Frustration Seeps In

I am going totally off topic today. I have to vent my frustration somewhere. I feel I might fall over from the irritation I have right now. So I am in the process of buying a house. Mind you, this is the second house I have made an offer on in the last 5 months. This house is owned by HUD. Our government really gets me sometimes. Who is really being helped out here? The HUD requirements are that we close within 45 days of their approval of my bid. Somehow that translated to November 5 (which was more than 60 days but because of a re-bid or something it is longer). We still haven’t an inspection because HUD had to send my realtor a letter stating I could get the utilities turned on. Finally got that letter yesterday. Supposed to have utilities turned on on Wednesday and off on Friday (supposed to have 72 hours but lost Monday from holiday). Start calling utilities today and gas company needs an inspection before they can put the meter back on. (Most sellers do all this but since it is HUD, they do nothing!). First plumber said they can’t schedule appointment with me, only the owner. Second plumber said they have to inspect and permit…$375!!! Ouch. I want to cry. That is one room’s carpet. The electric company requires an electrician inspect and give a clean bill of health for that new meter. I haven’t called them yet. On top of all that, we know that there is a roof leak, so there is roof repair to be done. But every dime I have to spend on these hoops I have to go through because HUD doesn’t do anything is ridiculous and takes away from the things I need to do to move in…carpet in three bedrooms. Oh, and not only that, I learned from the last mortgage guy (I had to let him go) that for every day we don’t close on time, HUD charges me a fee.

It seemed like a really good deal, this house. Even though they made me go $5000 higher than we really wanted to. Said they had to make so much money. I didn’t know at that time that HUD had such stupid standards. It’s times like this that I wish I had just stayed in my house. Why did it have to be so far away from my parents? So that my son couldn’t stay home alone there. It was clean. It was newer. It was already mine so I didn’t have to worry about all this CRAP. (Sorry.) I will be happy when I am finally in this house and have projects to work on, but at this point I am not going to have any money to work on these projects. I am going to need to sell my liver and kidney. It’s times like this that I HATE being so single. And wish there was a white knight to rescue me. I don’t like doing this whole adult business alone. Or having to make these decisions to keep my son closer to my parents. And don’t get my started on why I can’t figure out how to make more money with my two degrees, other than working in hotels or restaurants and having to work ungodly hours and shifts and holidays. I want a life with my son right now. Not all that other stuff that would go along with making the money I was before.

And then, after I made 2 more calls to plumbers and found the best price, my realtor steps through. Good thing he’s my brother’s friend. He stayed on hold with someone for 20 minutes and gets it all taken care of. Not sure how he got it so that I don’t have to pay for these inspections to have the meters set (or maybe I still do?). Or how he got them to be there on Monday at the same time. I can breath a little easier now. (And yes, my mom has to throw in with never buy a HUD house again, like she knew these things would happen. Like it wasn’t her idea that I sell the other house.) But the clouds cleared a little, just as they did for the two balloons in my photo.

Today I am sharing here: