I'm loving the private blog so I can spill all my fears and frustrations without the risk that undesirable people will see them. I can vent about the buyers of my house : ) I suppose it's possible that one of you know them, but I guess that's a risk I'm willing to take, since I highly doubt it.
So, about 6 days after we put our house up for sale we got our first offer. The buyers offered $272K and we pay all the closing costs, plus it was an FHA loan which meant that any appraisal we got stuck to the house. Since we were asking $299K, this wasn't cool with us. The house had only been up for 6 days, so we decided to see what else came our way. Another 7 days later, we got a second offer- $283K, Conventional Loan, and they wanted about half of our furniture. It really felt like they were trying to suck the life out us. I could not understand why someone would have the audacity to ask for our personal things. For the record, they asked for the patio table and chairs, our dining table and chairs, the shelving in the playroom, and the tv stand in there, the shelving and desk in the sewing room, and the washer, dryer, and fridge, plus the curtains and rods. SERIOUSLY??!! All I could think of was that they must have thought we were desperate to sell and didn't care about taking any furniture with us to our new home.
We decided that other than the furniture thing, this was a deal we could work with. We countered with $288K and they could have our patio table. They countered and said, "throw in the fridge and it's a deal". WAHOO! We thought we'd gotten away relatively unscathed, but knew the appraisal needed to come in close to the $288K in order to make this all work. We waited 2.5 weeks for it to come, and it felt like forever! Finally, one day we heard that Wells Fargo (thier lender) had done a computerized appraisal and it came back at $235K. GASP! We knew there was no way that was right, so we crossed our fingers for the real appraisal. The next day, it came in, and the news wasn't good. EXACTLY the same- $235K. SO FISHY! What happened to "A house is worth what someone is willing to pay for it??" We feel so jipped! I don't know what happened, other than the appraiser used comps that aren't even in our neighborhood, and two were short sales, and one was bank owned.
Well, this low appraisal gave our buyers the opportunity to lower their offer. They came back with a $265K offer. Brandon and I had decided before we started this whole process that we didn't want to take less than $290K, and if it came down to it, we'd walk away from the sale, and just rent it out. Well, today was the day the decision had to be made. Do we settle for this low price for a home that we love, and that we don't HAVE to sell, or do we walk away and hope that we find great renters?
In a last-ditch effort to save the sale, we tossed our pride to the wind, told them we'd only do it for $272K, and we get our furniture and fridge.
I feel good about this. If they walk away, they walk away and we decide what to do from here. I was so nervous that I'd regret letting them go, but I just feel like I'd regret selling for less even more.
That's where we're at. I'll let you know where we end up. Prayers for us would be much appreciated, as I am terrified I will make a wrong decision somewhere along the way.
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