New car...

Ok, we just took the eBay craze to the next level. We bought a car WITHOUT SEEING IT! It has been a very interesting process. First, we found a car listed on eBay that was in our price range. Then we contacted a finance company to pay for the car. The application was initially rejected, because we were asking for more money that the vehicle was worth. It was only off by about $150, so not a problem. But, by the time we got the loan approved, the car had already sold!

So we found another listing, actually from the same seller, and changed the loan application to reflect that car. It was approved, and we made an offer on the second vehicle. It was accepted, at a discount from the listed price! This was Wednesday evening. On Thursday, I spoke with the dealer and started to make arrangements for the payment and pickup. I worked that day, so it was difficult for me to get much done from the hospital. I called the bank first thing Friday morning to accept the loan offer, and we finished what we needed. We scheduled closing for 4:30 pm. All that remained was for the dealer to fax a copy of the title to the finance company. Apparently, the dealership is rather small, and only one employee takes care of the titles. She faxed what she thought was the front and back, along with the purchase agreement, and then she went home for the weekend. Little did she know, the fax that was received was the FRONT of the title, accompanied by TWO copies of the purchase agreement. No back. And no one else knew where the title was after she left. After several triangular phone calls, and a fruitless trip to the bank to sign non-existent papers, we found that we would have to wait until Monday. Not a huge deal for most people, but have you met my husband?

A couple more phone calls on Saturday morning seemed to do nothing to remedy the situation. Finally, someone showed up to work who knew where the title was! It was successfully faxed to the finance company, and we completed preliminary work over the phone, during Noah's soccer game. I hear they won... This was 2:30 on Saturday. Obviously, the bank was closed. Bah! So after all that work, we still had to wait until Monday. But we signed papers Monday afternoon and booked a one-way flight to Dallas to pick up the vehicle. From there on, it has run smoothly; We had a meeting at school this morning, which was over in time for me to drive Jeremy to the airport, and I was able to get to Jazzercise on time after that (very important!) Everyone was where they were supposed to be in Dallas, and finally, Jeremy is currently driving north on I35 in his new-to-us car. Ahhh. (sigh of relief) He says he likes it! Now we just have to pay off the minivan...