A Dramatic Closing Day

As you know from my last post, we’re buying our first ‘non-live-in’ rehab house! (Should I call it a flip house? I mean that’s what it is… but that term just has some ugly connotations. Right?)

We had 2 months to plan for this moment, but somehow I still feel unprepared for what is coming next. Closing was successful though, and that is the first step. I know this whole thing will have a huge learning curve, so every success is a big deal.

Actually, we came dangerously close to not closing… I’ll spare you the gory details, but suffice to say there was a minor financial crisis. It was caused by me. I sent our money to an account that doesn’t exist, so our funds were floating in bank la-la-land with less than 24 hours to close. Thank the Lord, the funds came through just in time and we were still able to close as scheduled.  Phew… I think I lost a few years of my life after the stress of that 24 hour period.

OH! And I totally forgot to mention… I hadn’t even seen the house yet up until the final walkthrough!!!!! Yes… I’m not kidding. Just let that sink in… Jake had done the inspection and viewings, and all I’d seen were a few pictures. Now that, my friends, is a leap of faith. And let it never be said that I do not trust my husband.

THE DAY OF CLOSING

The 24 hours leading up to closing were pure chaos, I was franticly calling banks during my layovers as I was flying back home from New York. My uber didn’t pick me up from the airport.. (sidnote: I have never had an uber actually pick me up… they always accept then never come!!! Gahhh, I am never trying that again) So, Jake had to leave work to come pick me up at the airport. And by the time he arrived, the banks were all closed, so we weren’t able to get the money. Our closing was the next day at noon….

So I took off work that morning to perform the walk through and do my best to get our money from the bank. Both went fine…. *sweet relief*

We closed on Tuesday at noon and Jake had to go back to work. Later that evening, Jake was running a fever, but we still went over to walk through our new house.

We quickly discovered that the key we were given did not unlock the front door… Which is when we noticed that there were fresh footprints under every window. And screens were ripped off…

We walked around to the side of the house and the sliding door had been pushed out of alignment (but it was still wedged closed). Then we saw in the window well to the basement that the basement bathroom window was busted…. *cue panic and paranoia* We saw lights on downstairs.

Like, what in the world is going on? This is merely hours after we had closed the house and none of these things were there during the walk through. I just never in my life thought that this would happen.

Oh, and did I mention that Jake had come home with a fever that night?? So here we were locked out of our new (pretty gross) house, with one of us sick, and a possible intruder inside….

We contemplated calling the seller, as likely this break in was someone who knew about the sale based on the timing. It could’ve been an estranged relative who wanted to get something out the house?? But, Jake thought better of it, and decided to call the police just in case there was someone inside, it wouldn’t be safe for us to try and get in on our own.

The police arrived, but the window was our only point of entry since the key didn’t work. And the police officer couldn’t fit through it. So, Jake had to crawl down *amongst the glass shards* and shimmy through. The policeman gave him a stick thing just in case… Ha!

Just before he entered the basement, Jake yelled, “I’m coming in!!” I guess he wanted to announce his presence to anyone who might have been down there. A few minutes later he opened the front door and the police did a search of the house to confirm there was no one in it.

Thankfully it was clear, but somehow that still did not put me at ease. Not knowing why it happened is very unsettling. But, Jake seemed confident that the person probably got what they wanted and it shouldn’t happen again.

It’s really impossible to know what they were looking for because the house has a lot of stuff left in it. (But nowhere as much as our hoarder house, thank goodness!!)

After our nerves settled a bit, we found some plywood and nails in the garage and boarded up the windows. Then we did a sweep of the house to make double sure it was locked up tight. I’ve never been a security-conscious type, but this may change me.

Hopefully we can visit the house again soon with clear heads and a little more light out and begin making some progress on the clean out. (And then I’ll be able to share some better pictures!)