I have decided that this buying a house thing is quite possibly one of the worst experiences I have ever had!
We basically had to loose the house again this week! We were just getting ready to interview some new realtors and slowly get back into things when the house we lost came back on the market suddenly with 4 days to place bids... We ended up only having time to meet with one new realtor. He had come recommended as someone who knows a lot about buying a HUD property. So we placed a bid, then the winning bid was only 36 thousand over the asking price this time! Ouch so we definitely did not win.
Our realtor is waiting, though. He says it can be very difficult to close on HUD homes with that much of an overbid and he still has hopes of ours being a back up bid. I have no clue, but that could take as long as a month to find out! So in the meantime we are back in a buyers contract with this guy, whom we are still trying to get a feel for and aren't completely sure about. But we are giving him a try... we went out to look at houses on Saturday.(it was the first time since our big fiasco)... and it was quite disappointing. Nothing that was too promising at all and the only one that might have worked is a short sale. UGH!!
Short Sales are really popular right now. It is when people are about ready to foreclose on a home but instead of taking the credit hit they basically strike a deal with the bank and try to sell the house for less that it's worth to be able to cover their mortgage balance at least. The difficult thing is that the banks are in control, they say what offers can or cannot be acccepted and they run their own timetable. These homes can take up to a year to close because the seller and buyer are waiting for the banks approval. Our realtor and lender have both said that they get very ugly and they have not seen very many go well. I guess you have to have a lot of time and patience and hope you don't wait around for 9 months just to have the whole thing fall apart! Which is the risk...
Today our realtor first took us to one neighborhood in Denver city limits and we basically had to tell him no before we even walked in the house! There was graffiti everywhere and the area did not feel safe at all... run down. If that is all we can find we will have to choose not to buy. One house was in a great location, but the square footage wasn't very good and it felt cramped, or a little constipated as our friend Greg would put it!... then we found out it was a short sale. Another house was newer, had a better layout but ended up having major cracks in the basement floor as well as structural and settling issues... and the stories go on and on. We looked at 7 homes today and were left with very little.
It seems impossible to find the right house in the right location... We know that location is probably the most important but it has to be a livable space as well. I don't think our budget is that unreasonable for a first time buyer. Our lender says we are better off than the average first time buyers they work with... So where do we give? Are we expecting too much? So much of the market is foreclosures. It can be very difficult to work with the banks. And on top of that we are competing with a lot of investors who come in with cash offers. Who can compete with that?
That is my ranting I know it's long, sorry!!
Putting things in to perspective:
Really, in perspective things are going very good, and what can you complain about when we get to live next to the mountains? We are happy to be in Colorado and Matt's new job is going well. Last week the students came back for the semester so he is adjusting to the change and had a really long week. Next week is our 5th wedding anniversary!! Yipee and we are going to Glenwood Springs to hang out in the hot springs pool.
So we are learning a lot about buying a home, I know a ton more about the neighborhoods in Denver... and we'll just have to see what happens over the next month or so.
