Who's in charge?

     I spent a lot of this week sitting at my desk. I search the real estate listings every day and this week there were a few possibilities. I have a friend also in the rental business, who I think might be calling me in a day or so. He will ask, "Royce, did you buy that house?" And I will say "yep, you gotta be quick if you want the houses priced right."

Some times you have to be really quick. This is the photo from the listing. That ladder against the house is mine. I had permission from the owners to get the roof patched to stop the damage before the photos were even up on the MLS site. (yes I know it needs siding desperately, siding may be a lot of work but it is so satisfying to me to change an ugly house into a nice house)

     This house is at least for sale by owner. I was also trying to purchase 3 other houses this week. All 3 are foreclosures. 1 is bank owned, 1 is Freddie Mac and 1 is Fannie Mae. Oh, give me the owner sale any time. 

     For the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae houses I needed letter from my bank that I could raise the money for the purchase. So I had a bank officer write letters saying they had reviewed the purchases and we could buy the house. Made an offer of $40,000 on the Fannie Mae house and they countered at the asking price. That was pretty cold. No give at all. Micah and I had discussed how much we were willing to pay for the house and it was asking price plus a little if it became a blind auction. There was no way I was going to cave and give asking price if we were the only offer. 

     We raised our offer to $41,500 and Fannie Mae blinked and countered at $42,000. Deal, we'll purchase the house. Of course they required a Cashier's check for the earnest payment of $1,000. Fine if our personal check isn't good enough, I'll get a cashier's check. So they had $1,000 cash and we will owe $41,000 at closing plus any costs. Fannie Mae then kindly rejected our letter of funds available from the bank because it was only for $40,000. So back to the bank I go to get the required letter stating we can raise $42,0000 through loan proceeds, other assets, and cash.

     I know I have signed more than 60 pages of Fannie Mae paperwork already. The Freddie Mac house is not many less pages. Wasn't there a Federal paperwork reduction act that passed congress a few years back? Yea, that's working swell.

As soon as we had a signed offer in hand on the owner sale house, and permission to do it, I was on the roof of that house. At some point the eaves down spout had been installed to drop the water on the back addition roof. That is not a good idea. The roof had failed and water was coming into the back entry.

I tore out the particle board sheeting and replaced it with real plywood and then put flashing over it to seal it till next Spring. I bought some new down spout and rerouted the water flow off the back roof. Wow how stupid is that? I am spending money to fix a house we don't own yet, but by the time the deal closes it will be too late to roof the house. This will stop the damage and we can fix the interior this winter.

I don't know who the HVAC contractor was in this house but we are going to have to have it all replaced. If you look closely at the picture you can see that the water heater and the furnace are vented almost level about 10 feet before they vent up the chimney. Code is 1/4 inch rise per horizontal foot and the water heater might just be that, but the furnace actually drops down. That is a good way to fill a house with carbon monoxide. It may have worked for the last 20 years, but maybe it only worked because the house leaked air. We will put in all new windows and doors. That will make the house much tighter and fresh air will not flow in as much as it has in the past. I have no desire to be poisoning tenants with carbon monoxide. 

At least the Fannie Mae house has a newer furnace properly installed

And I know the water heater is not putting carbon monoxide into the house either. That's because there is no water heater. When we were walking through the house I wondered why there were 2 water pipes that dropped down from the basement ceiling and were capped off. Sharon was with me taking pictures and asked where the water heater was so she could get a picture. (we use pictures to go back through the houses and calculate cost to rehab) That was when I suddenly got it. Those capped off water pipes were where the water heater used to be. 

This property has an extra building on it that we can use for storage. Now we have a couple of partial garages filled with supplies, wood and cupboards. This will allow us to get all of our materials in one central location on a major street.

     We are going to have to put in a new door to make this work, but Micah can now stop asking me if I am going to remove a tenant from a storage building Sharon and I own so the business can use it. Notice how that seems like a good idea when he is not collecting rent on the building? Me I am not so fond of that idea. This building will be a much better deal. If we rented it with the house it would not raise the rent, so it is basically a freebie.

    So I wonder how many are still reading this and how many quit back a ways. I do have a point today. We needed a storage building and now have one. We had first chance at purchasing a house and bought it. We had a banker who was willing to give us an blanket letter that we had funds available. None of this was really anything I did. It is the hand of God. 

     How many of you rely on God for everything? How many of you have said to God, "whatever You want is good with me." 

     I see how God has been orchestrating our lives for the last 4 years and I wonder at times if it is just us or if everyone has this feeling of assurance that God is in control. Doesn't mean everything is perfect according to me. It means everything is perfect in God's eyes and that is good enough for me. I have watched while God has provided what we need and has filled my days with productive labor. He has brought a lot of people into our lives. Some who know salvation and needed a place to live or some help. Others who have not known salvation and have heard of the gift of grace from us. 

     God has changed me. Now if you talk to me, be ready to talk about God. I had oil changed in our car last week. Met a man at Walmart while I waited. We talked about working in God's kingdom. 4 years ago I would not have done that. I may not be very good at it yet but God is working on me.

     How about you?