Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Twisted Turns Of My House Hunt

I happened to do a search for houses again, like I do every few days to see if I have missed anything. I spied a new listing that looked suspiciously familiar. Yes, it was the house that I made an offer on last month that got rudely turned down. The house had left the market for a few weeks and I heard that it had been passed from Fannie Mae to the mortgage insurance company. It appeared today and guess what the listing price is? $49,900!!! What??? How can they do that to me??? I offered Fannie $65k for that house and she said NO, we want $85k. It turns out that the house now belongs to Citibank and the listing agent got to pick the price and he decided that in order to get rid of it they need to price it at $49,900.

That is SO not fair. This is what should happen in my imaginary world:

Citibank: We heard that you offered $65k to Fannie Mae, therefore, we are going to offer the house to you for $49,900 if you would like it.

Me: Oh gee, how nice of you to think of me. Do you think you could install a water heater so that I can get a conventional loan?

Citibank: Of course! That would be simple and easy and we want to get these houses off of our books and occupied by great people like you!

Me: Thank you, you are too kind.

It could happen, right?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could you pull out of the other house, and buy this one?

Have you paid any consideration for the one you made an offer for, are there any financial penalties to withdrawing your offer?

Daizy said...

No penalties. I just wouldn't want to pull out without knowing for sure if I would get the other one. They haven't even officially responded yet so technically my offer expired on Sunday. My big problem is financing or money or lack of money and financing.

Anonymous said...

Daizy - You need to call around and find someone who doesn't sell their mortgages on the secondary market because it is the secondary market guidelines that require the water heater and other items. For example, sometimes a credit union or local savings bank will hold their own loans. Certain other lenders will sometimes hold a loan for a year or two, wanting to establish 12 or 24 months of on-time payments before selling them for a premium on the secondary market, they might give you a chance and then reinspect for the water heater. A good broker should have a list of such lenders, have your broker ask others in her office if they know who doesn't underwrite to FNMA.

Stephanie said...

I've known friends who have made repairs to a house they were buying in order to get the loan. If it's a sure thing, could you pay to put in the water heater yourself beforehand? I know it may be a bit of a gamble, but maybe you could get it in writing from them that the loan would go through if the water heater was installed before you decided to pay for it yourself.

Lizzie @ her homeworld said...

can you put in an offer on both and withdraw if they both accept? I have say that property buying in the US seems comparable with the confusion of Greek tax calculations and I still dont get what the water heater has to do with anything. Too confusing.

Daizy said...

Anonymous, I will look in to that. A coworker suggested a mortgage broker. I've heard some advertised on the radio during the real estate talk show too.

Daizy said...

Stephanie, the price is so low that they are going to take the highest cash offer and not mess around with any contingencies. I dream of breaking in and installing a water heater...heehee.

Daizy said...

Lizzie, I want to keep an offer on both but my realtor wants me to choose. I haven't decided what to do.