Your house buying stories

[LegginMF12]

Since rodriguezpoultry is having such a stressful time maybe we can post some of our house buying nightmares. This way he/she can say "oh wow, I can do this and it will be o.k., look at what so and so went through". Chin up rodriguezpoultry, it's almost over!

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Thanks! Can I start with my own?

Maybe I'll sit back and read other people's nightmares before contributing the full scale!

Thanks again!

 

[LegginMF12]

Quote:
You sure can! I started this post in the hopes it will help you feel better!

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Ok. Here it is:

We started out in April knowing that we had to either rent or buy a house. We had one week in which we flew up to PA (from our apartment in AR). I had been in contact with a realtor and a banker, just in case. We looked all OVER to rent. There was nothing, except for a duplex in a town 45 minutes away and over a mountain (not good in the winter) from our work. So...we connected with the realtor while we were there. She took us to the first house, which was not bad. Looked very nice. Until I realized it was next to a cemetery. I turned and said "No." She asked why and I told her sheepishly about my fear of zombies.

The next few houses were just awful. We are both approximately 6 feet tall. The ceilings were 5' on some of them. Really? Others needed so much work it made no sense to purchase. I would have hated it there. Others were simply too far away or were grossly misrepresented by the selling realtor. So we nixed those real fast.

The next to last house we looked at, we walked inside. Ponderosa Pine hardwood floors and panels, gorgeously polished. Completely renovated. Central air and a heat pump (don't look at me, still confused on the heating up here). We were sold. 3 bed, 2 bath. Basement is as big as the house and half of it is completely finished. Amazing. We couldn't stop thinking about it.

We called the realtor and wanted to know if they could do a lease program. Because we did NOT have the down payment or anything like that prepared and we were leaving back to AR the next day. Somehow, the realtor was able to work up a 6 month lease to own within 12 hours. We both signed it and we moved in June 1.

6 months is coming up. We have all of the down payment ready, but were not expecting the last minute fee of $400 to pay for the appraiser and application.

 

[watchdogps]

Oh, we had three separate houses fall through right before close. I'm sure ill recall the others if I try, but I'll tell you about one now. House was great, yard was great, etc. Two days before we close, they want to pull it off the market! Turns out they didn't get approved for the house they wanted and decided they eant to stay! We legally could have forced the sale, but they had six kids, and we couldn't bring ourselved to uproot them esp if they couldn't afford anything more than they had. So, we let them out and they just had to repay us the inspection fees etc we had paid.

 

[LegginMF12]

My story:
I went 502 loan, which is pretty strict since it is government funded. Where I live there are literally hundreds of houses for sale. We found a realtor. He was an IDIOT! He took us to look at a house that was $25,000 over what I qualified for. Then got mad at us because I didn't want to buy a house that had very visible termite damage (and was in town). We had to give him gas money so he could take us to look at one house. We changed realtors. They forwarded us an email he had sent them that completely put me down, saying I was controlled by me fiance, and my expectations of the house I could get with the amount I was approved for was "completely unrealistic". This email was like 2 pages long. I very kindly forwarded it to his boss. I heard he no longer works for them.

The new realtor: was to busy doing flips with contractors to even send me leads on houses. They actually sent me to see a house that was started but never finished more than 5 years ago! On to the third realtor: Loved her. She gave me tons of listings and if my time was not convenient she would give us the combo to the lock box and we would go look on our own. We found a house we liked, It was listed at 86,000. We put in an offer for that amount. 1 week later they (seller) called and said some one had topped our offer so we upped ours, they did this 2 more times. I finally told them I was withdrawing my offer as I was not at an auction and refused to play a bidding war. Stupid greedy suckers! There never was another buyer, the house sat empty for over a year and ended up selling for around 59,000. Tried to put in offers on a few others and always got beat out or they wanted to play the bidding war. Finally I walked in to the realtors office and said I have 4 houses I want to put on offer on. Please word it so that they understand this is my only and final offer. First one to respond that is the house I am buying. BAM! 4 hours later my offer on one of the houses was accepted and I withdrew my other offers.
Now 30 day escrow........lasted 87 days I was packed and had already rented a Uhaul because I was told it would close on Friday. I also took 3 days off of work to move. I get a call Friday morning and telling me that the seller didn't sign the papers and it would be another week. I asked for the sellers number, called her and said "The escrow will close today, if it does not close today I will withdraw my offer on the house, and you will reimburse me for hotels until I find a place to live, all of the inspection etc.. fees, my time off of work, the uhaul truck and for the care and boarding of 2 dogs and 3 horses until I can find a place for them to live, I will take you to court if I have to". My escrow closed that day! Oh and the house the first realtor took me to look at that was out of my budget? It was brand new, never lived in and sold a few weeks later for close to 40,000 less than it was listed for. Idiot realtor wouldn't even let me put in an offer.