And More Bad News

Well the tiny house dreams seem to be going up in flames.

First, on the title front. We have hired a real estate lawyer. He's working on it. The good news is, the person with the contract we have to get voided is NOT a murdered. He just happens to have the same name as a murderer. However, he is deceased. So you know, there's that. At least we aren't suing a murdered.

However, even when we get the title cleaned up, we are back to square one because the bank is refusing to fund our project because of the "uniqueness" of the property and the "undesirable" location (near train tracks and a busy street). I'm not sure where we will go from here. I suspect once we get the title cleaned up, we will have to look to local banks or programs affiliated with the revitalization of the city in hopes of getting funding. The house appraises over what we want to borrow. Our credit is stellar. But we can't get funding. Two hard-working, employed people who pay their taxes and have excellent credit can't get funding to build a house when people are defaulting on mortgages constantly? It's mind-boggling really.

Please send us your positive vibes. We need them.

On Hold. Indefinitely.

Well, my friends. We have nothing but more bad news. The title wasn't processed correctly when we bought it from the county. We can partially fix it, but apparently to 100% fix it we have to hire a real estate lawyer and go through a not so easy process of removing the previous owner from the title (not to mention the expense). How can Hennepin County sell us a piece of land without actually doing this first? I have no idea.

But I basically feel like someone pulled a fast one on us, and we were dumb enough to trust the system.

So, as much as it pains me to say this (and it does), the official "hold" button is being pushed. We'll pay the remaining bill to the architect and surveyor. And just hope for the best when we get this all straightened out.

I wish a miracle could take place, but I think we've used them all up. Perhaps there will be a tiny house coming in 2016. But for now, we will work on this title mess and then re-start our savings to hopefully build this house down the road.

Until then...

Still Waiting

I wish I had good news. But we're still waiting on the loan. The end of June came and went. Every deadline they gave us has come and gone without progress but plenty of problems. Last Thursday was supposed to be the day we could set our close date. No call Thursday... or Friday. Today we finally hear and there's a problem with the title. How is that possible since we bought the property from the county? I have no idea.

I am ready to walk and away. Maybe try again this year. My heart is just over it right now. I said this kind of build wasn't for the faint of heart, but it's been even more difficult than I ever could have imagined and we have nothing to show for it. Clearly we should have enlisted the help of a team who has experience with non-traditional builds because right now we are constantly nagging people for information and it is painful. Apparently there's confusion about who the paying customer is.

Brent still thinks it'll all be fine.

If he's right, the soonest we'll be breaking ground now is late August.