So remember how I said that after seven months of looking, I found a house I wanted to buy? I changed my mind. I don't want to buy that house anymore. I don't want to buy any house anymore. Ever.

This has been the wost experience of my life. At first it started off as stressful, but exciting; There big decisions to be made, but Drek and I handled them and it looked like things were moving along. It was the first of March that things rapidly went downhill. We were supposed to have an answer from our lender on March 7. After weeks of me calling them DAILY, leaving messages, emailing, begging, threatening, pleading, flattering, blackmailing (okay, I'm exaggerating on that last one) they FINALLY gave us an answer on March 22. Two weeks and a day late. The answer was positive though: we got the loan! The house was ours! Or not: See, when we signed the offer, the seller had us sign that March 25th was the very last day we could close, or we couldn't buy the house. Basically, they gave us so many days to get our act together, and if we couldn't, then they didn't want to work with us.

Well, it wasn't us who couldn't get our act together. For over a month we have been waiting on the lender. For over a month they have done...nothing. They are entirely incompetent. They failed their goal of closing on the 25th. Miserably. In fact, today is the 29th and we STILL haven't closed. We are STILL waiting on the lender. Even worse, their only answer this whole time, starting the first week in March, was "We're working on it! We'll get it done as soon as possible!" So we still don't have any idea when we'll close. Best guess is Friday. An even better guess is two months from now, or when pigs fly.

This whole time we've been waiting on them. This whole time we keep thinking that we'll close "in just a few days". So this whole time we've scheduled plumbers, contractors and carpet guys to come fix our house, but we keep having to reschedule because we still don't own it. We've reserved U-hauls and had people lined up to help us move, but have had to cancel because don't have a place to move to. This whole time I've been packing, and then repacking because I don't know when we are actually moving.

Up until March 24th, we didn't know if the seller would still work with us. Since we signed an agreement that said we would close by March 25, we didn't know if they would back out. Last week, on March 24th, things were really bad. Here was the scene:

We told our landlords we would be out of our apartment on March 25 (because we thought we would have an answer on March 7, close on March 11, fix up the house and then have plenty of time to move our stuff over to the new house in a nice, relaxed fashion. Hah) and our lender was still telling us that they could make the deadline and we would close on March 25 and get the keys that same day. We asked our landlords if we could stay just one more day. They said yes! So we told the contractors to come on Friday to make the house livable, then we rented a U-haul for March 26th. We asked people to help us move and lay the flooring on the tht same day. Everything was ready to go. BUT, I still believe the lenders. They had been telling the same thing for three weeks! I didn't think we would close on the 25th, and I didn't think the sellers would still work with us after that, but we had to be out of our apartment...

So I went looking around at other apartments. I found a great place with a floorplan I liked. I called them up and asked if we showed up on the 26th with a U-haul could we move in? They said yes, so I didn't cancel the U-haul or the help. I figured I was moving, I just didn't know if I was moving into a house that I owned, or an apartment that we were renting.

Well, I was right that the lender wouldn't make it, but I was wrong about the seller. The seller gave us an extension: on the night of March 24th the seller said they would still work with us, IF we closed before April. So now our closing date is in April. Can we still buy the house? I don't know.

I wish we had moved into that apartment. I don't want the house anymore. This whole thing is a nightmare. I would rather rent the rest of my life then ever go through this again, or go through it now. I would rather live in a cardboard box under a bridge then go through this.

So, here is my recommendation to you: If you want to buy a house, save up money in a fancy briefcase. When you think you have enough, find a house you like, knock on the door, and tell the owner you will give them the briefcase full of money if they will vacate the premise within two weeks. That might be better. Maybe.