butterfly stomach . . . buying my first house

Hi,
My husband and I made an offer on our first house this week! Its big for us because we are behind all our friends in getting settled and on with life. We met in Japan teaching English after university and I moved to Canada with him for a while (he is Canadian, Im from US-North Carolina) and then I got a job at Duke University, so we moved here.

The house is AWESOME! Its small--2 br, 1000 sq feet, but has a cute little yard, flowering pear tree in front with a white picket fence. Its a 15 minute walk to my work and in a great neighborhood.

The only thing is, it is competitive. Two other couples are also bidding for the house. We gave them everything the sellers wanted in hopes that would make our offer stronger. The agent said they supposely liked us best of the other couples--the sellers met with all of of the potential buyers. (They are moving to Germany, so the international component helped us bond)

But then at 7am this morning the agent called and said that another couple offered a tiny bit more money and they were leaning towards that couple. I told her that we would increase our bid by 1k, and its 2pm now and still no answer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any advice or vibes would be greatly appreciated. The suspense is KILLING ME!

I would be having a heart attack right now!! Good luck!

Oh I remember when we bought our house......it is very nerve wracking and things never go fast enough!! Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Good Luck on the bidding. Let us know what the outcome is! I hope you get it, your house sounds perfect.

I didn't have to fight against other potential buyers for my house, cuz I bought my parent's home; however, the loan app process & loan CLOSING process was about as much fun as putting every nerve in your body through a meat grinder. I will never, ever go through that again!

I hope it all goes smooth for you... try to stay calm and think positive thoughts... the house will be yours!

Well, my Husband and I just bought are first house, it is so exciting. What is happening to you is a spitting image of what happend to us; all we could do is wait it out until the agent got back to us and we won!
We move into are first house in 9 days!

Just think good positive thoughts and pray; if is works out, it was meant to be and if it doesn't their is something better for you just waiting. That was the way we thought through this whole experience.

I will be thinking of you and praying that you two get this house.

Thanks! Its so nice to share the nervousness with others! It doesnt help that my husband is on a business trip to NYC for the biggest account that his company has. He is doubly nervous about everything--the only silver lining is that he is too busy to constantly call and say "any news?" and make me more nervous! --not much of a silver lining, is it? lol.

Thanks for the good vibes, I promise to update as soon as I hear from the agent!

My girlfriend and I just bought our first house (2 months ago), and yes, it is VERY nerveracking!

My advice to you is to not sweat it if you don't get this house. There will be more, and there will be better ones. We looked at about 30 houses and put bids in on 3 of them before we found one. And the one we found was nicer than ALL the other ones, and about $40k cheaper

Stay with it, you'll find something. Don't settle, make sure it's exactly what you want.

Good luck!

Wish you luck! Buying and/or selling a house is one of the most nerve wracking things in life. Good thing we decided not to have kids - I don't think I could handle that much excitement!

why would they move to germany

He got his PhD in some medical philosophy field and thats where he got a job. My husband actually lived in Dusseldorf on a high school exchange program for six months, so that was a connection between us and the sellers. The wife doesnt speak any German at all, and Gavin was telling her funny stuff like "uber de umple" and "voss es loss?" (sp??) ("go over the hill" and "what is it") German is so funny to me, I kind of crack up every time I hear it! Is that bad?

Just don't keep upping the stakes when they ask for more money!.

Like someone stated if you lose out on this one theres plenty more because it's a buyers market!.

A house across the road from me went up for sale 2 weeks ago and it's sold already!.

they are DEFINITELY trying to trigger a bidding war, but they told us before "we want people in the house that will be involved in the community, etc" and then later said that they liked us best.

I hate it when people act one way and do something else--but this is real estate, and different from regular life.

I knew I should have said to increase our bid, but I'd also hate to loose out over $500 or 1000. More than that though . . . .

I just have to be STRONG! But I feel like my butterfly stomach might just fly me away!!

Thats what annoys me about house sellers. If someone offers the asking price then that should be it!, no more increases because then their just being greedy IMO.

500 would be enough for me and then it would stick in my throat having to pay that much extra to the asking price.

And agents are so snaky! Even though she is working for me, its seems like she is working for the seller sometimes! Calling me and making feel so uncertain at 7am! "They really want the house to go to you, but this other couple offered just a little more . . . what do you want to do?" In a tone that is saccharine-sweet.

That 1k increase is it for me. I will not get involved in a bidding war. This is just such an experience--we saw this house Sat, one of the first three we've seen, and fell in love with it. We've never done anything in real estate before, so sometimes I think my agent is just pushing me to see how far she can go.

Originally Posted by HannahJ

And agents are so snaky!

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well, the more the house goes for, the more commission they make..


The house I just bought didn't go through an agent - made it pretty simple. It was a friend of a friend of a friend's house. Wasn't even on the market.

Don't be mad if you miss this one, it probably wasn't meant for you

Well, we lost the house
Turns out one of the other people had more money to put down up front and thats why they chose him.

I don't understand? Can someone explain? We could put down 10,000 downpayment, but this other man could do more for a downpayment. But how does that make a difference to the seller?

I feel like I've been strung along!

Oh tell me about it!.

The house i went to view before the one i'm in now i loved!, but having already been a property owner before i knew what to ask and look for.

Because my house and the one i looked at were built in the early 1900's they have a damp proofing course which lasts so many years, then you have to have it done again.

I asked the owners for a copy of their damp proofing guarantee, but they said it was at the bank with the deeds. I questioned this with the estate agents because i knew that the owners should have also had a copy themselves as well as their bank, but the estate agent agreed with the seller and said it was with the bank and why did i want to see it if she said she has one?!.

I then got in touch with my bank who investigated it and he rang me straight back and told me to pull out of the sale because i was right!, there was no damp proofing guarantee, in fact there was no damp proofing full stop!!.

At that point i took great pleasure in ringing up the estate agent to tell her i was backing out and that i was going to report them for giving false information just so they make a quick sale and profit for themselves!

Oh no!!!. So the other couple have offered more?

I've purchased two houses, sold only the one - but to me it would not made one iota of difference how much the buyer had for a downpayment - it would only matter to finance company.

Don't worry "Your" hose is out there and waiting for the right time and you!

Originally Posted by rosiemac

Oh tell me about it!.

The house i went to view before the one i'm in now i loved!, but having already been a property owner before i knew what to ask and look for.

Because my house and the one i looked at were built in the early 1900's they have a damp proofing course which lasts so many years, then you have to have it done again.

I asked the owners for a copy of their damp proofing guarantee, but they said it was at the bank with the deeds. I questioned this with the estate agents because i knew that the owners should have also had a copy themselves as well as their bank, but the estate agent agreed with the seller and said it was with the bank and why did i want to see it if she said she has one?!.

I then got in touch with my bank who investigated it and he rang me straight back and told me to pull out of the sale because i was right!, there was no damp proofing guarantee, in fact there was no damp proofing full stop!!.

At that point i took great pleasure in ringing up the estate agent to tell her i was backing out and that i was going to report them for giving false information just so they make a quick sale and profit for themselves!

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OH no Sooz, I didn't know that!