Homeless!

bonsaikc

Well, here's a test of that philosophy of mine: "The only person who can change my life is me."

So I gets the plumber to replumb the house. So the wife sez, "Hmmm, now we can think about selling it!" So we start lookin', and the wife falls in love with the place you saw in a deleted post. It's only been on the market since February, but she's afraid it will sell out from under us, so we have to list our house NOW in order to put in a contingent offer.

So now I'm workin' the gluteus maximus off, fixin' things on the old house (I can't fix the roof in the rain, and when it ain't rainin', it don't leak!), takin' serious abuse in feedback from realtors, then BOOM, two offers and one for full price. Catch: gotta close by the 18th.

Okay, so the house is sold and things is movin' fast. Now the new house appraises, not for the $144,900 we offered, but for $116,000. This lowers our ability to finance, right? So we offer $9000 over the appraised value (not our best decision to date) and the owner tells us to...well, you know. So now we get to move into the motel and start the home search all over again.

I cannot tell you how great it is to have good bonsai friends who, on a moment's notice, will accept trees into their collections for a friend. I will keep everyone apprised on our situation.

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Sashi-no-eda.blogspot.com

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BonsaiOR

Good luck Chris! Moving/buying a home can be one of life's biggest stressors. Not to mention life's biggest purchases. Just make sure you get the right yard and exposure for your trees, and everything will fall into place (ha, ha).

bwaynef

I hate to say this to someone who's been so helpful to me lately but...


How smart do you feel now?


Here and here

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© 2004 - present bwaynef

agraham

You might try to get another appraisal.Speak with the listing realtor (if there was one) and figure out how the sellers set their price.If it was based on a market analysis,there might be some wiggle room.

I/m sorry to hear of this because that place you showed seemed ideal.Good luck.

andy

pioneersnt

Sorry to hear about the homeless situaton, I can sympathise. We bought this property with the intention of living here in a travel trailer while the construction was in progress on the house. Guess again, the county put a stop to that. It took a year to get everything into place. Thanks to family and friends we weren't on the streets, but what a headache.

JTriptow

Chris,

Andy is absolutely right about the second appraisal---however, I would not look to the listing agent for information, they are not working for you. If you are working with a realtor, have them do a market analysis on the house to see where and why it is priced. If the market dictates that it is priced fairly then your lender will consider a second appraisal---if this is worth it to you. If you are not working with a realtor on the buying end and think you should, PM me and I could probably put you in touch with a good buyer's agent in your area (I am a realtor in Dallas).

Now, if you don't feel like it's worth the hassle for a second appraisal, I would highly recommend having your buyer's agent do a market analysis on any house you intend to offer on before you put in the offer. This will (hopefully) nip some of those issues in the bud before you encounter them.

One more thing---you are at a great advantage having sold your house. An offer with a contingency for sale of other property always puts you in a position of weakness with a seller. Because you could back out if your own home didn't sell they view it as taking their house off the market with no guarantees. Now that you have sold, you will have much better negotiating power in future deals. I know, that does not help your living situation any. Thankfully, there are usually many apartment complexes that work with families in this kind of flux on a month-to-month basis.

I wish you the best of luck---and am very thankful that you have friends willing to take in your homeless bonsai!

Jennifer

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Who knew trees could become an obsession?

bonsaikc

Thanks for all the support, guys/gals. Actually, there were no comparable sales in the area, this one is unique for the entire part of town, most are postage stamp lots and tract houses, average sales price is $109,000. Only the realtor of the seller can provide comps to the appraiser, so there was no way to justify the higher price to the lender. So my take on all this is that after the hard work, stress, and etc. dies down, in the end we may find an even better place to call home.

In the meantime, I can walk to work and pick up breakfast at Sonic on my way. MMMMMMM!

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Attila

Boy, I am shocked to hear this! Sorry to hear, hopefully it will pass soon.

That's why I keep saying to everybody:

Guys, we all need to have two homes at all times. Just in case we lose one, there's the back-up. Plus, in case of a fight with the spouse, she can't kick you out of both homes, right? So, I keep two of them.

bnsaijim

Sounds like a greedy listing agent trying to inflate the market- what does this person/company's other listings look like?

Have a little faith...

My wife and I have been praying to get out of the city and into the country for a few years now...

The bonsai garden was a bit cramped and so was the house with 3 growing boys. I'd been blathering about opening a REAL bonsai nursery for a few years and almost purchased one in Houston....

But, I had the kitchen torn up and we were looking at another year in town and a lot of work before we could think about listing. About a month and a half ago a friend walked in lamenting the cost of even fixxer-uppers. My wife joked about just buying ours.

She did.

So no place to go, we scheduled closing. We had a lot of appraisal headaches ourselves. They kept wanting fixxer-upper work done when the contract clearly stated "as-is"; there was plenty of slippage in the appraisal as well to cover what the cosmetic stuff they were asking for. But it did work out...

Meanwhile we found the new home of "Seki Bonsai Studio" - 8.2 acres, fishing canal, barn and an older but cool house...

I'll try and post a few picks- probably under the heading of "nana-nana boo boo"!!!

Keep looking and at least be happy that you sold on the top of a bubble and might be buying as it shrinks!

Jim Stone
Santa Fe TX