Freaking Out - Please Pardon Cathartic Venting

[meekie]

Congrats on getting an offer! It can be exciting and terrifying to make huge changes in your life.

If you can, get some exercise. Even a short quick walk will burn up some of that extra adrenaline in your system.

And congrats on finding a lot of junk to get rid of. Sounds like with the loss of the basement it'll be important for you to declutter, so keep it up!

 

[bUU]

Do you need to have one house sold before you move on to the next one?

Yes. Our purchase offer is contingent on our sale. We don't have the money to buy without first selling. The sale looks very strong. The buyer has been trying to buy into this neighborhood, and lost two purchases already. Their friend lives next door to us. They are pre-approved.

Found an airbnb room for $40 a night which might work out. Thanks for that pointer (to both those who suggested it here and my co-worker who suggested it too).

 

[Moemg]

Good Luck on your move ! I got so stressed when I moved from New Jersey to Florida that I got shingles . When we moved we did rent for eight months an unfurnished apartment & unpacked just the basic essentials next time I move if I have to I will rent the smallest furnished place available & leave everything in storage .Moving twice is a giant pain .

 

[eytonxav]

they also put in really low offers for all three....


That does two things.... first, you find out if someone is waiting like the empty house... second, it tells the sellers that their place is not the only bid that is out there....


I actually did not hear about the bid until a few days later... and someone had accepted it the same day....

If this seller is anything like me, I would reject the buyer coming back to me again after such a low ball initial offer. Probably means you are dealing with someone who will continue to be unreasonable and not worth the trouble.

 

[2B]

If this seller is anything like me, I would reject the buyer coming back to me again after such a low ball initial offer. Probably means you are dealing with someone who will continue to be unreasonable and not worth the trouble.

I've always rejected immediately low ball offers. I put a lot of thought into determining the market value and know that a low ball is someone that will jack you around every chance they get until closing.

I also either reject "contingency of buyer selling" offers or accept with the right to sell to another offer without that contingency. The contingency buyer gets a right of first refusal -- usually 24 hours so the second offer never sees the delay. I also won't accept much of a discount off my asking price. I made the mistake once of accepting an offer like this and got screwed around for two months before getting out of it. My buyers were looking for a total sucker for their house which they never got. I was pissed at my realtor for encouraging me to accept it with a 60 day limit.

 

[ivinsfan]

Quote from bUU

Yes. Our purchase offer is contingent on our sale. We don't have the money to buy without first selling. The sale looks very strong. The buyer has been trying to buy into this neighborhood, and lost two purchases already. Their friend lives next door to us. They are pre-approved.

Found an airbnb room for $40 a night which might work out. Thanks for that pointer (to both those who suggested it here and my co-worker who suggested it too).

Sounds good, my sister had an all cash, no inspection, no contingency offer from someone who said. "We've been wanting to move into this neighborhood forever, your house is just perfect, here is a full price offer....2 weeks later they pulled the plug and ate their earnest money. You really have no recourse over a buyer that just bails, and a contingency offer to your seller is not always that welcome, as crap happens. Just pointing out nothing foolproof.

 

[Looking4Ward]

Our purchase offer is contingent on our sale.

That could be why you haven't heard back on your offer yet.

 

[bUU]

Anything is possible, though I would expect a seller who doesn't like a contingency would counter-offer without the contingency rather than saying nothing. Our buyer's agent seems to think that we haven't heard from them because they're trying to figure out if they still really want to move. It's a really hard decision so I can understand taking the full 24 hours to decide.

 

[eytonxav]

Anything is possible, though I would expect a seller who doesn't like a contingency would counter-offer without the contingency rather than saying nothing. Our buyer's agent seems to think that we haven't heard from them because they're trying to figure out if they still really want to move. It's a really hard decision so I can understand taking the full 24 hours to decide.

Very likely they may counter your offer with a meet me in the middle $ wise or something along those lines versus outright rejection.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Waiting with bated breath for what happened at the 5 pm edt deadline....

 

[gauss]

Waiting with bated breath for what happened at the 5 pm edt deadline....

+1

-gauss

 

[aja8888]

I'm going to hold off on watching MNF until I hear the outcome!

 

[bUU]

Very likely they may counter your offer with a meet me in the middle $ wise or something along those lines versus outright rejection.

It seems like they didn't want to move. They "countered" for full asking price and a very long time until closing. My buyer's agent suggested that we purchase another home. So much for our "#1" choice.

Second offer goes to our #2 choice. Another 24 hours of torture.

 

[gauss]

Price, Terms, unwillingness to walk away..

Pick 2.

 

[haha]

It seems that you everything well in hand. Carry on! Do not let others' opinions affect you!

 

[haha]

How about a yurt, or a tree-house? You forgot to mention those "unique" ideas

Bucky Balls might help!

 

[tennisno1]

all normal feelings and reactions... buying, selling, and moving is stressful and nothing goes to plan, but in the end it all seems to work out.. keep your eye on the prize...what you are doing is a good thing and repeat as often as needed! I've been a corporate vagabond... owned 5 homes, lived in 7 apartments, 6 states and in Switzerland... my next move is the FIRE move in 18 months.. so I will crank up the band and do it again!

 

[bUU]

I generally try to say "interesting idea, but no thanks - next suggestion please" but for some reason some folks seem so emotionally invested in other people renting before they buy that they cannot move past a polite demurral (like the one above).

Case in point...

Carry on! Do not let others' opinions affect you!

Like I said ... despite so many other aspects to discuss some people simply cannot handle not having their opinion on that one matter kowtowed to.

all normal feelings and reactions... buying, selling, and moving is stressful and nothing goes to plan, but in the end it all seems to work out.. keep your eye on the prize...what you are doing is a good thing and repeat as often as needed! I've been a corporate vagabond... owned 5 homes, lived in 7 apartments, 6 states and in Switzerland... my next move is the FIRE move in 18 months.. so I will crank up the band and do it again!

Good luck! Hopefully your goes smooth.

 

[W2R]

It seems like they didn't want to move. They "countered" for full asking price and a very long time until closing. My buyer's agent suggested that we purchase another home. So much for our "#1" choice.

Second offer goes to our #2 choice. Another 24 hours of torture.

Aw, I'm sorry to hear that. Let's hope the offer on this second house has better results!

If it helps, I firmly believe that (for me) there is not just one perfect house but several houses, which, while different, are all perfect for me. Hopefully the same is true for you and your DW.

 

[gauss]

all normal feelings and reactions... buying, selling, and moving is stressful and nothing goes to plan, but in the end it all seems to work out.. keep your eye on the prize...what you are doing is a good thing and repeat as often as needed! I've been a corporate vagabond... owned 5 homes, lived in 7 apartments, 6 states and in Switzerland... my next move is the FIRE move in 18 months.. so I will crank up the band and do it again!

+1 Good Advice - This was given to me during my first and only real estate purchase.

We did a FSBO purchase so there were no agents involved to buffer the two personalities on each side of the transaction.

Fortunately my coworker who lived in the neighborhood and turned me on to the house played the mediator role. Basically convinced me that in a year all I would care about is having the house and forget about the stress of the transaction (which I was almost ready to walk away from). My coworker has very good people skills.

-gauss

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Keep in mind...people want to sell 'their house' but you want to buy 'your home'. Big difference and if you can't deal psychologically with this, you'll lose lots of sleep.

Second...just because an agent says they are a 'exclusive buyers agent', all this really means is they are too lazy to take listings...That's all. Georgia does NOT have a fiduciary to buyers or sellers...this is very, very, very important to remember.

Last point...houses close pretty quick here (if the seller is willing). 30 days from accepted contact to closing isn't uncommon. Whereas in San Antonio Texas, you'd be lucky to close in less than 60 (unless paying cash).

Just a some stuff for you to chew on (from a Georgia boy who dabbles in real estate with his licensed broker wife).

Sent from my mobile device so please excuse grammatical errors.

 

[bUU]

Georgia does NOT have a fiduciary to buyers or sellers...this is very, very, very important to remember.

Except if they explicitly promise it, as in this case.

We've been saying that we're somewhat indifferent between the top five (now three - I mean two) choices. Each of the places have some advantages over the others, and we switched the order we were going to make our bids several times because they were all so evenly matched. We'll be perfectly happy if we get either this one we're bidding on now or one other that we have waiting in the wings. Otherwise, I'm going to want to make another trip down to Georgia to find more options.

The place we have the bid in on now has large (for a condo), private backyard. That's more work on the one hand, but it's a backyard of our very own. My spouse would love to plant roses and gardenias, tomatoes and peppers, etc. - something for which there was not enough room in any of the other homes we considered. Also, this place is $25K less expensive, meaning we won't exhaust our excess reserves. It doesn't make it better than the first place, but as W2R said, "there is not just one perfect house but several houses". I also firmly believe that home is made not built, and each house just gives us different tools an opportunities to work with to make a home.

I would, however, like to avoid going to our sixth choice, because that is a big change. The top five were all similar layouts: Master bedroom on the ground floor, two levels, all done. There are another set of condos out here that are three levels and some even four levels, the developers obviously trying to maximize the number of salable units per acre. I really don't want to settle for "vertical living".

 

[clifp]

Ahh but vertical living is good exercise. You don't even need a gym if you got 4 floors just make sure your bathroom is the ground floor, and bedroom on the top. You'll get those 10,000 steps in a day.

 

[bUU]

Ahh but vertical living is good exercise. You don't even need a gym if you got 4 floors just make sure your bathroom is the ground floor, and bedroom on the top. You'll get those 10,000 steps in a day.

My spouse has one of those vertical living units as #6 on our list. It has two nice sized decks. One is enclosed and the other has a wraparound net curtain. Very nice. The floors are really quite nice and the kitchen is among the best we've seen. It is up on a hill so from the office window you can see for miles. It wouldn't suck to live there. (And that one has a pool.)

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Except if they explicitly promise it, as in this case.

They can 'promise' anything they want but the law is "shall only be responsible for exercising reasonable care in the discharge of its specified duties".

And although I am NOT a lawyer, "reasonable" is about as gray as any word that's out there.

Don't get me wrong....there are some AWESOME agents out there...lots of them, but on the other hand, there are some AWFUL agents and in my experience I would say about 50% of the ones I have dealt with here in Georgia, they were complacent in being anywhere NEAR reasonable in exercising their duties. I would just tread very carefully in the thought that they are looking out for your best interest.

I do wish you luck though and I think the time to buy is fairly good...things have slowed down a bit, so last year's hard-core seller's market isn't as bullish which is good for buyers.