Tuesday, June 23, 2009

We did it!

We FINALLY put a bid in on a house. We are both scared and excited at the same time. We are both imagining what it will be like to live in this new beautiful house, and also imagining how much we will be disappointed if our offer isn't accepted. We are confident our offer WILL be accepted, but then remember that the market has changed and there is a VERY good chance it won't be.

It's amazing how the market has changed out here in California in just a few short weeks. The house we are bidding for is the EXACT same layout as our "dream house" that we saw that we could not put an offer on because they already had too many. It is only four houses down from that house. It isn't as fancy as the other with all the upgrades that one had, but it does have a nicer view. The "dream" house listed for $359k and sold for $345k. Our house is listed for a similar price (I am not disclosing the actual price, come on now!) and we made our offer with $15k over asking. They then called back to inform us of multiple offers (when it had only been on the market TWO days) and told us we may want to think about raising our offer. So we did. Another $5k. That was our final offer. I CANNOT BELIEVE it's come to this out here already. With VERY limited inventory, one house gets SO MANY offers that it is insane. If you aren't offering MORE than asking price, you might as well forget it. Sigh.

Since we did not have $80k for a down payment, we got an FHA loan which can also go against us in this bidding war too. But, it also helps us if the house appraises for less than we are asking and they accept our offer, we only have to pay the appraisal price! :) (Although there are loopholes with that which I don't even want to think about right at this moment).

And the waiting game is very cruel! We could be waiting to hear back from the bank for up to 3 weeks. THREE FRIGGEN WEEKS. Cruelty I tell ya.

Is it REALLY this scary when trying to get your first house? Is it really this nerve wracking? Poor DH didn't sleep well last night thinking about it, wondering if we should have just stayed with our first price and not offer the additional $5k. Then he is worried about the FHA thing which I am too. Sigh.

So we wait. We wait and wait and wait and pray and pray and pray. I sure hope good news comes our way SOON!

5 comments:

Brandi. said...

Well, good luck. I only hope we can afford to think of buying our own house soon. :)

Kimmy said...

Awww!! How exciting!! And yes...it is this scary and nerve wracking when buying your first home (anytime buying a new home from what I hear). When we bought our first home 5 yrs ago, it was during the time right before the "bubble burst" and we lost out on so many bids because the bidding wars. It got to the point where I had to look at the house, make a judgement call on whether to bid or not while Paul was at work. He didn't even see the house until the inspection. He just had to trust me. We ended up getting a good deal at the time since renters were in there (which lowers the value) but we had to deal with a 3 month escrow. I hope yours goes smoother and I'll pray your bid gets excepted and all goes well!!

Young Momma said...

Good luck!! We got lucky when we bought our house a year ago. We only offered what they were asking AND asked the seller to put $10k toward closing! Got it immediately. Now I can't sell it unless I go $100,00 under what I bought for... and I want out so bad!!!!! LOL

Anyway, enough of me! Good luck! I'll cross my fingers!

alison said...

awww, so excited for you!! fingers crossed!

Firehouse mama said...

Update us!! Did you get the house?!?! Is munchkin # 2 a boy/girl?!?! Updates!!!