Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Thoughts on Being Denied

It sucks to be denied. Though our offer was "not accepted" rather than "denied" as I wrote, it doesn't soften the blow.

splorp! and I tried hard not to get too excited about the house we liked. We knew it would be a big blow to get our hopes up, and then have them taken away from us, so we made an effort to not talk about, "we could do this, we cold do that, wouldn't it be great to do ..." This turned out to be a good mindset, because in the end, we didn't get the house.

We have heard so many stories about people who put in offers on homes, only to get "not accepted" (aka "denied") time and time again. It seems like if you read any of the real estate sections on the major news sites you will read about people who placed offers on 6 different homes before finally being accepted for the one they now live in. And we personally work with people who have made offers in the local market, only to be "not accepted," or to withdraw their offer because the selling bank was taking too long to respond.

Too, we know the process of offer and escrow is not likely to be a quick process, even if our offer is accepted somewhere. Our Realtor told us 30 day escrows are unlikely, and sometimes 45 is pushing it, too. The banks are just so busy with all the houses under contract it's taking them longer and longer to process properties.

In fact, one of splorp!'s co-workers experienced a 3 month delay on their close of escrow - not because of anything he did, but because the house they wanted was found to have mold problems during the inspection. They petitioned the selling bank for either a repair before closing or money for them to do the repair themselves, and ended up receiving a $6,000 credit toward closing costs from the selling bank, so they could afford to do the mold remediation before moving in. This was probably a smart move on that bank's part, because now they would have been forced to disclose to a new potential buyer that "yes, we know the house has mold, and no, we're not intending to do anything about it." Giving up $6,000 was less expensive for them in the long run.

In spite of being bummed about losing the house we liked, we went and saw a newly listed property last night. Something just seems "off" about this one. The stupid part is this house has almost the exact same floor plan as a house we already saw and liked (but turned down due to a cracked foundation). I'm having trouble pinning down what seems strange about this house. All I can come up with is the master bedroom is much smaller than we would like, the neighborhood is a bit more run down, it has a bad asphalt driveway (which could be an expensive fix to pour a new concrete one), it's very close to a busy street (but we can't hear any road noise anywhere on the property or in the house), and the house was very, very cluttered, which made it hard to see the potential life we could have in this house.

The owner of the house was present, and she was very nice, answering all sorts of questions about repairs done, or not done, and apologies about the clutter as she and her soon-to-be-ex-husband are trying to find a rental while their house is being sold as a short sale.

Side note: I will have to remember something this house had which I have never seen before: a drive-thru garage. The 2-car garage had the standard 2-car garage door (and it was new) on the front as normal, but on the back, there was a 1-car garage door (also new) that led out to the back yard. I guess it would be perfect for a boat or small trailer, or a mechanic, or something. At the very least it's ideal for getting the lawn mower to the back yard (not that the house had any back lawn to speak of - it was all dead).

So, splorp! and I have not ruled this house out, but my mom probably said it best when she said, "It sounds like you're trying to talk yourself into liking this house."

What makes decision making hard is we know we are comparing it (unfairly) against the nicer, larger house we just lost out on, and it just doesn't match up.

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