In Which COVID-19 Comes Home to Roost
Mar. 16th, 2020 08:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aThis morning I awoke to the news that the San Francisco Bay Area was going on lockdown. And, of course, that sobered me (or maybe woke me up: it was the morning), because we were still living there 11 weeks ago.
The press conference announcing the details came at 1pm PT, which is currently 10am our time. I saw the summaries while I ate lunch in between bouts of programming.
But I didn't really realize the repercussions until my real estate agent messaged me a few hours later. She noted that the recorder's office in Santa Clara had already closed down and that if the Alameda County office did the same, we wouldn't be able to record the sale of our house, and thus we couldn't close escrow.
This is on March 16th, with our escrow beginning on February 29th and supposedly ending on March 30th (or maybe April 3rd: there was a little delay last week). I've been stressed out for the last month whether COVID-19 was going to impact the sale of our house, but I hadn't really thought it would while we were two weeks out of escrow closing.
But now there are two problems going on.
First, the bank asked for some sewer work to be done, as a condition for the buyer's loan. This seems to be what banks do: they pre-approve a loan, then they find a condition to make it look like they're not just approving everything. And the buyers fulfill the condition and everyone is happy.
In this case, it was some work that needed to be done when the sale occurred anyway, the bank just asked for it to be done before escrow closed. (And that perhaps makes it all sound more reasonable than it was: we've never heard of this condition being placed before, but like I said, banks like to figure out something to say.)
So my immediate response was panic, that this work couldn't get done with the Bay Area closed down, and so we couldn't close escrow, and not only that, but we were a long way off. But it turns out that plumbing is on the list of essential services that aren't being curtailed, so as long as the workers are willing to go forward, everything should be fine. In fact, the buyers have already paid in full for the work, really showing that they want to make this work, so I'm calmed down. Somewhat.
Second, there's the question that our realtor raised about whether we'll be able to record the sale. And, I'm a bit more confident there. If the buyers have the loan in hand, and we're able to do everything but record, I think we're 99.9% there, and the only question will be when we can take that final step and get the money out of escrow.
My realtor says that the worst case is we might have to wait a week. And, she's wonderfully optimistic and calm and has by my count talked me down three different times when I was worrying about the pandemic affecting the house sale.
But that's not the worst case. The worst case is that we can't get the plumbing work done and the bank decides not to extend the loan and the buyer can't buy despite their calm and professional and unwavering attitude and our backup offer doesn't have the down payment any more due to the market crash and we can't put the house back on the market because COVID-19 has made open house illegal and it sits unoccupied for six months or a year and homeless break in and get squatters rights and we have to evict them and they burn the house down on the way out and one of them dies and his family sues us.
That's the worst case.
But hopefully our experienced, super-realtor is right.
I feel a bit selfish talking about our difficulties selling a house due to COVID-19. Because I know one acquaintance, someone I've talked to more than once, whose father died from COVID-19. And, there are another 7,000 mothers or fathers or sons or daughters or husbands or wives who have died.
We could end up in some financial difficulties if everything went south, but we'd get by, and it certainly wouldn't be life or death.
But, this is how COVID-19 is impacting us. And it's a pretty big impact. Potentially.
I'm still very sad that we had to cancel RWOT10. (But today, C. is literally on the last flight out of Argentina; and my own return flights from Argentina were cancelled over the weekend, so I could have gotten stuck there for the length of the plague!) And, I'm sad that Kimberly is almost definitely going to find the BTS concert that she was so excited about get cancelled. And it's a bit of a bummer that we're not going to visit the Bay Area as planned, though really, we just got here.
And, I still have to question: how long do people think this can go on? I mean the constraints on personal freedoms are so extreme that it's entirely unprecedented. We're passing by 9/11-level changes in the lives of people in this country. And do the countries of the world think they're going to be able to carry this on for the 12-18 months to get a vaccine out? Do they think that we'll heavily balkanize the whole world for the next year and a half? I dunno.
But I'm not really bothered by this whole social distancing thing, and it looks like we're on the verge of that here in Hawaii, as those 7 cases to date could easily blow up at any moment.
Because: introvert.
I can read, I can write. (Heck, tonight I've already polished up a chapter for a self-sovereign identity book and reread a volume and a half of Locke & Key.) I can Dance Dance Revolution (Stepmania) for exercise. I can walk quietly in the golf course staying six feet away from anyone. I can find out whether swimming is suggested or prohibited.
Not that I'm worried about me, but because I want to keep my dad, Mary, and Kimberly safe as they're likely all more vulnerable to the disease than I am.
I'm already considering stepping away from my Thursday night gaming, though I'd hate to look like a flake when I'm just meeting these people. But it'll doubtless be understood.
I just hope we can close on the house. Then the stress drops tenfold, even if the world continues to fall apart.
Well, it drops tenfold unless COVID-19 impacts our lives personally even more. Hopefully not.
The press conference announcing the details came at 1pm PT, which is currently 10am our time. I saw the summaries while I ate lunch in between bouts of programming.
But I didn't really realize the repercussions until my real estate agent messaged me a few hours later. She noted that the recorder's office in Santa Clara had already closed down and that if the Alameda County office did the same, we wouldn't be able to record the sale of our house, and thus we couldn't close escrow.
This is on March 16th, with our escrow beginning on February 29th and supposedly ending on March 30th (or maybe April 3rd: there was a little delay last week). I've been stressed out for the last month whether COVID-19 was going to impact the sale of our house, but I hadn't really thought it would while we were two weeks out of escrow closing.
But now there are two problems going on.
First, the bank asked for some sewer work to be done, as a condition for the buyer's loan. This seems to be what banks do: they pre-approve a loan, then they find a condition to make it look like they're not just approving everything. And the buyers fulfill the condition and everyone is happy.
In this case, it was some work that needed to be done when the sale occurred anyway, the bank just asked for it to be done before escrow closed. (And that perhaps makes it all sound more reasonable than it was: we've never heard of this condition being placed before, but like I said, banks like to figure out something to say.)
So my immediate response was panic, that this work couldn't get done with the Bay Area closed down, and so we couldn't close escrow, and not only that, but we were a long way off. But it turns out that plumbing is on the list of essential services that aren't being curtailed, so as long as the workers are willing to go forward, everything should be fine. In fact, the buyers have already paid in full for the work, really showing that they want to make this work, so I'm calmed down. Somewhat.
Second, there's the question that our realtor raised about whether we'll be able to record the sale. And, I'm a bit more confident there. If the buyers have the loan in hand, and we're able to do everything but record, I think we're 99.9% there, and the only question will be when we can take that final step and get the money out of escrow.
My realtor says that the worst case is we might have to wait a week. And, she's wonderfully optimistic and calm and has by my count talked me down three different times when I was worrying about the pandemic affecting the house sale.
But that's not the worst case. The worst case is that we can't get the plumbing work done and the bank decides not to extend the loan and the buyer can't buy despite their calm and professional and unwavering attitude and our backup offer doesn't have the down payment any more due to the market crash and we can't put the house back on the market because COVID-19 has made open house illegal and it sits unoccupied for six months or a year and homeless break in and get squatters rights and we have to evict them and they burn the house down on the way out and one of them dies and his family sues us.
That's the worst case.
But hopefully our experienced, super-realtor is right.
I feel a bit selfish talking about our difficulties selling a house due to COVID-19. Because I know one acquaintance, someone I've talked to more than once, whose father died from COVID-19. And, there are another 7,000 mothers or fathers or sons or daughters or husbands or wives who have died.
We could end up in some financial difficulties if everything went south, but we'd get by, and it certainly wouldn't be life or death.
But, this is how COVID-19 is impacting us. And it's a pretty big impact. Potentially.
I'm still very sad that we had to cancel RWOT10. (But today, C. is literally on the last flight out of Argentina; and my own return flights from Argentina were cancelled over the weekend, so I could have gotten stuck there for the length of the plague!) And, I'm sad that Kimberly is almost definitely going to find the BTS concert that she was so excited about get cancelled. And it's a bit of a bummer that we're not going to visit the Bay Area as planned, though really, we just got here.
And, I still have to question: how long do people think this can go on? I mean the constraints on personal freedoms are so extreme that it's entirely unprecedented. We're passing by 9/11-level changes in the lives of people in this country. And do the countries of the world think they're going to be able to carry this on for the 12-18 months to get a vaccine out? Do they think that we'll heavily balkanize the whole world for the next year and a half? I dunno.
But I'm not really bothered by this whole social distancing thing, and it looks like we're on the verge of that here in Hawaii, as those 7 cases to date could easily blow up at any moment.
Because: introvert.
I can read, I can write. (Heck, tonight I've already polished up a chapter for a self-sovereign identity book and reread a volume and a half of Locke & Key.) I can Dance Dance Revolution (Stepmania) for exercise. I can walk quietly in the golf course staying six feet away from anyone. I can find out whether swimming is suggested or prohibited.
Not that I'm worried about me, but because I want to keep my dad, Mary, and Kimberly safe as they're likely all more vulnerable to the disease than I am.
I'm already considering stepping away from my Thursday night gaming, though I'd hate to look like a flake when I'm just meeting these people. But it'll doubtless be understood.
I just hope we can close on the house. Then the stress drops tenfold, even if the world continues to fall apart.
Well, it drops tenfold unless COVID-19 impacts our lives personally even more. Hopefully not.