Buyer's Market?

So I am a little bitter about this whole buying a house business.  I mean everyone in the universe is saying that we are in a buyers market and now is the time to jump on the bandwagon and buy a house.  I have been resigned to the fact that we will rent until our children go to college for just a few more years because that's what is in the plan.  (Yeah, we always follow the plan.  Kaitlyn and Tyler were both planned.)  I was super excited when Jerry was conned decided that it was indeed a buyers market and that we could get into a house while having a lower mortgage than our monthly rent.  Score! 

This whole house buying debacle adventure has been a less than thrilling one to say the least.  We were looking at those foreclosures at first because we could really save some money and get a house for around $100,000.  People, those houses are in foreclosure for a reason.  The very first house we looked at was in foreclosure and had been abandoned.  I should have run away screaming when we pulled up to it and the grass was up to my eyes.  However I kept an open mind and my babies glued to my side.  We stepped into the house and it was a real gem POS!  There was still broken furniture left in the house from the previous owners.  There was mold growing on the ceiling of the nursery.  (There was a crib in there so I'm going to assume that it was the nursery.)  The ceiling was falling down on the lanai.  The pool was an electric green and I am still convinced there was a big sci-fi creature swimming in it.  (There was definitely water movement and I don't think it was the creepy crawly.)  I was pretty bummed out at the sad state of the house.  We quickly asked our realtor if all the foreclosed houses looked like this and he reassured us that they didn't and this was probably one of the worst he's seen.  We trusted him because he came highly recommended to us by my parents so we trekked on.  We looked at 10 houses that first night and NONE of them were even fit to live in.  They all needed work in some way and we really couldn't afford the time or money to get them to move in ready shape.  I was discouraged to say the least.

Fast forward to a week.  We finally found a house that was move in ready.  It was in an ok neighborhood, not my ideal location, but there were no cars on cinder blocks in the front yard.  (This was a prerequisite for a neighborhood that Jerry was comfortable living in.)  We actually fell in love with the house and the potential it had.  There were some things that would need to be updated, the VERY pink carpet throughout the house, but it had everything that we were looking for.  We put in an offer and found out that we were 1 of 4.  The good news was that the bank was not looking for investors to buy this house so we weren't competing with someone who had a large amount of available cash.  The bad news was that we had no idea what to bid on this house in order to get it.  Long story short, the bank did not ask for best offers and took the highest initial bid which was not ours.  (We bid $10,000 over asking price and were willing to go $15,000 to get the house.)  Disappointed, because I really started to fall in love with the house and the potential it had with just a few updates.

After another few hundred houses we find another one well below our price range, in the exact neighborhood we want, with a great floor plan and plenty of space.  We moved very quickly on this house.  Score!  No bids at all on this house.  We played the game again and offered $10,000 above asking price willing to go $15,000.  Good news, we were the very first bid, bad news, it's game on for everyone including investors.  We lost this house by $1,000 because there was a cash offer on the house.  Suck it!

So buy now we are mostly defeated and decide that we will not compromise.  The house must be in the perfect neighborhood.  It must be at least 1600 sf.  It must have a two car garage.  It must have a fenced in back yard.  It must have a separate area for the playroom.  People, things happen for a reason because we found a house with all that and more.  It's a 3/2/2 with over 1800 sf of living space.  We have an extra large living area with a semi-open floor plan.  There are two fireplaces, although I'm not sure why there is even one since we live in Florida.  And the coup de gras....a pool!  We initially did not want a pool because I am paranoid concerned about my little ones, but we are stoked and are prepared to pay out the nose for some high tech pool fence and alarms.  It is also 5 houses down the street from my parents.  Don't know quite yet if that is good or bad, but it's exactly where I want to live because of the schools that are near by.  All three schools, elementary, middle and high school that I want my children to attend are within walking distance. 

We low balled an initial offer.  (The sellers' agent was desperate and constantly hounding our agent to make an offer.)  There were a few counters on both sides and we finally agreed to a price...we got the house for a steal!  Everything is going great, we close on the 24th of September, tell our landlords to bite us that we are giving them 60 days notice, even though we don't have to give them any notice, and they can keep our deposit to use as the last month's rent and we'll be on our way.  Inspection goes well, except the roof needs some repairs, our realtor says the sellers' need to pay for it, they agree and we are happily moving onward and upward.

The bad news, the underwriting company for the mortgage is at  a complete standstill and there is no way we can get this done by the 24th.  WTF!  Of course our mortgage guy, who also is our realtor, is a pro and is on it.  He finds a new underwriting company that can keep us close to being on track.  We are now a week behind which throws a minor wrench into our plans because we have engineered our work schedule around our move.  There are meetings and trips and a MIL visit that have been pre-scheduled and now cannot be canceled.  I guess Jerry's mom will have to help us move while she is on vacation.  We'll also have to rent a POD instead of a UHaul and may have to spend a week living with my parents.  Ugh. 

Good news, this house meets our present AND future needs so we won't be moving for a very long time.