Home-buying, AAAAUUUUUGGGHHH!

wishbone · 08-20-2005, 12:25 AM

In the last week, we have sold our house twice and made 2 offers to purchase and had both rejected.

Tuesday 8/9 - We get the "For Sale" sign put in the yard and start watching people drive by slowly and point at our house. We have 30+ realtors visit the house as part of a weekly tour between 10am and 1pm. Our realtor makes his "famous potato salad". I think half the people were there as part of a weekly travelling lunch date.

Wednesday - 5 different realtors with clients tour our home. We are ready to leave on an hour notice in case someone else wants to stop by.

Thursday - We have another 2 appointments to show the house. We make plans with friends and hang out until 9pm. When we get home aroung 9:15 there is a realtor and his client in the driveway. He claims they are prepared to make a full price offer that night if we let them look around. I say ok, let them in and wait 30 minutes while they look around and talk about it. I get tired of watching them look around and go inside, they are a very nice young family and tell me they love the house.

Friday - The young family has made a full price offer and we make arrangements to meet with our realtor to accept the offer. We look at a house we really like and decide to make an offer as soon as we accept our own offer.

Saturday - We accept the offer and feel relieved. We start to plan things to do with the extra money and generally feel good.

Monday - While I am at work, my wife tells me that we need to get the house ready to show again. I say "Why, we already sold it?". She explains that she thinks the buyers have backed out. I call our realtor to confirm (there was some confusion because my wife works graveyard and was asleep when the realtor called) and the realtor says that they are still discussing it and will decide by 5pm. They end up backing out of the purchase, the house we had looked at has an offer accepted at 6pm.

Tuesday - We relist the house and have 4 more prospective buyers tour it.

Wednesday - We accept an offer from one of the people that toured the day before. We also decide to look at 2 more places on Thursday.

Thursday - We really like the 2nd place we look at. We go home and make an offer. The offer is contingent on our home sale but our realtor says that is very common and we have a strong offer.

Friday - The owners of the home we have made an offer on go AWOL, their realtor can not find them. He has already told them about the offer but they are concerned about the contingency (the sale of our home). They reject our offer with no counter, claiming that it is "too complicated".

I am so frustrated, everytime we see an available house we like, events conspire against us to prevent us from getting it. I can't count the number of listings we have seen now or the number of hours we have put into the effort of selling/buying.

I am slowly going crazy...

JonInMiddleGA · 08-20-2005, 12:40 AM

I feel your pain, or at least I'm anticipating it -- we're looking to buy definitely in the next 9 months, possibly as soon as a month (depending on how much we like/don't like what we're going to see next weekend) and then go through the hell of selling in an extremely soft market locally.

I'll be keeping an eye on this, although I'm afraid all it's going to do is increase my already high anxiety level -- I absolutely fucking HATE buying/selling property.

PilotMan · 08-20-2005, 01:18 AM

We have been looking for houses for around six weeks. We aren't really in a hurry though, but we have some very special needs, and a very tight budget. We have looked at about 15 properties, made an offer and had it rejected. The seller's broker used our offer as leverage on another family in order to get the sale. I didn't mind that is just the name of the game. We feel a little deflated right now, we have seen almost everything that interests us in NKY and nothing else really strikes us. Plus, we are not sure if our budget can sustain an increase in our housing expenses. Good Luck.

wishbone · 08-24-2005, 04:31 PM

Saturday - I look through the paper and see a couple promising listings. I make an appointment for that afternoon. Spent a few hours getting ready for our home inspection while watching our 3 year old. I get nothing done. We go to view the house from the newspaper and can only laugh. House is beautiful but eccentric. It has at least 6 different types of carpet, a 2-car garage that has been converted to a family room and has a stuccoed barrel-arch ceiling. Older couple are the original owners of the home and have made some additions and changes. Also has an industrial strength 3.5 ton air conditioner, owner boasts "it can't get hot enough for this not cool the house down" I am concerned and intrigued about the possibility of a cryogenic chamber somewhere in the house. We do not make an offer.

Sunday - We go for a drive about 30 miles from our current place just to see what's out there. We see a lot of stuff we don't like and very little we do. This will be a last resort.

Monday - My wife spots a "for sale by owner" (FSBO) near our home and peeks in the windows. She likes it, the price is in our range and we make an appointment to tour it the next day. We also see another new listing and ask our realtor to get us in to take a look.

Tuesday 8/23 - We tour the new listing, it is a 2000 sq ft home at the end of a dead end road near 2 schools, has lots of trees, a little creek and railroad tracks about 30 yards from the front door. The FSBO is beautiful, all carpet is new, new appliances and a lot of little features we really like. The owners will not pay a realtor and tell us that "a full price offer will probably not be enough". They are not being greedy, just stating the facts about current market conditions. We say we have a little room to go higher and lay out some basic terms. We ask them to call us tonight to see if we should pursue this further. That night they offer to sell to us for $4k over asking, which I think is fair, but we decline, we are just not sure this house is the one. Last night at 11pm we look on the real estate search site and see the house that we almost made an offer on is back on the market. I call the listing agent and my agent and tell them we will be making an offer. I later realize this makes me sound desperate, at the time it seemed the natural thing to do. My wife even says so.

wishbone · 08-24-2005, 05:08 PM

Wednesday 8/24 - I get to work at 7am but have been forbidden to call anyone until 9am. At 9am I call our agent and make sure she knows whats going on. My wife and our agent meet at 11am and draw up offer papers. I have just faxed back the offer to our agent after signing it, she will get it to the listing agent and hopefully we'll know soon whether it was accepted.

JonInMiddleGA · 08-24-2005, 06:30 PM

Quote:

The owners will not pay a realtor and tell us that "a full price offer will probably not be enough".

Just to make sure I'm reading this right -- a full price offer isn't enough ... to buy the house AND cover the commission of your buyer's agent? Is that what this meant, or is there some bizarre reason I'm missing that has them listing the house for less than they actually want to get?

digamma · 08-25-2005, 12:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Just to make sure I'm reading this right -- a full price offer isn't enough ... to buy the house AND cover the commission of your buyer's agent? Is that what this meant, or is there some bizarre reason I'm missing that has them listing the house for less than they actually want to get?

I took it to mean they're expecting bids on the house to come in above the asking price for the home.

wishbone · 08-25-2005, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Just to make sure I'm reading this right -- a full price offer isn't enough ... to buy the house AND cover the commission of your buyer's agent? Is that what this meant, or is there some bizarre reason I'm missing that has them listing the house for less than they actually want to get?

A full price offer isn't enough because they are receiving other offers for more than they are asking. They will not pay realtor fees unless we make the best offer plus the commission.

They listed the house at one price and then realized that they could have asked for more due to the interest that it generated.

Which may not have existed at a higher price point???

wishbone · 08-25-2005, 12:14 PM

Last night our offer was accepted, we will be upgrading from 3bd/2ba 1040sf house on a 7600sf lot to a 4bd/2ba 1714sf house on an 8000sf lot. It's about a mile from where we currently live.

Now we have to schedule an inspection, closing and moving dates...

digamma · 08-25-2005, 12:26 PM

Congrats!

JonInMiddleGA · 08-25-2005, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wishbone

A full price offer isn't enough because they are receiving other offers for more than they are asking.

My bad, I didn't catch on to the part where they had other offers on the table.

In any event, congrats on finding the house you wanted, maybe this thread will be a good omen & I'll like something we'll see on Saturday too

wishbone · 08-25-2005, 06:07 PM

Thanks guys,

It's a funny thing though, yesterday I was thinking "if we get this house, what will we put in it, we'll never fill that all that room."

30 minutes after having the offer accepted, my wife was on craigslist and found a bed and other decorations for the guest room. Within 90 minutes she had written the check. I am now worried that the house will be full before we even get moved in.

08-20-2005, 12:40 AM	#2
JonInMiddleGA Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Behind Enemy Lines in Athens, GA	I feel your pain, or at least I'm anticipating it -- we're looking to buy definitely in the next 9 months, possibly as soon as a month (depending on how much we like/don't like what we're going to see next weekend) and then go through the hell of selling in an extremely soft market locally. I'll be keeping an eye on this, although I'm afraid all it's going to do is increase my already high anxiety level -- I absolutely fucking HATE buying/selling property. __________________ "I lit another cigarette. Unless I specifically inform you to the contrary, I am always lighting another cigarette." - from a novel by Martin Amis

08-20-2005, 01:18 AM	#3
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	We have been looking for houses for around six weeks. We aren't really in a hurry though, but we have some very special needs, and a very tight budget. We have looked at about 15 properties, made an offer and had it rejected. The seller's broker used our offer as leverage on another family in order to get the sale. I didn't mind that is just the name of the game. We feel a little deflated right now, we have seen almost everything that interests us in NKY and nothing else really strikes us. Plus, we are not sure if our budget can sustain an increase in our housing expenses. Good Luck. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

08-24-2005, 04:31 PM	#4
wishbone High School JV Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Hillsboro OR	Saturday - I look through the paper and see a couple promising listings. I make an appointment for that afternoon. Spent a few hours getting ready for our home inspection while watching our 3 year old. I get nothing done. We go to view the house from the newspaper and can only laugh. House is beautiful but eccentric. It has at least 6 different types of carpet, a 2-car garage that has been converted to a family room and has a stuccoed barrel-arch ceiling. Older couple are the original owners of the home and have made some additions and changes. Also has an industrial strength 3.5 ton air conditioner, owner boasts "it can't get hot enough for this not cool the house down" I am concerned and intrigued about the possibility of a cryogenic chamber somewhere in the house. We do not make an offer. Sunday - We go for a drive about 30 miles from our current place just to see what's out there. We see a lot of stuff we don't like and very little we do. This will be a last resort. Monday - My wife spots a "for sale by owner" (FSBO) near our home and peeks in the windows. She likes it, the price is in our range and we make an appointment to tour it the next day. We also see another new listing and ask our realtor to get us in to take a look. Tuesday 8/23 - We tour the new listing, it is a 2000 sq ft home at the end of a dead end road near 2 schools, has lots of trees, a little creek and railroad tracks about 30 yards from the front door. The FSBO is beautiful, all carpet is new, new appliances and a lot of little features we really like. The owners will not pay a realtor and tell us that "a full price offer will probably not be enough". They are not being greedy, just stating the facts about current market conditions. We say we have a little room to go higher and lay out some basic terms. We ask them to call us tonight to see if we should pursue this further. That night they offer to sell to us for $4k over asking, which I think is fair, but we decline, we are just not sure this house is the one. Last night at 11pm we look on the real estate search site and see the house that we almost made an offer on is back on the market. I call the listing agent and my agent and tell them we will be making an offer. I later realize this makes me sound desperate, at the time it seemed the natural thing to do. My wife even says so. Last edited by wishbone : 08-24-2005 at 04:37 PM.

08-24-2005, 05:08 PM	#5
wishbone High School JV Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Hillsboro OR	Wednesday 8/24 - I get to work at 7am but have been forbidden to call anyone until 9am. At 9am I call our agent and make sure she knows whats going on. My wife and our agent meet at 11am and draw up offer papers. I have just faxed back the offer to our agent after signing it, she will get it to the listing agent and hopefully we'll know soon whether it was accepted.

08-25-2005, 12:14 PM	#9
wishbone High School JV Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Hillsboro OR	Last night our offer was accepted, we will be upgrading from 3bd/2ba 1040sf house on a 7600sf lot to a 4bd/2ba 1714sf house on an 8000sf lot. It's about a mile from where we currently live. Now we have to schedule an inspection, closing and moving dates...

08-25-2005, 12:26 PM	#10
digamma Torchbearer Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: On Lake Harriet	Congrats!

08-25-2005, 06:07 PM	#12
wishbone High School JV Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Hillsboro OR	Thanks guys, It's a funny thing though, yesterday I was thinking "if we get this house, what will we put in it, we'll never fill that all that room." 30 minutes after having the offer accepted, my wife was on craigslist and found a bed and other decorations for the guest room. Within 90 minutes she had written the check. I am now worried that the house will be full before we even get moved in.

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