This is the fourth installment in Luneray’s homebuying adventure. In the first part, she looked at houses. She made an offer in part two. Last week she meditated on coming face-to-face with a lifetime of debt. (Bold emphasis added by J.D.)

This house buying process is going so smoothly that I’m starting to worry that the Trickster God of First-Time Homebuyers is lulling us into a false sense of security before springing something nasty on us.

Consider this:

  1. We found this house on our first day of looking at houses. (Admittedly, it was one of ten houses we saw that day.) There were four houses we both liked and this was my personal favorite of the four.
  2. Two weeks later, this house was still on the market. We saw more houses but nothing in our price range that we liked more than this one.
  3. On the realtor’s advice, we offered almost five thousand dollars less than the already reduced price, and our offer was accepted immediately. The house had been on the market for nearly five months. Apparently, a lot of potential buyers didn’t like the idea of living next door to four pit bulls. Those four dogs knocked $15,000 off the original asking price, and made the seller so desperate that they accepted our low bid as well. (I must remember to thank them.)
  4. The housing inspection went well. (At least for us. The original inspector we had lined up had a severe accident; he fell off a roof and broke several vertebrae. The second inspector only suffered a flat tire on the way to our appointment.) The house is in good shape for its age. The roof is new. The heater is new. The vapor barrier is new. The only two major things we have to do now are ground the outlets and seal the crack in the foundation.

Our financing is ready and we are pre-approved for everything. We may even get possession before the actual closing date. (This depends on whether the seller wants the actual funds in hand before surrendering keys. Sometimes the seller is okay with it once the bank has authorized releasing the funds.)

How did people buy houses before the age of electronic media? Seriously, this would have been such a hassle if we couldn’t email or fax anything. The only real problem we’ve had so far is that it took over a week for the loan officer to receive the financial documents that I sent him in the mail. Snail mail really lived up to its name in that case.

So, Trickster God, what do you have in store for us? Is the water line going to burst the day after we sign the papers? Is the water heater going to break? What about all the appliances? They are currently in working order, but…

Ah, Luneray, I’ve been in this place before — that calm and happy place while waiting for a house to close, that place where you feel shocked and lucky that everything is going so perfectly. Thanks to Luneray for sharing her home-buying adventure with GRS readers. Please keep comments constructive.