How Our Marriage Survived Escrow

I alluded in my last post that the escrow process can be stressful. I think this is partly largely due to my Type A personality, especially when it comes to finances.

I also have a really hard time with change and uncertainty. Even if it’s change that I’m looking forward to (like buying a house!), it makes me very uneasy to not have any control over when things happen, like having no control over when escrow closes.

I also felt like I was cut out of the process because the realtor communicated mostly through Eric, which was largely our fault because I had Eric act as my messenger and asked any questions through him.

This was really bad because Eric would try and remember the realtor’s answers, and then if I had follow-up questions that Eric didn’t ask, Eric would get frustrated with me for wanting to know the answer.

I can’t tell you how many times the phrase “I want to know what I’m getting for my half-million-dollar investment!” escaped my lips.

How Escrow Escalates

At the beginning, I was fine with everything and I liked to see the progress that was being made.

We received the home inspection report and could see everything that needed to be fixed (one big thing, and a lot of minor things). My issue was that I wanted an update every day, even if it was to say “no update today.”

During the final stages, it was making me very anxious to see that certain things hadn’t been done yet, like the termite inspection.

Furthermore, there was a big issue with the electrical wiring that was supposed to be fixed, and Eric told me that he had agreed to a $1,000 credit instead. Well, when I looked up this issue, I saw that it could cost up to $3,000 to fix and I freaked out.

No offense to my husband, but he has in the past been known to ignore costs when he falls in love with something. I felt that he was acting like a child with a shiny new toy and couldn’t see the financial ramifications of his actions.

I had already fallen victim to this shiny new toy mentality in the past and I wasn’t going to repeat the same mistake.

However, further complicating matters was that Eric was working nine days in a row during this time so I didn’t have constant communication with him.

Without getting into the details, the whole electrical thing was a giant misunderstanding, and so was the termite process. Everything worked out in the end, and Eric and I didn’t kill each other.

The one issue that I still can’t get over though is feeling like our realtor took advantage of us because we were first-time homebuyers, and honestly the whole process left a really bad taste in my mouth.

Hey, but live and learn right?

Read Part I: We Bought a House! 
Read Part II: How We Decided to Buy Our First Home
Read Part III: The Escrow Process of Buying Our First Home

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