I'm on a higher dose of the steroids for my ear this time around and it's time to admit it--I got the munchies. Big time. The doctor warned me about this but I thought it wouldn't happen because it didn't last time, but man oh man, I'm like munch-o-rama here. It's definitely time for dinner, then a trip to the store to stock up on munchie material. Weight gain, shmeight gain--I gotta feed the addiction, man. It's like crack. Kevin dared to mention that feeding the munchies might not be a good idea but I warned him that if he denied me, that 'roid rage might just come out after all.
As far as the house goes, things are incrementally moving forward. Their counter offer was their original asking price (as Kevin said, I don't know why we bother moving our mouths). Really we're not opposed to paying the asking price IF that's what the house is really worth. But we have our doubts. I seriously think we're going to run into the same situation as the Birch street house, where it appraises for less than the agreed upon amount. Well the bank will only lend us as much money as the appraisal says the house is worth (which makes sense) but that leaves US to make up the difference in cash. And I don't know about you, but we don't have that kind of cash sitting around waiting to be spent on this. Our available cash is going straight to the down payment, with just a little left over to buy some badly needed furniture (like replacing the couch we sold at our garage sale).
So Tom expressed our concerns to their agent. Their agent is young and, I believe, rather ambitious and naive. She sent us 6 "comps" to "prove" the value of the house. Well two of those comps are still in escrow and we have no idea what their final sale price would be. Two of the remaining comps have "income property" in their back yards (that would be renovated garages or mother in law units they're renting out to tenants--clearly not a comparable situation here), and one comp is not even in the neighborhood but is sitting on 1/4 an acre of property. They are hardly what I would consider comparable to this house in question.
So our counter is this: we will arrange an appraisal first thing. If the appraisal comes out at the asking price, we will pay for the appraisal (around $300) and will move forward with the inspection and escrow process. If the house does NOT appraise for the asking price, THEY pay for the appraisal, and if they're not willing to renegotiate the price at that point (based on the appraised value) then we pull out. We got screwed on the Birch street house and we're not letting it happen again. If they're so confident that their asking price is what the house is worth, then this shouldn't be any problem for them. We're willing to pay for the appraisal and we're willing to pay for the asking price, provided those two numbers agree. I think it's a very reasonable offer.
We submitted it this afternoon and should hear back by Tuesday (or going by their previous prompt response history, we'll probably hear back Wednesday or Thursday). Anyway, we'll see how this comes out.
I'm really trying to detach myself from this house and not let myself fall in love with it or get my hopes up until we get this issue worked out. It was just too heartbreaking last time to have the house pulled out from under us after getting so far into the process. So while I would really love to own this house and live there, I'm trying not to dwell on it or get excited about it at least until we clear this appraisal hurdle.
Posted by Shelby at September 19, 2004 06:23 PM