Well, no golf course house for us. The seller choose another bid.
There actually were multiple bids, who'dathunkit.
The next house on our list is the one with the great, fenced back yard. But, big but, the seller is not able to come down off their listing price. At the listing price, you would still have to attempt a short-sale. A short-sale is asking the bank to take less money than what is owed. Sometimes the bank will do that to help get the house sold, especially if the homeowner is behind on their payments.
In this case the homeowner is not behind on payments, so the Bank has refused to take anything less than what is owed. There is also a SECOND MORTGAGE.... they would have to agree to take... oh, NOTHING!
All this leaves the house about $25,000 over-priced. A rotten situation for everyone involved.
Okay , moving on the the next house on the list. A nice, big house that is a great set up for us. Cons: smallish backyard, and neighborhood is not as 'fancy'. No home-owners association to make people 'keep things nice'. Not a bad area, just more 'rural' feeling. But if we can get it for a good price, the neighborhood would be worth it. We will make a bid on this house this weekend.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
On the Home Front
Well, it's been a week and we still have not purchased a house. We are learning a valuable real estate purchasing lesson.
--- "It is not easy to buy a foreclosure."----
That's it, that's the whole lesson.
You would think, with all the foreclosures that banks are stuck with right now, that they would make purchasing one of said foreclosure homes reasonably painless.
I mean, come on, it's a huge purchase and involves legal contracts and real estate contract and mortgage contracts, so obviously it is going to be a pain in the tookus, but this is ridiculous!
This particular house is owned by a bank and being managed by an REO management company. REO (Real Estate Owned) means "owned by the bank". (In a nutshell) The company is paid by the bank to maintain and market the house. They are Real Estate Agents with extra attitude.
Our initial bid could not be submitted to the owner/bank for two days because it was not submitted on the correct forms.
Now EVERYONE uses the same basic real estate forms. It may have a different letterhead, but the bid-to-purchase forms are a standard legal form that all Real Estate Agents use.
BUT NOT THIS REO MANAGEMENT COMPANY. They have their own forms, SPECIAL FORMS. They will not read, process or forward a bid unless it is presented on their forms.
Their forms say: "I want to buy this house. I will buy this house sight unseen, without inspections, without preview, while all utilities are off. I will pay asking price. I will buy this house As-Is. The bank assumes no responsibility for this house or this contract, now or at any time in the future. I will pay all expenses and closing costs and I am an idiot.
You must submit this form without any alterations or changes. No exceptions.
They will present your bid to the owner/bank and you can expect a response to take up to 7 days. Or not.... Maybe.... If you sent the correct forms.... And it actually was submitted.... with all the other bids that just miraculously came in...
Even though the house has been for sale for a year, there are now OTHER BIDS for you to compete against.. " Would you like to raise your bid before we submit it. Decide by 1:00 TODAY...!
HAH!
Now you know why the banks are currently stuck with so many foreclosure properties!
This particular REO Management Co. is strictly working the Atlanta area and they represent almost 400 properties. I'm not even sure who to blame for the shocking lack of customer service; the actual Bank or the Management Company.
It actually says on their website and paperwork, that their 'preferred method of communication is e-mail, so please do not call us'. If you call too many times, like our very efficient agent, they will tell you, "send an e-mail".
Amazing.
Still waiting.
--- "It is not easy to buy a foreclosure."----
That's it, that's the whole lesson.
You would think, with all the foreclosures that banks are stuck with right now, that they would make purchasing one of said foreclosure homes reasonably painless.
I mean, come on, it's a huge purchase and involves legal contracts and real estate contract and mortgage contracts, so obviously it is going to be a pain in the tookus, but this is ridiculous!
This particular house is owned by a bank and being managed by an REO management company. REO (Real Estate Owned) means "owned by the bank". (In a nutshell) The company is paid by the bank to maintain and market the house. They are Real Estate Agents with extra attitude.
Our initial bid could not be submitted to the owner/bank for two days because it was not submitted on the correct forms.
Now EVERYONE uses the same basic real estate forms. It may have a different letterhead, but the bid-to-purchase forms are a standard legal form that all Real Estate Agents use.
BUT NOT THIS REO MANAGEMENT COMPANY. They have their own forms, SPECIAL FORMS. They will not read, process or forward a bid unless it is presented on their forms.
Their forms say: "I want to buy this house. I will buy this house sight unseen, without inspections, without preview, while all utilities are off. I will pay asking price. I will buy this house As-Is. The bank assumes no responsibility for this house or this contract, now or at any time in the future. I will pay all expenses and closing costs and I am an idiot.
You must submit this form without any alterations or changes. No exceptions.
They will present your bid to the owner/bank and you can expect a response to take up to 7 days. Or not.... Maybe.... If you sent the correct forms.... And it actually was submitted.... with all the other bids that just miraculously came in...
Even though the house has been for sale for a year, there are now OTHER BIDS for you to compete against.. " Would you like to raise your bid before we submit it. Decide by 1:00 TODAY...!
HAH!
Now you know why the banks are currently stuck with so many foreclosure properties!
This particular REO Management Co. is strictly working the Atlanta area and they represent almost 400 properties. I'm not even sure who to blame for the shocking lack of customer service; the actual Bank or the Management Company.
It actually says on their website and paperwork, that their 'preferred method of communication is e-mail, so please do not call us'. If you call too many times, like our very efficient agent, they will tell you, "send an e-mail".
Amazing.
Still waiting.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Sunday
Well, no new house yet. The bid we made yesterday was not accepted. We offered a fair price, asked for a percentage of closing costs and a 'termite bond' (customary in GA). They countered with 'asking price', no closing and no termite bond. Hmm..
This house is about $30,000.00 overpriced, needs a new roof, 4 windows replaced, landscaping and some updating. Apparently the owners are upside-down by about $17,000.00. No wonder it's been for sale for over a year. Our agent said: 'if that's all they can do the house will sit empty for all of '09 too.' Too bad.
But, we have another bid we are going to send out tomorrow so we'll see.
We are going to shoot LOW on the first offer and see what happens.
(Lori & Rita: This house has a really good paint job... hint, hint...)
This house is about $30,000.00 overpriced, needs a new roof, 4 windows replaced, landscaping and some updating. Apparently the owners are upside-down by about $17,000.00. No wonder it's been for sale for over a year. Our agent said: 'if that's all they can do the house will sit empty for all of '09 too.' Too bad.
But, we have another bid we are going to send out tomorrow so we'll see.
We are going to shoot LOW on the first offer and see what happens.
(Lori & Rita: This house has a really good paint job... hint, hint...)
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Saturday Night
Not too much going on this evening. Mark's working, Alex just went to bed and Catelin is watching a movie.
It's been an uneventful day. It was about 23 degrees this morning and stayed cold all day so we just stayed in and didn't do much. It was actually sleeting this evening, Wow!
We put an offer on a house today so hopefully we'll hear something back tomorrow. This is actually the second offer we have made, but the first one was a real "low-ball" offer on a new construction because we heard that the builder had some foreclosures in the paper. We did not really expect him to take the offer; and he didn't... but with the real estate market like it is around here right now, you just never can tell....
The house we put the offer on today is nice, but it might need a little bit of work. It's been for sale for over a year.
Stucco, 'European' style, 1996, 4 bedrooms, good sized kitchen, fresh paint, big yard, has basement (hard to find in this area), stubbed for bath in basement. It would be a good choice for us, it has lots of potential.
There are no pictures of it online, so it's not one of the houses I e-mailed to family members.
So, that's been our excitement for the week, looking at a few more houses and deciding what to do next! It's been fun.
It's been an uneventful day. It was about 23 degrees this morning and stayed cold all day so we just stayed in and didn't do much. It was actually sleeting this evening, Wow!
We put an offer on a house today so hopefully we'll hear something back tomorrow. This is actually the second offer we have made, but the first one was a real "low-ball" offer on a new construction because we heard that the builder had some foreclosures in the paper. We did not really expect him to take the offer; and he didn't... but with the real estate market like it is around here right now, you just never can tell....
The house we put the offer on today is nice, but it might need a little bit of work. It's been for sale for over a year.
Stucco, 'European' style, 1996, 4 bedrooms, good sized kitchen, fresh paint, big yard, has basement (hard to find in this area), stubbed for bath in basement. It would be a good choice for us, it has lots of potential.
There are no pictures of it online, so it's not one of the houses I e-mailed to family members.
So, that's been our excitement for the week, looking at a few more houses and deciding what to do next! It's been fun.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Mopey Monday
Mopey? Is that a word: moping, mopeing, mopey, mooping... You know, like "stop mopeing around!" Honestly, how do you spell that?
It was a long weekend. It has been raining for the last 3 or 4 days and chilly, so no outside play time. The yard is one big wet, pine needle & leaf covered mud-mess. I wanted to get the yard cleaned up or raked but then we would only have the mud. Not really better.
Saturday, during nap-time Alexander decided to strip off his clothes and take off his poopy pull-up. Go ahead, visualize that for a moment. ************************************
I was talking to mom on the phone when I went up to check and see why he was yelling for me when he should have been asleep. All I could say was, "He's covered in sh**! Naked. Covered. In. Sh**! I gotta go!"
But here is a parenting tip no one else will give you: Dawn Dish Washing Liquid.
Not even kidding. I didn't know what else to do, I just didn't think Johnson's was gonna cut it. So I put him in the tub with a big squirt of Dawn and left him to soak while I stripped the bed and cleaned poop off all the bars and rails of his crib. And the wall behind the crib.
He thought the bubbles were fantastic fun and it kept him occupied! Worked perfectly and it was anti-bacterial!! Can't say it would be good for the skin to use often, but in this case it worked well.
Sunday we were all crabby, and at one point Catelin was screaming at Alex for eating white bread. Yes, for eating bread, because the white bread is for HER not HIM! Of course he was screaming right back, you just couldn't understand what he was saying. Probably better that way.
On a better note, Mark and I have been doing some house shopping. We looked at 3 more houses last week and were pretty excited. The market is really good for buyers right now. You can get alot for your money, so we are looking at some houses that we would not have been looking at a year ago, so that's fun.
Looking forward to a better week!!
It was a long weekend. It has been raining for the last 3 or 4 days and chilly, so no outside play time. The yard is one big wet, pine needle & leaf covered mud-mess. I wanted to get the yard cleaned up or raked but then we would only have the mud. Not really better.
Saturday, during nap-time Alexander decided to strip off his clothes and take off his poopy pull-up. Go ahead, visualize that for a moment. ************************************
I was talking to mom on the phone when I went up to check and see why he was yelling for me when he should have been asleep. All I could say was, "He's covered in sh**! Naked. Covered. In. Sh**! I gotta go!"
But here is a parenting tip no one else will give you: Dawn Dish Washing Liquid.
Not even kidding. I didn't know what else to do, I just didn't think Johnson's was gonna cut it. So I put him in the tub with a big squirt of Dawn and left him to soak while I stripped the bed and cleaned poop off all the bars and rails of his crib. And the wall behind the crib.
He thought the bubbles were fantastic fun and it kept him occupied! Worked perfectly and it was anti-bacterial!! Can't say it would be good for the skin to use often, but in this case it worked well.
Sunday we were all crabby, and at one point Catelin was screaming at Alex for eating white bread. Yes, for eating bread, because the white bread is for HER not HIM! Of course he was screaming right back, you just couldn't understand what he was saying. Probably better that way.
On a better note, Mark and I have been doing some house shopping. We looked at 3 more houses last week and were pretty excited. The market is really good for buyers right now. You can get alot for your money, so we are looking at some houses that we would not have been looking at a year ago, so that's fun.
Looking forward to a better week!!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Saving For Therapy
As we pull into the driveway this evening, we see that the neighbor's cat has left us a lovely gift. A tasty, dead squirrel. Headless.
She loves us very much...
As we get out of the car, Mark decides to "show" Catelin the squirrel.
So, you already know what kind of father my children have.......
He proceeds to chase Catelin around the driveway slinging a dead, headless squirrel by the tail.
She is shrieking bloody murder: "Mom, Mom, help, make him stooooopppp, why'd you marry him anyway???!!!!" AAAAAHHHHHH, Help!!
She shoves poor bewildered Alex down on the concrete. He is already confused & frightened, not sure what is going on. Usually if Catelin cries, he cries too (just in case).
She is screaming like a maniac, Alex is bawling HIS head off and Mark is running after Catelin yelling "EEEEWWWWW!".
The peace and quiet of our little neighborhood is shattered.
Don't you think the neighbors just love us?
Such is my life, dead squirrels and all.
She loves us very much...
As we get out of the car, Mark decides to "show" Catelin the squirrel.
So, you already know what kind of father my children have.......
He proceeds to chase Catelin around the driveway slinging a dead, headless squirrel by the tail.
She is shrieking bloody murder: "Mom, Mom, help, make him stooooopppp, why'd you marry him anyway???!!!!" AAAAAHHHHHH, Help!!
She shoves poor bewildered Alex down on the concrete. He is already confused & frightened, not sure what is going on. Usually if Catelin cries, he cries too (just in case).
She is screaming like a maniac, Alex is bawling HIS head off and Mark is running after Catelin yelling "EEEEWWWWW!".
The peace and quiet of our little neighborhood is shattered.
Don't you think the neighbors just love us?
Such is my life, dead squirrels and all.
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