House #10 – Lake Orion

We viewed this house last year.  Yes, I know “last year” is only 6 days old, and it’s weird to say that about something that happened a week ago, but it’s true.  I was working from home during the break, and after juggling schedules with the owners of the house, my agent, and our schedule, we finally got a chance to tour the house.

This one was a long shot.  I was scouring through the listings (after getting an updated pre-approval for a much higher amount), and this one was on my radar.  I knew the subdivision, had friends in high school who lived there, it met our location requirements, but it was priced high.  I got in touch with my agent, and figured it couldn’t hurt to take a look.

House #9 – Rochester

After we went and toured House #8 – Lake Orion, our agent asked if we had enough time to go see another couple of houses.  Not wanting to miss a chance to view more houses and take advantage of every house out there, we went about 20 minutes away to Rochester to view a house that had been on my “interested” radar, even though I had some reservations on the house.

SWING and a miss…

The pitch was high and tight, and we swung low.  Looks like we’re on the hunt again.

House #7 – Rochester appears to be off the table.  We got a response back from Fannie Mae saying they rejected our offer.  While that’s a sharp jab to the chin, it’s not a devastating knockout.  Our agent then said that it was a long shot to get Fannie to accept on the first offer, especially since we were offering way under the listing price.

House #7 – Rochester Part 2

Part 1 is here.

OK, so I said it was a Homepath house, right?  And you remember what it meant to be a Homepath house, right?

You forgot?

Oh dear…

OK, a Homepath house is a house that is foreclosed on and the Government (most notably, Fannie Mae) is selling the house with loads of incentives to get someone into it.

First, they offer lower down payment and lower sale prices than other homes.  Conventional loans typically want 20% down, FHA loans require 3.5% down, but Homepath homes usually are OK with as low as 3% down.  Less cash to put down on a house, more cash in pocket.  Second, they are great for people who have less-than-great credit (which isn’t an issue for us).  Third, NO PRIVATE MORTGAGE INSURANCE!  Talk to any homeowner who has to pay PMI, and it is one of the worst parts about home ownership.  Fourth, no appraisal fees (which can be upwards of $300-$500)…again, more cash in pocket.  Fifth, because of the real estate economy, they’re also willing to chip in 3.5% towards closing costs – which is what we’ve been asking every time we’ve made an offer on a house.

Home Runs and Heartbreak

I received a very interesting email on Wednesday from my agent on Friday.  See, once we found out that we lost House #1 back in September, we were curiously interested for what it went for.  According to our agent, they could have offered more for the house than we did, they could have had a bigger down payment, they could have had a conventional loan vs. our FHA loan, they could have asked for less in concessions, or they might have had a longer credit history than 2 first-time home buyers.  Whatever the case, we looked at it as someone getting a house for more than we were willing to pay, and moved on with our lives.

House #6 – Lake Orion

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the housing market……

As many of you saw a few days ago, House #5 (that’s 5 houses we’ve toured overall) looked like a wonderful prospect.  It was huge, it could use a lot of TLC and a designer’s touch, it was priced wonderfully, and most importantly, it got both Ashley and I geeked.

Naturally, as we’ve learned during the course of this whole home-buying procedure, that means that something is going to go awry.