The continuing saga of our house hunt

**nuisance26** · 07-01-2012, 05:56 PM

~Well, after viewing the property I loved for the second time, taking pictures, measuring and inspecting as much as we could in an hour, opening our eyes more to flaws, running numbers and thinking about it another day, we decided to put in an offer. It's a ridiculously low, most likely insulting number to start at but I felt the need to send the message about the condition of the house.
It was listed at $148K to start over three months ago and dropped to $136K last month. It is not normal for a house to be unsold after 3 months here. Houses move fast so that's a clue to the extent of the problems.
It's a ranch house with a finished walk-out basement built in the 50's. Almost nothing has been updated. The roof pitch is 2:12 as far as I can eyeball and that is a major problem with the snow here. It's obviously been a problem in the past as there is a bit of water damage and a dozen stress cracks around the upstairs windows. I think the entire roof will need to be pulled off and a steeper pitched roof installed. We're generously allowing for that in our bid and budget.
I don't know what I'm hoping for at this point. I've moved past the love stage and am now in the business stage. We have our top bid price in mind and a detailed budget for repairs(using lots of internet research to set cost ranges). I've even priced out the cost of demolition and disposal with the option of selling the lot. Lots in the area can run almost as much as a finished house.
I'm prepared to walk away if they don't accept our top bid. There will be something else out there for us. I hadn't planned to get our new home the hard way and maybe we still won't but I just can't walk away from this one without knowing if it could be ours. So that's my little update.

~

**nodmicks** · 07-01-2012, 06:29 PM

Good luck! I hope it works out. We low balled when we bought our current home and got it.

**frugalwarrior2** · 07-01-2012, 09:38 PM

If they already dropped it $12,000 will they go lower. How long ago did they drop it?

**nuisance26** · 07-01-2012, 10:51 PM

~The price drop was just about a month ago. They will have to come down a lot or we won't be buying it. The cost of repairs and updates on top of their asking price will be too high for the neighborhood and over our budget. It's going to come down to how motivated they are to sell it. ~

**frugalwarrior2** · 07-01-2012, 11:38 PM

well I hope you get it. It could also come down to personal feelings. I would make sure it was agent to agent. People get attached and want to price sentiment. The best thing you could have happen is someone else lowball and get rejected and then you come in after the same. GOT ANY DEVIOUS FRIENDS?
OK JUST KIDDING ABOUT THAT>
I think I would send back a list of repairs w/ fair cost attached.

**frugalfranny** · 07-02-2012, 01:06 AM

Good luck.......hope it works out for you............which ever way you want it to.

Maybe if you find one, it will turn my luck around too. (but I am being REAL picky--- guess I don't care if I move or not!)

**nuisance26** · 07-02-2012, 08:59 AM

Originally Posted by frugalwarrior2

well I hope you get it. It could also come down to personal feelings. I would make sure it was agent to agent. People get attached and want to price sentiment. The best thing you could have happen is someone else lowball and get rejected and then you come in after the same. GOT ANY DEVIOUS FRIENDS?
OK JUST KIDDING ABOUT THAT>
I think I would send back a list of repairs w/ fair cost attached.

~Yup, we are letting our agent handle it. He's been awesome and supportive so far. He says that once we've all agreed on a price, then comes the inspection.
And the owner is deceased so I don't think there will be emotion on their side of the negotiation unless we're dealing with the person's adult child or something. Dealing with the actual owner actually would have worked to our advantage I think. I happen to love the quirky features of the house, where most people would not, plus older ladies love me.

It's easier to sell to someone you know isn't going to completely change everything you love about a place.
After we settled on a price with our buyers in NJ, they had an inspection done. We didn't see the entire report. The buyers had him prepare a list of the things they all agreed were the most troubling and asked for repairs or a repair allowance at closing. We negotiated a small chunk of cash back so that they could repair a few things.
Now what's tricky about doing that with this house is the extreme cost of repairs. This isn't $1K worth of stuff. This is $40-60K worth of stuff. I highly doubt any seller is going to knock $50K off of an agreed price. And that makes me extremely hesitant to offer what I think the value is with the repairs completed, hence the extreme lowball. But we will submit a repairs list backed by the inspector's professional opinion and estimates should we get to that stage of the buying process.
Here's another little bit of info that may help negotiation, according to Zillow, the house was under contract two months ago but the sale was canceled. I'm guessing that the buyers backed out after the inspection because the sellers refused to offer enough off the agreed price to execute necessary repairs. I'm hoping that with more time on the market, the sellers have opened their eyes a bit more to the lack of demand for homes that need this much work and are more willing to unload it and make concessions.
Of course, we're protected in this deal and can walk away at any point and get our earnest money back. We're only on the hook for the cost of inspection. Not a huge deal. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't emotionally wrapped up in this place though. I try to think about other stuff but I then find myself sketching decorating plans and imagining the kids playing in the backyard as I watch from the new porch with the mountain view.

Now we just wait and see.~

**VanVivCam** · 07-02-2012, 09:53 AM

Good luck to you. I hope it works out great!!!

**ShadowMom** · 07-02-2012, 04:36 PM

We recently had our roof re-roofed. We used Gold Roofing out of Loveland, they did an excellent job. I don't know if they have an office down there or not, but I can recommend them.

**nuisance26** · 07-05-2012, 12:21 PM

~Because our offer was to be put in near a holiday, we elected to wait until today to submit it. Meanwhile DH was off yesterday so we decided to drive out to some locations that couldn't be given a fair shake without seeing the areas in person. Hubby really wants some land and strongly wanted to see other places before moving forward with the house that needs a ton of work. Rats. But I want him to like what we decide on as well so we stayed our offer on house #7. I just wish he could make decisions about what he really wanted in a more timely manner.

So we're off to see properties #10-16 today. Our agent is bending over backwards for us like we're his only clients so that's awesome. I write an email in the evening and by 8am the next morning there's a reply with a tentative appointment for the showing that day. Love it!
We have another 10 properties we're interested in and will probably see a few of those this weekend.
When we first met our agent 6 weeks ago, I mentioned that we'd probably be looking at least 6 houses a month and asked if that was too much. Coming from a rural area, that sounded like a lot. Here in the city I'm now understanding that you could easily look at 6 a day for a couple months before buying. He knew that too and has stated several times that we will look at as many as needed to find the perfect one for us. That's just so much time invested for the agent it just boggles my mind that he can make a decent hourly wage with the time invested in each client. Makes me feel a little guilty. :/
The kids are still enjoying the search so that's a blessing. I thought they'd be absolute terrors in other people's homes but they've been great.
The search continues...~

**northernmom2boys** · 07-06-2012, 11:55 AM

Good luck on the house hunt
Believe me dont settle for any house,fall in love with your house
I am made the mistake of setteling 2 yrs ago and now am looking forward to next spring when we sell again!

**nuisance26** · 07-06-2012, 02:59 PM

~Yesterday's houses were duds so we're looking at houses #15-21 tonight. The good news is that we were able to definitely rule out manufactured homes as a possibility so that cut off a ton of properties in our price range. After seeing three of them yesterday and a couple before I am now sure that the lay-outs and "feel" to them don't suit my taste or our family's needs.
And we're getting faster at deciding what would possibly work and what definitely wouldn't during a showing. We saw 5 homes last night and only needed about 5 minutes per place to rule them out. The first few houses we looked at we spent over 20 minutes looking and thinking. Hopefully we can get through the 7 tonight in less than 2 hours with driving time. Most of them are very close together.~

**heartofmine** · 07-06-2012, 09:01 PM

I wish you luck in finding the perfect place for you and your family. Don't settle but try and look beyond and what you can do with the place.

**nuisance26** · 07-07-2012, 11:03 AM

~Well, we think we found "the one" and are putting in an offer today. It's bigger and more expensive than I planned on(26% of income(PITI) as opposed to the the 22% were were paying to own in NJ-but renting is 26% too so it's bad at all). DH and I couldn't deny that it met and exceeded all my criteria(except friendly neighborhood and that's still TBD) and met and exceeded all his criteria. And once again, I cried. Apparently good houses make me emotional.

I just wish it wasn't quite so huge. I really like smaller spaces and was hoping for something around 1600 sq ft. I didn't look at anything over 2000 sq ft until two weeks ago. I read an article that said you should view homes a bit smaller and a bit larger than you think you want to get a better idea of good layouts and the value of different areas by square footage. That's how this one made it on the "to see" list this time around. This place is 1750 sq ft one level living(perfect!) with another 950 in the finished basement.

We'll probably be thrilled with that extra space as the kids get into their teen years or if we want our parents to come live with us. Right now my brain is trying to comprehend how long it will take to clean. I just have no reference point to estimate it. Maybe 3-5 hours a week?
I'm still going to be thinking about that first place I loved but I know that getting a place we can both be excited about is a much better choice.
If everything goes through, closing will be one month from now. It's in a Common Interest Community but there are no dues, never have been and are unlikely to ever be imposed since the association is 30 years old at this point. The seller will provide the data on that as well as utility bills. I'm really curious how much those may run us on a large space.~

**nodmicks** · 07-08-2012, 10:52 AM

How exciting! I bet you will like a larger home. I have lived in a few small and this one that is large. I cant go back to small. I feel it is easier to keep the larger one clean and organized. More open space to me means less little nooks and crannies to clean. We have 1 kid grown and one 16 and we are still looking at homes no smaller than current and several bigger. I figure more room for when we are grandparents some day and also for out of town family. As a mom of teens you will love it then also!