Keeping The Faith

So much has happened just since last week when I updated you on the beginning of the journey to find a home. If you follow my FB fan page or Twitter, then you are aware, but if you only read here, let me fill you in. It has been a week of ups and downs both in emotional ways and physical and within the real estate adventure. It has been a week of a lot of prayers. 

In one week we saw a home, put an offer in on it, had to up our offer and have now decided to pull out. The home is in a good location, rather close to where we reside now. Life would not change that much in that regard. The yard was lovely and easy to care for, something my husband was pleased about, the kitchen was of good size and in good shape, and it did have two bathrooms..and a 2 car garage.. what we thought might be a luxury when we move. That is where the desirable parts ended. The rooms were too small for our belongings, the storage less than what we currently have in our apartment of basically the same size. I would be compromising, and giving up things I cherish to just make it work. However we put an offer in all the same. In a market where there is basically not a single home to be had in our price pocket and prices are inflating due to this lack of inventory, we jumped on it. I though to myself that with a few tweaks, I could indeed make myself like it over time. Within a couple of days of putting the first offer in, we were told we needed to raise our offer.. as expected there was a bidding war. Despite the feelings that this was NOT the house, being told by our agent that it was most likely only a 35% chance of it working out, due to the fact that it would not appraise at the asking price and thus our FHA loan would not pay over the appraisal, we still upped the bid. Perhaps out of panic of not finding any other homes.

In the in between we looked at other homes, nothing was a fit, and all already had offers, and many of them. We decided to look in areas and at types of homes we had not truly wanted to live in, but at now seeing for months that there is no homes out there in our chosen areas, it was time to let go of a few desires and dreams.... we have only until November when our lease is up and this can be a very long process.. especially if we choose to bid on a short sale or banked owned home, which is 99.9% of the current market. When doing this we spotted a charming 1958 home in a near by town. We took the 20 minute drive and found a pocket of country charm within what is basically an unattractive city. We found a home that already met so many of our needs as well as desires and in a wonderfully perfect neighborhood of manicured lawns and no sounds past lawn mowers and birds. There was a rose garden in the front and the back, as well as a porch, both front and back. When inside, wood floors and bright light welcomed me and a cozy fireplace hinted at perfect Winter mornings. Three bedrooms promised an office and storage, and though the kitchen had not been updated since 1958, complete with pink and burgundy tile counters, it was bright and cheerful, I did not even mind the lack of a dishwasher, that could be added when one day we would update it all to our likes and needs. We knew it was the one. It was not a short sale and it was not a bank owned, everything could go quickly. We put a bid in on it, hoping that ours would beat the already seven put in and we prayed very hard and tried to stay positive. That was Sunday, by Monday morning we were told that our offer was not enough, it had been beaten by an all cash offer, and if we could compete with that we had a chance... we could not. We were already all in and had planned to need to scramble around begging extra cash from our friends and family if need be, despite not wanting to ever have to do that. Tears streamed down and sobs leaked out. I had actually hoped God had lead us on this path to this home, it had seemed like it, I allowed myself to hope, to believe we would beat the odds... it was not the case. 

I moped about all day. I could not concentrate to even share the update here via a blog. Already being sick with a bad head cold, a fibromyalgia flair causing enough exhaustion and pain to land me on the couch for the better part of the day and a queasy tummy  whenever I tried to eat... now I was heart sick. Now that was two homes, one by choice and one to a better offer. Yes, I know realistically it is for the best. We were being pushed to the limits as far as our budget. I know it is early on in the hunt and perhaps, God does have other plans for us, but when disappointing moments such as these happen and it feels as if the air has been taken from the room, and you are all alone in it with no life line in sight, well it truly does feel as though you have hit the end. To complicate matters, we are choosing to let yet another agent go, after lack of efforts, or so it seems and not listening and well comments best left to the wayside we feel as if we are truly alone in our hunt for a home... and as if he was not trying to find us a home, but simply just a house. I had thought because he had helped us when we were forced to sell our dream home via short sale, helping us move into the apartment and always seemed concerned over my health and stress levels, that was the one to work with... but we quickly saw otherwise. Two agents down and now swimming out in the real estate waters alone... it is a very un-nerving situation to be in. But it would seem we need to just dive back in and hope we can swim and not drown with so many others out there going through the same thing. 

Until next we chat....