Razorback's home buying experience

RazorbackMustang

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So, my wife and I decided it was time to purchase a home. We've been renting for the 10 years we've been together. Our latest rental home has been great, the rent is far lower than the average in the area, the landlords leave us alone (and we leave them alone), the location is great. But, it isn't ours. So we started the process in early February.

We had in mind what we wanted so we started the search. It didn't take long to find several to view. The first one we viewed was actually a great house in a great neighborhood. We loved the size and layout. However, the carpet throughout was completely trashed and the laminate flooring in the master bedroom was shoddily installed. Both would have to be replaced leaving only the tiled area flooring in decent shape. We thought it was overpriced due to the amount of work it would need. So we moved on. About a week later, the listing agent called our agent and said they really wanted to get an offer on the house. So, we made an offer. But our offer accounted for the ~$8,000-$10,000 in flooring that would be required to get it in shape. Apparently, our offer was insulting. :) Not that I cared. Moving on.

We looked at several others. All had goods and bads, but not enough goods to warrant an offer. So we come to the second house that we made an offer on. Strangely enough, it's on the same street as the first one, but in much better shape on the inside. It had been under contract up until this point. The layout is even better and it's bigger. The only thing it really needed was some carpet shampooing in the living room. Overall, we loved it. So we made an offer that was only $2000 under asking price. The day after we made the offer, the listing agent called our agent to let him know that the reason the first contract fell through was the appraisal didn't come in high enough. We thought that was strange as the house is only 10 years old and is really solid. The only thing we could think of hurting it is the neighbors directly behind have about 20 chickens in their yard......we had decided we could live with it (it's legal in our city.....weird). Anyway, the owner was unwilling to budge on his asking price. So that one fell through. Moving on.

We came to another house (same neighborhood again). A little smaller than the other two but brand new carpet throughout, freshly painted inside, all new ceiling fans, faucets. The layout was not quite as good, but overall we really liked the house. And the asking price was $18,000 under our max budget, which was good. We viewed the house the day it went on the market. We made an offer that was full asking price. Later that night, our realtor called me to say there was another offer on the home and asked if we wanted to leave it as is or up our offer. We decided to up our offer to $2,000 over the asking price as it was still a really good buy. Further later that night, I received an email from our realtor that the owner had accepted a higher offer. We were pretty bummed on this one. We just knew that offering over asking price was going to lock this one up. Moving on, again.

At this point, we were getting pretty bummed. I was getting tired of looking at houses (we'd looked at quite a few). We went to look at some new construction homes being built a few miles from our current home. These were the most expensive (per square foot) we had looked at yet. They were smaller than the others but the floor plans were excellent and felt very open. They had a model home of the floor plan we liked that we could look at. We decided to go ahead with that route as one of the floor plans we wanted was scheduled to be finished on 6/16, which would be just about right. It was on a corner lot near the back of the subdivision, away from the noise of the busier road at the entrance. With it being new construction, there wasn't really any haggling to be done. So we made the offer, of course, at full listed price for this floor plan. Once again, just knowing we had this one in the bag. The broker comes back with corner lots being an additional $4,000. Nowhere in their documentation is that listed or mentioned. He also comes back with the fact that the price has increased on the home itself by $1,500. This now puts it out of our price range. We made the offer the day after going to an open house and looking at their current price list. At this point we're starting to feel more than deflated. We took several days off from even bothering to look at listings. Moving on......still.

A couple weeks ago we had driven through the neighborhood of a house that had been listed for a while. The house was listed out of our price range, but we thought we'd check anyway. The neighborhood was nice. But we put it out of mind as it was pretty far out of our budget. The following week, the price got lowered by $10,000. This put it close enough to our range that we decided to give it second look. They also held an open house that weekend. We went to the open house. I guess it was that feeling. We absolutely loved this home. Split floor plan, central and open kitchen, large bedrooms, all the stuffs. It was owned by an older lady whose husband had died several years ago so she moved to a nursing home in Louisiana. It was extremely well cared for, far more so than most of the other previously occupied homes we'd viewed. We went back for another viewing the evening of the open house with our realtor. We decided to make an offer. We offered $2,300 under listed price and asked for a little help with the closing costs. I wasn't hopeful as our luck hadn't been very good so far. The listing agent had mentioned that they hadn't received any offers yet, so I had a glimmer of hope. The next morning I got word from our agent that they had accepted our offer! I couldn't even believe it.

The look in my wife's eyes made the whole mess worth it. I'm still a little gun shy on if everything will go through or not, but I'm hopeful. Our inspection is scheduled for Monday morning, we've made the official mortgage application, the appraisal will happen sometime in the next seven business days or so. My fingers are crossed. May 19 is our current closing date. I'll update this as things happen, hopefully with good news.
 

ksack

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Congrats on finding one that fits your needs! If it does for some reason fall through and you are serious about building, get back with the builder and negotiate. I was looking at building myself but it was just a little out of my budget and way out of my timeline (military move). The builder came down close to 10% per square foot for me simply not using a realtor and was willing to do about another 5 for going with slightly less fancy finishes.
 

tjm73

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When the wife and I looked at the house we ended up buying it was just above what we wanted to pay. We loved the house but the seller seemed unwilling to budge even one dollar from her asking price. We looked for two more months and compared every house to the house we ended up buying. Then we saw that the seller dropped her price very close to what we were willing to pay. We looked at another house close by and after leaving that one drove by the house we loved. The fr sale sign was gone. We asked our realtor to call her realtor and see if it sold or was still available. We looked a second time and made an offer at her asking price, but she covered all closing costs. She accepted it.

We found out later she didn't want to take the offer but her realtor told her she had better get a little flexible because she had been trying to sell it off and on for over two years. And two sales had fallen through because she was stubborn.

It is a frustrating process for sure. But when you find THE house, you know it.

Congrats!
 

01yellerCobra

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Congrats. Finding a home is a roller coaster of feelings. I remember when we were looking it took us 6 months to find something. And honestly, the main reason we jumped on our current house was because it was a normal sale in our budget. We looked at 25-30 houses and majority of them were foreclosures that were tore up or short sales.
 

skwerl

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Congrats! I can appreciate the emotional highs and lows as you find a house, make an offer and get rejected over and over. Just keep in mind that there's always a reason and things seem to work out exactly as they are supposed to.

When I was shopping, I would have never looked at my current house if I hadn't been rejected on the previous three. And this house is ten times the house any of the others were.
 

Shaffe

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Congrats! I can appreciate the emotional highs and lows as you find a house, make an offer and get rejected over and over. Just keep in mind that there's always a reason and things seem to work out exactly as they are supposed to.

When I was shopping, I would have never looked at my current house if I hadn't been rejected on the previous three. And this house is ten times the house any of the others were.

This^ when we were looking at houses we found one that we thought was the one. Went back later that day to look at it again and make our offer and it ended up in a bidding war that our realtor kept us out of once it got heated. A few weeks later we found our house and couldn't be happier.
 

Thenorm

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congrats.

a long search process can be frustrating.

It took 8 offers until we got ours. and we paid $40,000 over asking with no subjects.

we were actually lucky ours was accepted. The house initally listed, but they didnt let anybody come see because they were "decluttering". then why list IMO? anyways week later our agent asks if we want to see the house. they were having an open house on a tuesday from 12-4pm and accepting offers at 6pm. I took the afternoon off to go see the place, and we put in an offer. my wife didnt even see the place, she had to take my word for it.

lastly, we asked their agent which closing/possession dates they wanted and we gave them exactly that.

So we got it, and our offer wasnt even the highest, but we had the best terms.

anyways, i dont recommend moving to Vancouver area, BC, the housing market is ridiculous.
 

TheKurgan

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Congrats there Lucas. Home buying sucks. I've since moved out of Arkansas and to Florida and looking to buy my second home here. I still own one house in Arkansas that I rent out. The prices are ridiculous down here and I'll be in debt the rest of my natural born life when I do this, but I figure you only live once. Car, truck, boat, paid for, no other debt, no other needs, so wth. Good luck with the house!
 

Iceman62

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Wow...definitely a frustrating search for your 1st home, but sounds like things paid off. Can't wait to hear you're locked-in & see the pics!
 

Shotokan1509

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Congrats!

Apparently, our offer was insulting.

I looked at a LOT of houses, put an offer on one and in my town there is basically one Queen realtor that everyone seems to love. Well, my offer was "insulting" even though it had been on market for a while and no price change (sounded like she wouldn't even give it to her clients). When it finally sold multiple months later, guess what it was basically my offer :yaoface:

S'ok, 95% of things I am much happier with the house I ended up getting.
 

Scott

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Congratulations Lucas! You do realize the Honey-do-list will come before time working on your Mustang!

Unless you bought a 427 Cobra and kept it in moth balls since new, you could not buy a better investment than a house.

The young bride and I are in our 4th house, our first was a townhouse, then a semi-detached, then a detached and 20 years ago we paid $380,000 for a large house on a 2 acre lot 15 minutes north of the city. Now the city has pretty much expanded to us and our investment has grown to over 2.6 million.

Again congratulations and I am looking forward to the pictures.
 

RazorbackMustang

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Sorry for no replies! (Or pics) I will post pics when I can. Right now the house is still occupied with the owner's possessions and I've been out of town in Florida since last week.

Updates for now: inspection went well. Very minor things. The built in microwave didn't work and two burners on the gas stove wouldn't light. We asked for additional closing costs paid and they accepted that offer. So I will bank a little bit of money and get those two things fixed. Currently we're waiting on the mortgage approval and the appraisal. Fingers still crossed for everything going through. Thanks for the advice and encouragement!

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 

RazorbackMustang

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A picture!

Still waiting. We should have the appraisal back this week. Now we're waiting on title processing and the rest of the mortgage processing. For now, here's a pic! (pinched from the realtor listing)

16jkbv7.jpg
 

RazorbackMustang

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Damn, the garage looks bigger than the house itself. PERFECT! Lol!

It's awesome. Probably the biggest garage I've ever seen in a house like this. The previous owner had workbenches lining both sides and the back (with a full sized fridge too) and I could still get both our cars in there.
 

tjm73

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A big garage is double edge sword. You can do a lot in them, but you can also let them fill up with shit you don't need. Be careful of the latter.
 

RazorbackMustang

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A big garage is double edge sword. You can do a lot in them, but you can also let them fill up with shit you don't need. Be careful of the latter.

Fortunately, my wife knows how I operate. Garages are for car parking and working on shit. It's not for storage of crap. The house has a pretty decent sized metal storage building in the back yard. That can be filled up to anyone's heart's content.

23ochy.jpg


I have to be honest, I was pretty resistant to doing this but now I'm getting excited and I'm ready to move!
 
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