@Tooliebell wrote:After a year of working really hard to increase our scores, we decided we were ready to look for a home. We wanted to build on our property but found that just wasn't going to happen as owner builders and we didn't want to pay gobs of money to have someone else build the house.
We thought the credit was the hard part! YEAH RIGHT! We have had our eye on two properties. The first one is a huge house with a lot of acres and many barns, which is perfect for us. We decided we could afford the payments and made an offer which was countered. I was so stressed about it, something just didn't feel right. So when I took some time to really think about it, I thought, we might be able to afford the payment, but the taxes, house insurance, and the utilities would have been a nightmare. So we backed out of that house. Felt amazingly better right away.
The second property is a nice big brick home with acreage and a couple barns. Taxes much more affordable, utilties way more affordable. Asking price was $149,900, offered $145,000 seller to pay closing. Counter was $149,900 no pay for closing. Realtor said he was firm on price and didn't really need to sell his house so the price was the price. We thought, maybe he will meet us in the middle. $150,000 with seller to pay closing. No deal. Fine, tired of playing the game, we said $155,000 with the $5,000 back at closing to pay the closing costs. No answer on that yet! We made that offer yesterday morning. Prior to that, seller was responding within a couple hours.
My gut tells me, he didn't want to sell the house and will pull it off the market now. I am pretty mad, but realize it is the seller's house and he can choose whatever he likes, but man, why would you do that? He has it listed with an agent, if he pulls it off the market, will he have to pay a fee?
After all I read about everyone's housebuying drama, I was thinking I would be immune to it! HA! Guess I learned a lesson.
Did they say why he doesn't need to sell? We had similar drama with the seller. He bought a condo so he DID need to move out. But we offered on the house the 2nd day it was on the market so that made us look wimpy and he seemed to think we would agree to anything. So we offered $130500 (listing price $132500) plus 3% for closing costs by seller. They countered at $133,000 with $3000 towards closing or $134,000 with $4000 towards closing. We accepted the first option only because we REALLY wanted this house. I agree with my agent that if it had been on the market longer we would've had more leverage. But it was frustrating to deal with. There was another house on the market that we'd had our eye on before we found our house. We tried to make arrangements to see it but it was like they didn't want to show it. They finally agreed to show it, the Monday after we accepted the counter offer on our house. LOL And in the end (I did get to see what that other house looks like finally) we got a way better house. So trust your gut! 
Hang in there, it'll be worth it!
@Tooliebell wrote:He finally accepted! WOO HOO! Nothing like making a girl sweat it out. He said he didn't "have" to sell and he would hold onto it if he couldn't get the price he wanted out of it.
Now I am hoping we can close in time to be in by Christmas!
Yay! Congratulations! Hope you get to close in time!
I hope you do get to close by Christmas!
And I agree, listen to your gut. It usually steers you the right way.
