ekbaby83

After losing a short sale in March we found another short sale deal that we liked even better. We were told that the house was already under contract but was under contract with an investor at a really low offer so we stood a really good chance of getting the house. We put in our offer March 21rst. Well time went by and we found our real estate agent had no time for us to keep looking or to even let us see that house. So we found a new agent, we want to move before school starts for our daughter in the Fall.

The new agent advised us if we are in back up position we can call the selling agent and see if there is anyone behind us on back up and if not, we can withdraw our offer with the agent and then put the offer in with the new agent. When I called the selling agent on the house at the end of April she said that we had been the only offer on the table for two weeks, and that my agent should have told us this, and that we can't withdraw our offer now, because we are already into the bank, unless we don't want the house.

I confronted our agent, and told the new agent what was going on. The new agent said that he was more than understanding and that he would still show us other houses but if we wanted to hold out with this house that was fine too. Our old agent was more mad that I called the listing agent then anything else, and then asked questions that had nothing to do with real estate but about activities for our kids.

We were then told that we should have short sale approval within two weeks. after three weeks went by and our real estate agent didn't have any updates and said that the selling agent wasn't returning e-mails or phone calls, I called the negotiator and explained that I was having communication issues with my agent and I needed to know the status of the house. Instead of calling me back she e-mailed my agent and questioned why I was calling her as the buyer, which set off another confrontation that wasn't very professional with our agent.

We are supposed to close June 29th according to my agent, but we still have no short sale approval and no word from the bank. If we don't get short sale approval until mid June then the realtor will be out of town when we close. We are first time home buyers and she said that we can push closing out if we need to. The problem is we feel we've been pushed out of her plans for awhile now, and want to close as soon as possible. So what should I do? Do I call the listing agent again, to see what's going on for a third time and deal with a third confrontation when word gets back to my realtor, or do we let her push back closing til when school starts in August?

We really love the house and that is the only reason we are putting up with the agent and all the bs surrounding the deal. So don't say to walk away, cause that's not what we want, but please help!

Last night at my sister's rehearsal dinner for her wedding today, she handed out gifts to my other sister, my brother, her brother in-law, her sister in-law, and her broher in-law's wife. She did not give gifts to the children (which resulted in tears from kids), my husband, my sister in-law or her brother in-law. So my question is should she have included everyone at the rehearsal in the gifts or if she was only including the wedding party why did my brother, her sister in-laws and me get a gift when we aren't in the wedding party? I am thankful for my gift and I am not saying anything, but I was just wondering who should have been included for my own knoweledge?

I am under contract for a short sale right now but we are not hearing anything. I know it takes time and everything seems to be pushed back. We are on the lower end of the market, so we need to look at other homes in case the short sale doesn't go through. Here is the problem, the market is picking up, and homes are going under contract fast. Since we put in a lowball offer I'm thinking maybe we won't get the shortsale now that the market has shifted this past month. Our lender said we need to be under contract with a closing day set by April 9th in order to be locked in our current interest rate. Therefore now is crunch time but every time we ask to look at houses we have to wait until mid week when our agent is available. She has a lot going on right now and I understand that but it's frustrating that all these houses we are setting showings for go under contract before we are able to see them. The last two weeks this has happened, and so without wanting to lose the house we may get if the bank accepts our shortsale I was wondering if I can change agents on that contract and find someone else who isn't too busy to show us houses on our schedule?

We are under contract for a short sale. We did submit a lowball offer but also submitted comps to support our offer. The Seller's agent also provided comps to the bank and agreed on our lowball offer. This was the beginning of January. Mid February an appraisal was done, but now the bank says it's under a 30-45 day review and can't disclose the appraised value. We are stretched to what we can afford at the moment but don't know if this drawn out process is a good thing. Many people tell us that we must be in line with the appraisal or the bank would flat out tell us no. It's also a VA short sale and no one can tell me if these work the same as an FHA Short Sale. Please help me cause I'm tired of my real estate agent and others just providing me with sunshine and not the answers I need. Is it normal to have the appraisal be in the bank this long and would the bank just tell us flat out no if our offer was too low and not make us wait?

We are under contract for a short sale. We did put in a lowball offer but that's because the house was on the market for several months, and I had our agent tell the listing agent of similar properties that were in the price range of our offer. The seller counter-offered a little bit higher, and we accepted, thus putting us under contract on January 7th. On February 3, we were supposed to have an appraisal done from the bank, but due to a blizzard we aren't sure that the appraisal was done, and we haven't heard anything since then. The selling agent is out of town and has been difficult to get a hold of for my agent since the first week of February. One day the seller was really nice asking if we are hanging in there and literally the next day went off on how low our offer is, but it's the only one submitted to the bank, and they counter-proposed and we accepted. So my questions is when should we hear back from the appraisal, or if it even happened? And can the selling agent stall so as to make us go away? We are set to close around April 30th, which would be almost 4 months from when we went under contract but we haven't heard anything really since the third week of January. I know that short sales are drawn out, but shouldn't we have heard at the very least about the appraisal or if they had rescheduled an appraisal due to the snow? Please help.

I apologize ahead of time that this long, but I need help!

My sister is getting married, as some of you have already heard me say. In a previous question I have brought up that my other sister is the bridesmaid and I am the wedding planner. Well I am so tired of my family taking advantage of me with this wedding, and think I want to step down as the planner but when I told my parents this I was told to grow up, shut up, and to just do the wedding.

Here is the problem, last week my parents and I went to five area hotels to review them as venues. The whole time my parents let me ask the questions and everything and then made a point to let the catering managers know that it's a small wedding party, only one attendant each. I just smiled, because there is no reason for drama. Then on Friday, the final hotel was viewed, and my parents were completely disappointed and made a point to go overboard on how much they didn't like it. I told them I thought they were being a little harsh and they said no we aren't. Then asked me to drive them to a concert and ate a sandwich in my car on the way there. Which I didn't know I was driving them or that they were eating in my car until an hour before we were supposed to be at the hotel for our appointment. Then on Saturday, I come up with a whole excel spreadsheet of our top three choice venues to send to my sister with price quotes and my parents tell me to send it to them first to look over and it's the least I can do since they went to the hotels with me and they want to make sure I didn't mess up the math and formulas.

I was pissed but I did it anyway, sent it to them first. On Sunday they e-mail me, we corrected a few things we think make the spreadsheet look better and it's okay to send to the bride and groom now. I didn't realize I was waiting for their permission and for them to correct it. I thought they just wanted to review it first to come up with what they are willing to spend based on the estimate. So then I e-mail on Monday the final estimate, haven't heard anything from the bride and groom since. Today I decided okay well she might want to have her hair done up with her veil so using my daughter as a model I did a few different wedding hairstyles, and e-mailed them to the bride. Then I talk to my Mom this afternoon and she tells me that my sister already has a hairdresser (my other sister's hairdresser) doing the hair for the wedding. On top of this my sister the bride went off on how she didn't want to pay outrageous prices for a photographer, and that she is on a tight budget so naturally I'm a bit surprised that she already has a hairdresser in mind. So after I got off the phone with my Mom I realized that my sister had said she wanted to look into this newcomer photographer that my sister recommended, she's using the hairdresser my sister recommended, and then on top of this the venue she wants is the one my parents pushed on her so I don't want to be her planner anymore. I called my parents back and told them I don't want to do the planning and they went off on me and then hung up on me and said to not talk to them until I'm calmed down and thinking rationally.

When I brought up that my other sister said I was only the wedding planner to begin with because I was local, they said I must have misunderstood my sister (the bridesmaid) and I said no you just don't see her the way everyone else does and for the person she is towards me. That's when my parents went off on how I was being ridiculous considering that I wouldn't be doing the bridal hair anyhow cause I'm not experienced. However the new photographer is okay with them.

So how do I tell them all that I'm not going to be planning a wedding when too many people have their hands in the pot and want to plan it? Please help. Thanks for reading.

So as told before I have two sisters one is getting married and the other is single and is the only bridesmaid. The one who is a bridesmaid is driving me up a wall. The two of us have never been particularly close, but now she is just downright my least favorite person. After my last post we were talking about my sister the bride's wedding, and my sister the bridesmaid told me the only reason I'm the wedding planner is because my sister the bride doesn't live in town and I'm local. Who says that? Especially when I had my own column for a local company writing about weddings until I had my second daughter in April, and not to mention have planned a few weddings including my own.

So anyway last night I find out that my sister the bridesmaid bought her dress on sale the other night with my mom. I find this out from the bride sister who is overwhelmed and hasn't even bought her wedding gown yet. I told my sister the bridesmaid to hold off buying a gown until after the sister that's getting married has her gown to get a similar neckline. She told me I don't know what I'm talking about and it doesn't matter because she is the only attendant. I think it's tacky to buy a bridesmaid dress before the bride has bought her gown though and plan to say so to the sister that's a bridesmaid, but do you think I'm out of line for saying this?

Also my mom is being a real pain in the butt too. She is telling me what I need to do for the wedding and when. Today she went off on me about some bakery that she thinks is the best thing in town and I told her I thought the bakery has gone down hill and there are others in town that are better quality and overall value, and she got all offended like it's her bakery. I have dealt with this type of mother of the bride before, but this is my own mother that I'm dealing with so how do I tell her to butt out and let me do my job?

Not to mention that my DH is so upset by it all and says since I'm not getting paid anyway (it's part of our wedding gift to my sister, planning the wedding for free) that I should just drop the whole thing and tell all of them to shove it where the sun don't shine. I feel I can't do this though because my sister the bride is not being a bridezilla at all, and I told her I would do this. I just don't know how to handle my sister the bridesmaid and my mother. Please tell me what you think I should do. Thanks.

I have two sisters both older than me by several years. They are two years apart and because of birth order they are naturally closer than I am to either one of them. However we are still a close knit family. When I got married three years ago, I had both my sisters as bridesmaids and we had uneven sides because I also had my best friend as my MOH and my DH only had a BM and one other groomsmen. When my brother got married eight years ago, my sister-in-law had all four of her younger sisters as bridesmaids, and my brother had three groomsmen. Her two youngest sisters were 10 and 13 at the time but still bridesmaids. My brother had a fairly large wedding 200 guests, I had a smallish wedding 75 guests. My sister who just got engaged will have 50-60 guests. Here is where the problem lies. I love planning weddings, and so when I found out my sister was engaged I wanted to help her plan the wedding. She told me that I could be her wedding planner as she wants me to plan the wedding where I live and she lives in a different state. So she would need a wedding coordinator that was local. She told me she wanted to keep things really small and have a really small wedding party. I told her that was fine and went to work trying to find a reception venue, and booking the church and officiant. Well last week my Mom tells me that my other sister was asked to be a bridesmaid but that my sister only wants one bridesmaid. My other sister who is single asked me yesterday if I knew specifics about what shade purple dress she is supposed to wear as the bridesmaid, and asked if I was fine with not being a bridesmaid. I told her I was fine, just like I told my Mom, but in truth I'm really hurt. My sister who is getting married hasn't mentioned anything to me (her wedding planner) about the wedding party and making sure I'm okay with it, yet my other sister and Mom have talked to me about not being included. I guess I feel like I can't say anything because I don't want to be asked out of pity, if my sister only wants one bridesmaid, but I'm having a hard time coping with this because I feel like if you have two sisters then you should include both of them in your wedding party or neither of them. Any advice on how to handle the situation? My DH is upset for me and said it's how my family is, they expect me to do all the planning and work and then appear in the background and not in pictures and to not complain about it, so he is frustrated to and thinks I shouldn't even plan the wedding now. I already said I would plan the wedding and don't want to be childish about not being asked, but at the same time am finding it hard to get excited about all the planning details knowing that I won't be standing up for my own sister at her wedding. What would you do, or think you would do in my situation?

My best friend is the Godmother of my daughter who is 3.5. I just found out last week that I'm pregnant and after bleeding on Wednesday and being told that I'm 6 weeks along and the bleeding has to do with my uterus being tilted and implantation and to not worry, but to not lift anything over 5 pounds for the next two weeks to decrease my chances of miscarriage. Anyway, this is my second pregnancy and my husband and I have been trying for over a year to get pregnant. We are so excited that we told our close family and friends and will tell everyone else when I'm in second trimester. When I told my best friend she said congratulations, and then went on to tell me how her other friend is pregnant and that when she found out this other friend was pregnant she had a break down. Her and her husband are trying for their first. She says she's happy for me and not upset at all, but I have known her practically my whole life and I could tell she was extremely upset with the news. I don't know what to do. We barely have time to talk because of our busy schedules and I know that when your trying and you hear of other people getting pregnant before you it can be upsetting, but she knows I've been trying for over a year. I thought she would have been warmer towards me and not so upset. I told her that her time will come, and she got all defensive and said she's not sure it will, and that though she's happy for me, she really wants a baby of her own and that if any of her other friends tell her they're pregnant she thinks she will have another mental breakdown. What am I supposed to do? I usually am the supportive friend, but I feel like I can't be supportive when she is clearly upset with my pregnancy. I also am concerned that I will lose the baby, cause I have a really bad cold, no morning sickness, and the doctor could barely see a heartbeat at 5 weeks 6 days. Is this normal? I wanted to ask my friend since she's a nurse but since she was having a pity party for herself that she's not pregnant I couldn't ask her. Please help. Thanks

I am a wedding writer for examiner.com and am thinking about writing a weekly column that will answer your questions from a professional source. Even though I specialize in Littleton, Colorado I am thinking that this column will not be localized like my other articles. As a community of people planning their weddings would you find a column like this useful? I am not trying to solicit anyone by any means, I'm just wanting to know if a wedding words of advice column is something that would add stress to your wedding planning or be viewed as helpful?

I have a daughter who is three and for the last year my husband and I have decided to start trying for baby number two. We didn't really try for the first one it just sort of happened. Now we are trying and month after month I get my hopes up and nothing. Well I really got my hopes up in the last couple of weeks because I haven't had a period since February 26th. My period comes every 35 days or so so I was expecting it April 2nd, it didn't show. I have been expecting it since and still no show. I have taken tests upon tests (the most recent this morning) and they are all negative. The thing is I have increased discharge, sore and tender breasts, exhaustion, nausea, even a little constipation. I know I should get a blood test but that's where the tricky part comes in. If the doctor declares I'm pregnant then the insurance won't pay for it because I haven't elected the optional maternity coverage. If I were to take an hpt have it come back positive, elect the insurance and then go to the doctor then insurance will pay for it. The extra maternity benefit though is 120 more a month and we already pay quite a bit so I can't justify putting it on until I get a positive test. So what should I do? Do you think Mother nature is just messing with me? I also had a positive ovulation test two weeks ago and went crazy in the bedroom. So when should I expect my period or to test again? I am going crazy trying to conceive. Also are there specific foods that can help you conceive, other than pre-natal vitamins which I'm already taking?

There is an option on my health insurance to add maternity benefits. I opted not to do this and was told by a representative of the company that I could add at a later date if I wanted to. However, this rep also told me that my benefits would be covered at 100% after deductible, which is not true. Only wellness exams are covered 100% everything else is 50% including the optional maternity benefits. Also if I went to planned parenthood and paid out of pocket for the exam to confirm my pregnancy before opting for this insurance benefit will planned parenthood notify my insurance or do I have to disclose my insurance to them?

My sister is 35 and lives across the country from us. She and her boyfriend are really serious and everyone is thinking that wedding bells will probably be ringing within the next year though they aren't engaged yet. My husband and I were talking and didn't know if her boyfriend should ask my dad (whom he's meeting for the first time next month) for permission to marry my sister or not. My mom says she thinks that because of my sister's age and the fact she most likely will pay for her own wedding since she's well established in her career and lives across the country that her boyfriend shouldn't ask my dad, but I wanted to know what other people thought. Do you think there is a certain age when you're too old to ask for father's permission, and what age would that be?

I am good about paying my bills on time and when my daughter was born 3 years ago we got swamped with bills. We paid all of the bills off within a year and worked out payment plans to keep our credit clean. Now out of the blue I got a bill today stating it was my final notice for a date of service of May 2007. I was seen at the hospital on the date listed but am pretty sure that I paid this bill along with all of the others. Even so, don't I have rights? It should not take nearly three years to bill someone, and it isn't stating that I'm in collections yet but that if I don't pay it within the next 7 days I will be. We did move in November 2008 but that was still 18 mos past the date of service, and we did have our mail forwarded. I would like to think I have rights but then again maybe I don't? Anyone with knowledge of fair billing act or medical billing please help me know my rights. Thank you.

I am good about paying my bills on time and when my daughter was born 3 years ago we got swamped with bills. We paid all of the bills off within a year and worked out payment plans to keep our credit clean. Now out of the blue I got a bill today stating it was my final notice for a date of service of May 2007. I was seen at the hospital on the date listed but am pretty sure that I paid this bill along with all of the others. Even so, don't I have rights? It should not take nearly three years to bill someone, and it isn't stating that I'm in collections yet but that if I don't pay it within the next 7 days I will be. We did move in November 2008 but that was still 18 mos past the date of service, and we did have our mail forwarded. I would like to think I have rights but then again maybe I don't? Anyone with knowledge of fair billing act or medical billing please help me know my rights. Thank you.

My husband and I currently rent a townhome. We are thinking about moving into a house, but with him not getting steady work it just doesn't seem like the right time. We were looking at craigslist and found a house in our area that is $55.00 less then what we currently pay in rent. We have always suspected we are paying more than we should so we thought why not call the number on the listing and see what happens. I called and got a property management company that said not only is the rent the price listed, but that there is a lease to own option. I looked up on the MLS houses in the neighborhood this house is in and they are going for a lot more than what this house is renting out at. It's an older neighborhood and my family thinks that it could be someone just trying to rent it out as extra money and that the home is paid off. We have an appointment to see it tomorrow, but it just sounds like too good of a deal. Also how does property management companies work? Are they picky about the houses they will manage or anyone willing to pay them to rent out their house they will support? And if we did rent to own is there anything we can ask for in the lease to be changed before we opt to buy? How does that work? Any advice would be useful. Thanks.

My husband and I took our daughter to McDonalds for lunch today. The weather is really nice and they have an outdoor play-place. My daughter asked if she could go play on the play structure after lunch and we said sure. Well we get out there and she takes off her shoes (as is the rules) and starts to climb into the play structure. Not even two minutes later she comes out crying saying one of the other kids hit her and she was ready to go home. I asked her which kid hit her thinking maybe I could talk to the kid or to the kid's mom but she just pointed and said in there. There were a lot of kids running around about 5 or 6 different groups sitting around so I didn't want to accuse the wrong kid. So I took my daughter to the bathroom and while she was sitting on the potty I asked her again where she got hit and if she remembered which kid hit her. She told me the kid in the black shirt (there were about three kids in black shirts) and that she was hit on her shoulder. I think I figured out which kid she was talking about but by this time ten minutes had lapsed and I didn't feel like making a point to walk back out to the play-place and try to track down the responsible guardian. If this were to happen again though, what should I do in the future? Figure out which kid and loudly say hey we don't hit and reprimand the kid? Or do I find the guardian of the kid and make a point to tell them that their kid is hitting complete strangers and bullying my kid who just wanted to go down the slide? What would you do? I'm so upset that this happened and that I didn't say anything to stop it from happening to someone else in the future.

I know that stress can delay your period and that you can think you are pregnant and manifest the symptoms it's just that I have had the symptoms of PMS and or early pregnancy for about a week and didn't think anything of it until my period didn't show when expected on April 2nd. I also started having dreams of being pregnant and eating fish (in some cultures this is a sign of pregnancy) but didn't start having dreams until my period didn't show and thought maybe this was my body trying to tell me something. With my first baby I didn't have a positive HPT until I was 10 weeks, and didn't get a positive blood test til 6 weeks. I am now 5 weeks 3days since my last lmp. I took a test yesterday (April 6th) that came out negative, but my cycles are always 35-37 days apart so do you think that's why the HPT came back negative? I also have mild PCOS so I can skip periods but my discharge and PMS symptoms indicated that this was not a month I'd skip. Any answers would be greatly appreciated.

My last period was February 26th and I'm usually right on time with 35 day cycles. I was expecting Aunt Flo April 2nd, but she has yet to show up. I took a test yesterday morning (April 6th) and it came back negative. However, I have all of the symptoms. I pee every hour to hour and a half, I am moody, tired, bloated, crampy, nauseous, my breasts are tender and this has gone on for about a week. I have a mild case of PCOS so it's not completely abnormal to skip a month here or there, but I really feel pregnant. Oh and to top it all off I have had vivid dreams of eating fish (which in some cultures means someone is pregnant) and of being pregnant and telling my family. My husband thinks I'm just stressing because the test was negative, but I still feel like I am? So when should I take another test, and at what point should I go to the doctor? Any advice would be great. Thanks.

Two of my friends in the last few months have become first time home owners. I should be excited for them but I'm not. My husband says it's because we are the only couple left renting. This isn't what it is though. I don't like either of the houses they bought, we could have bought a few different times but I wasn't interested in looking to buy at these times. I decided to have a baby instead of buy a house, get married instead of buy a house, and quit my job to stay home with my daughter instead of buying a house. Anyway it's getting to the point now that I don't want to talk to my friends because every time I do I get the feeling I'm going to be asked to come to their new houses and I don't want to see their new houses. I've already seen them in photos, and again they are nothing like what I would pick out and I know that if I went back to work we could have a house in the next six months so it's not a money issue. So how do I nicely avoid seeing my friend's new houses, and change the subject when their houses come up?