Stephen
New member
Some of you may remember that I had begun the saga of buying a house a few months ago.
Well, here's what's happened:
We found a mortgage broker willing to work with us. Now, my credit was not so crystal coming out of college. I had a lot of foolish debt (too many gadgets from Sears and Best Buy) that I'm just now finishing paying off. But due to a lot of missed pamyments (these hurt a LOT more than the amount of spending iteself I've discovered) my credit score is WAY low (FICO in the high 500's, for those who know what that means).
My wife's credit is GREAT, unfortunately, she doesn't have any income, she's a stay-at-home mom.
So, we were excited to finally find someone willing to give us a chance. It comes with a lot of restrictions (zoning has to be residential, no "weird" properties, no mobiles, etc.). The good news is that we CAN look for a duplex, which is where our focus has been.
To date, we've filled out 6 purchase and sales agreements. All the time, we've been overbid. The one house we were hoping for was overpriced ($300K, was worth $260), and we bid more than it was worth, but about 30K below asking price ($270K). They countered with $295K. I was so annoyed, that I wasn't going to go back. But my wife REALLY like the house, and their realtor kept pushing for a counter, as they had had "a lot of activity" but no other offers. So I countered $280. But then they got another bid, countered that, and accepted their offer.
Now I think we've found the place. Price was good, two 3 bedroom units, on an acre of land. Purchase and sales agreement went in, offering their asking price. They've cancelled all showings, and apparently we're just waiting to find out whether they want to close this year or next (depending on what's better tax-wise). We're pushing for this year, as that will avoid a penalty on our part. I withdrew 10K from my 401K for first time home purchase. It's too late to put it back without penalty, so I'm pushing to close by Dec. 31.
So that's the saga. Once our offer is accepted, I'll let you all know where. But right now, I''m paranoid that someone is following us around and overbiding us on every property that we've tried for. Hopefully this will be "the one".
-Stephen
Well, here's what's happened:
We found a mortgage broker willing to work with us. Now, my credit was not so crystal coming out of college. I had a lot of foolish debt (too many gadgets from Sears and Best Buy) that I'm just now finishing paying off. But due to a lot of missed pamyments (these hurt a LOT more than the amount of spending iteself I've discovered) my credit score is WAY low (FICO in the high 500's, for those who know what that means).
My wife's credit is GREAT, unfortunately, she doesn't have any income, she's a stay-at-home mom.
So, we were excited to finally find someone willing to give us a chance. It comes with a lot of restrictions (zoning has to be residential, no "weird" properties, no mobiles, etc.). The good news is that we CAN look for a duplex, which is where our focus has been.
To date, we've filled out 6 purchase and sales agreements. All the time, we've been overbid. The one house we were hoping for was overpriced ($300K, was worth $260), and we bid more than it was worth, but about 30K below asking price ($270K). They countered with $295K. I was so annoyed, that I wasn't going to go back. But my wife REALLY like the house, and their realtor kept pushing for a counter, as they had had "a lot of activity" but no other offers. So I countered $280. But then they got another bid, countered that, and accepted their offer.
Now I think we've found the place. Price was good, two 3 bedroom units, on an acre of land. Purchase and sales agreement went in, offering their asking price. They've cancelled all showings, and apparently we're just waiting to find out whether they want to close this year or next (depending on what's better tax-wise). We're pushing for this year, as that will avoid a penalty on our part. I withdrew 10K from my 401K for first time home purchase. It's too late to put it back without penalty, so I'm pushing to close by Dec. 31.
So that's the saga. Once our offer is accepted, I'll let you all know where. But right now, I''m paranoid that someone is following us around and overbiding us on every property that we've tried for. Hopefully this will be "the one".
-Stephen
