Broken Hearts

Everyone is saying right now "It's a buyer's market" when it comes to real estate. If this is the case, why are we currently experiencing the heartbreak we're going through?

Last week on Tuesday we went and looked at five houses with our realtor. The previous week she had taken us out to see seven houses. Out of those seven, there were two we liked but weren't sold on. When we went last Tuesday, once again there were two we liked....one of which we both REALLY liked.

It was just...cute. It had an adorable front porch and it just seemed to have everything we wanted in a house: 4 bedrooms (though one was smaller and in the basement), a good sized FENCED in yard with a deck, a kitchen with granite countertops, a great master with a big master with his and hers closets, master bath complete with whirlpool tub, and a spectacular finished basement that had a really nice wet bar...perfect for entertaining. It was in a great neighborhood. Close to my work. The only real downside was that it was 16 years old and still had its original wood shake roof. So we had decided we liked it but were going to have to negotiate the roof situation with the seller. Our realtor notified the seller that we were interested and informed his realtor that we wouldn't be able to close until June because of our current lease. His realtor said she'd talk to him about doing a 90 day closing but that she thought he'd be okay with it. Things seemed to be going so perfectly.

Wednesday, James found another house online...a foreclosure that we wanted to take a look at before our realtor left town for vacation on Thursday. So she called to make an appointment to show it only to find out it sold earlier that day. She also informed us that two of the other houses we'd been interested in had sold as well. It seemed like things were going fast and we decided to take quick action on the house we'd seen the day before. She told us, if we wanted to, we could go ahead and put an offer on that house. It seemed so soon but we both loved the house and knew we'd be heartbroken if someone else got to it before we could.

So, our realtor met up with us...we went to Mi Ranchito and sat for a couple hours and made an offer on the house. James and I were both giddy with excitement. The next day I sat by my phone all day waiting for "the call" from our realtor. She called us that night and informed us that the seller had countered with an agreement to allow for a 90 day closing, pay closing costs, and provide a one-year warranty. He did not, however, offer to come down on the original asking price. As much as we loved this house, it was definitely priced too high. Our realtor pulled up a bunch of comps and he was asking much more for the house than it's currently worth. The seller provided us with an appraisal that stated the house was worth 10K more than he was asking. However, the appraisal was over 2 years old and thus didn't really prove anything. From the research we've done, most houses have gone down 15-20K just in the past year...so that house definitely wasn't worth what it was 2 years ago. We countered his counter offer and again waited by the phone the rest of the day.

Friday night, around 8:00, our realtor called us with the news. The seller turned down our offer, said there was nothing wrong with the roof and would not agree to replace it, and said he still was not willing to come down in price at all. So, as sad as we were to do it, we had to walk away. Everyone keeps saying "it wasn't meant to be" and that "a better house will come up". But right now, I feel like someone just broke up with me. Sure there are "better fish in the sea" but we both really liked this fish.