“Hi Mom, Hi Dad! We’re moving in…”

21Apr06

With less than a week before we were to move out of the condo and into our new home in nopo, we ran into some slight problems. For a bank to give out the loan, they have to appraise the property to make sure it’s worth as much as the agreed upon price of the house. Very rarely, is this a big deal; of course, until now. The house appraised out lower than what the seller’s are asking for. Usually, we would respond with a, “Whee! Glad we got out of this one! Don’t want to pay too much for a house!” But with this house and this situation, it’s a little bit trickier than that. North Portland & especially the N. Mississippi neighborhood has grown so quickly and so fast that comps pulled for similar houses sold doesn’t really match up.

This brings up a few issues: 1) houses in this neighborhood don’t come up for sale that often, and 2) it’s appreciated so fast within the last few months, that the numbers don’t add up. The price of this house actually is pretty average compared to houses recently sold in the area or currently on the market, but either has a basement or is 2 stories. And the appraisers can’t look at that. The appraisers can only pull comps that are of the same sized property – single level homes without a basement, that have been previously sold.

It’s frustrating too because the market will actually tolerate the price of this house. It’s 3 blocks away from N. Mississippi – one of the fastest growing neighborhoods in town, and everyone wants to move there. We had to offer more than the asking price because we were even outbid on our first offer. The sellers are willing to drop the price down to their original asking price, but not the $40,000 it will take to drop it down to what the appraised value is. I think they’ve decided to just wait it out, and try to sell again in a couple of months when they can get the house to appraise out to what the market thinks the house is worth.

All this really means for us though, is that we can’t buy this house because the banks will only give out a loan up to their appraised value. We’re still moving out of the condo by the 27th (Thursday), and not quite sure exactly where we’ll be moving.

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As frustrating as all this is though, I’ve really made peace about it. We found out yesterday for sure whether or not it was going to happen with this house. I grieved a little bit for my lost little house and had a small pity party for one. Then I prayed.

“God, I don’t understand and I can’t see it. I know that if this wasn’t what you had in mind, then there’s something else. But I can’t see it. It’ll be so much easier if I could, but then is that what you’re talking about regarding faith? Man, why is it so hard to trust and to have faith.”

How funny that God continues to show up and break into the chaotic-ness of our daily life. And how He’ll continually shake my little world just to keep me focused and standing on the right things. To come off of the tight rope that I think I’m walking on, when truly I’m only 2 inches off the ground. My hands that are so white from clenching and grasping onto the things that I thought was going to keep me from falling are slowly getting color and blood flowing through them again. At the prayer meeting on Tuesday night, I was reminded who truly this God was – and if He has provided for my salvation, how ridiculous is it to think that He won’t provide for other things.

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