow.
Well, lots of folks came for a look, we’re guessing some of them were neighbors (that hadn’t been to our New Year’s Eve parties!). Lots and lots more realtors came to snoop and to try and get us to list with them. After a short while we realized this was a waaaay different market and much different times than back in the early 1990’s in Calgary.
In hindsight I think it was also a sign of the times – we were in the midst of a global pandemic still and things were weird. Still kind of are actually, but at the time we were all still masked up, dousing ourselves in hand sanitizer and trying not to touch anything or get within 6ft of anyone not in our ‘circle’.
After a couple/few weeks of that it was time to move along to the next thing.
For Sale by Realtor
Before we went house shopping in Arizona back in 2000, we first had to go realtor shopping. Neither of us had ever been there before and we somehow had to find someone trustworthy and loyal. We still lived in Alberta but I’d accepted the transfer with my work and was already travelling all over the United States. Anyways we did that, we found that awesome realtor in Phoenix that helped us purchase a home in Mesa while we were making the transition from Calgary.
Fast forward to 2020. Once we figured we’d given ourselves enough time with the ‘For Sale by Owner’ thing, we next had to decide on a realtor to help us out. Lots of friends had gotten their real estate licenses since we’d moved there, but at that time nobody knew we were going to sell and move back to Canada, we’d kept things pretty quiet. How to choose?
We had lots of realtor showings from our Zillow ad, and lots more that just came knocking at our door when they saw the big sign on our house. Over the years we’d also stayed in touch with the realtor who helped us buy the house initially, who was still selling real estate with their family. So many good choices, so many good people. Who to choose. What to do.
I’m actually not going to tell you who we chose to keep all things friendly and respectful. It was difficult to choose between all our friends, acquaintances, referrals, our original realtor and the many realtors that came by. Not everything went smoothly with the sale once we listed and got on with things. Stuff went wrong that can happen in any real estate transaction, some were specific to us Canadians selling and moving back and some stuff you’ll just go, “WTF?”, as we did, but I’ll get to all that in as much detail as I can possibly remember and write (keeping in mind this is all just our story with no legal stuff. No finger pointing or none of that, this is just stuff that happened with our sale to be aware of.).
It was July 30th, 2020 and that proverbial stake in the ground was no more. We signed the contract with the realtors, the lockbox arrived around noon, the MLS ad went up the next day with the yard sign arriving shortly thereafter. Time to take a big, deep breath – things had just gotten real. Again.
The Photo Gallery
For Sale by Owner
When we sold that house in Calgary on our own it was the early 1990’s and things were of course much different. There was no Zillow or fancy online advertising, there were no video home tours or drone photos, none of that.
Since things had drastically changed that way, we too needed a digital/online presence to advertise the sale of our home. Putting away any family photos and personal things around the house we both took some pictures and I put together the Zillow ad. (Kudos to our old Samsung Galaxy S7 Active camera’s actually for all the photos in the blog. One day we’ll upgrade and get ourselves some new phones ☺).
Our photo gallery was off to a pretty good start already with pictures we’d taken for our AirBnb ad. After sorting through those and picking some we liked, we took a bunch more to really showcase the home and yard. No fancy equipment, no airbrushing or touchups or drone photos, none of that. Just the photos our old Samsung’s and these two amateurs captured.
For Sale by Realtor
Our real estate contract was signed on July 30th, and the very next day our realtors posted an ad on the MLS website, something I don’t think we could have done ourselves without having a real estate license (or maybe we could have paid for it?). Since we already had a pretty good selection of pictures and I’d written the text for the Zillow ad, our realtors used all our stuff initially just to get our place advertised and out there. Off to a good start.
The next day our dogs started freaking out over some commotion out front. Unbeknownst to us our yard sign was being delivered and some guy was pounding it into the ground but okay – we’d taken down our own “For Sale” sign and we now had an official sign so, all good still. That was a Saturday.
A couple of days later a girl showed up at the front door saying she was there to take professional pictures for the ad, as well as drone photos. Huh? We didn’t know anyone was coming so unfortunately we weren’t ready as we like things ‘just so’ before taking pictures. She was able to take all the drone photos of the outside then rescheduled to come back a couple of days later, which she did, of course with all her fancy high end equipment. Silly us thinking that simple, old camera phone photos would be good enough.
It was now the 6th of August and our realtors emailed that the new photos were posted. Cool! We were excited to see our home through a professional eye, yet we were horrified by the photos posted online. I understand using special software to do touchups and small enhancements, but wholly, they were so bad. The colors were so oversaturated and distorted, and did nothing to enhance the look of our home. The exterior shots were decent enough, but the inside photos were so bad even the realtors agreed they were terrible, took them all down except for the drone shots of outside and put our photos back up on the ad.
It’s now a week after signing the real estate contract and we’re still fussing with photos and such in a market where homes are barely making it to market.
Home Inspections and Appraisals
Well YAY, we sold the house! At least we think it’s a ‘yay’, it’s been pretty emotional so far as so much of our being just doesn’t want to leave, yet the logic we talked through to get us to this point makes us forge ahead and look forward to whatever’s next. With the offer approved, next comes the home inspection.
Inspections
The initial home inspection was scheduled for four hours and Kyle the inspector used most of that time. He’d also ordered a termite inspection for the same time so Blake the termite guy showed up then too and did his thing. He noticed a small stain on the roof in the front room so on to the next thing, they’d call a roofer to come and do a detailed roof inspection. We were nervous.
A couple of days later their roofer guy showed up and did his thing. When he was finished he was kind enough to give me a copy of the inspection report. Estimates to repair would be around $1k. OMG YAY! And whew!
Based on whatever Kyle the inspector put in his report, the buyers came back and wanted another $6K off their offer price for a new pool filter. Say what? There’s nothing wrong with our pool filter but, let’s call in a pool guy for a pool inspection.
The pool guy was able to come out the next day, inspected our swimming pool and tested all the equipment. Everything was in perfect working order he said, the filter just needed a sanding and repainting. Cool! Jeff can take care of that. The pool also needed a light (for $450, which it had for years. After the kids moved out we didn’t care if the light worked at night or not 😉 ). On to the next thing.
Appraisals
It was nearing the beginning of September, 2020 and with the inspections and final negotiations of the purchase price done (so we thought), the appraisal was scheduled. I think it was about that time that we were starting to realize certain um…things about our sale. This was a VA (Veterans Affairs) loan and the buyer didn’t have to put the standard percentage down on the house – just $2,000.00 secured the offer. Seemed odd, but at that moment we really didn’t think too much about it but, we sure did a bit later on.
Two appraisers came by to do the appraisal – Keegan and Mike worked for the VA doing strictly VA home appraisals, as opposed to just regular home appraisers (apparently there’s quite the difference). We had a good chat in the yard about the home, yard and all, and looked forward to a decent appraisal. Home values were still climbing like crazy and like I’ve said, there was no need to be greedy but we also expected an appraisal with good value.
Well, sure enough, the VA appraisal didn’t come in at the buyer’s offer price. It was a few days after the guys were there that our realtors let us know that things weren’t looking promising, but we waited another ten whole days before someone told us anything at all. Ten days. No phonecall, voicemail or carrier pigeon update, we didn’t know what the heck was going on.
To pack or not to pack? Nerve-wracking to say the least – that should have been one of our first signs that things were going twisty. The appraisers also mentioned they were having the same issue we did in finding comps in the neighborhood, so it kinda felt like they just threw some lowball numbers around and we were the ones drawing that short stick.
Finally, over ten days after the appraisal guys were there we got a number. And it wasn’t a good number so it was back to the buyers to negotiate, again. Two more days pass and we finally have an agreement. It wasn’t as good as the original offer but it was okay. It was now just a month past the original offer and we were already done with the back and forth and waiting to hear stuff so we came to an agreement and carried on.
Things to stay on top of and things that tripped us up!
The FIRPTA Tax
Okay, so this is the big one. This is that big thing that got Jeff hollering at me about starting a blog.
Here we are, it’s now nearing the end of September, 2020. About 98% of our stuff is either packed and in storage units or has been sold, donated, given to friends/neighbors, shredded or tossed (watch for my upcoming post on, “Doing Stuff With Your Stuff”). Our closing date is September 30th and our house, outdoor storage sheds, patios and yard are near empty, and despite the almost overwhelming up and down emotion of it all, we’re getting ready to roll.
Tuesday morning, the 22nd of September (told you I kept detailed notes J), Kathy from the title company calls. She’s getting all our paperwork ready to sign and asks me if we are Canadian or US citizens. When I replied “Canadian” and asked her why, she says, “Oh okay, well then you have to pay the Ferpta tax”. (I thought that’s what she said but I wasn’t sure.)
“The what??” I asked.
“The Ferpta tax”, she replied yet I still couldn’t really understand what she was saying. When I asked what that was, Kathy explained that because we were Canadian and not US citizens that we had to pay this tax on the sale of our home. She’d be collecting 15% of the sale price (or the proceeds, I wasn’t sure about that either), and when I freaked out, Kathy replied, “Oh but you can just claim it on next year’s income taxes”. Um, no. Just.say.no.
She couldn’t really explain what it was, only that because we weren’t US citizens that we had to pay it. I was confused (and a tad pissed off), it was nearing our closing date, we were sitting in a pretty much empty house but there was no way I was going to let her whack 15% off our proceeds just because some person I’d never met nor worked with before said they had to. I got off the phone with Kathy, my heart going a thousand miles an hour watching whatever profit we’d made disappear.
Google is your friend.
I got ‘on the line’ and first asked Google, “What is the Ferpta tax?”
Google replied with, “Did you mean FIRPTA tax?”
Um, yes! Yes I suppose that’s it. When the very first website that pops up is from the IRS with a link explaining what the FIRPTA Withholding is I figure I’m off to a good start.
FIRPTA – Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act of 1980 (FIRPTA).
Okay so now I know what it is (and how to spell it). It’s a tax/withholding imposed on the sale of real property in the United States, owned by someone not living in the United States. Basically.
But hang on a minute, we do live in the United States, we do live here legally and we do pay our taxes every year like other responsible humans.
So, next I asked Google, “If I’m a Permanent Resident/green card holder, do I still have to pay this FIRPTA tax?”
Although I’m no lawyer nor tax accountant nor IRS person, I was pretty sure I already knew the answer to my question (and Kathy should have too), but of course I had to check for myself.
Google responded with a myriad of legal websites and links, and each and every one of them including the IRS website itself said NO. Made sense to me (and it’s why I was seriously questioning Kathy at the title company).
We were permanent and legal residents of the United States, living in Arizona. We’d paid our property and income taxes every year like every other responsible homeowner in America, so why would we have to pay that? Kathy couldn’t explain but she was determined to whack 15% off the top just because we were Canadian and not US citizens. She also couldn’t really explain what the FIRPTA withholding was so I’ll say it again, thank you Google.
Canadians living in the United States and selling their US property, please be aware!
What is the FIRPTA Withholding?
The IRS website defines the FIRPTA withholding as follows:
“The disposition of a U.S. real property interest by a foreign person (the transferor) is subject to the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act of 1980 (FIRPTA) income tax withholding. FIRPTA authorized the United States to tax foreign persons on dispositions of U.S. real property interests.”
What (or who) is a foreign person?
Okay cool. So my first thought is that I’m not/we’re not a Foreign Person. I figured that since we lived in the house for all that time and weren’t a foreign investor (living in you know, like Canada or something lol…), then renting out the house, making a bunch of money and not paying taxes on it. But again, I had to check it out.
According to the IRS website (and I’ll let you read all the details if you want as it’s a multiple step determination), the answer is again for us is NO. We weren’t a Foreign Person with foreign investments. Since we were just regular people living in our house the entire time, AND paying our property and income taxes like we’re supposed to, this didn’t apply to us.
Since we are Permanent Residents the IRS defines us to be a United States person (just like a citizen), who is not subject to the FIRPTA tax.
“A United States person is defined in the IRC to be U.S. citizens, resident aliens, U.S. corporations, U.S. partnerships, U.S. estates and trusts. A resident alien is defined as 1) one who has lawful permanent resident status (green card holder), 2) meets the substantial presence test (183 day test), or 3) made a first year election to be taxed as U.S. resident. See IRC 7701(b)(4).”
Okay whew! My heart slowed a bit while I read, reread, and reread again the IRS website and probably a dozen lawyer’s websites and totally convinced myself that all this FIRPTA stuff didn’t apply to us.
Convincing Kathy
I’m sure all of you heard Jeff yell when he got home from work that day and I first told him about this tax thing. This was the big thing that he lost his mind over when he said I had to start a blog on all this sh*t.
And he was right. Kathy worked at the title company doing this stuff all the time. Shouldn’t she know? And how many other times had she whacked 15% off the top of other folk’s proceeds?
OMG I had one hellofa time trying to convince her that this whole scenario didn’t apply to us and that she wasn’t entitled to take our money. It was still that same Tuesday although now afternoon. I’d emailed her links to the IRS website and about a dozen of the other legal sites I’d checked. With no response after about an hour I called and spoke with her. Kathy said she would read the websites and check with some colleagues and let me know. Okay.
Then things went silent. I got no response to my emails later that day. No response still on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning until I was losing my mind and called her again. They were sending a notary to sign papers on Monday and we weren’t signing anything that was taking those funds from our sale.
Early Friday afternoon Kathy finally returned my call. She told me that while she thinks I’m right (like huh? The IRS website is wrong?), she checked with a number of colleagues and all but one agree with me too. She wouldn’t change her mind (or couldn’t), until that one person got back to her. Um okay but can you hurry up? This came up on Tuesday morning, it’s now Friday afternoon and you’re sending a notary on Monday.
Finally. Finally late in the day of September 25th with just three days till closing she agreed, and redid the paperwork for Mondays signing. It took me fighting for it, but because we were Permanent Residents and considered a US Person by law we did not have to pay the FIRPTA withholding. That was a bunch of work and heartache but, on to the next thing.
VA Loans
I’m really sorry to call this out Veterans, we love you but this ended up being a huge issue for us, the fact that the offer and sale of our home was based on a VA loan.
We didn’t think anything of it when we accepted the offer. Why would we? A Veteran’s money is just as good and green as anyone else’s.
We didn’t know that the VA had a whole different crew of appraisers, inspectors and such and had their own ways of figuring stuff out. You’d think it wouldn’t matter but, it did.
We didn’t know that our buyers only had to put down $2k to secure the offer. Yes that’s right, just two thousand dollars, not 5 or 10 or 20% like any other buyer. So when things went super sideways come closing time, we had nothing to fall back on.
When our whole deal fell apart about the same day we were supposed to be closing and moving out, we also learned that the VA would not approve a loan for a self-employed buyer (as ours was), and the loan was not funded. All this time and slide in all the way to the finish line and then it’s like, “Just Kidding!”.
Talk about a huge shocker come closing day. It left us staring at each other in a big, empty house going, “Now WTF do we do?”.
So many ‘friends’ and such balked at us after the fact saying, “OMG don’t ever get a VA buyer. VA loans are the worst”. Well thanks for that after the fact. Hey – our buyers were nice enough folks and I’m pretty sure they weren’t happy with the way things went either. I’m not here to lay any blame on anyone for all the twisty stuff that happened, I’m just here telling the story 
Negotiating a Firm Closing Date
Yes I know, this sounds like a weird one and duh, why would I need to call this out? That’s all part and parcel of a normal real estate contract, right? Right. It always had been for us too (emphasis on the ‘had’) – you pick a date, close the sale and move out.
So where did I leave off:
- September 25th, got the whole FIRPTA tax thing sorted out. Thank goodness!
- September 28th, the notary lady came to the house and the paperwork is signed, still with a closing date of September 30th (sad, but still yay!). Looking good so far, right?
- Also September 28th, after all the paperwork has been signed. It’s late in the afternoon and our realtors call to say we won’t close on time, like in two days on September 30th as we JUST all signed and agreed to an hour ago!
- September 30th, received an email from our realtor saying now we won’t close now till October 9th
SAY WHAT?!?!? WTF?
Jeff and I stood in the middle of our big, empty house and after all the cursing and yelling and swearing, all we were left with was, “Now what??” Now what the “eff” are we supposed to do?!”
Everything we owned (everything we still had left…) was packed away in our two storage units save for about two weeks worth of clothes each, our toiletries, and things we’d need for our animals for the journey north.
Our buyers didn’t want our washer, dryer and fridge so we excluded them from the real estate contract and sold them separately. Some friends ended up buying them so we promised we’d deliver them on our close date of September 30th, so that’s what we did. We kept our promises. We had NO clue and ZERO warning that anything like this could even happen.
So now we had no fridge – we’d emptied ours, scrubbed it clean, rented a truck and delivered it as promised. We had one of those small, bar fridges that we were able to get at still, so we kept small amounts of food and drinks in there and kept a separate cooler full of ice. Guess it was no biggie, it was only supposed to be for a few nights, right? Wrong.
We had no pots or pans, dishes nor utensils. Not a glass to drink from nor a pan to cook an egg and come to think of it, no fridge to put eggs in ! We didn’t really have any food either except for a few snacks for the trip. We had no fridge so we had no perishables, and most everything else (except for my baking stuff and all my spices) we packed up and gave to a sweet young couple, close friends of ours with two teeny kids. Since you’re also not allowed to bring cleaning supplies over the border, we gave them all that stuff too.
Thinking we were going to be there about a week or so, I headed off to Wal-Mart and picked up a few things: a small frying pan and spatula, a small pot, two plastic bowls and plates, two knives, forks and spoons. I bought a ‘dog lover’ coffee cup, a sharp knife and a big plastic bowl I could at least chop a salad into. Back to the storage unit we went and I managed to find a tote with kitchen stuff and dug out some instant coffee, tea and sugar.
We had no bed to sleep on, other than the floor. Off to the storage unit we went and were able to find an air mattress. We’d kept some pillows and blankets aside to have in the trucks for the trip north but didn’t expect to have to use them in the house still, let alone on the floor.
Anyways, you can picture it, right? Jeff’s quite a bit bigger than me and the two of us on one small air mattress did NOT work well at all (yes, go on and have a laugh, under different circumstances it’s pretty funny actually J). Neither one of us got any sleep that night so we blew up two air mattresses and each slept on one (well, we still really didn’t get much sleep then either as they both decided now was a good time to spring a leak!).
We had no furniture. I don’t mind sitting on the floor with the fur kids for a while, but not all the time. Jeff just doesn’t do the whole “sitting on the floor” thing so, off to the storage unit we went once again and managed to dig out our anti-gravity lawn chairs and the small TV monitor I used on my desk for work. Woohoo! We had TV and a place to sit, but we ended up having to buy a couple of lawn chairs with some little tables attached.
Circling Back Around
Let’s get back to the calendar for a sec. It was now October 5th and we were five days past our original, signed, close date of September 30th. We’re still tracking for a new close date of October 9th when an email arrives from our realtors. It’s a forward from the buyer’s lender saying that THE LOAN WILL NOT BE APPROVED.
I’m sorry, say what?!? This was waaaay past WTF. We were camped out like hillbillies in our own home (no offence hillbillies), waiting as patiently as possible as somebody somewhere is working out some details, and then the loan isn’t funded? HOW EXACTLY DOES THIS HAPPEN?!?
This was just not cool at all so we called our realtors over to the big empty house for a little chit-chat. We had a few questions, and a few things to say…
- How the *#($*$! did this happen, people?! How did you let this happen? How did we get all the way past the finish line yet it appears we never really got there in the first place? Why didn’t you know something was going sideways?
- We have a big, empty house with an unfunded loan and no sale – now what?
- We certainly didn’t expect to have another mortgage payment but oops, just kidding about the sale and October 1st is right around the corner
- Will you put this big empty house back on the market? It looks so sad with nothing in it – sparkly clean, but sad.
- Where and how are we to live – will you put us up in a hotel? Where are we to sleep? We have nothing here.
- How about a fridge, washer and dryer? We kept our promises and delivered the appliances but who is going to buy the house this way, let alone we’re now having to run to a Laundromat to do laundry?
- How and what are we supposed to eat for who knows how long till we close again? With everything packed and no fridge are we supposed to live on take out and Pop Tarts?
- Jeff took time off work to get us moved out and settled in a hotel. Then he extended his time off as close was delayed a few days. All those days wasted.
- We’re stressed, our pets our stressed and you’re supposed to have our backs as our realtors. Let alone everything else, then that dang FIRPTA tax thing, now this?
Yeah, we were way more than angry. It was about now that we found out that the buyers didn’t have to put anything more than $2,000 down because it was a VA loan. Well, we wanted that $2K to live on for the next month but, we were told no. We also figured it was time they came up with some earnest money if they didn’t want us to put the house back on the market. We were also told no.
Our realtors offered us a guest bedroom at one of their places. Thank you but no, and surely not with the dogs and the cat. It was a nice gesture but we were pretty stressed (and pissed!) by that point, so they had a guest room mattress delivered and we slept on that on the floor of our bedroom for the next month. Yes, month.
I can’t even remember the last time we used a Laundromat but, since we’d also sold and delivered the washer and dryer, once a week we’d head off to Westar Laundry in Apache Junction, AZ. We’d make a date of it and pick up a coffee on the way, go get one while the wash was washing, or stop for brunch when the laundry was all done ☺
All the utilities were scheduled to be turned off on September 30th of course. With the ever changing close dates I ended up having to call, cancel the terminations and reschedule three more times.
Same with the hotel reservation. We were moving into a hotel in Gilbert, AZ for two weeks before starting our trek north. Those reservations also had to be changed with the ever changing close date, which of course got totally messed up. We also ended up getting billed for a bunch of nights that we weren’t even there. Add that to the list of things, and things to fix.
I gotta say, what started out as an exciting adventure turned into a bit of a nightmare. I can’t even tell you how sick of takeout we were by the time this was all said and done. The original buyers still wanted the house so we held off putting our empty house back on the market. We got all the way to the last week of October and the lender turned down the loan again. As it turned out, they wouldn’t fund a VA loan where the buyer was self-employed. Why nobody ever spoke up or investigated way back in August or September, we’ll never know.
Watch Your Bank Accounts!
Okay so this is probably another one of those oddball things and you’re saying, “Duh, why would she even call this out?” I do so, just to make sure we’re all keeping our money safe and out of thieves grubby hands.
You’re selling, packing, moving, lots going on and small things can get missed. I know I for one could have missed something small with all that was going on at the time. It’s possible that large sums of money may be passed around once you finally close on the sale of your house (remember, nail them to a firm closing date ☺) and with all the weirdo stuff today you need to keep tabs. Case in point.
It was October 30th, the day that we actually closed the sale of our house (finally!), and funds were exchanged. I’d looked in the bank account for something early in the day and noticed a charge from Uber for about $36. Pretty innocent and a small amount, except for the fact it had been at least a few of years since I’d taken an Uber and the charge was from another state.
A call to the bank reversed the charge, flagged the account, and cancelled my debit card (right when I needed it most and had no real address anymore to send a new one). But no matter, it was just another ‘thing’ and it kept the bad guys from yanking a bigger amount.
Please keep an eye on your accounts as you’re navigating your real estate transaction!
Closing the Sale
In the last week of October they converted the loan from a VA to conventional loan and processed it that way. Of course they now needed a new appraisal (remember way back when I said the VA appraisers do it differently than regular ones?).
Our original contract close date of September 30th turned into maybe October 2nd, then October 9th, then finally, on October 27th, everything was approved and we’d close October 30th. I will say it was both extremely emotional and, somewhat anti-climactic once we left our Arizona home for the last time.
We love you Arizona, Augusta Ranch and our beautiful home on Faith, and we always, always will ❤
– John Howard Payne