*the first photo at the new house*
As some of you may know from my Instagram– we bought a house!!! I touched on it in a previous post while we were in escrow, but now that we are closed & the house is ours (just moved in!!!)- I can really get into the dirty details of buying a house.
In our case, it all happened super quick & the whole thing was very exhilarating! The house we were interested ended up being SUPER competitive so the whole strategizing the offer process really got my gears going. I was on the edge of my seat until our offer got accepted, went through escrow, & when approaching the finish line I ended up being 3 minutes away from losing OUR ENTIRE DOWN PAYMENT TO SCAMMERS. Yuppp- I was so damn close to being a victim of mortgage fraud.
Shit got so real, but we will get to that in more detail… first gonna break down the entire home buying process including how we beat out 8 OTHER OFFERS (one of which was willing to pay an extra $50k!!!
*our new house!!! she is so cute!!!*
HOUSE HUNTING
Zack & I have always talked about owning a home, but when we got engaged– the conversation got real. The next thing I know we’re talking with a real estate agent, getting daily emails from the MLS, spending hours browsing Zillow, & actually going to see houses irl. Right off the bat, we hated all the houses we looked at & I was thinking maybe this wasn’t actually gonna happen. Later that week I was doing my nightly Zillow search when I saw the CUTEST little black & white house on a great street at a GREAT price. We immediately went to drive by & saw a young couple doing a walk through.
That night I checked back & it said “offer pending”. I was so bummed. I just felt it in my bones that this was our house & now someone else would get it. We had our realtor look into it more & the next morning, the pending offer fell through!!!
OUR *SUPER AGGRESSIVE* OFFER
FIRST OF ALL, a little back story about our “team” of realtors. My mom & her partner/my step mom (Hedy!) are both retired realtors. Hedy has someone she refers all her business out to who we used as our realtor, Patricia Smith.
When the previous offer fell through, Patricia called immediately (it was a Friday), & we were told they wouldn’t be accepting new offers until Tuesday & that they already had 5 offers in!! My mom, Hedy, & Patricia all brainstormed so we could put in an offer that actually couldn’t be beat.
The house is beautiful, but it is a flipped home… which typically means it LOOKS great, but the guts may not be as shiny & new. We examined three inspection reports & there were two major issues- old plumbing & old electrical. This was the reason the house was priced so well & probably why the previous offer fell through. For a first time homebuyer, this would be scary AF!! We were def. scared, but our team was insisting it was NOT a huge deal & obviously a lot of people were interested, so our realtor put together a KILLER DEAL.
We only went in 5k above asking price, but we offered a LARGE earnest deposit. The earnest deposit is the amount you put in to show you are serious- typically it’s 1-2% of the price of the home, but we came in at around 10% to give us a leg up. THE REAL ZINGER THOUGH- we gave up ALL inspection contingencies! This basically means we can’t back out based on anything to do with the inspection. It’s a bold move, but we did this because we saw 3 different inspections & knew we would fix the issues on our own. I think this gave us the biggest leg up because at the end of the day, sellers want someone who is serious & doesn’t seem like they are gonna back out last minute.
Tuesday rolled around & by that time there were now 8 offers on the house!! We were all pretty nervous but we got the call that they accepted OUR OFFER. The next day our realtor went over to chat with the sellers agents & the agent with the backup offer came banging on the door. They didn’t realize our agent was there & told the sellers agents to “cancel the offer, we will give you 50k above asking price!!!”. It was too late, but damn that really made us feel so good about our decision. It’s an up & coming neighborhood with a lot of houses for sale currently & the our house is really such a gem- it is 3 bedroom, 2 bath, huge backyard, seperate garage space, & the entire lot is 10k square feet! We SCORED.
ESCROW
Then we were in escrow for 3 weeks! This time involved working with our lenders to sign a shit ton of documents. It was a lot of busy work getting all of the financials in order & also working with our realtor on some seller credits (even though we gave up inspection contingency, we were still able to get seller credits which was awesome!!).
During this time we also had plumbers/painters/electricians over to the house to give us quotes… this got a little stressful seeing all the numbers, but in the end we found great people at GREAT prices so we were ready to go when escrow closed.
& then…. three days before escrow closed, we almost lost our ENTIRE deposit to fraud… & shit got VERY SCARY.
& THEN THE MORTGAGE FRAUD STORY (BUCKLE THE EFF UP)
Escrow was planned to be closed the DAY we left for Miami, so I knew that a few days prior to leaving we would have to transfer our entire down payment to our lenders. I was waiting for them to tell me when & just three days before we left I got an email from our lenders with my realtor cc’ed that it was time to go to the bank & make the transfer.
The email from the lender basically said it was time to pay & to let them know when I am ready for wire transfer info. My realtor responded to the email confirming it’s a GO & that I get to the bank ASAP so we can get the funds over before we left for our trip. I called my bank & they said I had to go into the branch for that large of a sum. I emailed the lenders because it was now past the cut off time for a wire transfer to go through that day & they said I can send a portion via online banking & do the rest at the bank for the following day. My realtor emailed saying “yes Erica, go ahead & send what you can through online banking OR just go to the bank & do it all there”.
I decided to go to the bank (THANK THE LORD ABOVE FOR THIS DECISION). It was all so rushed I didn’t call my realtor at that time, I just went straight to the bank trusting that she had given me the go ahead via email.
Let me also mention, it was my realtors email & the lenders email & all the emails had their official signatures at the bottom.
I got to the bank & started the wire transfer process. We were in the very last step & about 3 minutes away from sending the money when our banker had to get managers approval… a few minutes later he & the bank manager came over to me. She said she has never in her life seen a mortgage wire transfer be sent to an individual vs. a business & she was a little concerned. She suggested I just give my lenders a call to confirm, so I did. The call went something like this….
Me: Hey Andrea, so I am at the bank now & they just need final confirmation that “David Skelly” is the person we should be sending the down payment to?
Andrea: Sorry- not sure what you are talking about? We were planning to email you tomorrow to get that, but haven’t contact you today about anything!
Me: *sweat dripping down my forehead* HOLY SHIT, are you serious?!
Andrea: yes- DO NOT SEND THAT WIRE TRANSFER!!!
Me: okay, wow, gtg tell my realtor we’ve been scammed.
& then I called my realtor & it went something like this…
Me: omg Patricia we got scammed! The emails we’ve been getting today were not from the lenders!!!
Patricia: Erica, what are you talking about?! I have not emailed you once today.
Me: *SWEAT POURING* ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Omg, I am at the bank I gtg- we’ve all been scammed!
Patricia: DO NOT SEND THAT MONEY!!!!
The bank manager stopped the wire transfer & I just had to get out of there. I called my realtor & the lenders back- they both said: in all of years of doing this we have HEARD about mortgage scam but never actually seen it attempted. We all took a deep breath & that night I had another heart attack when I saw on my bank that the wire transfer was being initiated still. I thought the bank made a mistake & actually sent it. I was at the bank at 6am waiting to confirm nothing got sent (after a night of sobbing). Luckily it was all fine & I went back to the bank later that day with a dozen donuts& the CORRECT wire transfer info. The bank really saved my ass big time.
Moral of the story: I was warned about mortgage fraud, I was told they would never send routing information by email, looking back I see so many red flags… but scammers are very manipulative & they way they did it was so psychological!! I want everyone to learn from my lesson because I am a smart girl, I do know better, & it still almost happened to me.
& LASTLY- WE ARE NOW MF HOME OWNERS!! We are all moved in, the plumbing if fixed, the electrical is fixed, & now the fun begins. I can’t wait to finally have a place of our own that we can do WHATEVER we want to. We have so many fun ideas planned for this house & I can’t wait to bring you guys along for the ride!!!