As my loyal readers may be aware, we have been on the hunt for the perfect home in Austin. That day has finally come. After several trips to Austin, driving around different neighborhoods and seeing different homes, we finally made a deposit on a new condo on
Guadalupe and 31st. You may ask yourself, "Why does this address sound familiar?" This was actually the condo that we wanted from the start. After a few weeks of looking at places that underwhelmed us, we went back to the start and realized what a great home this would make for us. It so happens, that the developer also relaxed some of their requirements as well and met us in the middle in terms of completion dates, hotel vouchers for delays and the amount of earnest money required. Overall, I think we did a great job.
Much thanks goes out to our realtor, Debbie Trominski of Hindsite 20/20 in Austin. Let me know if you need a referral to a great realtor. Even during month 6 of her pregnancy, she was climbing rickety ladders and entering construction sites to take pictures of places so we could see what they looked like from the comfort of our homes in San Francisco.
But what happened during the purchasing process was beyond belief. Luckily everything came together. And that story is this:
On the Monday before Independence Day, we tour around Austin with Debbie, looking at different places, and finally went back to the Guadalupe Condos to see how far along they were with construction. After seeing that the exterior was nearly 100% complete and the inside was already almost done as well, we felt more comfortable with their timeline of August 5. With that in mind, we decide that we want to pull the trigger and buy the condo. We go back to our friends house to get our finances in order. My girlfriend tries to sell some stock options to pull together the necessary amount to put down on the condo. Much to our chagrin, the market closed at 1:00pm on Monday. With much worry in her heart, she decides to put a market order in, hoping that the stock opens up on Wednesday close to the closing price on Monday. Her friend tells her, and I quote, "Don't worry too much about it. I'm sure it will open up pretty close to where it closed. Unless something catastrophic happens in the world."
On July 4, North Korea decides that it wants to test out their new toys and fires 7 missiles into the ocean. Does that qualify as something catastrophic? Wednesday morning, the market opens down, but not horribly down, so she executes the order and gets her money. BUT, the money can't be accessed yet because of T+3, meaning she would have to wait until next Monday to have access to the cash. Her mother offers to loan her the money until it gets deposited into the account.
Her mother tries to deposit a check into my girlfriends account, but unfortunately, that money would not be accessible until the next business day! The teller tells my girlfriend's mother that in order for us to access the cash the same day, she would need to deposit cold hard cash. Hmm, that sounds interesting. Carrying enough money on your person to pay for a down payment on a house. Why not! She goes to her bank, only to discover that they are out of $100 bills. So, she gets the money and carries the amount in $50 and $20 to my girlfriend's bank.
Confused yet?
So on my side, I got a check from by broker and having opened my account in California, I find it very difficult to cash my check at the local branch office. They have to get my signature card from California faxed over so they can compare the endorsements. After 3 tries, I finally matched the signature when I was 13 years old. I guess I forgot to have big bubbly cursive letters in my new signature.
Having the cashier check in hand (Since we both forgot our checkbooks in California) we go to sign the contract. Now that is under our belt, and we're just going to be waiting for closing.
So exciting!
