Well, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you at the auction. You put a lot of hard work into this....but in any case, will pay off eventually for some house. Its a buyers market where we are....sometimes things happen for a reason, maybe something even better will crop up.
Starting Score: EQ 679, TU 697
Our loan officer is working on getting us the 5% so that we can go to auction and bid. We have a 1973 corvette which is free and clear, so we can use the pink slip as collateral. I can say that it will have to be a SCREAMING deal for me to buy that house at auction. I'm angry right now and throwing a temper tantrum! I called the listing agent because the agent I'm working with is in an area where he can't get cell service, and the guy was a REAL jerk! He said that he wouldn't even approach the seller about the offer until he had the 5% IN HAND (so that we could still attempt to stop the auction)......AND they will only be in the office for another 20 minutes. WHAT????? If I go to auction I won't be able to get the 3.25% from the seller towards closing costs, so I don't think that it will happen at auction. I don't HAVE the money for closing costs!
Just remember (in case you have not checked, but I know you have been pretty thourough) that they might have a minimum price before they sell....don't know if you remember a month ago or so in Sacramento they rejected several bids on a condo development after the auction because they didn't meeting the minimum bid price....guess like on ebay when they have a reserve. Hope there is still some way you can get it, but don't let it kill you, breath, there is (and will be) a lot more on the market. I know that is easy to say, I know how much you want this house, but I am a firm believer that sometimes things happen for a reason. GOOD LUCK !!! Wish I could go kick butt for you tomorrow!
Well, here is the latest. Our loan officer FINALLY got a hold of the person that would be able to lend us the money, BUT he was out of town and couldn't get to his money in time 
So I did some more research and found out that there is a resale offer form used for post auction offers. It can be FAXED!!! So if there are some other people bidding on the house I can FAX in my resale offer form tomorrow after the auction! What will happen is if they accept my offer they will fax the purchase contract to me and I will in turn overnight it back WITH the 5% down payment. SO I won't have to come up with the money if and until they accept my offer!!!! WOO HOO! AND since I'm approved for a 100% loan that entire 5% will be refunded to me at the close of escrow so that I can repay that loan!
The other issue that I have to contend with is that I have to make sure that I put in a bid in in such a way so that I will get back enough money to cover closing costs. I have a call in to the auctioneer/negotiator. He is supposed to check in at the hotel tonight, so I left him a message at the front desk. If I don't hear from him tonight, tomorrow morning I'm going to the hotel where the auction is being held. Then I can ask him some questions on how to fill out the form correctly.
WISH ME LUCK!! OH YEAH! If there aren't any bids on the property tomorrow I will call our agent again and tell them that I would like them to resubmit our offer as it was originally submitted and see what happens.
So I did some more research and found out that there is a resale offer form used for post auction offers. It can be FAXED!!! So if there are some other people bidding on the house I can FAX in my resale offer form tomorrow after the auction! What will happen is if they accept my offer they will fax the purchase contract to me and I will in turn overnight it back WITH the 5% down payment. SO I won't have to come up with the money if and until they accept my offer!!!! WOO HOO! AND since I'm approved for a 100% loan that entire 5% will be refunded to me at the close of escrow so that I can repay that loan!The other issue that I have to contend with is that I have to make sure that I put in a bid in in such a way so that I will get back enough money to cover closing costs. I have a call in to the auctioneer/negotiator. He is supposed to check in at the hotel tonight, so I left him a message at the front desk. If I don't hear from him tonight, tomorrow morning I'm going to the hotel where the auction is being held. Then I can ask him some questions on how to fill out the form correctly.
WISH ME LUCK!! OH YEAH! If there aren't any bids on the property tomorrow I will call our agent again and tell them that I would like them to resubmit our offer as it was originally submitted and see what happens.
WOW LOTS of things changed yesterday! I called the auction company on Saturday and got the name of the head negotiator for the auction house. I called the hotel where the auction was being held Saturday evening and left him a message at the front desk since he had not checked in yet. I ended up calling him Sunday morning in his hotel room. He was VERY nice and VERY helpful! He told me that we could put in an absentee bid even though we would be at the auction. THAT way he could write up the offer with just our $1000 and get it in front of the seller at the SAME TIME as the winning live auction bid. So we put in our full price offer just as we had with our real estate agent. The contract price would be for $209,000 and we were asking for $12,000 back for closing costs and termite repair, which left us with a bid amount of $187,000.
Afterwards we went in and watched the auction until our house came up. The high bid amount was $155,000. On top of that bid was added a 5% fee, so their bid ended up being $162,750. Since our bid was SIGNIFICANTLY higher than the highest live bid we ended up reducing our absentee bid by $5,000. We had a little bit high debt to income ratios and in order to make that exception we were going to have to come up with $1,000. So I thought that I would give myself a little wiggle room and try to reduce the DTI and avoid that extra $1,000. Since our loan officer knew we wouldn't have that $1,000 he said that we could raise the interest rate by 1/8% which I really didn't want to do. Our approval was for $215,000, so if they accept our offer the way it is now at a bid amount of $182,000 and contract price of $204,000 we will have an $11,000 reduction in amount financed compared to what we were approved for. THAT should take care of our DTI issue!
The auction negotiator said that this seller usually gets back to them very quickly and that we might hear from them before the holiday. He also said that since there were actually two bidders (us and the bidder at $162k) we BOTH would be in exclusive negotiations with the seller........so what the seller MIGHT do is tell the other bidder that there was an absentee bid and ask them if their bid was their highest and best and give them the opportunity to increase it. The chance of them raising their bid by $20,000+ to match or surpass ours is VERY unlikely, so we will wait and see what happens!
KEEP everything crossed guys!!!! And THANKS for all the support and advice!
Afterwards we went in and watched the auction until our house came up. The high bid amount was $155,000. On top of that bid was added a 5% fee, so their bid ended up being $162,750. Since our bid was SIGNIFICANTLY higher than the highest live bid we ended up reducing our absentee bid by $5,000. We had a little bit high debt to income ratios and in order to make that exception we were going to have to come up with $1,000. So I thought that I would give myself a little wiggle room and try to reduce the DTI and avoid that extra $1,000. Since our loan officer knew we wouldn't have that $1,000 he said that we could raise the interest rate by 1/8% which I really didn't want to do. Our approval was for $215,000, so if they accept our offer the way it is now at a bid amount of $182,000 and contract price of $204,000 we will have an $11,000 reduction in amount financed compared to what we were approved for. THAT should take care of our DTI issue!
The auction negotiator said that this seller usually gets back to them very quickly and that we might hear from them before the holiday. He also said that since there were actually two bidders (us and the bidder at $162k) we BOTH would be in exclusive negotiations with the seller........so what the seller MIGHT do is tell the other bidder that there was an absentee bid and ask them if their bid was their highest and best and give them the opportunity to increase it. The chance of them raising their bid by $20,000+ to match or surpass ours is VERY unlikely, so we will wait and see what happens!
KEEP everything crossed guys!!!! And THANKS for all the support and advice!
THANKS Van! I'm sitting on pins and needles hoping to hear from them before Thanksgiving 
Unfortunately, they must have taken a few days off for Thanksgiving! I haven't heard a word! I guess I will hear something on Monday! Sooooo until then here I wait! LOL