House buying is driving us crazy!

[castlegirl]

Whoever said this is a buyer's market hasn't met us.

We've been looking for a house for over a year. Our current house is not on the market yet. We're not looking for a mansion, just something a little bigger in a nicer neighborhood. In the past year, we've found 3 houses that we liked. The first one someone else out-bid us. The second and third houses we liked, we weren't even allowed to put in an offer. Sellers weren't interested!? The frustrating thing is that we didn't even get a chance! We really thought this last one was the perfect house for us. Now I'm thinking we'll never find our dream house.

This last one we went to see 2 times in less than a week and were ready to put in an offer, but the seller took the first offer that came in. The seller's agent never called our agent to let her know there was another offer coming in, at our agent's request! Apparently, an offer came in on Sunday morning and was accepted, yet we were allowed to take a second look at 3:00PM on Sunday. How is that possible? If it's already sold, why were we allowed to have a second look? This whole real estate market is such a game. It's so frustrating!

Anyone else have so much trouble finding a house? Are we being too picky?

"It wasn't meant to be" is something we've heard over and over, but 3 times???

[pink]

My mother is a real estate agent and everytime she gets a customer they are always looking for "the perfect house" and honestly, it really doesn't exist. Since your house isn't on the market yet and you're not under any pressure to move out by a certain day- just take your time and you will probally find your house when you least expect it. Out-biding always happens, and sometimes sellers pull their houses off the market for various reasons. Usually those houses will go back on the market a few months to a year later so it worth it to keep checking online to see.


This last one we went to see 2 times in less than a week and were ready to put in an offer, but the seller took the first offer that came in. The seller's agent never called our agent to let her know there was another offer coming in, at our agent's request! Apparently, an offer came in on Sunday morning and was accepted, yet we were allowed to take a second look at 3:00PM on Sunday. How is that possible? If it's already sold, why were we allowed to have a second look? This whole real estate market is such a game. It's so frustrating!

This sounds a little shady but it could have also just been a mistake. However, I've seen this scenario before where sometimes the agent that is selling the house also has a customer looking to buy that same house and it is possible that the agent will give the seller her customers offer before anyone elses or convince the seller to just take that offer in order for them to gain a larger commission.

Another scenario, the seller could have also told her agent that they were going to take the first accepted offer therefore they just wanted to sell the house as quickly as possible and move on. That is strange that they still let you in to see that house later than day though. :mickey:

[DizneyRox]

I was a seller not too long ago...

In this market, a seller is very unlikely to take a Hubbard clause, which is what you would require. If you are serious about moving, you should put your house on the market and start aggressively selling it. It took us about 3 months to sell our house, and honestly, we took the FIRST offer that came in. There were times we were praying for ANY offer, even a lowball offer we could laugh at, but nothing was coming in.

There are so many houses on the market right now, finding one to move into should be easy, so don't worry about you not having a place to stay. And as mentioned, there are no "perfect houses". We just built a custom home, and it's not perfect. It's getting there, but it's not by any means, perfect.

Anyway, outbidding happens, and you were probably not allowed to bid for maybe several reasons. We were not going to accept anything if there was a Hubbard clause, told my agent to not even bother me with those offers (I think he had to legally, but there wasn't a chance they were going to be considered, regardless of the amount). Also, we weren't going to accept anything that didn't have a pre-approval for a 30 year mortgage (or cash). With the subprime lenders yanking mortgages out from people, we weren't going to be left holding the bag.

Finally... We ended up getting two offers around the same time. One was higher without home inspection and the other was about 15K lower WITH a home inspection. We opted for the first (of course) and didn't give a final call opportunty. Honeslty, the second offer was mostly declined because the buyers agent was a tard. But, waiving home inspection is just about guarantees a nice stress free transaction.

[LibertyTreeGal]

I hate it too! we are moving to Austin Texas in June and just sold our house last weekend (I hate that MORE than buying grrr).

We are headed there this weekend to go look.

I hope you find your home soon, but I ditto the above advice, get selling first!!! That is the hardest part!

[sleepingbooty]

I'm hating this "buyer's market" right now too - and I'm an agent! Yesterday was so frustrating. I saw one deal go down the tubes (on a piece of land - the buyer decided it would cost him too much to build. Wouldn't you find this kind of thing out BEFORE you put a contract on the land???). The other deal I'm working on has been the strangest thing I've ever seen, and now it is starting to tank. An agent/owner wanted to buy my clients home - if they would buy hers. We actually ended up getting an agreement hammered out, but now it is looking like this agent is not going to be able to get a loan - yet the home she is buying from us is nearly half the price of the one she is selling. I'm going crazy over here, because now she's not returning my calls. I had a feeling from the get go that something wasn't kosher with this. It is NOT fun to be in real estate right now!!:thedolls:

[Ian]

Well I can probably identify with your issue more, because I live very close to you (we're down below Quakertown) and have to deal with basically the same home market.

We looked for a new house earlier this year. We really aren't too thrilled with the neighborhood we live in now, because we're in a townhome and there just aren't many kids around. We want to move to a nice, big single in a neighborhood with lots of kids, but do you think we can find one we can afford?? Uh ... no!

I wish I had magic words for you, but the best I can say is to just stick with it. Also, I'm not sure where you're looking, but perhaps if you expand your search area you might have more luck?

One thing I will say is that putting your home on the market before you have a place to go is a bit risky. Unless you have a firm idea of where you'd live if your house sold before you could close on the new one, it's probably not a good idea.

If your situation allows it (i.e. you could afford both mortgages for a few months, don't need the equity out of your old house to buy the new one, can qualify for the new mortgage with the old one still open, etc.) you can always not make sale of your existing home a contingency on your purchase. That might help, too.

[buzznwoodysmom]

It will happen, just give it time.

DH and I have been struggling with the decision of building or buying for almost two years now. We ended up buying a lot in a new neighborhood last Jan. and decided to build. We went through two sets of house plans. For our first houseplan we paid the guy in full and had a few last minute changes and then never heard from the guy again. Can't find him anywhere. So we ended up getting a well known firm to do our new house plans. After all that we decided we didn't really want to live in the neighborhood we bought in.

Then we started looking around to buy. We found a few houses we liked, but they were all either just out of reach financially or we didn't care much for the location. A few times we really liked a house, but by the time we contacted someone about viewing the houses they were off the market. We literally stumbled upon a house this Feb. I had our children's birthday party at a gymnastics place. I have never had any of their parties anywhere other than our home, but for some reason this year I just didn't feel like doing all the work myself. On our way home from the party we saw a subdivision with at least 5 for sale signs by the entrance so we figured, why not take a look. We looked at 3 houses that day, all for sale by owner, and fell in love with one. At first we thought it was a little over our budget, but we worked with the sellers and closed on our loan last Friday!!! We are going to be making the big move next weekend (They are building a new, bigger home and it isn't quiet finished). The best part is that it is a very new, young subdivision with lots of young couples and kids. This house is only 4 years old, past home insepction with flying colors, is in a good school district, and is near perfect for us, we couldn't be happier. Plus the location can't be beat, it is only 10 minutes from DH office (right now he drives 30 minutes each way).

Sorry this was so long, but I just want you to know that when the time is right you will find the house for you. DH and I thought we'd never find something we'd really like, but in the end we are very happy we waited it out because this is by far the best fit for us out of everything we've looked at in the past 2 years. Good luck, I hope you find exactly what you are looking for!

[ncscgirl2005]

Whoever said this is a buyer's market hasn't met us.



Don't worry; they haven't met us either. :)

We've found schools that we want our kids to attend but cannot find homes in the zone. Of course we can apply for our kids to attend those schools if we don't buy a home in that zone but they will have to be a car rider every day. It's getting frustrating at this point but hang in there!!!

[LauraF]

Another buyer in the throes of a nervous breakdown here. :bang::fit:

I'm not hurting as bad since I'm only renting right now and don't have property to get rid of, but it is still VERY stressful. I am up nights worrying about how to make the money work. I can afford a house with some money to spare now, but I get worried when I realize that if any major expenses come up too soon after the house purchase I could be in deep doo doo. I only have a 3% down payment, and without a ton of equity, I just don't know how people manage to pay for everything.

I'm sure I'm over-worrying (can you say transference), but it doesn't help that my parents are bringing out all their real estate horror stores - like when they took bridge loans, or had to finance their down payment on a credit card and how loooooooong it took to pay off. I had to play those games 10 years ago when I was a recent college grad and I don't want to go back to having to choose between food or heat every month to pay my bills.

I swear it's like being bi-polar - one minute I'm excited about buying a new house and the next I've swung to thinking I'd be better of renting for the rest of my life because it's easier and cheaper. I know owning a house builds wealth, but it's that interim bit between "OMG I'm going to pay HOW much for HOW long?" and being able to not fear the monthly bills that I'm struggling with.

But remember also that this is traditionally the busiest time to buy houses. Sellers want to switch their kids at the end of a school year, plus everyone comes out of hibernation in spring. I've seen more activity this week on the market than in the past three months. I'm firmly convinced the right house is there for me, as frustrating as it may be for me to wait in the process.

Per your showing after the offer was accepted, that happens up here all the time (though this may not be your situation). It means that the offer was accepted but the LA was instructed by the seller to keep the listing open in case other offers would be made. Honestly, I consider that a bit greedy outside a seller's market. Buyers aren't interested in bidding wars right now.

Hang in there and know you're not the only one in such a situation. :hug:

[Gooftroop5]

It took us over a year to find our house. We looked at a bunch but none were worth anything in a price range we were willing to pay. Also we didn't want to live in the historical district & wanted a decent sized yard. We were renting so we didn't have to worry about selling our house to get a new one.

We drove by this house everyday on our way to work. Dh & I decided we would look at it. It was an estate sale & needed some work. At first we didn't think we wanted it. We then went back & looked at it again. We looked at it instead of everything that needed to be done to its an old house but has up to date wiring, plumbing and most of the work that needed to be done was finishing work that we could do ourselves. It was just a little bit more work than painting but it wasn't major contruction either. We put a bid in & we went back & forth but agreed on a price that day. We went the following week for our mortgage & when left the bank the realtor selling the house was going in to the bank. On our way home from work that night we drove by & the sign said sold. We didn't know our mortgage was approved for almost a week later. We thought that was the coolest.

Is it perfect no but it works for us. Its close enough dh can walk to work when the weather is nice & we can walk to the public library, playgrounds etc. We don't have a full acre but have over half an acre with woods along our backyard line. We have a huge fenced in area for our kids to play in plus still plenty of yard to have a large garden outside the fenced in area. We have more yard just haven't cleaned it out to make it useable. DH isn't complaining less he has to mow.;)

I'm not telling you just to settle on something because you need to get out which you don't with not having your house up for sale needing to move out just start looking at the houses with a different perspective. It helped us. Also patience. The house you want will show up when you least expect it.

[castlegirl]

Thanks everyone for your words of encouragement!:thumbsup:

We just really thought that this last house was the one for us. Right now, location is more important for us. DS is 14 and in 8th grade. We really don't want him to change schools for HS or go to a different JrH. He's doing really well in school, involved in lots of activities, and has friends. Our school district has 2 Jr High (grades 7-9) schools. He goes to one, but most of the homes for sale are in the "other Jr High" area. Our other thought is if we don't find anything in the next year, when our son goes to HS (grades 10-12) it won't matter where we live since everyone in the district goes to the same HS. DD is 7 (grade 1), so she'll adjust more easily.

We're really looking for a nice family neighborhood with other families with kids. This last house we looked at was also at a great price. We'd love something nicer, yet we don't want to be "house poor".

Luckily, we are in a financial situation where we feel that we wouldn't need to sell our house in order to purchase the new one. If we had to have 2 mortgages for a few months, we can handle it. We're even pre-approved at the bank.

Thanks again everyone! I think I just needed a pep talk.