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NWR: Found the house of our dreams today

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Fitzer Posts : 643 Registered: 8/7/07

Re: NWR: Found the house of our dreams today: Posted: May 5, 2008 5:44 PM Go to message in response to: B2B999; I totally understand what you're going through. FH and are getting our first house together (accepted the seller's counter this morning in fact!) - 2nd for him, 1st for me. We're putting 20% down, which is all coming out of my savings - it's my ENTIRE life savings (he'll be supporting me through law school for the next 3 years, that's why I'm doing the down payment).
If I could caution/say one thing to you though, it would be that, at least for us, the house we found that was "too perfect" was just that. Today's house is our second we've offered on. The first was too cute, too perfect, we fell in love, and it was just barely affordable. Then we got it inspected. And a bunch of defects were found that the seller refused to fix or pay for. Then the basement flooded, which the sellar also refused to fix or pay for. We had to walk away from it, and it totally broke our hearts.
But, it ended up being for the best, this new 2nd house is just as good, maybe not at cute, but a lot less. So now we can buy furniture and the new TV we've been eyeing.
I know what you mean about this being such a huge, kind of makes you want to throw up experience. I just think about the certified check I'm going to need to get from the bank for the down payment, and my stomach lodges in my throat!

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B2B999 Posts : 702 Registered: 12/7/07

Re: NWR: Found the house of our dreams today: Posted: May 5, 2008 5:52 PM Go to message in response to: carebearny1999; They are gorgeous, there is one section that will need to be replaced at some point (which we'll probably do with butcher block) but they want to tear the whole thing up and put in corrine faux black marble stuff, which is perfectly nice in a newer home but this house has been beautifully maintained and to tear out solid wood countertops, replacing them would cost a fortune. I do not know who told them to change them!
I will definitely let everyone know if they accept the offer. I'm so excited now. :-) :-) :-)
I had heard that FHA was not worth the time and effort if you can go with a conventional loan, so that is what I attempted first.
Though can I rant about one thing for just a second that is mildly off-topic. I am 26 (nearly 27) years old. I look a bit younger then that but it really drove me nuts how the real estate agents do not take me seriously. They keep telling me how much 20% is. I know I get it - stop telling me the amount - don't you think I know that!!! AHHHHH alright that is all with regard to that....though seriously the
"You know that's $(insert amount here) right? (Pause...long silent pause while they wait for me to flip about the number)" Me - "Yeah I did the math before I made the offer" Ugh.

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NJ4Life Posts : 3,358 Registered: 8/10/07

Re: NWR: Found the house of our dreams today: Posted: May 6, 2008 9:31 AM Go to message in response to: B2B999; Well I had my first bad house dream last nite!! I dreamed that we showed up to closing (with like a 15 person entourage) and everyone was there but our lawyer. So we called him and he tells us that we cant close for 5 more days!! And I was freaking out on him, yelling, crying!! And he couldnt do anything about it! We were all packed up and HAD to be out of our apt the following day and couldnt wait 5 more days...OMG I was so happy to wake up and realize it was just a dream!!
Formerly Ama102707

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B2B999 Posts : 702 Registered: 12/7/07

Re: NWR: Found the house of our dreams today: Posted: May 6, 2008 10:26 AM Go to message in response to: NJ4Life; That actually happened to a friend of mine. She and her DH were purchasing their second home, they had planned to close on the new house on a Monday move over the week/weekend and then close on their old house the following Monday. The lawyer for the sellers on their new home did not show up at closing and claimed that his law office was struck by lightening which is why he did not call them back. They were literally homeless for a week because the closing on their old house went right on schedule.
I can definitely understand having the bad dreams and I sincerely hope that doesn't happen to you. Call attorneys early and often, it never hurts to confirm...and then to confirm the confirmation.
Fitzer - I know what you mean about it being too perfect, and I am concerned that the inspection is going to bring forth information that is not favorable. However I know the house has a home warranty so I am sure that if something does come up the sellers will just utilize the warranty to fix the issues (as it won't cost them more then the deductible to do it). The house is in my price range, near the top but not at or over the top. It will take us some time to furnish the thing but we came up with a list of furniture priorities last night.
In our living room we have a futon (I know so college it is not funny) that is NOT coming with us. Therefore our first purchase will be a couch. We have a one-bedroom apt. so we'll pretty much take our furniture from our bedroom and put it into the master. I can move my office out of the corner of the living room into one of the bedrooms and FH can move his office into another one. Then it is just a matter of finding a cute bedroom set somewhere cheap and setting up a guest room. There is a sitting room which I think we will pretty much ignore until after Christmas (as it would be the perfect room for a christmas tree) We don't have any patio furniture so the patio will be empty for a while, and I have to figure out some way to get rid of the pool. I'm considering listing it on freestuff and just letting the first person who wants it take it. (I hate pools and think they are a ridiculous thing to have - no offense to those of you who own one but if I used it 5 times a year that would be a lot and I have to maintain it year-round; a pointless expense for me)
Okay that was definitely more information then anyone needed, wanted or cared about - but we were up until after midnight last night discussing what we would do with all the empty rooms, and what our furniture priorities would be. FH seemed to think furniture fairies would come and decorate the place for us, he actually asked if I thought they would leave the furniture. So yes - still very excited, I am signing the offer agreement this evening and it will be presented to the seller's later this week.

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B2B999 Posts : 702 Registered: 12/7/07

Re: NWR: Found the house of our dreams today: Posted: May 6, 2008 10:28 AM Go to message in response to: Fitzer; By the way Fitzer - I know what you mean about your life's savings. This is my entire life's savings and all of it is my money, it is a difficult thing.
Good luck with the counter-offer, I hope you get the house :-)

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NJ4Life Posts : 3,358 Registered: 8/10/07

Re: NWR: Found the house of our dreams today: Posted: May 6, 2008 10:34 AM Go to message in response to: B2B999; Geez do we live in the SAME apt or what?! We had a futon as a couch til after the wedding!! It was awful. Then with some wedding gift money we purchased a living room set with the intention of not having to once we bought a house. One less thing we have to buy.
Our "office" is also in the corner of the living room so DH is quite excited to be able to move it to one of the spare bedrooms. We also have 2 living rooms in our new house that we're currently debating how we wanna set up. Its just going to be trial and error.
Dh's parents wanna buy us some patio furniture as a gift so hopefully we;ll have that soon after we move. I cant wait to have BBQ's and have friends over. Its going to be fun I think.
Im really going to be looking around flea markets for dining room hutches and maybe some other furniture. I really like to have "original" stuff and I'd like to try my hand at refinishing. Especially now that we have a garage!!
Woo, I just got excited...but Im sad to move out of my apartment too. Lots of good memories there....

Formerly Ama102707

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B2B999 Posts : 702 Registered: 12/7/07

Re: NWR: Found the house of our dreams today: Posted: May 6, 2008 10:46 AM Go to message in response to: NJ4Life; You should definitely do some refinishing - I have a friend who picked up a bedroom set for $25 (it was this atrocious puke green with the ugliest hardware I have ever seen) and she stripped it, stained it, and bought new hardware and they look like they cost her easily $1000.00 now. As long as you have a space that you can do it I think it is a wonderful idea.
I think we may live in the same apartment...are you the one that keeps leaving the toilet seat up? If so I have to stop yelling at FH about it.

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B2B999 Posts : 702 Registered: 12/7/07

Re: NWR: Found the house of our dreams today: Posted: May 6, 2008 12:09 PM Go to message in response to: B2B999; Do you think it is a bad sign if they reject my offer without seeing it in writing??? My agent just called and said that she had told the sellers agent about the offer, in correlation with telling them NOT to change the countertops and she told them what the offer is, which they said they could not do. So I am modifying my written offer up 5k. I know this might just be a ploy to get the offer higher but since 5k was where I planned to go anyway it really isn't that big a deal. I really can't go any higher though so now it is more like a final offer then an initial offer.

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NJ4Life Posts : 3,358 Registered: 8/10/07

Re: NWR: Found the house of our dreams today: Posted: May 6, 2008 12:48 PM Go to message in response to: B2B999; I dont think its a bad sign. They never saw your original offer so just up in 5K then. When we were looking our realtor (my BIL) would call their agent and tell them what we were pre-approved for and see if they bit. Usually they asked to put everything in writing anyway. So go for it...
Formerly Ama102707

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Fitzer Posts : 643 Registered: 8/7/07

Re: NWR: Found the house of our dreams today: Posted: May 6, 2008 1:20 PM Go to message in response to: B2B999; Were they going to just reject it or counter back? At least in the market I'm in, most people are listing high to accomodate low offers, which then get countered. The usual scenario has been Listing at $X, offer at $X-12K, counter at $X-5K or 6K, which then usually gets accepted.
But then again, some markets don't negotiate as much as this one.

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B2B999 Posts : 702 Registered: 12/7/07

Re: NWR: Found the house of our dreams today: Posted: May 6, 2008 1:32 PM Go to message in response to: Fitzer; That usually is how it goes here as well but I did low-ball them a bit so I wasn't really expecting them to bite at it I was just letting them know what I had in mind. Now there is just an offer - no negotiation. If they counter then I'll have to see but I have already budged for them (and now they'll know that) so at least I'm in the same place I was with the original offer, and my agent seems to think they will accept it. So that is exciting...now it is just wait and see...I'll know by the 9th....(that seems a really long way off)

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slsjdc5 Posts : 388 Registered: 9/23/07

Re: NWR: Found the house of our dreams today: Posted: May 6, 2008 2:15 PM Go to message in response to: B2B999; I just wanted to say...."I hope you get it. I hope you get it." (A Chorus Line)
I bought a condo 3 and a half years ago with figuring in FH, but it's just my name on it. I could have afforded it on my own, but he pays part of it. It was definitely scary.....we offered, they countered, we countered, they countered and then we accepted. i know.....kind of a lot of negotiation, but it worked in the end.
I wish we could get enough out of this place to now afford a house, but we kind of waited too long for that. I was looking at selling about a year and a half ago, and I should have. I didn't because 2 BR apts were renting for more expensive than our Mortgage.......eh well, that's the Real Estate market for you. We don't need to move, but I would definitely like more space!!! LOL
I'm looking forward to hearing if they accept your offer!! My fingers are crossed for you.
btw....I didn't feel the "wanna throw up" feeling until I was driving to the closing!!

♥LLAMA JJAMMIES♥
LOST SOME OF MY ASS DURING BL5--iT rOcKeD MY sOcKs!!

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B2B999 Posts : 702 Registered: 12/7/07

Re: NWR: Found the house of our dreams today: Posted: May 6, 2008 2:37 PM Go to message in response to: slsjdc5; Thanks :-) I'm sorry that you're caught on the short-end of the current real estate market, I know a lot of people who are. I happen to be one of the lucky ones that are in a position to buy without having to worry about selling right now. I feel horrible for anyone who NEEDS to sell right now.
I can't even think about closing right now - it is bad enough thinking about the money...but actually handing over the check is going to make me crazy.
I hope the real estate market rebounds (as soon as my offer is accepted of course) :-)

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carebearny1999 Posts : 1,254 Registered: 9/21/07

Re: NWR: Found the house of our dreams today: Posted: May 6, 2008 6:21 PM Go to message in response to: B2B999; Our seller counter-offered before the fax even got to him. Our agent told us what his counter would be and we said ok and sent a new fax with the offer they'd accept.... All before his counter even got faxed! Why won't you know until the 9th?! OMG ours had 24 hours to accept or counter!

http://www.mywedding.com/caryandmike/

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FALLbrideINLOVE Posts : 1,057 Registered: 3/30/07

Re: NWR: Found the house of our dreams today: Posted: May 6, 2008 6:34 PM Go to message in response to: B2B999; we bought our house and had the wedding at the same time too! it is so fun though. once you get a home and you start doing the work alongside finishing wedding plans it will be something let me tell you!

it is great getting new furniture and perfecting a home. you will love it, congrats!!