Before we went to Purcell Lodge back at the end of November, I was at a girl's dinner on Kirkup. All of us girls started talking about the house next door, which had been listed a few times over the last few years for upwards of $420, 000. The latest scoop was that it was in foreclosure and the bank was going to sell. Friends of ours had just closed a deal with the same bank on another foreclosure property, so I asked if they could find out any info that they could. While we were skiing powder I got an email that it would be for sale sometime in January for about $270-280,000. Below our price range, awesome location, maybe an awesome house (at that point we hadn't seen inside). Our trip was fabulous and Christmas blew by without much thought about the house again.
On December 31st, that same neighbour friend called to let us know that she had the keys to the house we have been interested in, as she is the neighbour in charge of shovelling. Keen to have good neighbours she wanted to give us the jump on the house, so Jan 1st we "snuck in" to take a look. The house is a log home on the top street of Rossland. Neighbours only to one side, crown land behind to all the trails, south facing, 2400 sq feet, needs work, but awesome space and location. We weren't totally blown away, but did like it, in a very Tara and Trevor reserved way. After we saw it, it grew on us, and grew and grew. I called our friend back a few days later to get the name of the lady at the bank in charge of the house to see if we could make a straight offer to them. The bank lady was great, very nice, and informed us that it was a court ordered sale and must got through a realtor, and be put officially on the market. A bit disappointed, but not discouraged we asked what we should do next. She advised that we get our finances in order so that on the day of listing we could make an offer, at which point the court date would get set, and reduce any competing bids. So we started the long and ridiculously complicated (probably shouldn't have been, but that is another story) to get our finances ready for the listing day so the ball could roll very fast, and hopefully discourage any bids in court.
The way court ordered sales work in Canada is that the seller renegs on their mortgage, gets 6 months to come up with the money, then the court orders a sale to the mortgage lender. They list with a real estate agent, usually going for pretty fair market value. Once the first offer is negotiated, the court sets a date for court to approval the sale. The court date is usually within 4 weeks or so of the accepted offer date. When the offer goes to court it must be unconditional. But here's the catch, anyone can show up in court with another offer that is also unconditional and scoop the property from you. Just because you are the first offer means nothing, its highest bidder wins in court.
This is where it gets complicated around here as not many court ordered sales happen, so no one has any expertise whatsoever in what happens in court. Is it an all out bidding war like an auction? Do you only get one chance to bid? Can the original offer resubmit, how many times can you up your offer? Endless internet searches on our part didn't really produce results except that it seems it is up to the judge's discretion. So although we have real estate agents involved they really have no more clue than us. On January 24 the house officially came on the market, but being in a small town and having already talked to a real estate agent we found out on the 22nd, and had our offer written up that day for submission asap. The banks appraisal came in at $270,000 and they listed for $263,900. About $10,000 below what we were expecting. We offered list price wanting to be guaranteed an accepted offer and a very fast court date. The bank accepted right away and set the date for court that day too. Feb 28th, was the big day.
To back up a bit, on the original offer to the bank there can be subjects, so the subjects had to come off by Feb 8th. Although we didn't have any worries about our financing, we didn't have any confirmation yet. On Feb 1st we found out that the mortgage broker sent the MLS listing to the lender, and they realised after 3 weeks of pre approval, that it was a log house and they don't mortgage log homes. Great, 7 days from our deadline and we have to find a new mortgage, after 3 weeks of signing papers every other day. To top it all off, on Feb 2nd the court called the bank to say that they will have to change the court date of Feb 28th to later if the subjects don't come off by Feb 4th. Double great, subject to financing in 2 days. On Feb 4th at 4:58 pm, the listing agent walked into the bank with the unconditional offer. OMG the stress that week was. Should be smooth sailing until the court date, but no, it was confused with all kinds of ridiculous things, that left us pulling out our hair over the broker and banking system, wondering if we really were approved for financing right up until the closing date. We are pretty sure some big mistakes were made and we barely pulled it off.
Kootenay Savings Credit Union, the lawyer stood, stated the facts of the case and offer, submitted signed acceptance of the offer from the previous owners. The judge asked if there was anyone else there, no answer, signed his papers and that was it. One minute, maybe 2, and we had a new house. Two months of stress and sleepless nights after 3 years of waiting and it was ours! The rumoured competing offer never showed, and although there was lots of activity looking at the house, no one pulled it together to show up in court for a bidding war.
Feb 28th came very slowly. It was one of the most stressful days I have had in years. Our hearts were in this house, I would have been devastated. A friend asked us if it was our dream house, and at first I didn't know what to say because the process had been so stressful it took every single little enjoyment out of buying a house, out of it. But now that we are 2 days with the keys in our hands I finally get to appreciate that it is. Lesson learned, if want it, go for it.
