Hi all
I will post my "new home" after settlement. Have not made settlement yet as they have to wait til "after thaw" to test the septic. SO - we are living in a motel in Maine. Two of us, with a large dog lol. It's interesting to say the least.
I would love to share the horrors of my "settlement" in NJ, and moving. I will try to make it short. Seems like i never have any truly good news, right??
Settlement was supposed to be 3/16. Then i got notice it was changed to "on or before 3/30." I changed my motel reservations to "unknown" and the UHaul truck rental date got put on hold.
(I'll add right here - when you don't have much money it sucks. I think if i ever sell again i will sell "as is." IF that helps you from having to pay for so many tests and repairs ahead of time - before settlement. Also, i will pay a mover even if i have to take out a loan. You know we are both over 55 and disabled, and tried to do this by renting a UHaul and doing it all ourselves. NOPE!)
Then they called me 4 days ahead and said the date was now 3/20. Well, i needed a couple more days as we were already "planning" on closer to the 30th then. They agreed on 3/22. Two days before that we got hit with a Winter Storm/Nor'easter. Horrible - with much heavy, wet snow, ice, and sleet. We lost power for two days before settlement... had NO electric. Could not flush toilets, wash dishes, anything. All candles were packed away. Of course we did not save any water because I never believe that it's going to be as bad as it is - it NEVER usually is! But this time it's worse...
Trees start breaking everywhere. Cracking and falling down. Branches - big ones - covering our driveway in front of the UHaul. We had moved our own vehicles down the road - thankfully - because we feared branches falling on them. The only thing was - i could not charge my phone in the car where my charger was.
I lived there 23 years and only had ever had ONE branch break, and that was from lightening in the Summer.
I started asking to have the settlement date moved by a day because of the power being out, and the fact that the driveway was blocked. The buyer and his agent had an answer for everything (via my agent). Even though they had already changed the date twice - I guess that was OK. HE didnt have power either, HE would come help with the branches, blah blah blah. I was so stressed i didnt think i'd make it thru, truthfully. I knew they had to come do a walkthru.
Finally it got changed to a day later. I was in the house during walkthru (which my agent said was OK), and watched the buyer glare out the windows at all the downed trees. When i got to settlement, my agent took me into a room and told me - via several drawn-out stories - that the buyer started out asking $5,000 for tree/branches removal, but now they got him down to $2,000. I'm sure that was to make me think it was a deal. What can you do?? We were lucky we had a neighbor with a tractor who was able to drag the branches away at least from the driveway, so that people could come up and down it for the walkthru.
The UHaul truck was huge - I had to get a bigger one when the 20' ended up being too small! When he had to get off the Interstates to get gas and the truck could not fit any place. I swear, after i write this i will never speak of it again! So stressful. Do not ever believe one of those signs that says "gas" and take the route. He said we will fill gas cans if we ever have to pull a car trailer or anything again. (He left his small truck at home to bring up at another time, and may not even do it!)
Luckily the manager of the storage unit had a son that we could pay to help unload the truck when we got here. We had gotten rid of tons, and didn't even bring much furniture. I cannot imagine what filled that truck and unit - but it ALL feels like "junk" at this point. You lose feelings for possessions when you go thru something like this for them. They feel like they're "crap!"
Will let you know after settlement how things are. We are very happy to be in Maine, and hope things go well from now on! If you are still reading, thanks for checking in lol, Jill