We closed!!! With reviews

Just a warning that this is going to be long but we closed today!

I am amazed at how smoothly everything went. I must say that this board is such a great resource and without the information we got from here things probably would not have went so smoothly.

We have been looking since the summer of 2013 so almost 2 years

We are not originally from LI so our search started in Essex County, NJ then went to Bergen County, NJ and we finally ended up in Nassau County

We are so very happy with our choice to live on LI. Between being close to our families and the beaches (which was actually the reason we decided to go with LI), we feel like we picked an excellent location.

We didn't use a buyers agent because the house we bought literally fell in our lap.

In January we decided to get serious and get a firm pre-approval and a buyers agent. The same day we got our pre-approval letter a house that we desperately wanted to see in the summer that went into contract before we were able to view it, came back on the market. Apparently the buyers financing fell through because they were only pre-qualified by Wells Fargo BTW and by the time they went to get a mortgage it was discovered that the buyer had co-signed for a relative bringing his DTI over the range allowable for his income. Unfortunate for him but his loss was our gain.

We called the sellers agent who made an appointment with us for that week. We saw the house and loved it, brought our parents back a few days later and made an offer that was accepted that same day.

Although we didn't use her as a buyers agent, we were planning on calling Christine Braun who is a vendor on here. Christine always was prompt and thorough to answer any questions that I posted. She is also very knowledgeable of the area we were looking in so although we didn't use her I recommend her .

Our sellers agent Joann Hermann from ReMax was also wonderful. She knew we didn't have a buyers agent but she was professional, prompt in answering any questions we had and never pushy. She didn't try to oversell the house when we went to see it and made us feel 1000% comfortable so we were very lucky in that aspect. Thinking back on it there were a few questions that we had that a buyers agent would have been able to answer for us so I do recommend using one if you are still looking.

inspection: Tony Sabatino of Sundance Inspection. We got his name from doing a search on here. Tony was awesome. He came and did a very thorough inspection. He gave us insight to things we should be fixing and he took his time, answered all of our questions and told us point blank if we weren't happy with his inspection he would walk away no hard feelings. We were so happy with him. He is very thorough and truly a genuine businessman. Excellent inspector highly recommend.

Lawyer: Michael Moberg Moberg & Kocoris. He is located in Melville and we found him by doing a search through my companies legal plan. Michael deals only with real estate. He answered all of our questions the same day and was very thorough. Awesome attorney.

Mortgage: We went with Continental Home loans based on the rave reviews on here. They were not kidding. We have good credit, not perfect but good so of course I was very nervous about applying for a mortgage. Our mortgage broker Frank Guiliano made us feel comfortable, reassured us and always answered our questions within 24 hours. They never lost a piece of paperwork and even our mortgage processor was very responsive. Everything was so easy it was almost surreal. FTR: Our sellers agent was very happy when she heard we were with Continental. She said that they are thorough and only give out pre-approvals to people they know will close. Our attorney also told us that Continental was very good and has one of the lowest fees of the mortgage lenders out there.

Insurance: Jen Jennings Bradley & Parker a vendor on here. Jen was super responsive but more importantly she got us a quote half of what we were getting on our own. Highly recommend.

So that's my long drawn out story. We won't be moving in for another week or two since we have some work to be done but I can't wait.

Good luck to all those still looking. It's very frustrating, stressful and there were times we wanted to throw in the towel but I'm so glad we didn't

ETA: We did kind of have a hiccup this morning. DH woke up in the middle of the night yesterday throwing up and running to the bathroom. TMI sorry but I was freaking out this morning. He looked like crap and he was so weak. I think he ate something bad yesterday and our closing was at noon. I didn't know how he was going to make the 1 hour drive up to the island and be able to sit in a room signing hundreds of documents but by the grace of God he got through it. Crazy that he got so sick the night before closing but at least we got through it. Ugh LOL

Message edited 4/9/2015 5:42:07 PM.

Re: We closed!!! With reviews

Congratulations to you!

Re: We closed!!! With reviews

Congratulations on closing!

It is a fairly stressful process, but it's one of those things where you forget all the stress and glitches and sleepless nights once you get your house because it's all worth it! That was certainly the case with me (when I bought my house but wasn't yet in real estate).

Thank you so much for taking the time to write a favorable review of me, even though we didn't work together! That really means a lot.

I think it's so important to have a good "team" of people in place when you buy (or sell) a home, and it seems you had that! It makes a world of difference.

Enjoy your new home! (Hopefully your husband feels better soon, and we actually get some nice weather to enjoy our LI beaches )

We closed!!! With reviews

Congrats on the house and welcome to homeownership!!!

Re: We closed!!! With reviews

Congrats on your new home!!

We closed!!! With reviews

Congrats!