closing is such sweet sorrow

We started looking in February of 2016. 

Over the course of that year we were outbid by as much as $5K - $40K, underbid by $10K but with cash, and at one point we were the only bid but the owner "found" some liens on the property and needed us to fork over more than the house was would appraise for in order to cover his costs.  When we submitted a bid at the house that would eventually become ours, we were pros at hearing the word no.

It took us over a year to finally hear "Your offer was accepted!" but by the time we heard it we were so skeptical. No hoorays, no celebratory drinks, those 4 words were met with, "ok, now what?" And with good reason.  Every step of the process was difficult. 

We learned after our offer was accepted that the roof would need to be replaced in order for the house to appraise, after much back and forth we came to an agreement, we upped our offer by $3K and he paid the rest of what the roof would cost (about $5-6K).  At first we thought we had the upper hand, we were the only offer, the place was a disaster and without us he (let's call him RL) would surely go into foreclosure.  Then we learned who we were dealing with.  The house had belonged to RL's mother and when she died it became a part of the estate, RL figured out that if the house went into foreclosure it wouldn't effect him directly so if the deal fell through he would just stay in the house (without paying) until he was evicted... classy huh?

With each hiccup came another debate of who would pay for what, and without any upper hand it became more and more difficult.  It got to the point that I dreaded calls from The Man.  Everyday for the last week before closing I'd get a call around 10am - the deal was going to fall through/the heating system might not work/there's a lien on the house for two thousand dollars, then by 4pm it somehow worked itself out.  We almost walked away more times than I can count, even when we went to sign the mortgage documents we weren't sure if it would really happen.

But on March 29, 2017 at 5:00pm we closed on the house and it became ours....crackhead and all...