So we've been on the house hunt since February.
We've had zero luck. It's awful. It sucks!!!!!!!! What makes it harder is watching friends in places put an offer on the house and get it. I don't know all the details of thier home purchase, of course, but I feel like their purchase process has been easier than ours has been.
Here's our history. Keep in mind, these are only the houses we've put an offer on. We've looked at probably 18-20 houses. (We looked at 12 houses within the first week Dave was home from deployment.)
Mid-February: Hanford Dream-House - $265k
3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, bonus room in basement, pool
I found my dream house. And it's in HANFORD. Who knew?! Priced at the very top of our budget, this house had it all. Located walking distance to Downtown (Superior Dairy, Thursday Night Markets), built in 1911, purchased from second owner in 2000, the house was rebuilt from the studs up in the keeping with the original design of the time period. There were even some old original doors with original glass doorknobs. GLASS DOORKNOBS! It was on a half-acre with a fenced off garden, pool, covered patio. A single car detached garage - which may have been part of the original NAS Lemoore barracks). The only house I will love in Hanford. Since Dave was still deployed, I inserted a contingency that the approval of the house was based on Dave seeing it within 15 days.
......Le sigh.......
Not accepted. Contingency and VA loan were stated as reasons.
Late February: Conklin Approved - $235k
4 bedrooms (one without a closet), 2 full baths, open floor plan, pool
This foreclosure had the Conklin's approval since it was one block away. Needed some TLC, but in general good repair. A good easily rentable investment.
Outbid, possibly a cash offer.
Early March: The Random One - $225
4 bedrooms, 2 full baths, pool
A Short Sale. This one was not in the neighborhoods we'd been looking in, but it met all the other prequalifications. A nice house that needed some work on the back yard (who puts gravel throughout one-fourth of the backyard?). We put in an offer (total low-ball offer), went to Hawaii, three days in the vacay, we get a counter offer with notification that the seller's have received another offer that was higher than the counter offer they offered. UGH. We decided to significantly - when I say significantly, I mean SIG-NIF-I-CANT-LY - increase our offer.
Outbid. Currently the back-up offer.
Early April: Superb Rentablity with Conklin Approval - $220
3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, pool, hot-tub, open floor plan
So this one is an interesting one. Another Short Sale. By a CDR/squadron CO. They were only $40k underwater, so we were confused as to why it was a short sale to begin with. It also was priced low for the neighborhood/amenities to create a mulitple offers situation. Well, congrats, jerks. You did. The house was listed on Friday, seen by four potential sellers. By Monday there were three offers. The buyer countered all offers asking for "H&B," highest and best offers. I'm not gonna lie. We offered a significant amount of the asking price and included all closing costs. We thought we had a strong offer. And it was. But who can compete with an all cash offer. UGH. FOR SERIOUSLY!?
Outbid by all cash offer.
So that's our story. I know that "normal" length of time it takes to find a house is six months. And we aren't there yet. But I am sooooo flippin' tired of getting outbid. On every house we've been one of at least three offers! Seriously!! I have to remind myself that Hanford, because of its proximity to NAS Lemoore, is not representational of the rest of the market. I feel like nowhere else are people fighting to get a house. This market feels more like 2007 than post-crash 2012.
That's the rational side of me.
The emotional side of me is more like this: Is our realtor actually doing her job? Is she representing us well? We are a NO-RISK LOAN. Really - the loan agent double ran our credit because she hadn't seen anything that high in a while. And we were the first offers on each of these houses. How is that fair? That people who are Johnny-come-lately get the house that we saw first? It's not fair. Also, I think that most realors as skeezeballs.
Additional worries include the spring-summer bump. Housing prices go up. Poopface.
We've had zero luck. It's awful. It sucks!!!!!!!! What makes it harder is watching friends in places put an offer on the house and get it. I don't know all the details of thier home purchase, of course, but I feel like their purchase process has been easier than ours has been.
Here's our history. Keep in mind, these are only the houses we've put an offer on. We've looked at probably 18-20 houses. (We looked at 12 houses within the first week Dave was home from deployment.)
Mid-February: Hanford Dream-House - $265k
3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, bonus room in basement, pool
I found my dream house. And it's in HANFORD. Who knew?! Priced at the very top of our budget, this house had it all. Located walking distance to Downtown (Superior Dairy, Thursday Night Markets), built in 1911, purchased from second owner in 2000, the house was rebuilt from the studs up in the keeping with the original design of the time period. There were even some old original doors with original glass doorknobs. GLASS DOORKNOBS! It was on a half-acre with a fenced off garden, pool, covered patio. A single car detached garage - which may have been part of the original NAS Lemoore barracks). The only house I will love in Hanford. Since Dave was still deployed, I inserted a contingency that the approval of the house was based on Dave seeing it within 15 days.
......Le sigh.......
Not accepted. Contingency and VA loan were stated as reasons.
Late February: Conklin Approved - $235k
4 bedrooms (one without a closet), 2 full baths, open floor plan, pool
This foreclosure had the Conklin's approval since it was one block away. Needed some TLC, but in general good repair. A good easily rentable investment.
Outbid, possibly a cash offer.
Early March: The Random One - $225
4 bedrooms, 2 full baths, pool
A Short Sale. This one was not in the neighborhoods we'd been looking in, but it met all the other prequalifications. A nice house that needed some work on the back yard (who puts gravel throughout one-fourth of the backyard?). We put in an offer (total low-ball offer), went to Hawaii, three days in the vacay, we get a counter offer with notification that the seller's have received another offer that was higher than the counter offer they offered. UGH. We decided to significantly - when I say significantly, I mean SIG-NIF-I-CANT-LY - increase our offer.
Outbid. Currently the back-up offer.
Early April: Superb Rentablity with Conklin Approval - $220
3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, pool, hot-tub, open floor plan
So this one is an interesting one. Another Short Sale. By a CDR/squadron CO. They were only $40k underwater, so we were confused as to why it was a short sale to begin with. It also was priced low for the neighborhood/amenities to create a mulitple offers situation. Well, congrats, jerks. You did. The house was listed on Friday, seen by four potential sellers. By Monday there were three offers. The buyer countered all offers asking for "H&B," highest and best offers. I'm not gonna lie. We offered a significant amount of the asking price and included all closing costs. We thought we had a strong offer. And it was. But who can compete with an all cash offer. UGH. FOR SERIOUSLY!?
Outbid by all cash offer.
So that's our story. I know that "normal" length of time it takes to find a house is six months. And we aren't there yet. But I am sooooo flippin' tired of getting outbid. On every house we've been one of at least three offers! Seriously!! I have to remind myself that Hanford, because of its proximity to NAS Lemoore, is not representational of the rest of the market. I feel like nowhere else are people fighting to get a house. This market feels more like 2007 than post-crash 2012.
That's the rational side of me.
The emotional side of me is more like this: Is our realtor actually doing her job? Is she representing us well? We are a NO-RISK LOAN. Really - the loan agent double ran our credit because she hadn't seen anything that high in a while. And we were the first offers on each of these houses. How is that fair? That people who are Johnny-come-lately get the house that we saw first? It's not fair. Also, I think that most realors as skeezeballs.
Additional worries include the spring-summer bump. Housing prices go up. Poopface.
3 comments:
House buying is no fun. And I agree, a lot of realtors are really skeevy.
I know you know this, but it (sometimes) helps to hear again, that the right house is waiting for you at the right time. We lost out on a short sale that I loved when the bank counter-offered $25k more than the our offer, which was also the asking price. ($25k!!! Really? I promise the house is not worth that!) But then we found a house that was $35k less than what we offered on the other house and $55k less than the bank wanted. And I love it so much more and I'm so glad that the other fell through.
But it really sucks in the meantime.
Good luck girlie!! love you!
It's a tough game in a tough real estate market. Are you offering full price bids, in other words, the asking price? If not, talk to your agent about his tactic. I sold a house to a buyer when the offers (3) were all over the asking price. All of them! And the highest bidder won...In tight markets like yours, that might be the best approach?? I also think working on short sale properties may have some serious problems in this environment. You are probably having to bid against investors who may have more cash to work with.
Bidding is hard! You have to think about your actual budget, how much you want the property, various emotional components, and what you think the other bidders will do. You have learned a lot already about the bidding process. Now your agent can help you apply your knowledge to come up with a winning one! I think it will happen...good luck Annie and Dave!
Friend, sorry to hear your house hunting woes! (We once spend three months looking for the perfect sofa and that was horrible! Can only imagine a house.) Since we just moved and recently closed, I'll share a few things to make you feel better....
1. In our situation, another couple offered minutes after we did... Apparently same range offer. Our real estate agent ( also a E2 spouse friend) had all paperwork ready to go and offered a fast closing date that won the seller over. So, I think everywhere is similar to your situation. Maybe your friends are just getting lucky. Or are paying more.
2. Our agent also warned us that short sales and foreclosures are hard to close on.
3. We paid an embarrassing amount more than you are budgeting. (As in your top of your budget was kinda our starting. Shh! Don't tell anyone. We made the decision to think of it as invest and pray Chris selects for O4 quickly. (In about a year and a half.)
4. Our agent was great about knowing how to bid. We wanted to low ball our bid and she recommended we didn't. We paid more than we wanted but we got the house.
So, you're probably shopping smarter than most. I know smart than us. I wanted to rent for 6 months and find a great deal in that time frame but for varies reasons we decided not to do that.
Hope that helped!
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