Seller (financial institution to whom ownership has reverted after foreclosure): Buy this house for X dollars.
Potential buyer (us): We like it. In fact, we'll offer you X+3, assuming nothing untoward shows up in the inspection reports, and assuming we can get funding.
Seller: Great. We accept your offer.
Buyer: Ooh, well now. We just spent a pile of money to have various experts inspect the house. They found quite a lot of work that needs to be done. Our revised offer is X-35 and we'd like you to pay for some of the repairs.
Seller: We're willing to come down to X-10 and we'll give you y dollars for repairs. That's our last offer. Take it or leave it.
Buyer: Okay, we'll take it. Now we'll just finalize the loan, which we are getting from your very own institution. That should make it easy.
Lender: We'll need to get the house appraised.
Buyer: Really? Even though you're the ones selling it?
Lender: Well, the asset side and the loan side are different.
Buyer: Right.
Lender: Uh, the appraisal came back at X-29. We can't approve the loan as is.
Buyer: WTF?!
***
I've left out some important sub-plot involving requests to extend deadlines, a power struggle over a power of attorney, a search for an English-speaking doctor in Germany willing to sign a letter stating someone's sanity, miscommunication about said letter, a search for home insurance, intervening and upcoming holidays, full-time teaching, the end of the semester and the consequent work due, and a trip overseas by a key member of the cast.
Tomorrow brings home my honey, and earlier in the day hopefully also an answer about what the seller is willing to do about the fact that their own damn company's hired appraiser says the house is not worth as much as they are asking for it.
Keep your fingers crossed for us!
Bittersweet
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Eyal and I always knew that it would be difficult building a family from
two different countries. It is just now, however, that we have to really
put that ...
12 years ago
Posts
4 comments:
Wow! That is so complicated it sounds like when you translate things from one language to another and back again a few times. It almost makes sense... but surely there is something deeply wrong somewhere...
Good Luck!
Since the housing market is in such disarray and prices look set to keep falling, and since you seem to be in a slightly dubious situation full of odd inconsistencies, maybe it makes some sense to walk away and keep renting? This may not be the best time to buy unless you can own free and clear.
That is insane. At the very least you should be able to get the place for x-29, right?
-f
F--you'd think so, huh? We're hoping the lender side will convince the asset side that they (asset owner) should write a check to the pest control company to make those repairs. Once the lender is sure the repairs will be made, they will do the loan, which makes sense to me.
What doesn't make sense is the seller being stubborn on the price. It's not like someone else is likely to come along and say, 'hey we don't care about the problems, we'll pay your original asking price and we'll pay cash.' We're about the best profile for buyers as you could ask for--fantastic credit scores, a fairly recession-proof job skill set, a successful history of home-ownership, willing and able to put down a large downpayment, work in the community, etc. I just don't see what they could be holding out for. Maybe it's just slow bureaucracy at this point.
David--I think real property is a better place to put our money than anything else we could do with it. Prices may and probably will decline for a little while, but eventually they'll go back up. The weather here is too fantastic. People will always want to live here.
Our agent and even the poor schmuck at the bottom of the hierachy at the lending end that we talk to agree that this whole thing is bizarre and absurd.
Here's hoping there's a happy ending, especially before the end of the year!
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