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I've finally gathered myself together and relaxed enough to write here what went down for our closing. It got a little hairy.

We were supposed to close on Monday but we had no appt time remember? Well we called Monday morning to see what time we were to be there but our agent didn't return our calls. We didn't know which title company it was with so we could only contact the agent. When she didn't reply in a timely manner we called her office. THEY tried to get a hold of her. They couldn't get her to respond to their calls either. They asked where we were closing in an effort to answer the question for us. We didn't hear from them so we called back. They had finally got her and said she should be calling us soon.

She finally called us and said 4:00 was the magic time. We were so excited! She told us that the title company wanted us to call them to get some last minute info and we hung up. When we called the title company they said they would call us back to tell us IF we could close that day. IF?! I told her that I was told we had an appointment for 4. She said they'd try but it depended on the buyers bank. They'd call us as soon as they know because we have to drive an hour and a half to get there. We wait till noon. We decide we are going one way or another because we had reserved a SUV so we could bring home the big pots and bird bath that was too big for my car. We pile in and take off. Before we even get out of the parking lot we get a call saying everything is a go. WE ARE FINALLY GONNA FINISH THIS!

WE get a little over an hour into our journey and the cell phone rings. This time it's the buyers lender. She said she was hoping they caught us in time because there has been a mix up. It seems that no one ordered the funds and so they wanted to reschedule. I explained that we were nearly there and asked if we could sign our share of the papers. She said she would check to see what our options were. (We have closed on houses 3 times prior to this two of those times we never saw the other party. Shouldn't be a big deal. We sold our last house and closed from out of state. No sweat right? UH NO. ) We get to town and load up the last of our stuff from the house and our agent calls. "You can sign over power of attorney and that person will sign for you when we reschedule." I don't know about you but that sort of creeps me out. It's a big deal to close on a house I kinda wanted to be there. We thought it over and were assured by the agent that it would be fine. We couldn't pull the kids out of school for a second day to drive back so we did it.

The next day we sat around waiting for what seemed like forever to find out that the closing was scheduled for 2:00. Two o'clock came and went. Three o'clock, four o'clock ticked by. We call to find out if it's done yet only to find out that "not all parties are here." YIKES! It turns out that the buyer didn't show. When our agent called to find out where they were he acted like he didn't know it was closing day. He told her he spent his down payment money and needed 2 more days till he could close. He had to have money sent to him from New York. WHAT?! My agent got tough with him. She told him that he didn't have 2 days he had 2 hours. She told him that he had been dragging us along for too long and this was it. 4:00 or no deal. (We were trying to get funds into the bank by the end of the month to save a big ding to our credit.) 4:15 he showed up and had 25,000 dollars in hand for his down payment. They finally finished up a little after 6pm. My agent told me later that the deal could have fallen through at the last minute because he got money from family. Lenders can pull the plug to verify where down payment money comes from. We were SO lucky they decided not too.

So it took a long time for the funds to get transferred to our title company on Wednesday the last day of Sept. It got a little too close to the wire for me but in the end the money made it in ON TIME and before the first of Oct. We made it.

This morning we got the check from the closing and we get the money from our escrow account in a couple of weeks. We are finally done. We are free! I was doing a happy dance when it cleared the bank and couldn't stop grinning. By bed time I was near tears because it had been such a long road to this point. It felt like we are finally closing that ugly chapter of our life. The first 8 months of this year have been one stressful situation to another. We are free to breathe now. It feels good.