House Hunting

[HappyHope]

Eek, house hunting is very competitive right now. Praying for wisdom and guidance. Feeling stuck and disappointed. Not sure what to do. I thought this process would go smoothly like previous home purchase experiences. Not the case this time.

 

[Danthemailman]

I know exactly what you mean! My wife and I have been house hunting for the last 1-2 years and every time we find a house we like and consider making them an offer on the asking price, 5 other vultures have already made an offer up to $50,000 over the asking price! In most cases though, on average about $30,000 over the asking price. Our realtor told us expect to see a lot of repo's by this fall. That gives me some hope! Sometimes the bank will then sell it for a reasonable price, but you have to be ready.

Our realtor sent us an email the other day telling us about a house in a very nice subdivision that is for sale and the builder has reduced the price and will consider a contingency. We got a bit excited and drove to that subdivision to check out the house. The house itself is gorgeous, but there is one problem. It's right off a main road and backs up to a house that sits on the main road that looks like Sanford and Son's junk yard. I can see why they lowered the price!

It's been very discouraging to see the inflated prices for houses! All the houses we really like cost between $100-150K more than our house and we don't want to go into retirement with too big of a mortgage.

 

[Tigger45]

God's blessings

 

[Joined2krist]

Praying

 

[Danthemailman]

My wife wants to sell our house very soon while the market is hot, then rent for 6 months and be ready to jump on a good deal later this year as many foreclosures are expected. Since many people selling their homes will not even take a contingency where I live because of the hot market you have to be ready to move fast! Having our house already sold will give us an advantage. I'm just not too crazy about the idea of renting an apartment. I was hoping to rent a 55 and up villa in my area, but there is at least a 1 year waiting list to get into one and they also require a 1 year lease.

 

[HappyHope]

I know exactly what you mean! My wife and I have been house hunting for the last 1-2 years and every time we find a house we like and consider making them an offer on the asking price, 5 other vultures have already made an offer up to $50,000 over the asking price! In most cases though, on average about $30,000 over the asking price. Our realtor told us expect to see a lot of repo's by this fall. That gives me some hope! Sometimes the bank will then sell it for a reasonable price, but you have to be ready.

Our realtor sent us an email the other day telling us about a house in a very nice subdivision that is for sale and the builder has reduced the price and will consider a contingency. We got a bit excited and drove to that subdivision to check out the house. The house itself is gorgeous, but there is one problem. It's right off a main road and backs up to a house that sits on the main road that looks like Sanford and Son's junk yard. I can see why they lowered the price!

It's been very discouraging to see the inflated prices for houses! All the houses we really like cost between $100-150K more than our house and we don't want to go into retirement with too big of a mortgage.

That's rough. It sounds like you have a plan. I have come to see that homes for sale near military bases are more reasonable and steady if it helps in any way. Not sure the economics of this but it seems to be the case. This info doesn't help my family because we are looking to move away from the military.

 

[HappyHope]

My wife wants to sell our house very soon while the market is hot, then rent for 6 months and be ready to jump on a good deal later this year as many foreclosures are expected. Since many people selling their homes will not even take a contingency where I live because of the hot market you have to be ready to move fast! Having our house already sold will give us an advantage. I'm just not too crazy about the idea of renting an apartment. I was hoping to rent a 55 and up villa in my area, but there is at least a 1 year waiting list to get into one and they also require a 1 year lease.

Yeah, apartments are limiting compared to houses. Sounds like you have a plan but not a comfortable one. Best wishes.

 

[HappyHope]

I have an update. My realtor and I were viewing homes from my slim pickings list far from the location I wanted and up high ony budget when my aunt started texting me about a house throughout the day. It was in a location I loved and in a more comfortable price range.

My cousin's hubby's family knows the owners well and planned to buy it almost like a private deal. Her plan fell through so my cousin decided if she couldn't have it, she wanted me to. I'm tearing up at my cousin's thoughtfulness because I think it cost her something internally to arrange what she did. By doing so she bought herself spiritual gold methinks. You'd have to know our background story.

*****Backstory****We were bestie first cousins and next-door neighbors for a while but often compared to each other being the same age. I grew more academically but she had loving parents. I was the pale band geek rushing to work after school. She had two cars, a tanning bed, and modeling classes after school. She was homecoming queen and seemed embarrassed to be related to me in school when we were older. I was a shy bookworm who brought a Bible to class (mostly for legalistic reasons at that time, lol). She went on to cosmolotogy and I went into the military. So lots of differences

Weird that she would actually do things like steal my Barbies even though she had so much more than I did as a kid. She even warned me away from a church guy she wanted to date while I was stationed in Germany and then TX. Sure enough he seemed more interested in me than her when I would visit on leave but I had my sights set on my now husband. I was not interested. Much later she commented on a social media pic of me once that she felt I was ahead of her in life because I had a husband and 1.9999 kids (super prego pic of me that wasn't flattering). She had neither at the time. I was very shock that she was still competitive that way. I never was competitive except I wanted more loving parents. Anyway, I didn't realize how she saw things. So, I'm proud of her and very touched at her gesture. She has changed I think. Love it. Bless her, Lord.****

Long story short I got a personal viewing with a walk through from the owner's wife. My husband and I got the first offer in too I think. It was surreal. I don't know what will happen, it wasn't the most outstanding offer but my cousin's proactive engagement late in the day before I had to return home was so generous was deeply enriching.

I praise the Lord whatever hsppens. If this does go through or even if it doesn't, I'm not sure how to pay back my cousin.

 

[LoricaLady]

Maybe just tell your cousin you’re going to be looking for an opportunity for a good pay back in the future. And of course you will do so.

I pray all will turn out very well for you with a new home.

 

[Jeffwhosoever]

We are planning to sell our house soon. I dread the process as we have been here since 1992 and we have so much junk. We need to major downsizing and that is hard when you've been accumulating stuff for as long as we have.

Prayers to find affordable housing. The market cannot remain this crazy for long.

 

[HappyHope]

We are planning to sell our house soon. I dread the process as we have been here since 1992 and we have so much junk. We need to major downsizing and that is hard when you've been accumulating stuff for as long as we have.

Prayers to find affordable housing. The market cannot remain this crazy for long.

Yeah, I would like to wait until fall instead of prime peak real estate season, but we have couple of different time crunches. We sold a house in this market. It went very well. Selling is easier right now, but downsizing is a challenge. We went from a 2238 square ft house to a 1545 square ft house four years ago. It was doable but not the most pleasant experience. Saying a prayer for you!

 

[believerwithallmyheart]

praying

 

[Danthemailman]

My wife and I have given up on househunting for now. It’s too much of a nightmare! We will just wait until the next crash before we start looking again.