Words of Truth

I called work and asked if they needed anybody today because I could use the overtime.  They said they could use me from 1pm to 7:30, so I got ready for work (after a haircut from my wife….thanks, Honey!). Kim and I set off for work with the idea that she would drop me off, take the van back home, drive the kids to church tonight, and they would all pick me up after work. 

We were driving west on 146th st, and we were approaching the green lighted Hazel Dell Road intersection.  As we started into the intersection, a pickup (driving east on 146th) hauling a trailer full of stuff started to turn left in front of us. I had to slam on my brakes and my horn to avoid hitting him.  He didn’t stop or anything, he just kept going.  Thankfully, our anti-lock brakes worked, and there was no impact. 

We drove on, calming down and thanking God as we went.  I got out of the van at work, and Kim took the same route home.  She says she can see our skid marks in the intersection. If you go to 146th and Hazel Dell right now, you can see evidence of God’s protection in my life.

Well……it’s back on.  I just got a call from my realtor who told me the buyer evidently had a “freak-out” moment yesterday and called the whole thing off.  But, after discussing it with her husband, they agreed that they still want to buy our house.  So for now, the sale is back on. 

 The good news is that, because she freaked out, we get some leeway in changing a few things. So now we are trying to make it so that we don’t have to move out of the house until August 1^st or so, so that we can have more time to find a house and build up a deposit.  The other good news is that evidently her husband is a contractor, and they want to fix all the house stuff themselves.  They want us to give them an additional $500 in the closing, but we said “how about $250?”  Still no word on what they will say about that, but our realtor thinks they’ll take it, especially since Beazer should fix at least two of the four problems. 

 So now I have to switch my thinking again.  This is exhausting, moving from “we’re selling the house” to “we’re not selling the house” to “we’re selling the house again.”   I’ll just be glad when this whole thing is over.  I keep telling myself, “God is not surprised by this. He loves us, and has a plan that He is working out (Rom. 8:28).”

I got a phone call yesterday evening from our realtor. She told me she was very sorry but that the buyer decided to walk away from the purchase of our house.  Then she said that technically this means we would get to keep her earnest money, but that her check bounced.  So if we assume that they aren’t able to recover that money legally, we are left in the same position we were before.

Kim and I have discussed it, and given the inspection report on our house, we are seriously leaning toward pulling our house off the market for a few months (maybe til January?) so we can save up enough money to fix the problems with our house, allow time for Beazer Homes to respond to our warranty request, and even replace the carpet.  Since the housing market is currently picking up, it’s possible that we may even be able to sell the house for more, especially if we are able to fix it up a little.

So for now we are staying right where we are. Does anybody know a good home warranty company in case our Air Conditioner goes out?

For those of you not in the loop, we are trying to sell our house.  After being on the market for 10 months, we finally got an offer.  After negotiating, we agreed at a price.  The buyer sent her home inspector in, and he picked our house apart.

The home inspector found about twenty things wrong with our house.  Most of them were small things.  The buyer sent us her response, requesting that we fix four of the problems on the list. Upon further inspection, we determined that one of the four problems was our fault (window sills have some water damage from a few times it rained while the windows were open).  Three of the problems however, are (we believe) directly the fault of Beazer Homes, the builder of our house.

I won’t go into detail about the problems, but Kim found our “Home Buyers Warranty” from the builder, which states that it covers construction defects for ten years from the sale of the new home.  Ours expires June 30, 2015.  It also states that in order to file a claim, we must send a request for repair by letter (not phone call or electronic means).

I sent a warranty claim by certified mail to Beazer Homes last week. They got it Thursday afternoon. I called Beazer Warranty today, and they said, “We didn’t get it.” Evidently I sent it to the local Beazer place, instead of to the warranty headquarters.  She said that was ok, and that she is opening a case on these things.  No word yet as to whether Beazer will actually fix these things.  Also, we’re kind of under time pressure, because we told the buyer we would fix three out of the four things, and we need to know if Beazer is going to do their part before we get them fixed, because if we pay to get them fixed, Beazer won’t reimburse us (the warranty specifically states this).

Meanwhile, we are still looking for a rental house in Westfield or Carmel so we can be closer to work and church.  We found some good prospects, and we hope to look at some of them in the next few days.

I don’t like the feeling that things are up in the air regarding the house sale. If the buyer walks away (still possible at this point), we aren’t moving anywhere right now.  If the sale goes through, we have 22 days to fix the problems, find a new place to live, pack, and move.  Aaack!