Before I get to the closing, I wanted to mention moving to Oregon. God looked out for us along the way! The girls had to be in LA on a certain date and could not slip as we were getting a horse shipped in the process. They heard a chunk and a grinding as they pulled into the hotel, the brakes failed. Not on the road, down a big decent, but where they were convenient to repair. My drive was just as exciting, since I had a flat on the trailer, which at the last minute we decided to get a spare. I also lost the fan belt in Arizona, close to a dealer that had one in stock. That failure also kept me from pushing myself into LA to “save” on a hotel stay. All times they were failures that could have happened in “no-man’s land” in the middle of nowhere, but happened in a place where it was easy to handle. Thank you God for that!
Now we are getting close to closing, I have booked flights, got rental trucks lined up for the final batch of stuff in Georgia. I needed to just fly in, pack, sign and drive. Suddenly I had to rest on Luke 18:27 since closing was going to slip again if the developer had their way:
But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
This would have had significant ramifications on our “dream” home. I was trying to get them to push the schedule forward so I could have a comfortable drive. Instead they were slipping it by a month. I had a contract behind me, but they had the money, so poker faces on. I talked with them and wanted to make it clear that if they could not close, I would need to explore other options.
This gave them the signal I wanted and they said they would close, but funding may be tight since other closings needed to happen before. So I flew out not knowing if they could perform and if I could get back in time for closing on the “dream” home. With that I arrived in GA and started packing. It was tight, but a 15 foot U-Haul towing our Subaru were ready to fly. Closing was still a question since funding was not in place and I wanted to roll so I could make closing on the new home, so I signed and hit the road before we closed.
I had to get the money, transfer it to all parties, sign and take possession on the road, since it looked like there was no way I would make it in. Now I have done a ton of real estate deals in my life, and each one had all parties at the table for closing. Both of these deals had no parties present and I was signing one through an online service. It was very different from previous deals, but I went with it.
As with everything in the process, things did not go smooth. The money did not come into the bank until late Thursday, so although not a big deal I just had to transfer on the road and since we had just opened an account with a large national bank this seemed to be an easy deal. I started rolling out of North Carolina early in the morning on Friday which was also a holiday for some, fortunately not the banks, but Wall Street. Then panic started to set in, since there were no branches, just investment and mortgage offices which were closed. And the closest ones were in Kansas, a long way away. I had arrival time close to their closing so everything had to go smooth or I was hosed. I got there with minutes to spare and started the process only to be informed that since it was late the transfers would not happen until Monday, when funds needed to be in place for closing of the new home, and would take up to 48 hours.
So stress set in and I continued on my way. Before closing in the west I got calls for all parties saying funds were in place, I then had to find a “hot-spot” to sign which wasn’t as easy as it sounded and I continued on my journey. The trip was not without an adventure since GPS took me into “no-man’s” land that stressed the range of the rental truck and twice I pulled into gas stations on vapors, one time the trip computer since I had 7 miles to empty. Again God was looking out for me, but gave me some excitement. It wasn’t that I could not get gas and just tried to push it, it was that there was NO GAS!!
What I was taught though this whole process is it didn’t matter what I did or how impossible the problem seemed to be, God rolled with the mountains like they were nothing. I just needed to have more faith and not stress so much. You’d think after what I have been through over my life it would be a no brainer. It wasn’t and I stressed! The key for anyone hearing my story is learn to rest in God and don’t assume that because your way is not the way God is taking you that it will not be better on the other side.