RazorbackMustang
MT82 Lover
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.
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.