When we left the Philippines, we were already on the verge of buying a house. We've been scouting for properties just before we got our visa appointment interview with the US embassy. So when we arrived in the US last June, my sister-in-law immediately gave a name of a real estate broker to assist us in finding a property here in the US.
Initially, I felt ill at ease since it felt too premature to be purchasing a house immediately especially since we really do not have any credit score to back us up if in case we apply for a mortgage. Nevertheless, I went with the exercise of looking around for properties. But God has His way of using some unusual situations to achieve an entirely different need. With the broker's help, we were able to find a good school for the children because I got hold of documents from him which assisted me with my research in looking for a good school. Further discernment made us decide to choose the Catholic schools over the public schools for the kids.
With the school district out of the deciding factors, we had more options in terms of properties to choose from. There were so many properties on sale and at a very good price at that. Compared to the properties in the Philippines, these properties were really selling at huge discounts. And the interest rates that are prevailing in the market is just as attractive. Another attraction was the incentive of $8,000 for first-time home buyers. Everything seem to be encouraging us to make the move towards purchasing a house rather than renting. So for the next couple of weeks, our broker accompanied us to several properties. Finally after a month or so, we've narrowed down our choice to one particular house. It had most of the things we wanted for a house. And the biggest factor which made it so attractive is that it is located within the community of my sister-in-law's. But when we looked into the mortgage broker's requirements, we knew that we will not qualify for credit.
The thing about being a new immigrant is that nobody trusts you for a credit. They will dig down for credit scores and find nothing in your history and you immediately get rejected for loans or mortgages. What most of our friends did in order to purchase a car is to have someone co-sign with them. But not all creditors would accept this as well. That was why we purchased our car in cash. But this is just not realistic when it comes to purchasing a house.
A friend then suggested that we go for lease to purchase agreement. That sounded like a rent-to-own contract but when I researched further about this agreement, it revealed an entirely different scenario. Excited about this possibility, we informed our broker that we wanted to lease-to-purchase the said property. He was quite perplexed at first, not having done such an agreement before in his 25 years of being a broker. He got us a guy from his office who knew about the stuff and this enabled us to draft an offer to the sellers of the house. After 24 hours, we got our answer. They were not interested in the agreement. This was quite perplexing at first because the house was also offered for lease through a leasing company or for sale through a realtor. Why then were they not open for lease-to-purchase?
We accepted the decision as God's voice telling us "No." So we started looking for apartments in the next week that followed. However, our hearts were still attached to the house. We would always pass by it and claim ownership of the place. Then that weekend, my husband and I just decided to go and rent the place instead, as how the sellers were offering it. The rent was quite steep, at $1800 but for a 4-bedroom house and a huge front and backyard, this seem just reasonable. So we contacted our broker again and told him that we will go for the lease option as offered. Before we finally gave him the go signal, we passed by the house again and saw that the sign of the leasing company was gone and what remained was the sign of the realtor with both lease/sale on it. So we thought, perhaps by some mysterious designs, the sellers are now willing to lease-to-purchase the house. So our broker once again contacted the buyer's broker for a renegotiation. This time, the owners wanted to meet us. This was extremely unusual. Here in the US, it is very rare that the buyer gets to meet the seller face to face when the property involves a realtor. It's usually the brokers who talk and negotiate. So even our broker was quite surprised by this new development. By this time, we were already very good friends with our broker and have established a trusting relationship with him and his wife. So he was also quite excited for us for this sudden turn-around. At this point, I was thinking, that God may just have been putting us to the test. And now, He is orchestrating things to happen so we may get the house of our dreams.
When we finally met up with the buyers, who were also Asians, we were in for a big surprise. Instead of talking about a lease-to-purchase agreement, we were offered instead an owner's financing. They said, since our problem was just the lack of credit history which made us ineligible for a mortgage, they were willing to give us the mortgage instead. When we asked how much downpayment were they asking and at what interest rate, we were shocked to hear that they wanted almost 30% downpayment which was $60,000. We immediately shook our head. If we were to mortgage from a bank, we will only opt for 5-10% downpayment. It is foolish to tie so much cash to a piece of property. My sister-in-law wanted to walk out of the house and got so turned off by the couple. At this point, we were also feeling uncomfortable haggling about the price as they aggressively pushed us to the wall regarding our offer. The brokers then agreed to renegotiate between themselves about the price sensing the tension in the air.
Now, I know why buyers should never meet the sellers. That meeting totally got the house out of our system. The sellers' attitude was such a turn-off, their arrogance so big that they think their house was the only property available and we were so desperate to have it. This was a joke of course since there was no block around the city which bore no "for sale" sign. The market was a buyer's market and the couple looked as though they were living in dream land thinking they can have their cake and eat it too. We graciously walked away.
With that decision, our energy was then focused to finding an apartment to rent. In just two days, we found the place we could call home. And by some mysterious design, though a credit check was required, it was waived. There were other criteria which the property manager decided to forego in favor of us. We were generously given a health worker's discount of 5%, one month free rental for a 13-month lease ($815/month), and even given the go signal to move on the 15th of August though the lease would still be effective on September 1, which means another 14-days of free rent. Obviously, the Hand of God was at work here.... glaringly and without doubt. The speed with which we found the right place, made the decision, moved and got the furniture that we needed was just astounding. Before the school started, we have already moved into the apartment and furnished it. The kids were very excited with their princess bedsheet sets and comforters that they no longer fret about sleeping in a separate room. A couple of trips to Ikea, our favorite store, was just what we needed in order to get the best price for furniture that we really liked.
Services and utilities were just a few phone calls away. Maintenance was also very efficient. The valance of the blinds were promptly replaced, filters of blower was ordered without question, dishwasher was immediately checked, etc. Now, we are just so grateful that we opted to rent first rather than buy that property. Because when we saw the total expense of moving, we realized that all our savings would have gone to the downpayment of the house and we would have been left sleeping on the carpet without furnishings. Of course, God who is our Father would not want His beloved children to be sleeping on the carpet. He wanted a beautiful queen-sized bed with a headboard and pull-out drawers for us. He wanted the girls to be snuggling comfortably in their princess bedsheets. He wanted a comfortable sofa in our living room. He wanted a safe and beautiful community where we only needed to call and help would be at hand. I still got my wonderful kitchen which was very compact with lots of storage and a pantry.
As I was musing over what have transpired these past few weeks, I just realized why things had to happen that way. Initially, I was asking God why He needed to give us false hope about our ex-dream house. Then I got my answer. It was because He wanted to explain to us why He did not want us to rent that house. Aside from the steep price of $1800 that we had to pay for rent, we will be stuck with those kinds of landlords... the kind who are capable of pressing money out of you. He just made a way for us to meet the landlords so we could see for ourselves what we may be dealing with. The apartment search also opened our eyes to other factors that we failed to consider when we thought of renting that huge house.... the cost of heating that place during the winter. With our one-storey apartment sandwiched in the second floor, we could save a lot of energy for heating.
Now, looking at our new home, we can only sigh and thank God for everything. Indeed, when God says "No"... He has something better in mind. We just have to continue to listen, be very sensitive to His subtle moves and keep an open mind and heart for the Spirit's enlightenment. Though He does not really need to explain His ways, His gentle Fatherly love makes Him reveal His wisdom to a heart who listens with trust and complete abandonment.
Initially, I felt ill at ease since it felt too premature to be purchasing a house immediately especially since we really do not have any credit score to back us up if in case we apply for a mortgage. Nevertheless, I went with the exercise of looking around for properties. But God has His way of using some unusual situations to achieve an entirely different need. With the broker's help, we were able to find a good school for the children because I got hold of documents from him which assisted me with my research in looking for a good school. Further discernment made us decide to choose the Catholic schools over the public schools for the kids.
With the school district out of the deciding factors, we had more options in terms of properties to choose from. There were so many properties on sale and at a very good price at that. Compared to the properties in the Philippines, these properties were really selling at huge discounts. And the interest rates that are prevailing in the market is just as attractive. Another attraction was the incentive of $8,000 for first-time home buyers. Everything seem to be encouraging us to make the move towards purchasing a house rather than renting. So for the next couple of weeks, our broker accompanied us to several properties. Finally after a month or so, we've narrowed down our choice to one particular house. It had most of the things we wanted for a house. And the biggest factor which made it so attractive is that it is located within the community of my sister-in-law's. But when we looked into the mortgage broker's requirements, we knew that we will not qualify for credit.
The thing about being a new immigrant is that nobody trusts you for a credit. They will dig down for credit scores and find nothing in your history and you immediately get rejected for loans or mortgages. What most of our friends did in order to purchase a car is to have someone co-sign with them. But not all creditors would accept this as well. That was why we purchased our car in cash. But this is just not realistic when it comes to purchasing a house.
A friend then suggested that we go for lease to purchase agreement. That sounded like a rent-to-own contract but when I researched further about this agreement, it revealed an entirely different scenario. Excited about this possibility, we informed our broker that we wanted to lease-to-purchase the said property. He was quite perplexed at first, not having done such an agreement before in his 25 years of being a broker. He got us a guy from his office who knew about the stuff and this enabled us to draft an offer to the sellers of the house. After 24 hours, we got our answer. They were not interested in the agreement. This was quite perplexing at first because the house was also offered for lease through a leasing company or for sale through a realtor. Why then were they not open for lease-to-purchase?
We accepted the decision as God's voice telling us "No." So we started looking for apartments in the next week that followed. However, our hearts were still attached to the house. We would always pass by it and claim ownership of the place. Then that weekend, my husband and I just decided to go and rent the place instead, as how the sellers were offering it. The rent was quite steep, at $1800 but for a 4-bedroom house and a huge front and backyard, this seem just reasonable. So we contacted our broker again and told him that we will go for the lease option as offered. Before we finally gave him the go signal, we passed by the house again and saw that the sign of the leasing company was gone and what remained was the sign of the realtor with both lease/sale on it. So we thought, perhaps by some mysterious designs, the sellers are now willing to lease-to-purchase the house. So our broker once again contacted the buyer's broker for a renegotiation. This time, the owners wanted to meet us. This was extremely unusual. Here in the US, it is very rare that the buyer gets to meet the seller face to face when the property involves a realtor. It's usually the brokers who talk and negotiate. So even our broker was quite surprised by this new development. By this time, we were already very good friends with our broker and have established a trusting relationship with him and his wife. So he was also quite excited for us for this sudden turn-around. At this point, I was thinking, that God may just have been putting us to the test. And now, He is orchestrating things to happen so we may get the house of our dreams.
When we finally met up with the buyers, who were also Asians, we were in for a big surprise. Instead of talking about a lease-to-purchase agreement, we were offered instead an owner's financing. They said, since our problem was just the lack of credit history which made us ineligible for a mortgage, they were willing to give us the mortgage instead. When we asked how much downpayment were they asking and at what interest rate, we were shocked to hear that they wanted almost 30% downpayment which was $60,000. We immediately shook our head. If we were to mortgage from a bank, we will only opt for 5-10% downpayment. It is foolish to tie so much cash to a piece of property. My sister-in-law wanted to walk out of the house and got so turned off by the couple. At this point, we were also feeling uncomfortable haggling about the price as they aggressively pushed us to the wall regarding our offer. The brokers then agreed to renegotiate between themselves about the price sensing the tension in the air.
Now, I know why buyers should never meet the sellers. That meeting totally got the house out of our system. The sellers' attitude was such a turn-off, their arrogance so big that they think their house was the only property available and we were so desperate to have it. This was a joke of course since there was no block around the city which bore no "for sale" sign. The market was a buyer's market and the couple looked as though they were living in dream land thinking they can have their cake and eat it too. We graciously walked away.
With that decision, our energy was then focused to finding an apartment to rent. In just two days, we found the place we could call home. And by some mysterious design, though a credit check was required, it was waived. There were other criteria which the property manager decided to forego in favor of us. We were generously given a health worker's discount of 5%, one month free rental for a 13-month lease ($815/month), and even given the go signal to move on the 15th of August though the lease would still be effective on September 1, which means another 14-days of free rent. Obviously, the Hand of God was at work here.... glaringly and without doubt. The speed with which we found the right place, made the decision, moved and got the furniture that we needed was just astounding. Before the school started, we have already moved into the apartment and furnished it. The kids were very excited with their princess bedsheet sets and comforters that they no longer fret about sleeping in a separate room. A couple of trips to Ikea, our favorite store, was just what we needed in order to get the best price for furniture that we really liked.
Services and utilities were just a few phone calls away. Maintenance was also very efficient. The valance of the blinds were promptly replaced, filters of blower was ordered without question, dishwasher was immediately checked, etc. Now, we are just so grateful that we opted to rent first rather than buy that property. Because when we saw the total expense of moving, we realized that all our savings would have gone to the downpayment of the house and we would have been left sleeping on the carpet without furnishings. Of course, God who is our Father would not want His beloved children to be sleeping on the carpet. He wanted a beautiful queen-sized bed with a headboard and pull-out drawers for us. He wanted the girls to be snuggling comfortably in their princess bedsheets. He wanted a comfortable sofa in our living room. He wanted a safe and beautiful community where we only needed to call and help would be at hand. I still got my wonderful kitchen which was very compact with lots of storage and a pantry.
As I was musing over what have transpired these past few weeks, I just realized why things had to happen that way. Initially, I was asking God why He needed to give us false hope about our ex-dream house. Then I got my answer. It was because He wanted to explain to us why He did not want us to rent that house. Aside from the steep price of $1800 that we had to pay for rent, we will be stuck with those kinds of landlords... the kind who are capable of pressing money out of you. He just made a way for us to meet the landlords so we could see for ourselves what we may be dealing with. The apartment search also opened our eyes to other factors that we failed to consider when we thought of renting that huge house.... the cost of heating that place during the winter. With our one-storey apartment sandwiched in the second floor, we could save a lot of energy for heating.
Now, looking at our new home, we can only sigh and thank God for everything. Indeed, when God says "No"... He has something better in mind. We just have to continue to listen, be very sensitive to His subtle moves and keep an open mind and heart for the Spirit's enlightenment. Though He does not really need to explain His ways, His gentle Fatherly love makes Him reveal His wisdom to a heart who listens with trust and complete abandonment.
2 comments:
AMEN to that Lan!
Glad that you are all comfortable now.
God is good!
add to that the 37" LCD--- perfect! :D
glad to know you are doing great there. miss you guys!
mima
Post a Comment