For those of you who have never had to go through the stress of purchasing your first home, you probably shouldn't read this blog. You may decide to never purchase a first home, especially a short sale. Little lesson, there is absolutely nothing short about a short sale. In fact, short is the antithesis of a short sale. It is a long, grueling and horrid process. To bring everyone up-to-date, Nik and I first started looking at homes shortly after we moved to Fresno back in October of 2008. After only one day of house hunting, we fell in love with a beautiful home located in an up-and-coming young family neighborhood. We thought the house would be the perfect first home for a young married couple who desires to have children someday.
For all the property virgins out there, let me break down the process of house buying. First off, purchasing a home falls into one of three categories; regular sale, short sale and foreclosure (REO). With a regular sale, the buyer and the seller come to an agreement together on what the final selling price will be. Foreclosures require an agreement between the buyer and the bank because the bank in this case owns the home. In the case of short sale, the price of the house is "upside down" meaning that the cost of the house when the seller purchased the home is more expensive then what the current appraisal is on the home. Therefore, the buyer and seller come to an agreed purchase price, but then the bank has to approve the price as well and determine that the seller is financially incapable of paying their mortgage. This the situation that Nik and I fall into. Sounds awesome, doesn't it.
So, after falling in love with this house, putting in an offer, putting in a counter-offer, finally coming to an agreement with the seller and signing an obscene amount of paperwork, we thought we were set to go. This all took place last November. We are still not in our home. From what our realtor has told us, we are definitely not one of the lucky one's. In fact, we are one of the most unlucky one's she has dealt with. Thanks Bank of America, for making our lives so stressful.
We thought that once word came in that the last BPO (appraisal) was submitted to the lender, we would be about 15 days out from moving. The appraisal was turned in last week, so we were desperately hoping to move in before Nik leaves. I doubt that will happen.
Here is a picture back at Christmas time, we thought we were a mere month away from moving then...
One good thing is this is a great time to buy!! Joe and I were talking yesterday and he wishes he would have waited to purchase our place in Hawaii. He made the purchase in 2003. He would have saved upwards of $75,000 if he would have. I said you just have to be happy we have a place. He mentioned wanting to go to forclosure auctions. You have to pay with cash but you can find a really good deam ($500k homes for less than $100k). At least in AZ, NV, and TX.
ReplyDeleteThat's true, it is a really good time to buy. We will be saving $150,000 based off of the amount that is owed and the amount that we are paying, so not a complete loss after all =) I bet you cannot wait to get back to Hawaii and unpack all of your wedding gifts! I know I can't wait to unpack mine!
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