Home Buying Saga

So here is the unfinished saga of buying a house in Las Vegas. Challenging to say the least. Before we left Vermont for Nevada we got pre approved for a loan and we shopped online endlessly. We had a realtor who was looking for property for us and sending us homes to review.

Right after we arrived we set out shopping. On July 31 we found the perfect house and put in an asking price offer. The offer was accepted 2 days later. Little did we know that the seller was in England. 

Initial paper was completed. The house was inspected quickly with a few minor issues which the seller agreed to fix. The appraisal come in just slightly higher than our offer. 

We jumped through plenty of hoops getting our final loan approval. Because of the housing crash every dollar and where it came from has to be accounted for ... in triplicate it seems. Finally got all that set.

Everything was looking good until the seller in England fell and hit her head. She is in the hospital ... we think (although we have received numerous conflicting messages). She has the deed with her and there are hoops to jump through internationally. We thought she signed everything last week and had FedEx'd them here. We went to our closing yesterday even though the papers had not arrived.  Today we learned there are still papers to be signed in England as the lady is too ill to hold a pen!  Nothing has been sent yet. The woman has a daughter with her in England and I don't know why she doesn't have power of attorney!

Moving in keeps getting delayed because in Nevada you don't get the keys at closing because the Title has to be filed somewhere official. All the papers we signed yesterday need to be reviewed at the main branch of the lender. We received some kind of credit from the lender yesterday (why? I have no clue) and needed to sign more papers early this morning to acknowledge the credit from yesterday! Special courier came to our hotel for that. Then he was going to hand deliver the file to the main branch. (The bankers want this closed before the end of the month too!) 

I made a trip to Bank of America this morning to wire transfer money to the Title company. This particular BofA branch has fantastic customer service. The one bright spot in my day so far. (Other than the fact I am hanging out at the pool writing this blog and it is breezy and 88.)

Poor Dan is frustrated trying to do his job on a laptop in the hotel room with poor wifi. We were planning on getting the house connected to the internet on Friday. And have his new office furniture delivered as well. More frustration. 

We have forced our realtor and the sellers realtor to let us move the furniture in on Thursday even if we can't stay there. They really don't want to let us in until the documents have been sent but the title company now has our money, the house is insured in our name and the utilities have been switched over. I don't see what the problem is. Maybe if lawyers were involved this wouldn't be so messy.  We are waiting to hear that we can stay there in Friday. 

Labor Day weekend is almost here. More delays due to that I'm sure. We could use a spot of good fortune. 

Here are a few shots of how we keep busy while waiting. 

51s Game

Pants appear optional for National Anthem singers.  She could sing tho!

We had pretty good seats!

Missed our turn and saw the cowboy on our way to the hotel.

A little more eye cndy!

Good buffet at Gold Coast.

Dan had to visit the Pawn Stars!

The place was mobbed!

On a side note we took a break last night and went to see a movie. It was $5 movie night plus you could get popcorn and a drink for 5 bucks too.  Had to do a blast from our son's past and saw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  It was funny and we had a good time. 

It's really all about the journey this time. Hopefully the seller in England will feel better soon and we will be in our new home. I think it's Margarita time. Gotta be 5 o'clock somewhere!  

Nancy and Dan

Mt. Charleston

Since we weren't able to move into our house as we had hoped today we headed off in search of Mt. Charleston.  "Charleston Peak at 11,916 feet, is the the highest of the Spring Mountains of Southern Nevada and the state's 8th highest mountain peak.  It was about a 35 mile drive northwest from downtown Las Vegas.

Map of Mt. Charleston Area

Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort is a year round recreation area.  A sign said they get 140 inches of natural snow in the winter but we saw snow making equipment on the slopes.

It was interesting to see the Saturday morning activity that was going on.  Humm, let's see for some real fun at 9000 feet, let's drag tires up the mountain!

See the dog in the picture below (you can't miss him, he's huge).  We had a close encounter! I came out of a building and before I knew it we were nose to nose! Very sweet dog but WOW.

Sun gear.

If I ever feel homesick for Vermont I now know where to come.  It was 60 degrees here at 11:00.

If you zoom in on this shot you can see the tire pullers!

This is not snow!

Lots of scenic vistas on the way down the mountain.

We stopped at Desert View Overlook.  Very well done visitor area.

The road home cut right through ancient dunes.

What a nice drive.  I probably won't head up that way in the winter months (chains or snow tires required) but it was a great summer trip.  Many locals head up there on a hot summer day to hike, picnic and take a break from the heat.  

Heading out to a baseball game in a little while. The Las Vegas 51"s.  It's 95 right now at 3:00. A nice night ahead for baseball and hot-dogs.  Right now we are watching the Las Vegas Mountain Ridge little league team play in the 2014 US Championship.  Good game but a heart-breaker for Las Vegas.

That's all for now.  The journey continues.

Nancy and Dan

In the Meanwhile

These are bird baths made of glass suspended from the ceiling in the main entry of the Bellagio.

Well the house buying seems to be taking a long time. So we have been keeping busy in other ways. 

Wednesday and Thursday this week we had Order of the Eastern Star friends visit. Jim and Julie Bennett are on a seven week tour of the United States and they made time to visit us! We walked around down on the Strip and on Fremont Street.

This was at the Bellagio. We had just seen the fountains do their thing to Viva Las Vegas! Perfect! 

The inside of the Bellagio is beautiful. They have fresh flowers everywhere and an indoor courtyard. 

Then we went to the Gold Coast Casino, just across the street from our hotel, for the all you can eat prime rib buffet. Yum. 12.99 for non-locals. (As soon as we have an address and NV licenses we will sign up for the B card which gives great deals to locals.) The buffet is $9.99 for locals and you can get discount tickets to shows. Can't wait. 

Last weekend Dan and I went in search of an archery center located up west on the outskirts of town. We found it 20 miles away. Couldn't go in because you have to be a member. It has outside targets and ranges. Then we continued on to Red Rock Canyon where we purchased a National Park Pass that will get us and two guests into any national park for a year. 

We will use it to visit the Grand Canyon, Lake Mead, Zion and the Arches just to name a few. On this visit we stopped at the visitor's center at Red Rocks. What a nice place. Local experts fill you in on the flora and fauna of the area! Nice gift shop too.

We have also been doing some traveling around to furniture stores. We need a new refrigerator, a desk for Dan's office and a kitchen table. We think we have found all three. Just need a house to put them in! 

Real estate deals are different in Nevada. No lawyers needed. Just a title company, a mortgage company and a real estate agent or two. Unfortunately the woman we are buying from is elderly and in England. She has to go through quite a process to get stuff signed over there and to make matters worse she fell last weekend and ended up in hospital. Hopefully she has now signed everything and FedEx'd it to Las Vegas as the closing is scheduled for Monday! At this point we don't know for sure she has signed and sent but we are making plans to move our stuff in on Thursday with Tuesday and Wednesday for cleaning and receiving furniture deliveries. Fingers crossed. 

Of course Dan had to point out that the canyon has restricted areas. Yup he's on the wrong side of that sign!  

Heading out to dinner soon. Chinese at the Orleans. (I am actually a little tired of eating out. Can't wait to set up my new kitchen!)

It's still ... all about the journey!

Love to all.

Nancy and Dan

ALL work and NO play – I say oh “NAY NAY!”

Yes, living and working out of two rooms is a bit testing, however we are making it work. . . . at 0500 Pacific Time (0800 Eastern Time) the day begins.  

It is dark and quiet, only the several construction workers firing up their trucks and off to parts unknown . . . . 

By 0700, the radio comes on and I listen to Las Vegas's New Country: 

95.5 THE BULL www.955thebull.com/ 

Nancy and the cats go through their morning routine, and most days I cannot tell you all that goes on.  When 1300 (Pacific Time) rolls around, the work day is coming to an end.  Time for the afternoon tasks:  getting a bank set up, putting all the paperwork in order for the Mortgage Company, etc. . . .  

We had a visitor from the home office, Tracy Tripp was out in Las Vegas with her husband (who was attending a physician’s conference) – well we had to hit ‘the strip’

After which, we took her to lunch at a local spot near the new house: BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse - Summerlin  

Then it was off to - Red Rock Canyon for a scenic drive. . .  I think Tracy really liked this area!

 After we got back into Summerlin, Tracy showed us how to work the slot machine at Red Rock Casino!!

I had not been down to Fremont St. - for the "Fremont Street experience"  So Saturday night with Art and Linda  (Vigil) off we went. A few photos to cap off that experience !!

Our best to you all. . . . 

Nancy & Dan

"It's all about the Journey!"

Getting Acclimated

The New York, New York Casino

Well we have started on our third week in Las Vegas. The house buying process is moving along. We are waiting for the results of the appraisal which happened on Tuesday.  We should also hear today if our loan is approved. No lawyers involved in the process, everything is handled by a title company out here. 

We are getting acclimated to the weather and the city. Believe it or not I have a harder time with the AC than the heat. Don't forget a container of water and a light sweater wherever you go.  I had to screen shot this weather report a couple of days ago. My friends back east should get a chuckle. 

Las Vegas is very easy to drive in as far as directions go, pretty much straight streets running north/south or east/west. Just stay off I15. Traffic varies from bumper to bumper to non-existent. There are so many accidents here that the police only come if there are visible injuries or the traffic can't continue! Many pedestrians are hit because they don't follow the rules. You can make u-turns just about anywhere. We have made a few!

I watched for the super moon Sunday night. Quite pretty.

It was hard getting a good shot of the moon and the skyscrapers.

While Dan is hard at work I've have been out shopping a couple of times. Monday I went down to the Strip with my sister. We liked the Hershey store that recently opened. 

We also looked at all 4 floors of the M&m Store. 

 

This car was on the fourth floor. Not quite sure how they made that happen!  The Strip is just getting going again at 10:00 am.

Yesterday I traveled west to shop at a Sears my sister had mentioned. It was in an area of town set to expand just as the recession hit. Lots of great big stores and no one to shop in them. At 10:30 in the morning on a Wednesday a week and a half before school starts and the store was empty of customers. Just me and the 10 employees who were standing around with nothing to do. My sister says it's always like that. 

 

These overalls made me laugh. Haven't seen any since the 80s. They had lots of good sales there so I didn't even need to visit the other 'customerless' stores nearby. Maybe next week.

We did a drive-by of our potential house yesterday. We had just received the 212 page document about living in our new community. Lots of rules to keep you safe and to keep things looking nice. We wanted to see if we would be able to put our Dishnet receiver somewhere acceptable. Not on the roof, not out front. The side of the house seems to be the goto location. 

Look what we found in a nearby Walmart. (Say what you have to about Walmart but they carry Cabot cheese!)

I was talking with our new insurance guy,  telling him where we were from. He interrupted me with, "Vermont! I just had some cheese from there! It was WHITE!" Most south westerners are partial to yellow cheese. Cabot does make a yellow cheddar that it markets down here. I'm kind of partial to the white!

This the hotel pool that Dan and I hang out at most every evening. We met a guy who has lived in this hotel for the last 5 years! Seriously! Last night he told us he works for a limo company 2 days a week. That's all he works. He says he's 45. Must make pretty good money driving a limo in Vegas.  His name is Johnny and he is going to try to 'hook' us up with tickets to an Eagles concert at the MGM Grand in October. The cheap seats are $171 each!

I just discovered on my way back from the pool that I can take a nice safe shaded walk if I just walk the 3 floors worth of outside hallways around this hotel. I will have to do it during the daytime as in the evenings there are a lot of construction worker guys who call this place home as well. They sit outside every night drinking beer as they are tired and appear to have nothing else to do. 

Let's see the laundry's done, it takes about 10 minutes to pick our little home up in the morning, and this is the end if the blog for today. What's on the schedule for the afternoon remains to be seen. Perhaps we will visit another Casino and do some people watching. 

I am still thinking about my top 10 reasons to move to Las Vegas. I'll get them up soon. 

Have a great day.

Nancy and Dan

It's all about the journey!